I often find there are scenes whereby I place the shadow detail on Zone III, but the brightest area where I want texture in the scene can sometimes fall into Zone IX (or almost into Zone X).
I then get the film processed at normal. The negative seems to record the highlights' data OK, although they look a somewhat blown-out on an "unadjusted" contact sheet.
I typically get my negatives drum-scanned and digital prints made.
My question is .... Would it really make much difference if I had the film developed at N-1 or N-2 for the above scenario to compress the range of shadow --> highlights into a III --> VIII range?
Importantly -- am I losing resolution or other "image quality" by not getting the highlights down to the ideal Zone VIII? Or with the latitude of modern film (I shoot ACROS 100), and with the fact that I always get the negatives drum-scanned, would I see no difference if I did N-1 or N-2 vs. my current method of "normal development"?
Many thanks.
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