Tmax P3200 exposure and development tips

Hi all,
I'm going to shoot some outdoor festivals this summer, there is a little bit of ambient but it's mostly stage lighting. The Nikon F3 does a pretty good job on aperture priority but I'll switch to manual if needed. I'm usually on the limit of what I can hand-hold a 200mm lens with and with movement on stage as far as shutter speeds are concerned. I usually use Ilford Delta 3200 developed in Microphen stock for 9 minutes, i.e. shoot at box speed (3200) develop for box speed (3200). This is fine but the negs are a bit thin and a bit of a challenge to print. On the latest roll I was trying the suggested 'shoot at 1600 develop for 3200' rule of thumb but haven't had a chance to develop this one yet. However, being keen to try the reintroduced Tmax 3200 I bought a few rolls of it and was looking for suggestions on what to expose it for and develop it for - would you suggest the same rules? Expose at 1600 develop for 3200 or even expose for 3200 develop for 6400? Attached is a Delta 3200 example of 'expose for 3200 develop for 3200' this was Microphen stock 9 mins at 20 C.

Both Delta P3200 and TMAX 3200 are commonly whacked out to EI12800 with appropriate development and minimal invasive grain.
I did this a few years ago in pinhole photography (Delta P3200) but have not got the records with me at this time of development.

Tmax p3200 really looks its best developed in Tmax Developer. I've tried other developers, and the quality was poorer. Less shadow detail, more grain, poor gradation. Try it in Tmax Developer and develop for the times that Kodak recommends. That always worked well for me. Be careful with exposure; this film has less exposure latitude than most other BW films.

Trial and error. If you expose it so the shadows in the scene just have detail (i.e. Zone metering, film calibration, etc.), you will likely be exposing it around 800 to 1200 EI. Any exposure less than that will likely eliminate detail in the shadows, but you may have to do that to hand-hold a long lens. Low light film photography is difficult. If it were easy all the digicam people would be switching to P3200.

Since the film has such incredible latitude in exposure (i.e. you can get printable negatives with an EI anywhere from 400 to 64,000) this is how I use it. I set the lens wide open and set the shutter for the slowest speed I think I can hand-hold.
The negatives will be varying densities depending on the lighting. Some will be impossible to print because of no shadow detail, but it is-what-it-is.

In the kind of night stage-lit shot you have shown, I doubt if shadow detail is very important but what would be useful is a higher zone for her face and to a lesser extent her arms. This may possibly be achieved with greater development and certainly with D3200 I'd develop for 6400 when exposing at 3200( for future reference in case you revert to D3200 ) It really seems to be a low contrast film with a lot of leeway for "over-development". I have had success with it and DDX and have used the develop for the next speed up and even then felt that a little longer development would have been a good thing.

It may be that the above rule for D3200 does not apply to P3200 but if there is a way via development to increase the skin's zone and "whiten" it with P3200 then advice towards that end is what I feel you need. Other than daylight exposure many years ago of the former P3200 and development in ID11 I have no useful experience to offer unfortunately.

Instinctively if it were me, then I'd be tempted to follow Chris Crawford's advice in #4

pentaxuser

I've had good results in Diafine.

@800 , hc110 dil.B 8 1/2 min. looks very good!

A roll of P3200 (new) is in the soup. Looking forward to the results. Don’t like the plastic tape Kodak is now using to attach film to spool, it means I need to reach for the scissors twice, in the dark. I prefer paper tape.

In Xtol 1+1 i get usable negatives exposed at EI 2500. But that’s the max. Safer around 1600 with that film. D3200 seems half a stop faster. Get a couple of rolls and test. Microphen, TMax or Xtol should all work.

did 800 and 1600 in Xtol and they are looking good!!

TMAX 3200 and Delta 3200 are ISO 1000 emulsions, so little surprise that they work well at EI 800 - 1600. My impression was that xtolsniffer was unwilling to give up 1-2 stops of speed with respect to box speed.

So how do we get decent results at EI 3200 and above ?

1. First of all, get a developer which already counts as speed boosting developer: Kodak TMAX Dev, Kodak Xtol, Ilford DD-X, Microphen, Crawley's FX-37/39, ... If this page is correct, then Atomal 49 is excellent for Delta 3200 ...
   
2. Both films are made for pushing, so be prepared to push. TMAX 3200 will build up contrast with extended development, whereas Delta 3200 builds up shadow contrast while highlight contrast remains low. Both will work, but give a different look.
3. Pushing will not reveal much extra shadow detail, so choose subject matter which looks good with deep black shadows.
4. Have no illusions about high ISO film. Expect substantial grain and poor sharpness compared to popular ISO 400 or lower speed films.
   
5. Sharpness will not only suffer from your choice of high ISO film, but also from the wide open aperture and long shutter speeds you'll need to get the shot at all. Pick subject matter with coarse details, try to avoid small faces as main subject in your image frame.
6. Don't try to compete with dSLRs on their ground, we all know they offer substantially higher ISO with very decent results. But you didn't pick film for its high ISO capabilities, at least I hope you didn't! You hopefully picked it for its unique look in these scenes, so use it accordingly.

I can confirm Rudeofus's point 1. above.
I tripled development time for D3200 in Microphen and still didn't blow any highlights. I got more contrast in shadows and mid tones and a lot more grain due to the extended development time.
P3200 and D3200 are quite different in many aspects.