What film / development / exposure for bromoil?

[J 3]

The standard advice for bromoil is to over-expose, and under-develop the film to produce a low contrast negative that will work with bromoil developer unmodified. I want a lot of texture and full shadows and highlights.

Does anyone have any advice on a good film / developer combination to try and what exposure/development time would work well?

I've wanted to try Adox CMS 20 II, JCH Street Pan 400, or Ilford XP2 for instance, but I don't know if any of those could be made to work well. Thanks in advance.

 

[jjames100]

I have used lots of different films and developers for bromoil. And I have used lots of different printing methods. What has worked best for me is a normal 5 stop negative printed using split contrast. Grade 2 and grade 5. The soft prints by the pictorialists Demachey and Misonne used densely developed negatives of moderate contrast and inked softly. When I use a soft low contrast negative, the print becomes even softer and looses any sharp contrast. Inking is much more important than film or developers or contrast anyway. With a soft low contrast negative you can't get much contrast like small thin shadows of any shadows in clouds. But with a contrasty negative you can soften whatever you need.

 

[J 3]

Thanks so much !