Stick to Tri-X ? Are you Amish, Jac ? As per 76, it stabilizes onto a plateau of activity for several months if the undiluted developer is kepty in full tight glass bottles. I'd divvy it up into little 8 oz bottles, then dilute these 1:1 just before use. I don't
care whether the stabilization takes 24 or 48 hours, or whatever. I'd play it safe and wait a week. I once used it as a cheap mask developer, and it had to be VERY predictable in those instances, densitometer checked. Formulary sells a stabilized
version of 76 which doesn't have this issue. But I rarely use 76 anymore, and have switched to a low-contrast personal tweak of HC110 for mask development. For general photography, I mostly use pyro. And when I want to replicate the look of Tri-X,
some birdshot in a 410 shotgun, aimed at any of the other sheet films, does a nice job.
Unless you are doing reversal processing, the films produce a negative. Not many people are interested in the visual characteristics of that; it is just an intermediate.
Personally I use any name-brand fresh film. I can't say that I see much difference between then when they are each exposed and processed to give the same results.
From my bunker in Lancaster, PA I can say that you should consider two film stocks to concentrate on in the long term to improve your craft ..... a fine grain low speed option asa 100 and a medium grain higher speed option say asa 400 or so. When shooting landscape the higher speed can be very important. Since offerings continue to decline I’d go with Ilford which I hope is with us for the next 10 years at least and the price isn’t terrible.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Last edited by angusparker; 19-Oct-2018 at 20:52.
Those occasional cases I do shoot Tri-X, it's in roll film, so the greater degree of enlargement will accentuate the peppery grain. It's a slightly different emulsion and speed than Tri-X sheet film; but in large format work, I don't generally like conspicuous grain, at least in my own images. But don't snicker about my comment. I've recently seen an oid Amish couple in traditional dress with the husband wearing a thousand buck Apple Smartwatch, and the wife wearing neon-glow name-brand sneakers. The rules differ group to group. Some forbid electric power tools, but allow diesel compressors running air tools,
ironically to build buggies.
I happen to use a 25 Red more than any other filter, even at high altitude, and never have an issue with blanked-out shadows, because I carefully spot meter shadow values. My second most used filter is a 22 deep orange. I seldom use a medium orange. Another favorite is an X1 med true green. With just these three, I can handle almost any b&w scenario. But I do own quite a variety of other filters for portraiture, archtecture, hand-held small camera shooting, and of course, color film.
Interesting point about filters. My dear friend and mentor said "If you are going to filter, filter. Don't mess around, use a 25A Red." I follow his advice with everything except X-Ray and other ortho films.
Bookmarks