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Larry Francis |
8:36 21 Aug 04 |
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Larry Francis |
19:08 20 Aug 04 |
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Larry Francis |
13:24 20 Aug 04 |
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Phil Davis |
17:11 20 Aug 04 |
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Jim Norman |
13:56 14 Aug 04 |
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Phil Davis |
17:49 14 Aug 04 |
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Alan Vlach |
8:16 10 Aug 04 |
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Hope you can help me. I am trying to get better control over my film exposure and development. I've been photgraphing using the zone system for years and have gotten reasonably good negs, but have always felt zone selection is somewhat arbitrary and the negs have not been as consistent as I would like. I recently did film tests on Tri-X from Fred Newman. He suggested Ilford DDX as a developer. I also purchased expo-dev for use with the test results. My original dilution was 1:6, but the tests were very contrasty and there was no room for minus development. I tested again with a dilution of 1:15. Film speed came out consistently between 250 and 320. Time for SBR 7 is 8 minutes. I started shooting with this information and my negatives came out heavy and flat. I went to a workshop where we did a lot of shooting and the instructor agreed that the negatives didn't look right - overexposed and underdeveloped. So I upped the dilution to 1:9 and got printable negatives but still somewhat heavy and flat.
When I got home I started some more tests. I have a test board I got from George DeWolfe that has five tones that meter one EV (zone) apart. I set it up, metered, extered the info into expo-dev and made several exposures of Zones I-V and then V-IX. I also checked my shutter speeds and they are right on the money.
I developed the film in the DDX at both 1:15 and 1:9.
The results were not good. Zone I should have been about .10 above film base + fog but was .27 and .25 respectively. Zone IX was 1.60 and 1.23. I reshot the negatives to be sure of the exposures and developed again with the same results.
I had previously run these tests on HC110 so I developed a set of the extra negs at a dilution of 1:63 in HC110. The results were within a few thousanths of the tests I ran a few years ago. Zone I was .08 and Zone IX was 1.51.
I've talked to Fred and he doesn't understand what could be going on. He doesn't deal much with the zone system so we aren't communicating very well there. I can't easily get out to Arizona to work with him.
Aren't zone I and Dmin basically the same and shouldn't they be around .1 over film base + fog?
Where do I go from here? Since I didn't expose the negatives used in the BTZS tests I'm wondering if that could be a factor. My latest results suggest a film speed greater than 320 with this film developer combination. They also suggest higher dilutions or longer times than were determined by the BTZS tests.
I love the expo-dev concept and like having a record of exposures on the palm. I am willing to do more tests, but need some direction.
Thanks
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Phil Davis |
12:41 10 Aug 04 |
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Don Bryant |
6:38 22 Jul 04 |
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Phil Davis |
7:06 22 Jul 04 |
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