Retain highlights with Tmax 100

[rpagliari]

graduated nd filters .

Thanks for the suggestion but I do mostly architecture and a grad filter would interfere with the buildings.

[paulbarden]

I have found that nothing beats Xtol for holding back and retaining "difficult" highlights.

[Larry Gebhardt]

Thanks for the suggestion but I do mostly architecture and a grad filter would interfere with the buildings.

If you are happy with the contrast in the rest of the scene, as you alluded to in your original post, using a developer like xtol 1+1 along with fixing the sky in photoshop, if more compensation is needed, is probably the best option. Grads only work in some situations.

Test your film speed to determine the correct exposure index.

[rpagliari]

do you have any experience with tmax and ilfosol 3? I'm asking because I prefer liquid developer.

[Bruce Watson]

An issue I have with the "Expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights" approach is that developing less reduces contrast across the full range.

Except that it doesn't. The exposure anchors the shadow end of the contrast curve. Development anchors the highlight end of the contrast curve, and therefore determines the slope of the curve. Development can not normally translate the curve in X or Y dimensions. It only changes the slope.

Or are you talking about something different?

[Larry Gebhardt]

Except that it doesn't. The exposure anchors the shadow end of the contrast curve. Development anchors the highlight end of the contrast curve, and therefore determines the slope of the curve. Development can not normally translate the curve in X or Y dimensions. It only changes the slope.

Or are you talking about something different?

I'm saying by developing less (which reduces the slope) you are affecting all tones in the image. To fit more subject brightness range into the same film density range (as "develop for the highlights" implies) you will make the image flatter (lower slope).

[Larry Gebhardt]

do you have any experience with tmax and ilfosol 3? I'm asking because I prefer liquid developer.

I think DDX is the closest liquid developer to XTOL.

[Oren Grad]

IIRC, TMX is linear out more than 20 stops.

Unlike TMY, TMX curve shape is highly dependent on developer choice. In diluted XTOL or D-76 it starts to shoulder far, far before 20 stops.

[Keith Fleming]

There is lots of good advice in this thread, but I have faced film-exposure situations here in the Pacific Northwest that are extreme. In November and December, the sun does not rise high in the sky and the clouds are low and thick. Contrast can be very low, and I mean LOW. It's counter to orthodox procedures, but I take a reading using an incident meter, open up 3 stops (either on the lens diaphragm or the shutter speed) and then give "normal" development.

Not a perfect solution, but better than a print that resembles a gray card.

Keith

[Bruce Watson]

Unlike TMY, TMX curve shape is highly dependent on developer choice. In diluted XTOL or D-76 it starts to shoulder far, far before 20 stops.

I'll take your word for it. I just remember reading in one of the Kodak Tech Pubs back in the mid 1980s (?) when TMax first arrived that it would stay linear past 20 stops. But I was still a "Tri-X man" at that point and didn't pay a lot of attention to it, and certainly couldn't be bothered to test it to find out. Which was a major loss on my part, but I've got to own my own stupidity. Sigh...