Question on rating film speed for B&W films

[raytoei]

Hi,

I would like to ask about rating different ISO speeds from the box published speed.

a. Any of you guys care to share your experience.

b. What I have read is that it is quite popular to rate the Tmax 3200 at 1600, my question is whether do you need to adjust according in development

c. Is this even possible for C-41 films eg. XP-2 Super ?

thanks

raytoei

 

[azzurri]

You will have to adjust the timing and you can have an idea on the timing from this website.

 

[maddyks]

Hi,

I would like to ask about rating different ISO speeds from the box published speed.

a. Any of you guys care to share your experience.

b. What I have read is that it is quite popular to rate the Tmax 3200 at 1600, my question is whether do you need to adjust according in development

c. Is this even possible for C-41 films eg. XP-2 Super ?

thanks

raytoei

a. Well I have always shot Tri-x 400 @ 320. Seems to help with the overall look.

b. Depends on the scene shot with the film. So do take a look around the web for proper dev times. sorry can't help much cos never used 3200. I push tri-x to 1600

c. yes you can do the same and dun tell the lab you rated it differently

 

[Yatlapball]

Some films look okay at their box rated speeds. Some benefit from rating it lower by 1/3 or 2/3 (or even 1 full) stop. Personally I shoot all my Ilfords at 1/3 less than the box rated. i.e. 320 for the Delta400 and HP5+ and 100 for the FP4+ then develop them at their box rated speeds. I know 1/3 is not alot of difference, but I find they do give a little bit more shadow detail.

Maybe those with more technical knowledge can explain it in terms of the shoulder-toe(?) characteristics of the individual films... I can't

 

[raytoei]

Yatlapball,

thanks I take it you mean 320 or 200 for an ISO 400 Ilford. Let me test it out.

I was reading up on this fella by the name of Mortensen, and his controversial approach is "Underexposed, overdeveloped", sounds very digital isn't it, except that he was around in the 1800's. His pictures are low-contrast but lots of tones.

Unfortunately his method works only for stand developing. Something i will experiment later this year.

In the meantime, let me test rate the ilford xp-2 super at 320.

thanks again.

raytoei