Found some never-refrigerated "expired in 1994" Tri-X in the basement, so (following the lead of all the "expired film shooters" around here) decided to see what it would do. I exposed at 200, 100, 50, and 25 ASA. As I posted in the "digital processing" forum, I'm left a bit adrift with scanning and judging negatives. Due to the wonders of Epson software, all four exposures looked decent! I guess I will have to get down to the basement darkroom and make a "proper proof" to see what is really going on, but I decided to scan the 50 ASA experiment. The only photoshopping was to darken down the brightness control a bit, equivalent of a longer exposure in my enlarger. As far as I can tell from this scan, its a decent negative, but I could probably have chosen any of the four (or at least from 100 ASA and down) and gotten about the same result. Right now I'm grappling with the horrible thought that scanner software has made careful metering and exposure somewhat less relevant? Anyway:
img073-scrn by Pete Lewin, on Flickr
Canham 4x5, window light, PMK, Epson 4990
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