Digital BW, The Print

Mark

What you say can be true and wrong at the same time. I've been a grain
aficionado (though I throw it to the wind for some of what I do), so some of
my work is on fast or grainy 35mm film, printed 16x20. Subtle grain
differences/characteristics are plainly visible if you want to look for
them. to my eyes, the difference between straight D-76, or the dilute
Rodinol I use matters to me. One has smooth "mushy" grain, the other sharp
acutance. Other eyes wouldn't notice. For med format work, or smaller
prints, even I probably wouldn't see it.

Todd

> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Todd Flashner
> <tflash@e...> wrote:
>> Mark,
>> Have you tried rating it at ASA 200 or less? In general,
> overexposure of the
>> chromogenic BW films leads to finer grain.
> 
> 
> I am CERTAINLY not trying to start some long technical
> discussion here. But that whole "modify this to change the grain"
> thing has just never proven that true to me.
> 
> People used to tell me, "Oh, just push the Tri-X four minutes in
> the soup to get chunkier grain". I guess you could see it some,
> but it just never made that much difference to me, where I
> actually saw it in the print.
> 
> I'm not a chemist, but to me, the grain is just going to develop out
> to whatever it's going to develop out to -- it seems predetermined
> and unalterable. 
> 
> Maybe the APPEARANCE of grain -- maybe there's something to
> that. But grain is grain - a 400 film is going to have consistent
> grain, no matter how you rate it.
> 
> A friend recently tested Ilford XP2, and rated it from 50 all the way
> to 1600, and yes, the 1600 frame was "grainier" looking, but I
> think it was more to do that the frame was radically
> underexposed, and he also had to apply a steeper curve to get it
> to look right.
> 
> I've been shooting for 22 years, and I've always wondered the
> truth about alot of this grain stuff. To me, a lot of it is
> misinformation, wives tales, and myth.
> 
> God knows how long I've always wanted to say that to
> somebody...a weight has been lifted.
> 
> Mark Tucker
> http://marktucker.com/