I need N+2 in the shadows and N-2 in the highlights

[Old-N-Feeble]

Windows and doors... how big and how many? Is the inside very well-lit? Depending on conditions it might be feasible to use cheap window darkening film attached to lightweight frames outside the window and door openings.

[Tim Meisburger]

I think the OP has indicated the shots have already been made, but if the haven't, I agree with Maris. I've made some really pleasing interior shots at our house in Indonesia around dawn, with the mountain view out the window perfectly exposed. Its fun for early risers...

[Doremus Scudder]

Eric,

A couple of thoughts: First, keep in mind that reduced development alone affects highlight contrast more than shadow contrast, as do many other methods. The main consideration is to be sure you have exposed well enough to retain the detail and separation in the shadows that you need.

I've been in your situation a number of times and tend to agree with Michael that you don't really want to fit the overall negative density range to your printing paper, i.e., detailed shadow in Zone III and contracted development to get the highlights to print with detail. I like a bit too-contrasty neg and then deal with the highlights during printing.

My "bag of tricks" for developing in such a situation would be:

Develop at N-1 (or maybe even N-1/2) with a compensating regime. This could be a divided developer (although I don't use that), a reduced-agitation scheme, a dilute developer with extended time, or a combination of the above. Perhaps my favorite method here is to use SLIMT, but you really have to test, test, test to make sure you have a scheme that works first. At any rate, you want to end up with a negative that straight prints with fair shadows and blown highlights, but has a distribution of tones that has reduced separation in the higher values as compared to the lower (i.e., "compensated" highlights).

Then at the printing stage, you can use dodging to liven up the shadows and burning for specific highlight areas. In the process, you can use VC paper and a rather high-contrast filter for the base exposure and then burn with the highs down with a lower contrast filter. If the highlights are stubborn, flashing is a good tool to reign them in (and reduces contrast a bit in the highest values), Bleaching of selected areas to bring them up after fixing will help give muddy areas a sense of luminance and separation that you can't get any other way. Advanced techniques include masking and retouching, but I find these are rarely needed.

You'll have to find the right combination of manipulations for your particular image, but the above are the basics and should serve you well.

Best,

Doremus

[Steve Sherman]

I've been interested in this type photography for 25 years and therefore have used all methods available during those times. It would be hard to judge what the final approach would be without first knowing exacting what the contrast range was and the shapes of the extremes of that contrast to gauge what type of printing manipulation could be used.

In my experience over those 25 years no technique begins to approach that of Reduced Agitation forms of Film development when controlling and Preserving negative information is paramount. Divided Pyrocat will compress highlights but the technique is mostly used by Film shooters who intend to scan their negatives as opposed to printing them in a Silver process. Gaining the necessary highlight density with Divided Pyrocat for Silver Gelatin printing is not easy.

Lastly, your most successful means to arrive at a high quality Silver Gelatin rendition of an interior and exterior would involved three factors, first, shoot on an overcast day within 3 hours of the sun rising or setting, expose outside values no higher than Zone 14 - 14.5 and use a Reduced Agitation method to develop the film using Pyrocat and have a high degree of competency with the Split Contrast technique used for Silver Gelatin printing. In the hands of a skilled Split Contrast printer Multi-Contrast papers can do things that will surprise even that printer, it is that powerful a technique

Cheers !

[Joe Smigiel]

Someone already mentioned David Kachel's SLIMT method. Here's a link:http://www.davidkachel.com/assets/cont_pt3.htm

[mdarnton]

This suggestion is probably outside of the desired parameters, but......

In 35mm I habitually shoot in high contrast situations--interiors with windows are a good enough example--but I really abhor blank white and black areas. That's one of the things that quickly turned me off on digital cameras because Tri-X in D76 will easily renter 15 or more stops range of good data, much more than digital. The only problem has been printing those, and I was delighted to discover that those wide-range digital negs are easily scanned, photoshopped, and printed digitally much more easily than I used to do in the darkroom. When I discovered this, I made hybrid my habit.

This shot, for instance, has an actual metered range of 16 stops between the dark areas under the desk (there's a small amount of detail there on my screen) and the sunlit wall outside.: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdarnton/6929081535/

[tuco]

Perhaps use a tabular grain film such as 400TMY or 100ACR (they work better for this than most cubic grain films) for the following process. Place your shadows as normal and over expose 3 stops. Then cut your normal development time by about 1/2 (or a little less) using PMK Pyro to compress the highlights. It will yield finer grain than box speed, good tonal scale and huge dynamic range. I've been doing if for years now. You can also work the dev time out for 1 or 2 stops over exposed to compress your highlights as well. Works best on a high contrast scenes, of course.

[Bruce Watson]

I need N+2 in the shadows and N-2 in the highlights.

Doesn't work that way. The "secret" is: Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights. So what you might need is to properly expose (based on your experimentally determined PEI), then develop to your N-2 development time.

But what the architectural photographers usually do is light the interior to a sufficient level to match the light outside, which is much easier to do at dawn/dusk as has already been pointed out. If you can't do that, gel down the windows with an application of ND gel to knock down the exterior light levels a stop or two. Gelling windows is done for video productions all the time.

[Gary Beasley]

This looks like a situation where some stand development can tame the wide range a bit. Best done with tray development for the sheets, immerse and agitate for maybe half a minute then let the film settle face up so the reaction products pool on the highlights and the shadows continue to build as the highlights get held back. Experiment with some test sheets before deciding how much agitation and how long to develop. The roll is a bit trickier, semi stand may be better to avoid bromide drag.

[tuco]

This looks like a situation where some stand development can tame the wide range a bit...

Stand development is developing the film to completion. Highlights develop faster than shadows. Stand development does little to compress the highlights and that is what is needed. With the highlight compression I described, I have captured, with ease, shadows placed at EV3 and EV4 with my middle gray exposure at EV6 and highlights outside the window at EV15 and EV16.