which films do you prefer? which has best contrast?

[thelazerviking]

I just bought a beseler dichroic color head and i figure that i'm going to have to compensate for the dulled contrast with my film. I'd like to hear which films you guys prefer to use

take care

 

[deanimator]

Are you asking about colour or black & white films?

What films are you using...what film do you have this contrast problem with?

 

[thelazerviking]

i'm asking about both but b/w more so. right now i'm using tri-x 400

 

[motcon]

my suggestion is for you to start your thought process at the image capture stage, through development of the negs, before you even think about contrast control at the enlarger.

do you develop your own film? if not, do you at least have a say about how to develop it?

 

[ann]

contrast is generally controlled with development; however, you can also adjust the contrast by increasing the magenta with the color head. you reduce contrast by using more yellow. cyan is not used with black and white printing.


The paper you'r using will give you recommendations for adjusting the magenta and yellow for paper grades which is another way of thinking of adjusting contrast.

i.e. with a condesnor head one may print on a grade 2 paper, with a diffusion head or cold light head use grade 3.

as one becomes more advanced in technique you might consider tweaking your negatives on a specific grade.

the nice thing about that head , you are not locked into just half steps, you can tweak the contrast in thirds, as example

 

[deanimator]

What do you mean by the "dulled contrast" in your Tri-X?

Low contrast?
Do you see this problem with other films?
Have you always had this problem?
Do you develop the films yourself?

There are a lot of things that could cause this.

One possibility:
I use Tri-X (not so often now since they changed the formula), and years ago it was great...nice contrast and great prints. Then I changed locations and suddenly my contrast went down...the films even stained a bit brownish. After several films I switched to using distilled water to prepare my developer...BINGO, nice contrast again!

 

[fmw]

The slower the film, the higher the contrast.

 

[motcon]

The slower the film, the higher the contrast.

actually, the opposite is true.

compare a shot at 3200 with a shot of pan-f at 32ei.

 

[Ihaveaquestion]

T-Max 3200 all the way.

I love grain.

 

[thelazerviking]

for now i'm going to start developing my film with distilled water and see where that gets me. Sometimes my negs come out really well, sometimes they're greyish. maybe it's the way i'm developing them. i don't really know what variables yield what as far as the developing process goes, i do know that when i started putting particular attention on aggitation they came out noticably better.

 

[thelazerviking]

i want to know what film to buy ifi buy a bulk roll. I have a loader but i haven't used it yet since i can get film for free at school. school's over next week though. I shoot usually only with available light, and a problem i've been having is a lack of contrast in things like the sky, or somone's hair. i mean it looks fine usually but i want it to look great. haha any advice

 

[thelazerviking]

lets say my shadows aren't coming out well.


if i develop at 75 degrees will i get more grain than if i develop at 65 degrees?

 

[ann]

when you say , the shadows aren't coming out well. That could mean many things. I am going to assume (not usually a good thing) that they don't have detail. This is a function of exposure.

To increase the fun and success of printing it is better to be consistence in your workflow, it is not a wise thing to blounce around with times and temperatures from moment to moment..

Decide on a course of work and stick to it.
I would also recommend that you pick one film and stick with it for at least a year. Bouncing around from film type/developer type is going to create more confusing. Buy the film your using now.

Why not discuss this with your insturctor?

With regard to water, the iron content has a great effect on the over all contrast of the negative.

 

[fmw]

actually, the opposite is true.

compare a shot at 3200 with a shot of pan-f at 32ei.

Compare Kodachrome 25 with Ektachrome 400.

 

[deanimator]

Shadow problems? You may want to set your iso to 320

Distilled water: a very good idea if you have hard water, high iron content etc (as Ann said)

Agitation: try to stick exactly to the developer instructions. More agitation will give you higher contrast...but be careful. If you have to do a lot more, then something else is wrong.

Temperature: Higher temps will also increase contrast. Again stick as closely as possible to the instructions.