I guess what's really going on for me is that I'm getting picky about grain. I want grain, lots of it. But only if I find the grain structure pleasing. There's another post on APUG about how trying out various film/developer combos nearly ruined that individual's photography. To a certain extent, I absolutely agree with that.
On the other hand, I feel like I'm still developing my own signature through my photos, and part of that is nailing down a routine.
I said before I shoot a lot of tri x. I throw it all through d 76, but I've wanted to try rodinal and xtol (perhaps a little bit of both together). Perhaps I should develop the film at temperatures around or slightly higher than 72 to see what qualities I can coax out of the grain with d76 before I start flipping through combos.
I push tri x in low contrast situations 1 or 2 stops with no problems. I also push 1 stop in the late afternoon when the sun is still out. In NYC there is typically a sunny side of the street and a shadowy side, and all of the cross streets are usually in medium to heavy shade--when I shoot film at box speed I tend to stick to the sunny side, or on the corners where the light hangs around for a while. There are a few great corners in Chelsea and the East Village, a couple near Penn Station. If I know that I want to work in the shadow of the cross streets I'll push my film 1 stop. All of this is fine, I'm getting good enough results.
Still, my current routine is about minimizing grain rather than accentuating it to find a good balance between detail and atmosphere. That's what I'm after... detail and atmosphere.
Anyway... this is just me getting picky about achieving perfect grain, and then getting A LOT of it.
