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Fresh from the darkroom.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 2:11 am    Post subject: Fresh from the darkroom. Reply with quote
Spent half an hour in Ye Olde-Fashioned Darkroom tonight, making a wet print of one of the negatives from last weekend's photo outing with the Shen Hao.



I was getting way too much contrast shooting Ilford Delta 100 at factory specs, so I dropped it to ISO 50 and cut developing from 12:00 to 9:30. Now I'm seeing much better mid-tones.

Data for this image:
Camera: Shen Hao HZX45 IIA
Lens: Caltar II-S 210mm/5.6
Film: Ilford Delta 100
Shot at: N-1
13s at f/16
Lighting was open garage door to left and Nikon Speedlight SB600 fired from right at ¼ power about 12 times.
Processing: Ilford DD-X @1+4, 68°F, 9m30s, 60s agitation
Printed with: Beseler 45MXT, Nikkor 135/5.6 at f/22 for 18s on Ilford Multigrade (no filter)
Developed in Ilford Multrigrade Developer 60s.


PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 5:15 am    Post subject: Re: Fresh from the darkroom. Reply with quote
480sparky wrote:

I was getting way too much contrast shooting Ilford Delta 100 at factory specs, so I dropped it to ISO 50 and cut developing from 12:00 to 9:30. Now I'm seeing much better mid-tones.


I always preferred to use Ilford HP5 for that reason instead on my middle format cameras as the lower speed films generally have the tendency for too much contrast. From my experience the HP5 beats all of them in terms of better mid-tones. Additionally you have the advantage of shorter exposure times as well.
Maybe you should try it in comparison. It turned out to be my favorite film for B&W photography. The slightly bigger grain doesn't play that role on bigger formats anyway.
I additionally played around with the Ansel Adams method to increase the tonality even further. The HP5 is very capable for that, though the FP4 isn't bad as well and also better than the Delta100 if you might consider the HP5 grain as not acceptable.

Just my 2 cents.


PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 12:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sparky,

When you say "no filter", it's supposed you're using a multigrade paper with no filter at all? If affirmative, why that?
My bet is if you're enlarging with a lens which max apperture is f5.6 the diffraction limit will be somewhere between f11-f16. I would make the main exposure at least using those f-stops.
Nice pic, btw, all came well balanced,

Cheers,

Renato


PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I use DD-X because it's what the local b&m store carries. I'd prefer to use what's readily available, especially if I run short on something and can just take a quick trip there or stop by on the way home from work.

I sometimes don't have enough time to go out and shoot, let alone experiment with the myriad combinations of film, developers and papers. I'll characterize what I use for now to my desires, and if I live long enough I'll delve into other avenues.

So my first step is to wrestle my choice of film, developers and paper to bend to my vision. Once I've pinned that down, then it time to start experimenting.
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