Developing, exposure, and zones.

[alavergh]

I have a situation that I'd like to ask about. I photographed the interior of a nice church today as a warm up for later. I'm going to try to include a snapshot. I used a 65mm lens so it's wide.

There's a pulpit of dark wood. I metered it at something like 3.3 EV. I want detail in some of the walls that have a lamp right by them. The light walls measured around 10.5 EV. There are some good middle values but I'm really wanting to have details on those light, well lit walls on the sides so they aren't blown out. I'm using Ilford FP4+ and I shoot it at ISO125. I didn't record the middle values, but I'm thinking I may want to give n-2 development even though I haven't calculated exactly how much time that will be. I also shot at f45 and my metered exposure was 30 seconds assuming I want to shoot 2 stops brighter than the dark pulpit in order to get detail. I used that nice reciprocity app and it told me I was going to need an exposure of something like 2 and a half minutes, but I'm not sure if that's correct after looking at ilfords own chart.

Any suggestions on development or things to look at in the future? I welcome thread responses as well as inbox messages.

[alavergh]

Well crap...sorry, it's upside down for some reason?

[alavergh]

Also, since I haven't done tests for n+-development, I'm kind of guessing at either 15-20% less development. I develop around 70 degrees for 14mins with rodinal 1:50, so I'm thinking about 10.12 minutes if I want to decrease 14 minutes by 15% twice. Thoughts? Chances are neither of these are going to be printed because the church wasn't ready yet and big prayer ribbons are still hanging. Maybe I'll develop one at 10.12 and another at 9 minutes since I took the usual two shots?

[Jim Noel]

Place the reading for the pulpit on about Zone II 1/2, and see where that puts the highlight with texture. Do you really want much texture in the white walls?. I would tend to only give and N-1 development in order to have the walls almost paper white.

[alavergh]

What I was thinking with the white walls is that the lighting, I can't remember what it's called, (a sconce?) makes a pattern on the wall with its shadows that's pretty apparent when using your eyes and not a camera...but maybe at that point, the walls might start to look dingy and nothing else would looks bright as the eye sees it.

Not having tested, if my development is 14, what would you recommend for n-1? I printed a negative recently that I developed for 12mins instead and it turned out pretty good, it was a backlit tree, basically.

[ROL]

Well crap...sorry, it's upside down for some reason?

Whew! I'm glad you said that! I don't feel that posting a densely composed color snap helps us much in helping you, upside down or otherwise. Excuse the cynicism, but the nature of the inquiry seems to indicate that this is a "professional" job, and if so, you should have your craft worked out by now, or use tools that you are familiar with to get the job done. Be that as it may, you have identified about seven zones. You will likely want to place important shadows and compress development as suggested by Jim. This seems a perfect opportunity, failing your own personal film testing, to explore various placements, exposures, and developments. Spent film is your least expensive resource, and best form of education, in this regard.

What I was thinking with the white walls is that the lighting, I can't remember what it's called, (a sconce?) makes a pattern on the wall with its shadows that's pretty apparent when using your eyes and not a camera...but maybe at that point, the walls might start to look dingy and nothing else would looks bright as the eye sees it.

Yes, sconces. I love them and the accent lighting they provide. Perhaps that should be the focus of your composition, or one of many. As Jim alluded, then resolution of wall texture might be an important part of your composition. Exposing for that may be a bit simpler. What story are you trying to tell?

[TXFZ1]

We are used to it, can you flip it left to right?

[alavergh]

Nice, TXFZ1. I chuckled.

It's not a pro gig at all. This is me learning. I volunteered to photograph the church with what is basically my hobby camera for now. I don't know of anybody in my personal life that does this kind of stuff, much less worry about zones and different developing. The snap was more for my own remembrance until I decided to ask for some advice from people who would have more experience.

The last time I volunteered in much the same way at a similar looking church, my 8x10 silver gel print was sold at an auction for just shy of $200. It was to help May for tuition for k-5 at the school. Makes me feel good for helping.

[Doremus Scudder]

Back to the Zone placement question...

Often, if you just "squeeze" all the Zones in a scene into the range between III and VIII you end up with a flat print; local contrast goes away. In your case I would likely do one of two things.

1. Go ahead and develop N-2, but then plan on printing on a higher paper grade and doing a bit of dodging to bring up the darker areas (pulpit, etc.) and (possibly extensive) burning of highlight areas. This is my "standard" approach, since it seems that developing less and printing on a contrastier paper grade brings up the local contrast best and gives a snappier print.

2. Similar to the above is to develop N-1 and then print on a "normal" contrast grade paper with some dodging and burning. This gives a bit smoother look than the above.

3. If the scene is really contrasty (i.e., has a lot of harsh local contrast already that might need tamed) then N-2 and print on a "normal" contrast paper.

4. N-2 and print on a normal contrast grade. This seems to happen rather rarely, in my experience, but is the "strict" Zone System answer...

Deciding which scheme to use depends on an assessment of local contrast and mid-tone separation in the scene. ...And, of course, since many negs aren't perfectly developed to a particular scheme, I'll use whatever printing tricks I need to get the print I want. The point here is that usually, for me, a print on a contrastier paper with appropriate dodging and burning is more satisfying than a straight print from a contraction negative.

Best,

Doremus

[alavergh]

Thanks Doremus.

I'm pretty sure that since I exposed two sheets of film, I'm going to develop one for n-1 and the other for n-2. The print I want to make doesn't have the ribbons hanging so I'll use this as a test.

My other question was...what do you think I should think on for the develop changes? I've read that it's ideal to make negatives just to test for development times similar to finding true ISO with my own processing habits. I obtained an ebook that goes about the zone system in a non-technical fashion and gives the examples of two films using -15% for n-1 and another -15% for n-2, but I saw one that has -20% n-1 and a further -25% for n-2. I don't see myself doing these tests right now with film being something that I have little of. What development times have you come up with for your altered development? Again, the film I'm using is Ilford FP4+.