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Thread: Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

  1. #1

    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    Posted this in the LF forum of Photo.net but wasnt't sure how many of the people here sitll read it.

    Hello All,

    I decided to do some more thorough film testing today. I should of been more thorough with my math. So, I loaded my Stouffer 31-step exposure wedge into the film holder with Fuji Acros, Focused at Infinity, Filled the frame with a pure white piece of mat board and then proceeded to place the white board exposure on Zone 9 instead of Zone 10 by mistake. Should I just re-shoot the 5 exposures or will there be still plenty of exposed wedges to plot accurate curves. I planned on developing the 5 sheets at 5 different times BTZS style.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    おせわに なります! Andrew O'Neill's Avatar
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    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    There shouldn't be any need to reshoot. All films received same exposure. Plot your curves and shift them to the left one zone.

  3. #3

    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    Thanks Andrew,

    That was my initial feeling but decided to shoot them again. Now, I have 2 sets of 5 to process, so hey, I might as well try two different developers. For the longest time, I have just shot Tri-X and used HC110 dilution H. This is a pretty "classic" combo and produces beautiful results but decided to "try something new". I came across a deal from Calumet, I got 100 sheets of Fuji Acros Quickloads for a $100. They had "expired" by one day and I have been wanting to try it out. So, now, does anyone have any developers to recommend, specifically for Fuji Acros? I was leaning towards trying out Clayton F-76+ and trying Clayton Extend Plus Developer for shots that have an extremely high brightness range. So, any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

  4. #4
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    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    Mike,

    Scroll down about seven posts and see the answers to Lisa's inquiry about which developer to use with Fuji Neopan Acros 100.

    Since Kodak formulated Xtol specifically for their "fabricated" grain T-Max films, and Acros 100 is a very similar film to T-Max 100, Xtol should be an excellent developer for Acros, as well.

    Paul Butzi reports that his results with Acros developed in Xtol are excellent. Especially if the negatives are to be scanned.

  5. #5

    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    Eugene writes "Paul Butzi reports that his results with Acros developed in Xtol are excellent. Especially if the negatives are to be scanned."

    Um, no, actually, I don't. I switched back to XTOL for negs to be scanned, but I use TMX, not Acros.

    I'd have to check my notes to be sure, but I don't actually think I've developed Acros in XTOL, so I'm pretty sure I haven't reported on the results you might get. I don't have any reason to believe it would NOT be excellent, I just haven't tried it.

    But TMX in XTOL scans nicely

  6. #6

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    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    I am trying to do the same thing- I have a stouffer 31 step wedge, a denitometer, and plan on sandwiching against my film, in holder, and exposing for zone X.

    I am a little fuzzy on how to interprate results.

    Here is what I am thinking:

    I know the densities of the stouffer steps, for instance:

    step #10 is know to be 1.42 on the wedge. say my resulting negative density is .85

    math: 1.42/.3 = 4.73 10-4.73 = zone 5.27

    so, step 10 is zone 5.27 amount of exposure which yields negative density of .85 as an example.

    would I then plot zone across the bottom of graph, and my resulting negative densities vertically?

    I would be interested to learn the protocol the original poster is following, or, ideally, read any online site describing what path he is following.

    Thanks

  7. #7

    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    Hello Jeff,

    I am following the procedures laid out in "Way Beyond Monochrome" by Ralph W. Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse, specifically the chapter titled "Customizing Film Speed & Development". It would be very difficult to sum up but I highly recommend the book.

    A good web article is available here, written by Phil Davis


    http://www.phototechmag.com/previous-articles/sept99davis/sept99-davis.htm


    It naturally, speaks often of his products but there is quite a bit of useful information in it. It is the one I came across first when I decided to undertake some serous testing.

    Hope some of this helps.

    Best,

    Mike

  8. #8
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    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    Paul Butzi,

    Please excuse my "senior moment". I mis-read what you had written and thought that you were referring to Acros, as well as T-Max, for negatives that were to be scanned. The way I read it, I thought that you were using Xtol for all negatives that you were planning on scanning.

  9. #9

    Film Testing with Step Wedge - Mistake

    "Please excuse my "senior moment". I mis-read what you had written and thought that you were referring to Acros, as well as T-Max, for negatives that were to be scanned. The way I read it, I thought that you were using Xtol for all negatives that you were planning on scanning."

    There's no need to apologize, I'm just trying to correct a wee misunderstanding, probably rooted in my post not being sufficiently clear.

    Anyway:

    When I did the test of TMX and Acros, I used Tmax-RS for both films because that's the developer I was using at the time. As part of that test, I decided that although Acros was nice, it's not really all that different from TMX, and TMX is cheaper, so I stuck with TMX (especially since, at the time, I had about 300 sheets of TMX in the fridge).

    After that, I did a little test, comparing developers and scanning the negatives. The best developer from that test was a pyrocat developer developed by a friend, Denny Wagner. A very close second as XTOL. I can get more XTOL just by going downtown and buying it, so I chose XTOL.

    So, yes, I actually do use XTOL for all negs I'm going to scan; it's just that all of them are on TMX, and none are on Acros (because Acros is more expensive).

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