Low Light high contrast subject

[ronlamarsh]

Hi guy's, I've been shooting the inside of a local cathedral, the interior is stunning but..............very low light and a skylight to boot! the ev range is from about 3 to 11 or 12 on a cloudy day. I am using a 5x7 with a 90mmSA. I am also using arista edu ultra 200. I tried processing my first negs in microphen stock for 2 mins then finishing with D23 2:1 for 7min.......too much density in the skylight. I then tried microphen stock for 3 mins and D23 2:1 for 4 mins. The negative is a little better. I am using microphen to boost the shadow detail and squeeze maybe the box speed out of the film in the low to mid values and the d23 diluted to restrain the highlighs. My next effort will be microphen stock for 2 mins the d23 3:1 for 4 mins. Any thoughts????

 

[Mark Fisher]

I've never heard of splitting the developer types like that to control contrast. Unless I miss my math, you are looking for about a -2 development. That doesn't seem too crazy to do conventionally or by doing a stand development in highly dilute developer. Do a search on apug for stand development (pyrocat and rodinal are favorites). The -2 development will be roughly 30-40%less time for the same developer dilution.

 

[DutchShooter]

Either a N-2 development would work, or a "normal" 2-stage developing (part A developer, part B "activator") should compensate enough for your goal...

 

[Peter De Smidt]

The simplest thing would be to try diluting the Michrophen, say 1+1 or 1+2, and doing a -2 development, giving a little more exposure than normal, say 1/3 - 1/2 stop. I've found that D23 losses quite a bit of speed. Using successive developers is an unnecessary complication. Otherwise, using two bath Pyrocat HD would be a good idea, but it's fairly expensive, as the solutions needed are very strong.

 

[ronlamarsh]

Thanks you

Thanks guys for all the advice

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Take a look at the article on unblinkingeye.com about Perfection XR-1 developer. I experimented with those formulas for a bit when looking for a high speed developer for handheld LF shooting, mostly under normal or close to normal contrast lighting conditions. I found that I could get a surprising speed boost--a stop more than other speed developers typically--but not very good contrast. I thought it would be ideal for low-light high-contrast lighting situations, but that wasn't what I was shooting at the time. It might be what you need.