Digital BW, The Print

Hi Russ,

Don't take the following as pedantic, but you shouldn't be underexposing
the film as there is a point at which you'll lose information that you
might actually want for your prints.

If I understand what you wrote about underexposing your film (rating it at
500), I think you have it backwards. I personally wouldn't set the film ISO
rating at a higher value than the manufacturer unless your processing lab
recommends it and their results bear out the practice. I haven't used T-Max
film in quite a while, but I always found it effective to derate the ISO by
about half (100 to 50, 400 to 200-320), again, to make sure the shadows got
enough exposure to register on the film.

Whatever the ISO number you finally opt to use for your meter, choose an
exposure that will preserve the parts of the scene you most want to keep.
For negative film, especially B&W, make sure your shadows get enough
exposure on the film (for example, I like to meter dark shadows and then
give it 2 stops less exposure just to make sure there's something there on
the film - underexposing might mean something like 4-5 stops less exposure
than the meter indicates which might result in blank film areas). Since
you're having the film processed at a "normal" rating, your highlights will
fall "where they may" - sometimes they'll be perfect for the desired image
contrast and sometimes they'll be too flat or too harsh. You can do a lot
with digital processing to tame this, of course, as long as you have enough
local contrast in the negative to support your intent.

With this film, you'll probably have little trouble scanning negatives that
have gotten pretty dense in the highlights, although in extreme cases you
may be forced to have multiple scans performed and then assemble a
composite yourself (think HDR techniques).

Bear in mind that this set of guidelines works opposite to what you'd want
to do with color transparency film, which has a whole different set of
challenges and rewards.

Pete

On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 12:27 AM, russmeadseattle <russmead@...>wrote:

> Ii am pulling out old film cameras to shoot black and white film to scan,
> then to digitally print. I will primarily be shooting medium format. I live
> in then land of no sun,Seattle Wa  so use tmax 400 rather than a 100 Asa
> film. I will be using a good lab to develop the film withou any push or
> pull. They provide a low level scan with developing for a reasonable price.
> I will have them do a high Rez drum scan when I have a print made. My golal
> is to have 20 by 20 prints. Ok, my question... In reading this site it
> seems like I need to under expose the film. Is this correct? And if so by
> how much? And just to make sure I get this right I would set the light
> meter for say 500 Asa for tmax 400 (not set the meter for Asa 300)
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
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