Yesterday when I was scanning
'Offices in the
North' photo I realize fact which was clear to me already for long
time. Not that it would be surprising, but it pop-up so strongly yesterday
that I like to write about it.
The above mention photo was exposed on Kodak TMY film and developed in
Kodak XTOL 1:1 developer. I use to work with this combination for quite
some years. As far I remember 2003 was last year, than I have switched to
Fuji Neopan and Paterson Aculux II. SO the photo was so grainy that it
surprised me a lot. TMY is good film and Xtol is known for lower grain
capabilities. As I scan it I realize that shot was underexposed quite a
lot. It is difficult to say but one or one and half stop more would help a
lot. And that I think was the fact why grain pop-up so strongly there. On
several message boards you can find never ending discussion about which
developer which film and asking for examples times. It all has no sense.
Important thing is to understand how you camera work and work with same
developer and film for at least 50 rolls to get it all known. Experiment
and think why you have got what you did. Only that can teach you what to do
to get result you like.
Yes certain films/developer combination have very specific characteristics
which can be more appealing, but if you do not know that combination you do
not necessary have to get it. And it doesn't matter that somebody who shows
you shot was successful. You need to really try it and think.
I learn a lot by doing a lot of shots. And even I am talking here analog
photography, in digital world the principal is the same.
I, for example, was using one camera for longer time and was getting nice
results on Kodak 125PX film. Really great. I than switch to different
camera and results where different. I say myself what is the problem. I did
test, try and realize that old camera was giving almost half to one stop
more exposure than new one. So it means if new is exposing Kodak 125PX as
125 ASA film, the old one was handling it as 64 ASA film. And than I
realize that my development times I used for the same film are shorter that
suggested by Kodak. And I try to set new camera and gave half stop more
exposure and I have got the same nice results.
In this case it was camera in other case it can be different water,
temperature, the way how you agitate tank, or you use different tank,
Thousands things. All are more or less important, but to get what you want
you need to try and experiment! So go on and enjoy those few minutes of
waiting until surprise came out of the tank.
