Want Larger Grain (the larger the better)

SamIam.Life · Jan 31, 2008

hello everyone

you know how most people always ask how to lessen the grain in their photos, Well i have the opposite question. I am going for a really grainy look and am wondering how i can get the largest grain possible. Im in an adv Photo class at my school and the Professor said that one way to get large grain is to shoot T-MX 3200 at 1600 iso (not sure of that number, going to ask him tomorrow) and then develop the film in dectol for 4 min. I am going to try this soon, but i was wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

thanks

=)-SamIam-(=

Hertz van Rental · Jan 31, 2008

Generally speaking, in film photography the faster the film speed the larger the basic grain structure. And during processing there is a physical phase where the silver grains are built up, making them larger. This happens more noticeably with over-development when the grains can 'clump'.
It follows then that if you over-rate a fast film (under-expose) and slightly over-develop to compensate using a vigorous physical developer you will get large grain.
Some B&W films are grainier than others. T-max tends to be finer grained than most fast films so Tri-X would probably give larger grain.
The best stuff was Royal-X pan but it's been discontinued. That film had grain like golf balls.

Note: you can often get what looks like incredibly grainy results from even fine grained films. This is commonly due to micro-reticulation and not grain.
When processing, putting the film into a solution that is too cold or too hot compared to the previous solution causes thermal shock in the gelatine and makes it shrink/expand to produce a crackle finish - a bit like the way soil cracks in a drought. If the temperature difference is too great then you get full reticulation and large cracks are formed in the gelatine.
Micro-reticulation happens a lot more often than people realise and is a sign of sloppy processing technique