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Re: [OM] B&W 400 film, need suggestions

Subject: Re: [OM] B&W 400 film, need suggestions
From: Albert <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 12:25:33 -0700
I don't do my own development :-(. My mom said "Albert, why is your sister purple? And why is your sister olive on the next roll?" As you can tell, color paper and crappy development yields green family members..

I would love to do my own development, but renting a room from someone, doesn't really allow me to... Uggg...

Albert

AG Schnozz wrote:

ANY black and white film printed on color paper will yield
poor results.

Absolutely!  It is nearly impossible for any lab to get the
tonal balance even.  Prints will always have some screwy color
to them.  They are rarely sharp either.  A well-done hand-made
B&W print will make a one-hour lab print look like used chewing
gum that's been stuck on your shoe for a couple of days.

Frankly, there is little reason to shoot B&W unless you are
doing your own printing.  B&W is all about interpretation and
control of the tonalities.  No two people will ever interpret a
negative the same way.  I go for a look that is different than
what other people go for.  In reality, I rarely make two prints
of the same negative the same.  Every time I revisit a negative
I modify the interpretation somewhat.  Each one is unique--a
one-off.

Kodak T400CN is a non-traditional b&w film developed in C-41 chemicals to produce a more or less normal black and white
negative.  It is reportedly difficult to print on conventional
paper unless you use some specialized technique (two exposures
with different polycontarast filters on polycontrast paper,
according to Ag Schnozz). It scans quite well and I use it a lot.

It does scan very well.  I'm in the process of scanning and
editing several pictures which I can't do anything with in the
darkroom.  I can at least fix some of the curves in my
photoeditor.  Output will be on my new printer.  Bit depth is
always a battle, though.

T400CN is gut-wrenching in the darkroom.  The only way I can use
it is with "split-contrast" filtering.  Using
polycontrast/multigrade paper (Ilford Multigrade is the best for
this), you do one exposure with Grade 0 filtering and a second
exposure with Grade 5 filtering.  The Grade 0 exposure takes
care of the mid to high level tones and the Grade 5 exposure
builds in the bottom end.  Varying the two exposures gives you
excellent "gamma" control.  Only problem with split-contrast
filtering is that the picture will not be quite as sharp since
most enlarger lenses don't handle chromatic aberations very
well.  I'm not sure which is best, but I typically focus with
"white" light to split the focusing difference.

My current B&W film of choice is the Ilford Delta films with DDX
developer.  It is a nicely matched system and allows push/pull
processing with ease.  I really like TMAX 100 in TMAX developer,
but can't get consistant results.  Delta/DDX is an easy system
to use but forces you to be relatively accurate with your
temperatures and agitation cycles.  (NEVER REUSE DDX)

I find that the modern B&W films such as Ilford Delta and Kodak
TMAX render very smooth tonalities and have a nice "edgyness" to
them which raises the apparent sharpness. Traditional films,
such as TMAX, Plus-X, FP4, HP5 and Neopan produce more beautiful
blacks, but grain is part of the composition.  Grain is
sometimes appropriate, but either you like the "look" or you
don't.  Rarely do I like grain.  I prefer the almost translucent
property that TMAX 100 or Delta 100 gives to the pictures.

TMAX 400 is by far the worse B&W film ever manufactured.  <puke>

Oh, a side-note...  I'm in the process of editing a B&W picture
on the computer which may turn out to be one of my finer B&W
pictures.  It's scanned from a Kodachrome 25 slide.  The color
was slightly off (way too bluish), but once I desaturated the
picture (after some serious color manipulations) it has that
"something extra" which makes it stand out and grab you by the
tonsils.  But it will be a LONG work in progress.

So, in summary:  If you are NOT going to build your own
darkroom, shoot a C41 process B&W film.  All are excellent
choices and they scan exceptionally well.

Speaking of digitizing:  If it wasn't the love for the darkroom
and the "process", I'd be digital in my editing/printing.  But
there is a romantic or poetic aspect to the darkroom process. In the darkroom you are trying to caress that something special
from the print.  In "real-time" you are making hundreds of
judgement calls, interpretations and adjustments.  A dodge here,
a burn there...  It is extremely difficult to do natural looking
dodges and burns in an editor.  I can do in three seconds what
it would take me a half-hour to do in an editor.  When one of my
normal prints may have 10-15 different dodge and burns I just
can't accomplish the same thing, comfortably, with an editor. Developing the paper is another area where further adjustments
are made--if you want to increase the contrast of a small area
just rub that spot with your fingers during the development. The contrast increase is minor (almost all changes are made
during exposure), and subtle enough to add just a hint of oomph
without being noticable.

Best part of having your own darkroom for B&W:  The consumable
are cheaper than digital inkjet printing!  Huge expanses of
solid blacks don't toast your ink supply.

Yet, there are days when I wonder if I should chuck it all and
go 100 0igital.  But I'm an artist--as such I must do what
artists do and forge my own trail.

So much for the summary.

AG-Schnozz

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