tri-x thones

Hi All,

There are many examples of stunning photographs on tri-x, like the one from Nicole in the APUG gallery: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Somehow for my own pictures I never got the seperation in the whites like others do. After pure white there is nothing for a while and than the gray starts with loads of seperation till the black. This results in very gray pictures. I obviously wonder how to get more seperation in the whites.

(I tried rating the film at 200 and 100 with normal development but this is just overexposing instead of getting more thones in the whites.)

Dev shorter! i got great results at 200 in rodinal 1:50. 1:200 stand for 2.5 hours is even better tonalty

Developing shorter lengths of time will simply decrease the density range of the negative...that will lead to less separation in adjacent tones.

Over exposing the film will simply move the overall densities higher on the curve. Over expose enough and you will drive your high densities onto the films shoulder if one exists because of the film or the film/developer combination.

As one views the characteristic curves for this film in various formats and several developers, as supplied by Kodak, one can see that developers make a difference on the shape of the shoulder area of the curve. HC110 seems to impart a more noticeable shoulder while D 76 does not.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4017/f4017.jhtml#curves

Beyond that there is the matter of the paper on which you are printing your negatives. Each paper emulsion has it's own curve. If for instance you had a paper with a very gradual toe against a TriX/developer combination that had an imparted shoulder you would have more apparent blocking in your highlight tonal ranges.

If you like the results tha Nicole is getting, then I would ask her what she is using and how she is using it.

Hi Quinten. Seems to me that you may be over agitating during development. With a suitable developer such as Rodinal or HC-110, and a little patience, the sort of results that you are seeking can be easily and predictably obtained. The key is to use one of the higher dilutions and a lot less than the usual NORMAL type of agitation. try only one or two inversions per minute. This combined with HC-110 at dilution 1:63 or Rodinal at 1:50 will tame the highlights. I also rate my film at 200ASA and this gives better shadows. The overall effect is one of luminosity and negatives that print easier.

There is a misspelling in the titte line of this thread. The word is Thane not Thone.

Nicole is the Thane(tte) of Tri-X but she is trying to kick the habit by using Agfa 400.

Hi Quinten, I don't do anything fancy with TriX. I rate TriX 400 at box speed 400 and usually develop in Xtol. I may rate it at 800 or 1600 if working in less light but am careful then with what type of natural lighting I have available. Developing times are something you'll have to play around with by shooting some test rolls as we all have a different touch.

My ultimate film was Agfa APX 400, what an awesome film and paper - a huge loss for me.

I hope this helps a little and thank you very much!

Thanks for all the tips.

I used to get very transparant negs with this film so I am still afraid to go shorter on the dev time. The dev times on the kodak box (3min) and the massive dev chart (6min) for my HC110B solution don't help in the confusion. But the aggitation could make sense

Nicole: I am just discovering APX400, absolutely stunning grain in rodinal. I know the timing is bad but my local store still seems to get them supplied by some wierd ways...

cheers!
Quinten

You can easily nail all this down with a couple simple tests.

Splurge on my Film Test Kit, that will let you test to get the right ISO for your film, developer, and camera, the right development time for your negatives with the developer that you choose, and has tips for how to expose negatives in the field to make sure you get the best information on the negative. My way matches the materials to each other, so you're getting the most from film, developer, and paper.

No densitomer required, and reusable forever. The tests will take about a day, with most of that time waiting for negatives to dry.

And, for 35mm you might want to do the development time test using grade 3 paper. Its higher contrast will let you develop Tri-X for less time, and therefore produce less grain. I use grade 2 for 4x5 and larger, grade 3 for 35. Using grade 3 may affect your film speed a hair, but not much. Do another film speed test on the next roll of pictures you make, just to be sure. You'll understand when you see the instructions.

Good luck!

Bruce Barlow
www.circleofthesunproductions.com

I have had a lot of success with TX400 in xTol shooting musicians in available light. xTol for the shadows mainly which is preferable to D76 in my experience. When exposure is good it prints wonderfully on Agfa MCC - still a few boxes in the fridge.