I agree wholeheartedly with Al here. The KISS rule makes life so much smoother!
If you are going to scan your negs, you probably will find that you have to adjust your processing. I have find that if I shoot and soup for wet darkroom I need to "tweak" the negs in the scanning process. Just a little bit more contrast is usually all it takes (which is good as that is all I know how to do).
Your establishing your own filmspeed and processing times does require some "wasted" film. We all do it differently and my negs dont look like anyone elses, but they work.
Some time ago a bunch of us were sitting around talking about this. We were bl/w shooters and know each others stuff well, having printed each others negatives for exihibitions and shows. Someone piped up "OK, does anyone have a perfectly exposed, standard negative". Dead silence ensued - and then hysterical laughter "What the hell is a perfect negative" We have all seen those "How To" books and between us there are probably 20-30 000 rolls on file. Not one of us could lay hand on something that even came close to those illustrated "perfect" negatives!
Among the great printers, it is not that perfect negative that counts, it is how well they could print what they considered the best shot. Gene Smith was well known for producing impossible negatives and some of the best prints you will ever see. If you look at Ralph Gibson's negatives, the "how to" book's would discard them as mistakes, yet his prints are stunning.
The trick is to establish a style commensurate with your shooting and printing that will give you what you want. Also, it all depends on what you are shooting - a "street" shooters rquirements are different from a landscape photographer or portrait shooter.
My rule with a new film stock is to shoot it as I would my reference film (Tri X @400asa) and run that together with the TriX. Looking at the negatives I usually can extrapolate the speed it shows and the "range". Next roll is then shot at what I think is right (still with the same developer -usually a D76 or similar) and check again. The trick is to shoot those rolls fast - set a day aside for it and turn off phones and thell the family that once you have taken pictures of them indoors, outdoors in the shade and in sunlight you dont wont to be disturbed. Now set out with one camera, one lens and at least 5 rolls of film.
So the bystanders will think you are nuts, but shoot everything! High contrast (that black car with a chrome grill in bright sunlight), the steps on an old building in deep shade - well you get the idea. Keep it to an area where you can come back and shoot more or less the same thing again with rolls 2/3/4/5.
Once you have five rolls with a variety of stuff on it, go home and soup them. As Al suggested, do roll 1 20% less developer, roll 2 10%, roll 3 what you thought it should be, 4 and 5 +10% and +20%.
Now, if you are scanning, pick the similar subjects from each roll and scan them - look and see which are corresponding to your view and taste.
You might be surprised in several ways. Once what you thought was the right way, might not be your right way and by forcing yourself to shoot things -just for exposure and testing -you will probably find some pictures that are worthwhile that you never would have taken otherwise.
The trick is not to change anything except the developing and your "sense" of exposure. The camera and lens stays the same throughout.
File away the negatives and mark the files with the variables and one day when you decide that scanning is not all there is and you get back into darkroom again - you know what you need to do for a print.
We live close to a bech (across the road) and I probably have between 10-15 000 negatives of the trees, the sand piles, the driftwood, people and dogs etc among my "tests". Great excuse too for a walk on the beach and a coffee at the cafe'. Oh, I also have pictures of the people behind the counter of the cafe (f2 @1/60 with XX and I usually go to 2.8 with TriX)! They know me and just ignore the camera - the dogs on the patio are even better, a dog-biscuit and they will pose happily (stop down a 1/2 stop for Bella -a black lab and open up 1 stop for the white terrier and keep the camera well back from Hero, a Great Dane with an amazingly long tongue and a penchant for dragging it across the front element of the lens!).
Photography should be fun and if you dont have to make a living from it, it is even better. being obsessed by it is OK too!
