https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...ist-180953525/
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Of course a practical approach like that is sound, you set a development for suitable DMax and later you bracket to find best practical result.
We may have to calibrate a lot to find the same, and this is before knowing if the result is the one we like the more.
Me, I try to combine both ways, plots help me to understand what I'm doing. I'm following your recommendations to learn to make studio portraits that are easy to print optically.
I find LF portraiture is technically way more difficult than landscape, many landscapes are great even if they look unnatural, but a great portrait requires many things to be well done.
I find the notion that one must reduce development time for film rated slower than box speed erroneous. Developing time affects the contrast gradient of the film equally, regardless of the E.I. Yes, it is often good to underrate your film in order to get the desired shadow detail and, yes, it is often good to reduce development time from the manufacturer's recommendation to deal with the contrast in the scene you have. However, these are unrelated issues.
We "Zonies" have a lot of different development times so we can tailor each sheet's contrast gradient to match the range of luminances in the scenes we photograph. When shooting roll film, I abandon this and aim for a mean contrast gradient that allows me to accommodate scenes with luminance ranges at either extreme. This is often a shorter time than my Zone-System "Normal" would be. And, I often like to overexpose by a stop or even more to get important shadows up into the straight-line portion of the film's curve. The reduction in development and the overexposure are unrelated, however. Often I'll overexpose and then increase development because the scene needs to have expanded contrast. Really, it depends on what you point your camera at.
As for HC-110: I have found that you can deal with too-short times for dil. B by simply doubling the dilution (1+63 instead of 1+31) and double the development time (e.g., 3.5 minutes would become 7 minutes). This might not be perfect, but will be a good starting point that you can tweak later.
Arriving at an initial development time for any film/developer combination requires you to do your personal testing. All you can get from others that use the same combination is a more-accurate starting point for your own testing.
Best,
Doremus
When Plus X 125 was available, and I had plenty of it doing defense work, I did the test described above and came up with a speed 32. This produced some very fine negatives, but the speed was too slow for use in the field or with the strobes I had available at that time.
You pointed something very simple I overlooked which is why I posted here. Of course - double the time and increase dilution. Thank you. After all I am looking for a very basic base line tonstart with. My times with pyro often exceed 25 minutes which is why I'd like to try hc110 and see if the contrast can come close to pyro. My next 2 options are xtol and presycol (sp)
Both a 100 rating for HP5 in HC110 B and 25 min in pyro sound ludicrous to me. Are you trying to make a transparent negative or a cast iron frying pan? I don't get it. Is this for silver printing or some UV alt process?
Well I can't really blame you. However, there is a method to my madness. I use an extremely dilute pyro process which provides a noticeably open dynamic range. I have been shooting HP5 and Tri-x at 100 for over 7 years now but always in D76 or pyrocat. I thought I could come back on the forum and see what others have experienced with HC110 at 100 but honestly I had forgotten how even the simplest question gets blown out of proportion on this forum. I am happy to share my pyro process with you if you are interested for you to test for yourself.
Tray processed in a slosher
1:1:200
72*F
28 minutes
3 minutes vigorous agitation
let stand for 5 minutes
1 minutes vigorous agitation
let stand for 5 minutes
1 minute vigorous agitation
let stand for 5 minutes
1 minute vigorous agitation
let stand for remainder
Produces exceptionally fine negatives that print very well and easily. Of course I have tailored this process for the work that I do and I developed this system alongside my mentor for controlling extreme contrast situations - the side effect however, was that it worked very well in almost all instances I have tested it in. I can upload some samples later when I get back home.
The concept is not new and well outlined in Saint Ansel's the negative. It's a tried and proven overexpose/underdevelop. Some guys just want to make things more complicated than they have to be. In my opinion to which no one else is beholden to shooting box speed provides less than optimal results.
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