[pure-silver] Re: Tonal gradation/smoothness in 35mm negs c.f. larger formats
- From: Richard Knoppow <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:32:28 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
-----Original Message-----
>From: Peter Badcock <peter.badcock@xxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Jan 13, 2008 5:51 PM
>To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [pure-silver] Tonal gradation/smoothness in 35mm negs c.f. larger
>formats
>
>There has been a discussion on APUG about the differences between 35mm
>negatives and larger format negatives in relation to tonal gradation and
>smoothness of tones (particularly in the highlights).
>So all other things being equal, can somebody please tell me why I can't get
>the same tonal gradation/smoothness onto a print made from a 35mm neg cf. a
>larger negative of the same film, same scene, same exposure conditions, same
>developer etc etc. If possible, assume grain size is small enough to be
>irrelevant - i.e. keep the print smallish, say no bigger than 6-7 inches.
>
>Rather than pre-empt any explanations you folks come up with , I'll just
>supply you with quotations for now rather than the original APUG thread (of
>course you can search for it yourself, but I'd rather you thought about it
>independently because I'm not satisfied with the only answer that was posted
>on APUG)
>
>
>regards
>Peter
>
Quotes snipped...
My experience is that its mostly a matter of grain. I shoot various
formats up to 8x10. In general, there is a noticeable difference between 35mm
negs and anything larger. Recently, I've been using 100T-Max developed in
either Perceptol or Microdol-X (they are identical) full strength. This begins
to give me the sort of "smoothness" I get with 2-1/4 x 2-1/4. When used full
strength both developers are extra-fine-grain but have no acutance effects at
all so negatives in somewhat grainier developers will often look a bit sharper:
it depends partly on the quality of the lens. The comparison is to D-76 diluted
1:1. This is a medium-fine-grain developer. The T-Max negatives in either of
the two fine grain developers above are nearly as fine grain is Technical Pan
in Technidol with better tone rendition, much more speed (around EI-50) and no
difficulties with controlling contrast.
I've also tried these developers for Rollei negatives but do not find the
same improvement over those processed in D-76.
--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Los Angeles, CA, USA
=============================================================================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,)
and unsubscribe from there.
Other related posts:
