Film for highlights

[Gary Holliday]

I'm looking for a new film for portraiture. I don't have much time for testing, but I'm thinking of Pan F or Acros.

Looking for nice highlight detail and smoothness of skin tones.

Anyone have any any thoughts on these choices?

The dev will be Rodinal.

Cheers

 

[Mark_S]

I do mostly landscape photography, and I live in a part of the world which is covered in snow for half of the year, so holding detail in highlights is a key thing. I used to use Plus-X in the winter time because of the nice soft shoulder that it has, which allows you to hold detail in highlights. Alas, they have discontinued it in 4x5.

 

[Mark_S]

Gary - I should have added...

If you want a film to hold details in highlights, you want to look for a film which has a soft shoulder in it's characteristic curve. Both Pan F and Acros have relatively straight characteristic curves from the midtones through the highlights. Look at the curve for FP4+ for an example of a film which has the type of shoulder that I am talking about.

 

[Ole]

I've never used Acros, but I have used Pan F+. I switched back to FP4+, which gives me everything I'm looking for.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I tried Pan-F a few times, but didn't see the point as I don't print 35mm any larger 5x7 anymore.
The times I've done portraiture, I've had best luck with higher speed films. I love Kodak Tri-X, especially with Pyrocat-HD as developer. My other favorites for this have been HP5, Agfa APX400. Lately I've been experimenting with Fuji Neopan 1600 and I'm very impressed by that as well. I love grain.
Acros is really really creamy, with extremely nice tonality across the board. I like it better than Pan-F, and it works really well with Rodinal.

I've attached a child portrait that is outside, Tri-X, FA-1027 developer, printed on Agfa MCC118 paper in VersaPrint II. Size 5x7.

My two cents.

- Thom

 

[jim appleyard]

Gary, will these be portraits of men or women? These "rules" are meant to be broken and your taste is entirely yours, but I like to do men with biting clarity. I would choose a slow film in a well-diluted accutance dev. I would also use medium or large format. Pyro devs can also help hold highlights.

For women, I would choose a fast film, say Tri-X or HP-5 in D-76 1+0. A faster film in a solvent dev will help hide facial flaws (we all have them!).

I did a portrait of a woman with Ilford's SFX, 35mm, developed in Rodinal. The extra grain of SFX and Rodinal gave the portrait a soft look, especially at 11x14. She told me it was the best photo of her ever taken. If I can dig out the neg, I'll scan it.

 

[Pete H]

Yes, HIE is also good for creamy skin tones if you don't mind the grain. I like Efke/Adox 25 for people too.

 

[Gary Holliday]

Acros is really really creamy, with extremely nice tonality across the board. I like it better than Pan-F, and it works really well with Rodinal.

- Thom

These are the qualities I'm looking for.

I "shoot" (for those who love that phrase) women in 120. Quite diffused with softboxes. All very flattering.

I'm quite surprised by some of your choices folks; methods I wouldn't normally have considered. I'm also surprised that Rodinal works well with the new film types. But that's the magik alchemy of it all.

FP4 has never excited me over the years and I consider it a bit boring. I've been itching to try Acros since the early talk of its release in the 90s.

 

[Neal]

Dear Gary,

Acros is great. Just avoid overexposure and overdevelopment.

Neal Wydra

 

[fhovie]

To control highlights, I would use a film that can suck up a lot of range - TRI-X - Expose it at 200 and develop it in Pyrocat-P - with the right development time and mix it is easy to get 10 stops -

The other option is to develop your film in a very conpensating developer - Split D-23 comes to mind - The developer will exhaust itself before it blows out the highlights. -

I would not stand process or push the film, and slow films usually have trouble with big a SBR - Pan F 50 can really give you runaway contrast if you are not careful!

 

[catem]

Gary,

I've only once used Acros for a 'person' picture. You can see it if interested in the small selection of work I put together before Christmas, on website below, (the one entitled 'Summer Dreams').

Using it was accidental really as it happened to be in my camera as I had been doing some still life (I love it for that). I had to underexpose it - according to the box speed - because of the conditions (available light, from 2 windows, summer evening, using mamiyaRZ handheld) but processed it normally - I was surprised at the detail in the shadows. (In fact having recalibrated my monitor with pro software at the weekend it looks slightly lighter than I thought or intended - should have done it before!) - the highlights are fine on the neg tho you may not be able to tell on the pic. Anyway I was pleased with the result.

I've decided I'm going to try it more for 'people'. I really do like it for still life, it gives great separation of tones & it works well rated @ 50

 

[Gary Holliday]

Those tones looked lovely Catriona, I think I've found myself a new film.

 

[Black Dog]

I've tried ACROS with PMK and Dixactol and been very impressed-PMK will definitely keep hot highlights under control. A staining dev will also keep Pan F in order too.Hmmm.........time to do a Pan F/Adox 25/ACROS shootout I think!

 

[Gary Holliday]

I made some contacts of the Acros film and they look great...very smooth. How does overexposure affect this film Neal?

Any ideas for squeezing some extra detail out of the highlights?

 

[Roger Hicks]

How does overexposure affect this film...?

Bigger grain and reduced sharpness.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Gary Holliday]

Did I read somewhere that Acros is pan-orthochromatic? Would that not make this film unsuitable for portraiture...emphasizing blemishes?

 

[Robert T. McCarthy]

I'm looking for a new film for portraiture. I don't have much time for testing, but I'm thinking of Pan F or Acros.

Looking for nice highlight detail and smoothness of skin tones.

Anyone have any any thoughts on these choices?

The dev will be Rodinal.

Cheers

/////////////////////////////////

I like D400 in X-tol, with Ilford MG.
Everything shines, perfect together.

Regards.

Bob Mccarthy

 

[Rick Jones]

While you don't mention what format you shoot if 120 or 4X5 are options the publication "Kodak Professional Black and White Films" suggests 320TX offers "extended toe curve characteristics especially suitable for studio use, with the expected gain in highlight separation so useful for commercial and professional subjects. These characteristics make the film popular for outdoor informal portraiture under low contrast and back lighting conditions usually used for this type of photography".

 

[dynachrome]

Good B&W Film For Highlights

If you are shooting in 35mm of 120 then I would recommend Plus-X. It has very lively highlights. I always liked Plus-X in vright light better than FP4+. In less contrasty light I think FP4+ is nicer. ACROS will give decent skin tones and will have very little grain unles it is boiled in Rodinal.

 

[dynachrome]

Make than unless.

 

[DrPablo]

I feel like Acros and Tmax 100 both produce a very cold 'metallic' look. Beautiful for architecture and machines, because the highlights almost look like a bright reflection. On the other hand they look too harsh for delicate and subtle highlights, like for clouds and skin. I love FP4+ and HP5+ for those, and I'd imagine TriX would be similar.

 

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, I have seen great results from C41 B&W films. Smooth highlights with detail. Depends on the subject and lighting contrast, though.

Jon

 

[Gary Holliday]

I'm been looking at some online photos of Acros. Does it have a digital look??

I've had some nice results with C-41 film Jon, although commercial processing is time consuming and an unnecessary expense.

I will explore other developers to get the required look in the highlights...thinking of Prescysol.

 

[Alan Johnson]

These tabular grain films get some stick as plastic,metallic,digital etc. so as I am intending to do some 120 portraits on Delta 100 in Pyrocat HD here are counter debating points.First, a pro I know shoots his film portraiture on Delta 100 because his clients buy the smooth look.
Second, see the last post here:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003NXy
Delta and Acros produce beautiful translucent skin tones when properly exposed.Since Prescysol is similar to Pyrocat HD,Acros in Precysol should be fine.

 

[kiku]

I've attached a child portrait that is outside, Tri-X, FA-1027 developer, printed on Agfa MCC118 paper in VersaPrint II. Size 5x7.

My two cents.

- Thom

Hi Thom: May I ask a couple of questions?

What ISO do you rate Tri-X?
For FA-1027, what dilution do you use and what development time?
Thanks, Howard Tanger