Tri-X at 3200 ISO

Supercine · Mar 26, 2023

This is why I love Tri-X. I was asked to photograph a concert. I wanted to use film and Tri-x was the fastest film I had. I took a quick pic of my daughter in the foyer at box speed and then went in to the performance space. It was much darker than I was hoping! So I pushed and checked the light meter and pushed again, and again! Ending up at 3200iso. Off I went and all was good. I was shooting fully open but hoped it would be okay. Developed in ID-11 for 12 minutes and printed on Fotospeed Oyster, the results are great, even the first picture shot a box speed! The latitude with this film is fantastic!
The slight colour cast is due to phone pictures of the prints!

xkaes · Mar 26, 2023

Nicely done.

If you don't mind grain (I don't), and have a subject where high contrast is OK (like concerts), AND you are very good at correct exposure (VERY difficult in concerts), you CAN get great results -- as you have shown.

Supercine · Mar 27, 2023

xkaes said:
Nicely done.

If you don't mind grain (I don't), and have a subject where high contrast is OK (like concerts), AND you are very good at correct exposure (VERY difficult in concerts), you CAN get great results -- as you have shown.

Thank you xkaes. It’s at times like these that you appreciate how good certain stocks are and also why they have stood the test of time.

snusmumriken · Mar 27, 2023

How did you meter those concert shots?

Molli · Mar 27, 2023

Very nicely done. Your timing is excellent and the exposures are spot on. The photograph of your daughter is absolutely lovely.

Supercine · Mar 27, 2023

snusmumriken said:
How did you meter those concert shots?

I used the in camera spot meter on a Minolta Dynax (maxum) 800si. I bought the camera new and it’s always had a great meter.

Supercine · Mar 27, 2023

Molli said:
Very nicely done. Your timing is excellent and the exposures are spot on. The photograph of your daughter is absolutely lovely.

Thank you Molli! She is very photogenic.
I like the limiting factor you have with film. You have to make each shot count and this makes you more creative!

snusmumriken · Mar 27, 2023

Supercine said:
I used the in camera spot meter on a Minolta Dynax (maxum) 800si. I bought the camera new and it’s always had a great meter.

So presumably you put the meter spot on the singer’s face? And then did you adjust the exposure indicated? I’m just unclear how you calculated that you were shooting at 3200?

Very nice results, however you did it.

Supercine · Mar 27, 2023

snusmumriken said:
So presumably you put the meter spot on the singer’s face? And then did you adjust the exposure indicated? I’m just unclear how you calculated that you were shooting at 3200?

Very nice results, however you did it.

I set the cameras ISO to 3200, then used the spot meter as you said. So in effect the film was ‘pushed’ 3 stops and because I set the camera to 3200 the exposure was calculated automatically.

Moose22 · Mar 28, 2023

snusmumriken said:
So presumably you put the meter spot on the singer’s face?

That's exactly what I do. Always meter the face, always spot if my camera has it. Stage lighting tends to be very contrasty, so the player's face is all that matters to me, everything else takes care of itself.

I use a couple of different cameras, and if they have a TTL meter, I just set ISO to 3200 and use that reading.

@Supercine these are excellent! I use P3200 now and again and love it, but have shot Tri-x at 1600 for folks on a stage like this. Such a versatile film, and super forgiving. From the Kodak datasheet for tri-x:

because of these films’ exposure latitude, you can
underexpose by one stop and use normal processing
times. Prints will show a slight loss in shadow detail

Tri-X at 3200 ISO

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