How to develop exposed film for shadows ?

[Rosssiiii]

Hi

I’m using this film (AGFAPHOTO APX 400) and I’ll be developing it with ARS Imago FD at 1+39.

What development time should I use?

My friends usually shoot by averaging the exposure using the light meter reading, and I’ve done the same with my previous rolls.

This time I wanted to try exposing for the shadows and adjusting the development time to preserve the highlights. Since I’ve read that FD is quite a strong developer, and because I’m exposing for the shadows and don’t want to overdevelop the highlights, what development time should I use?

Maybe it’s not a good idea to develop my negative together with the others, who usually do 9 minutes.

I think I should probably do around 4:30m or 5 minutes at most or 6.30 ?

Looking forward to your advices

 

[retina_restoration]

The MDC says 6.5 minutes at 1:39

 

[cliveh]

In terms of picture aesthetics, I would suggest that lack of shadow detail is preferable to lack of highlight detail.

 

[runswithsizzers]

How, exactly, did you expose for the shadows?
That is, what did you do differently this time, compared to the way you usually meter b&w negative film?