Help with this photo

pierods · Dec 3, 2012

Hello everybody,

can you help with this photo?

CHS 100, Rodinal 1+50, 10 minutes, 20 C, Ilford agitation.

As far as I can see, exposure was right (speed is right, I see plenty of detail in shadows) but my dev time must have been short, mid tones are grayish and lifeless.

Or..?

thegman · Dec 3, 2012

I'm no expert on developing, but it looks pretty good to me,

Sirius Glass · Dec 3, 2012

thegman said:
I'm no expert on developing, but it looks pretty good to me,

It looks good to me. Try dodging and burning to get the print that you want.

pentaxuser · Dec 3, 2012

Looks OK to me as well. Can you be more specific about what you see as "grey and lifeless" midtones.

Tell us specifically what isn't there that you'd like to be there.

As another APUGer has asked, is this a print scan or a neg scan? If it is the latter then how do you know what a print will look like?

We are getting more and more " problems" on APUG which I suspect are to do with scanning rather than negs and subsequent prints

pentaxuser

summicron1 · Dec 3, 2012

try a slightly longer exposure, maybe 50 percent, then burning in the brighter areas while dodging the shadow areas a titch, and knock your contrast up a notch.

TheFlyingCamera · Dec 3, 2012

The midtones look fine - it's your highlights that are gray and mushy. I'd try adding contrast - maybe just a half a grade to one grade.

tkamiya · Dec 3, 2012

I'm not sure how far I can go without being too digitally involved.

If this is a straight scan, it explains it. They always come out too flat. If you print it in darkroom, you are likely to find it's ok.
What I think you need is more contrast. I loaded it into NX2 and slid the black point to the top edge of the histogram. The image improved significantly. So in darkroom term, bump up the contrast one to 1 1/2 grade and expose so you get a full range of tones.

To me, your biggest problems are faces. They are gray. They need to be much lighter and brighter.

Here's how I would print it.

cepwin · Dec 3, 2012

Scanners can be tricky. The better ones have sophisticated SW that have essentially built in mini-photoshop so you can work with the "raw" negative before it produces the jpeg.

pierods · Dec 4, 2012

Thanks to all!

Stephen Benskin · Dec 4, 2012

The whites just need to pop some. Take the highlight slider in levels and move it in some. I would also lighten up some of that shadow area on the left.

E. von Hoegh · Dec 5, 2012

It looks like it was printed on fogged paper.

Sirius Glass · Dec 5, 2012

Stephen Benskin said:
The whites just need to pop some. Take the highlight slider in levels and move it in some. I would also lighten up some of that shadow area on the left.

Use bleach [potassium ferracyanide] to get some pop.

naeroscatu · Dec 6, 2012

The midtones look fine - it's your highlights that are gray and mushy. I'd try adding contrast - maybe just a half a grade to one grade.

I'm with Flyingcamera on this one. You don't really have whites in your highlights.

Help with this photo

pierods

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