I also like and enjoy shooting film. I also believe in the "look" of film, especially when it comes to b&w.
Someone mentioned that "b&w was easy." Perhaps I did not understand what he really meant but to me, b&w could not be more difficult.
To begin with, it requires careful testing to arrive to the correct EI to use for best results. Then it requires careful development to determine how long it will take to develop highlights properly.
I have used Tri-X a lot, especially medium format. After careful testing, I concluded that EI-250 would render the best details in the shadow areas while cutting development by 1-1/2 minutes from what Kodak recommends for HC-110 solution B, would give me control over the highlights. This was what I found for my camera and yours could be totally different. T-MAX 100 caused me a lot of frustrations till I began to use D76 but it was not till I used Rodinal that I really had the negatives that made me happy in the darkroom. I think we all will agree that the final expression of a good b&w print comes from using fiber base paper.
I regret I donated all of my b&w darkroom gear. I have not been very successful reproducing with the computer the tonalities I used to get with b&w film. I have been doing better shooting color negative film and converting to b&w.
This is an interesting thread and I congratulate you for taking the time to start it.
William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida.
Back to nature for me. Two trips to the same canyon a few weeks apart. The snow storm was in mid April. I've got lots of film that needs to be scanned, but I'm painting the outside of my house which has left little time for photography or scanning.
Here's a fun one (I thought). Old expired Kodak Gold 100, bought off of ebay for $.50/roll (with shipping), accidentally underexposed by two stops and push processed at the lab. All in all, the photos from the roll came out pretty decent.
Photoworks SF did it, though I'm sure any pro lab will do it for you. With all the one hour photo places shutting down (where I live at least) the pro labs aren't all that much more. Photoworks has free mailers and is pretty reasonable in price. Philadelphia Photographics will do it to for about the same price. Even though they are closer to me, I find it more convenient to do it by mail - saves me from driving into the city
positive film in B&W developer? hey that's cool :-) Did it turn out positive? or negative? If it turned out Positive, I would love to know what mixture and timing you used!
Daniel Buck wrote:
positive film in B&W developer? hey that's cool :-) Did it turn out positive? or negative? If it turned out Positive, I would love to know what mixture and timing you used!
It came out negative. Slightly flat (looked underexposed) compared to normal B&W film. 1+25 7min 10sec/min agitation.
If I do it again, I would increase dev time to 9min.
C41 and E6 films both have silver in them. They just also have dye in them. When you develop them, the silver gets developed (along with the dye) and then the silver is bleached and then fixed out of the film.
Velvia in Rodinal? Very cool, but how does that work? Velvia has no silver in it, as far as I know.....does it?
