fp4+ reciprocity failure (and a short question about pre exposure)

[JW Dewdney]

See the figures at this link:

http://silvergrain.org/Photo-Tech/reciprocity.html

Wow. Thanks - there's a ton of stuff in there. That guy's a maniac. Though I was just looking for something that shows the contraction in curve shape with increased exposure (would assume that the curve gets rather concave...!) - or maybe I should get off my lazy arse and look in one of the books behind me, huh? I have the Zakia/Lorenz book on photographic sensitometry that's been collecting dust for 20 yrs. plus - must be in there...

[false_Aesthetic]

Did fuji stop making b/w film?


All I can find is the quick load stuff on BH's website. Theres no link that I can see on fujifilm.com

Thanks
T

[Ron Marshall]

Did fuji stop making b/w film?


All I can find is the quick load stuff on BH's website. Theres no link that I can see on fujifilm.com

Thanks
T

Here is the b/w:

http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/...uctsNeopan.jsp

[Brian Ellis]

"I think I'm gonna have to find a film with a "better" reciprocity failure curve. . . . Any film suggestions."

According to the reciprocity tables John Sexton hands out in his workshops, TMax films have significantly better reciprocity characteristics than non-tab films such as FP4+.

[Leonard Metcalf]

Fuji Acros 120 - 1000 seconds + 1/2 stop exposure correction

[Donald Qualls]

I wonder what sort of SBR Ilford are taking into account. Normally, you'd think film manufacturers are taking a best-case scenario - but here it sounds a bit more worst-case, and I'd worry a bit about highlights in high-SBR scenes. I think there are some situations where losing your low-level shadow detail isn't so important in the big picture.

Generally, it's a given with night photography that your SBR will be completely out of range; in addition, reciprocity failure boosts contrast anyway, because the film exposed to highlights is *faster* than the film exposed to dark areas. There isn't a good way around this; you can apply a contraction, but most methods result in loss of speed as well, which means even more exposure is needed, and you can't apply enough contraction with modern films to make much of a difference (N-2 is about the limit with most of them). In the end, you usually have to accept bright highlights blowing out in order to get an interesting scene, and in fact the blown highlights (mainly actual light sources and lit windows) are part of what makes a night shot look like a night shot.

The best solution has already been proposed -- use a film with better reciprocity characteristics. Fuji Acros is the fastest film you can buy by the time your metered exposure is beyond a couple minutes; at ten minutes, it's faster than TMZ-P3200 (which you can't get in sheet sizes anyway), and it passes Polaroid Type 57 much sooner than that.

BTW, my experience suggests Ilford films, which all fit the 2.81 for 2 curve I posted earlier, are significantly better on reciprocity than Kodak and most other conventional grain films (Foma and Forte, however rebranded, also appear to follow the 3 for 2 curve). Polaroid is much, much worse than that; most Polaroid films just don't work well at all with metered exposures beyond ten seconds (though that's pretty dim conditions with 57/667, it's nowhere near trying to shoot by moonlight).

[keithwms]

http://www.mkaz.com/photo/tools/reciprocity.html

Keith