Need hi Speed film/developer/development ideas

Jersey Vic · Jul 27, 2005

Hi-
I'm shooting 35mm for ambient lit night work in NYC and want to minimize grain, maximize shadow detail and have less than bullet proof highlights. Is possible?
Thanks in advance for you suggestions-

kaiyen · Jul 27, 2005

Well, "minimize" grain is relative, right? I don't think you can have low grain under those situations, but, once you accept that you'll have a lot of grain, there are ways of keeping it under control.

I have had the most luck controlling contrast with Delta 3200. You can get printable midtones without having to go nuts on the highlights. Shadow detail is about as good as you're going to get at 3200 and higher (which isn't much). Grain is kind of popcorn-ish and soft.

I develop Delta 3200 in straight Microphen.

I'm assuming that you're dealing with very contrasy situations. If you're in a low contrast, dimly-lit environment, you'll probably want to push a slower film to give more snap to the image (plus you'll get tighter grain, though probably more of it). I routinely push TXT to 1600 and higher in both Rodinal and Microphen. Highlights are pretty well controlled in both, and shadow detail seems about equivalent, too.

allan

Jersey Vic · Jul 27, 2005

'Minimize grain' is indeed relative...Thanks for the helpful response.

titrisol · Jul 27, 2005

Delta 3200 in DDX can be pushed to 6400 or so.

Neopan 1600 can also be pushed in DDX and has tighter grain

Ole · Jul 28, 2005

Sometimes grain can be optimised instead of minimised. I recently developed a roll of MACO IR 820/400 in Neofin, and found it to be a perfect match. Smooth unobtrusive grain on moderate enlargements, with very high sharpness and lots more shadow detail than I expected!

df cardwell · Jul 28, 2005

Jersey Vic said:
Hi-
I'm shooting 35mm for ambient lit night work in NYC and want to minimize grain, maximize shadow detail and have less than bullet proof highlights. Is possible?
Thanks in advance for you suggestions-

More details of what you're shooting, and how, will help.

For instance, you can shoot TMX 100 in Diafine and get a 320 film with shouldered highlights, amazing midtones and zero grain.

Or, you can shoot TMY and develop it in XTOL, have high res, low grain, and an incredible long scale with good separation over 15 stops. If you scan the negs, or can print fiber, this is a great combination.

Long exposure ? TMX has a miraculous reciprocity range that means that in really low light, it becaomes faster than Tri X.

The important data are tonal range, format and lens, and intended f/stop.
AND what is the neg to be used for.

g'luck

Jersey Vic · Jul 28, 2005

titrisol said:
Delta 3200 in DDX can be pushed to 6400 or so.

Neopan 1600 can also be pushed in DDX and has tighter grain

I've never used DDX but pass Adorama and/or B&H almost daily & I'll see if Adorama has some later today. Thanks

Tom Hoskinson · Jul 28, 2005

If you mix your own chemistry, take a look at RAF Metol-Pyro.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Jersey Vic · Jul 28, 2005

df cardwell said:
More details of what you're shooting, and how, will help.
Long exposure ? ...The important data are tonal range, format and lens, and intended f/stop. AND what is the neg to be used for.
g'luck

I'm shooting men working outside at night. I'm looking for some shadow and highlight detail and good midtones. I'll be shooting 35mm with a 50mm f1.4 and I'll probably not get much further than f2.8. I want to make 11x14 fiber prints with the negatives. I'm a good printer so a difficult negative that I can wrestle a great print out of is fine.
Thanks

kaiyen · Jul 28, 2005

sounds like a high contrast situation - work lights, etc. I think you'd be well served with using a higher speed film - delta 3200, neopan 1600, tmz (I've only used d3200) - with a developer that'll help control your highlights.

good luck. sounds pretty cool.

allan

Jersey Vic · Jul 28, 2005

kaiyen said:
...with a developer that'll help control your highlights.
allan

Any ideas? I'm thinking Rodinal 1+100 or Microdol with N minus development.
Also I've been reading about stand development...have not used it as of yet but I'm thinking about trying it.

kaiyen · Jul 28, 2005

I think Microdol will cost you too much speed, even at higher dilutions.

Dilute rodinal with minimal agitation would probably do you pretty well. I haven't run my Delta 3200 tests in rodinal yet (as compared to microphen), but I've found that with TXT pushed out to 3200 the results between the two are quite similar. They are at http://www.pbase.com/romosoho/trix_test (the test isn't very scientific, but it does what it needs to do for me).

Stand development could work, too, but I have only seen examples, have never tried it myself.

allan

Jersey Vic · Jul 28, 2005

Tom Hoskinson said:
If you mix your own chemistry, take a look at RAF Metol-Pyro.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

This looks perfect and now that I have all of my lab equipment (for wet plate) it's not that frightening. And look-I can see my home in David's photo. Again.

David A. Goldfarb · Jul 29, 2005

RAF Metol-Pyro gets a lot of speed with certain films, though not as much with others. With TXT/TXP it's harder to control highlights and it doesn't get as much speed, but with TX, it gets a surprising amount of speed, so test it before trying it on anything too important.

Acufine gives a fairly reliable 1-1.5 stop boost to many films, and keeps highlights in control.

Need hi Speed film/developer/development ideas

Jersey Vic

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titrisol

Ole

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Need hi Speed film/developer/development ideas

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