In the meantime, Kerey, please read "The Film Developing Cookbook". It's a must-read for anyone who developes their own film. It will help you decide which film and developer combination to choose for B&W photography. It is loaded with information and tips regarding film development, both the materials and the techniques.
Hi Kerey,
Lots of good advice so far. What worked for me when I first started in large format, was to find out what materials and equipment the photographers who's work I most respected used. I then picked from those choices what I thought would work best for me. Twenty two years later I'm still using the same camera, lenses, tripod, film and developer.
One tip about minus development I have is to try SLIMT (selective latent image manipulation technique). This was brought to light by David Kachel. It basically reins in the high tones without weakening the contrast in the shadows. After your water pre-soak and before the developer, the negatives are placed in a weak bleach solution which is attracted proportionally more to areas of high exposure. The negatives then get developed the same as your "normal" negatives. Add 1/3 stop of exposure for each contraction. Works great.
I live on BC's north coast and have used my camera in bucketing rain, temperatures so cold the ocean steams, three foot a day snow falls, and if it's really windy I set up in the forest or the lee end of a pocket beach. You're going to have a blast & it's going to last a lifetime!
Murray
Kerry,
Jim Rhodes had the best advice: Pick a developer film combo and stick to it for 6 months or a year. See what it does, make adjustments based on results. At the end of a year, you might want to try something else or you might just be happy making photographs. If you can find a copy of David Vestal's The Craft of Photography, there is more good advice in that book than in shelf load of otherwise perfectly fine textbooks, cook books, etc.
Good luck,
Richard
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