ASA/ISO in Large Format

[Drew Wiley]

I have bounced around with a lot of different films over the years. A lot depended not only on availability of a specific film, but how it responded to the printing papers available at the same time. What is interesting right now is taking some of my LF negs from earlier days and printing them on the newer papers. Subjects which were prolematic back then snap right into place now. But of course, I've also gotten more
experience along the way.

[Leigh]

We can't agree on anything.

I disagree, vehemently.

- Leigh

[rdenney]

The sense behind statements such as the one the OP heard is that with the larger format, the enlargement ratio will be smaller and therefore larger grain will not become a problem.

That argument breaks down if the reason to use large format is to obtain much larger prints using the same enlargement ratio. Then, the factors governing acceptable grain are the same for both formats.

But some people do large format for reasons other than printing very large. And for them, it's much more of a gray area. The usual reason is maintaining a smooth tonality. And most people who actually use large format have that in mind as much as detail and resolution, which is why generalizations are false.

I do not intend to print larger than 16x20, even from 4x5, but I want that 16x20 to have qualities that are obtainable at 4x enlargement but not at 8x. That 16x20 would require 17x from 35mm. Grain at 17x is over four times larger than grain at 4x, which is likely a bigger change in grain size than between 100 and 400-speed films. So the slower film is still valuable.

But I might accept 100-speed film for 4x5. Even that is a speed compromise. When I shot black and white in a small-format camera, I generally preferred Panatomic-X, at ISO 25. (And, yes, that tells you how long it's been since I used small format for black and white.) Processed in Rodinal, the tiny grain was still pretty sharply rendered, but it maintained the tonality nicely. With that, I could tolerate 12x enlargements for most subjects.

Rick "yes, the 400-speed films are better than they used to be, but so are the 100-speed films" Denney

[Leigh]

So what film to buy and try first is a mystery.

We can't make that decision for you, any more than we can take pictures for you.

There are times in life when you just have to make up your own mind.

- Leigh

[yeknom02]

We can't make that decision for you, any more than we can take pictures for you.

There are times in life when you just have to make up your own mind.

Yes, ultimately, I will have to make up my own mind, but that doesn't mean my decision has to be uninformed.