Just as you can put a shoulder into TMX via choice of developer, you can also give it a very long straight line via different choices. (There are other, stranger curves, useful only for very special purposes, that can also be achieved.) So TMX can be an excellent film for those who want a straight line as well.Originally Posted by Bruce Watson
Heck NO. If it's a high contrast scene I place the deep shadows on Zone 1. Like I said, it has a long straight line further down into the shadows than most other films. I don't place shadow value on Z3 for ANY film except Pan F. It doesn't make any sense. Remember, I'm speaking of high-contrast scenes where you want to get the most out of the USEABLE film curve. With low contrast scenes you have some wiggle room or latitude options. But overexposing @50 and underdevelopment does NOT provide the same result. It starts scrunching tonality between endpoints. And there will be no benefit to shadow reproduction, but with this particular film, the opposite. If you want to play it safe and not skate on the edge, you could place deep shadows on Z2 instead of Z1. But you have to be careful not to overexpose TMAX. It develops contrast rapidly and you can shoulder off the top, at the upper end. In a best- case scenario, it's about a 10-stop film, about a stop more than FP4 or Delta 100, provided you use the extra room down in the shadows if you need to. Yeah, there are various trick developers to handle extreme lighting situations, but they come with a substantial penalty to gradation in between. So I am referring to usable range print-wise, and not any of that alleged 20-stop nonsense or otherwise torturing the neg to get acceptable results. I sometimes resort to very low gamma developers for technical lab applications; but it's best to learn basic techniques with this film first. It's fussier than most, but well worth the extra care.
David Kachel's SLIMT bleaching can also be useful for keeping highlights in check while preserving mid-tone contrast.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Developers: There's no way I could know them all. I use PMK pyro for general shooting. The staining properties of most pyro formulas help rein in the highlights during printing. TMaxRS at full strength gives the longest straight line for normal or plus development; there will be a sag in the curve at minus development for lower gamma. D76 gives a modest sag in the middle, HC-110 slightly less. But HC-110 is the most versatile developer I can think of in terms of a wide range of dilution tweaks. To enhace edge effect in TMX100, lately I've been using Perceptol at 1:3 dilution. It also pulls the highlights into range analogously to pyro stain, probably due to differential exhaustion at this dilution. At less dilution it behaves just the opposite and resembles D76 with very little edge enhancement if any. These are just a few of the dev options I've used.
Expose it at 80 and develop for 9 minutes in Rodinal 1:50. Beautiful tonality.
Poke all over with a fork to release steam and bake at 400 F for 20 minutes. Do not wrap in tinfoil!
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Oh wait, wrong forum! Sorry about that.
Not if one prints those negatives on graded paper.
Nonsense. When I began using PMK with TMax I printed on graded papers exclusively. The pyro stain made a big difference. Why wouldn't it? I'm anticipating your logic, but there is more than one variable in play. The proof is in the prints - lots of them, mostly on Seagull G and Brilliant Bromide. But I am still indebted to you for informing me of the futility of post-staining. Perhaps an interesting topic for a dedicated thread? Printmakers recognized the benefits of pyro on highlight repro long before VC papers even existed.
I shoot Tmax 100 at 100 and bracket my shots +1 and -1. It's MF 120 roll film. I'm shooting 6x7's. I don't develop my own but send it to a pro lab. They develop normally in XTOL. They do have options for other developers. They can also do pulling and pushing in XTOL. Does anyone have any recommendation for my situation? Thanks.
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Of course it is. Unlike you, I don't know everything about everything.
Because, unlike variable contrast papers where the PMK proportional stain's yellow/green color takes scene highlights into the paper's low contrast emulsion, with graded papers there's no such effect. To graded paper's "eyes," negative density is negative density, irrespective of whether it's a result of silver or stain.
I can't find anything on Fred's French paper, but Seagull G had a substantial toe. Printing on it, with any negative, regardless of how that negative was developed and what its color was, presented difficulty in "making white." See the characteristic curve here:
Over to you, answer man.
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