B/W film for wedding suggestions?

W

wblanchard

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My Wife is flying to Vegas for a friends wedding. She has no idea where it's being held, but understands it will be indoors. She wants to take my Hexar AF and shoot some candids. She doesn't want to use flash and asked me to recommend a b/w film to use. I've suggested Tmax 3200, Neopan 1600, or Delta 3200.

Anyone been in a situation like this? 😛
 
I have seen some great results using all 3 of those films 9other photographers, not mine), so any of them would do.

The only B&W I have used at a wedding was a roll of C-41 at a friends. Other than that I have used colour or digital.

Heath
 
Heath said:
I have seen some great results using all 3 of those films 9other photographers, not mine), so any of them would do.

The only B&W I have used at a wedding was a roll of C-41 at a friends. Other than that I have used colour or digital.

Heath
Click to expand...

I'm partial to Neopan because I always get good results. But TriX gives you that classic look. Kate still can't believe she can shoot without a flash, but I'm telling her she can with high speed film...but she still doubts it. 😀 i'm thinking she can shoot it handheld f/2.0 at 1/30 sec or so with the Hexar Lens.
 
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I would shoot Tri-X rated at 1600 for the high contrast indoor stuff and 1250 for everything else. Develop in Diafine. As long as you develop in Diafine, you can even mix the ISO settings on the same roll of film.

Tom
 
T_om said:
I would shoot Tri-X rated at 1600 for the high contrast indoor stuff and 1250 for everything else. Develop in Diafine. As long as you develop in Diafine, you can even mix the ISO settings on the same roll of film.

Tom
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I didn't know you could mix the iso settings on the same roll...*please tell me i'm not the only one on this forum that didn't know that! :bang: *
 
wblanchard said:
I didn't know you could mix the iso settings on the same roll...*please tell me i'm not the only one on this forum that didn't know that! :bang: *
Click to expand...


You left out the major caveat... You MUST use Diafine (or some other 'develop to extinction' type developer.)

Changing ISO's on the fly is a pretty standard way of compensating for Diafine's low contrast characteristics in flat lighting. I usually do not actually change the ISO setting on my camera or meter, just give about a half to a whole stop more exposure in flat lighting. Does the same thing. After doing this for a while, it becomes second nature.

Actually, since I am now using Photoshop on all my B&W stuff, it is not really very important anymore to bother doing this. I would probably shoot the whole thing at 1600, still develop in Diafine, and not worry about contrast.

Tom
 
rover said:
T_om is our Diafine Jedi Master. I have mixed TriX as he states and it definitely works with out a problem.
Click to expand...
He would make a good Ben Kenobi with a Jedi robe. 😀
Did the TriX turn out nice for you?
 
Delta is the fastest at around ISO 1250 in Ilford DDX or Microphen or Paterson FX50 (or possibly Diafine -- I've never used it); tonality is great at 2000-3200 and deteriorates thereafter.

If I had the choice I wouldn't go near a grossly pushed ISO 400 film such as Tri-X or Ilford HP5 at EI 1600 but that's a personal opinion.

Cheers,

Roger
 
I've used Neopan 1600 both at night and daytime and it worked well developed in XTOL. Problem for daytime use of a really fast film is that you generally have to use small apertures so DOF effects are minimal. 🙁

The wedding photog I most admire (Jeff Ascough) uses the chromogenic film Neopan 400CN. So you might want to think about a 400ASA C-41 chromogenic as suggested above by Evgeny.

 
Allow me to agree with the Tri-X@1600 in Diafine suggestion as well. It's an amazing combination that is excellent for scanning. The threads rover points to give all the details.

William
 
I agree with Evgeny. The C-41 B&W films perform very well when rated ~1000. Though if you want to soup your own, tri-x in Diafine at 1250 also works. I've tried both of these combos indoors without flash and still haven't decided which I like better.
 
I'd go with T-Max 3200 rated at ISO 1600 and with the development pulled about 15% in T-Max developer. I used that combination a lot back when I shot film.

Cheers,

Sean
 
Allow me to also chime in about Tri-X rated @ 1600 developed w/Diafine; delicious.

Now, there was another thread elsewhere (too lazy and run down with a bug right now to look) where there were some great examples of TJ-Max (my pet name for T-Max) I think it was TMY --that'd be TMax 400-- rated at 3200, and developed in (ready?) Rodinal 1+50, for 33 minutes, gentle agitation every minute. Yep, 33 minutes.

So, you've got options: Neopan 1600 at a premium; Tri-X @ 1600 developed in Diafine (which takes about six minutes; three in A and three in B); TJ-Max 400 @ 3200 with Rodinal 1+50; or rather harsh grain with chromogenic B&W films rated at 800 or 1000 (personally, I think 800 is too much already).

In the end, it's your wife's call. 😉
 
Peter, Mr Ascough is brilliant, simply brilliant. I'm speechless at his work. In a venue landmined with cliches, he dances above ground. Thanks for the link.
 
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