Digital BW, The Print

Robert writes:

> Your results can be hugely biased by not having
> control over developer and processing.

When I first went back to B&W film, I had a lab develop it, and the results
were so contrasty and grainy that I almost gave up.  I knew that Tri-X was
grainy, but this was horrible, and I assumed that my memories were more
optimistic than the reality.  Thank goodness I was forced to do some of my
own development for Tech Pan, and when I tried developing my own Tri-X just
to get into practice for the Tech Pan, I was amazed at the difference
between my work and the lab.  When I developed it myself, it was a zillion
times smoother, with much finer grain.  That convinced me to go back to B&W.

Apparently the lab uses an Ilford chemistry optimized for high speed (two
minutes, I think).  They have it balanced to match their printing process,
so the prints from their development look okay (at least at snapshot size).
But the negatives are very contrasty and grainy compared to developing the
film more slowly in a properly-matched developer for the film.  Worlds
apart!

Sometimes I wonder if this is also true for color, but color is such a pain
that I cannot really afford try doing it myself.