First Timer Developing--Now The Questions!

[wjlapier]

So, I succesfully developed my first roll of film today. A little info first then a question or two maybe..

Tmax 100 Pro film.

Bath at 68-70 degrees F.

D76 12 min per manuf rec--agitate 10 secs per minute.

H2O for Stop--agitate for 30secs

Fixer 9.5 minutes per manuf rec--agitate 20 secs per minute.

Hypo Clean agitate 1-2 minutes per manuf rec. Rinse with water 5 minutes.

Photo flo 30 secs drain and hang and dry in bathroom.

Without going into more detail, I easily got the film on a reel and in a plastic tank ( I couldn't figure out the SS during practice ) and followed all instructions by manuf and stuff I read on the web. I had a great time and will be looking forward to doing more. Look at the pics and tell me if they are typical of what I wrote above. I used a Coolscan V with Vuescan with everything default as possible. Saved for archive and resized in PS to 800 long. Only resized in PS.

I'd like to see more contrast--more black, or darker gray. I can make adjustments in PS to my liking, but I'm wondering if I can do something in the developing stage to get what I want. I have a bunch of Tmax 100 Pro so I'd like to keep using it until gone, so I'll consider suggestions for other film and chems, but for now I want to stick with what I have and improve if I can.

Questions:

can I achieve more contrast and more blacks and darker grays using the chems and film I have? What must I do? I suppose I could add another developer, which should I add to get the desired look I mentioned?

Oh, I shot with a M3 and Nikkor 5cm/2. Love the camera and lens.

 

[wjlapier]

I had one more pic

 

[drewbarb]

Your results look good- especially for a first effort! If you want darker blacks, you should do it in post, either in the darkroom in printing, or digitally- NOT in your negatives. If you tweak your processing to get darker blacks in your positives, you'll be losing detail in your negatives. Generally speaking, this is the opposite of what you want. There is always an interpretation to get from a negative original to a positive, either print or digital image. Traditionally this was what good printing was all about. For those working in the computer, tweaking your levels and curves to get the best tonal range is the best way to go.

One other note: 9.5 minutes is too long to fix. It won't really hurt, but it's unnecessary. Four or five minutes should be sufficient. The rule of thumb is to take the minimum clearing time and double (or triple) it. More time than that is just wasted; fixing for too long can even burn out your highlight detail.

Anyway, congratulations, and keep going the way you are!

 

[ChrisN]

Your deveoping looks ok, but you need to watch your histogram when scanning to avoid the highlights running off the right end of the scale.

I've taken the liberty of copying one of your images and reducing the exposure almost two stops (in Lightroom). Is this closer to the look you wanted?

 

[wjlapier]

Thanx for the comments and suggestions. I did a little post on the picture to show kind of what I was hoping to achieve. So, if this isn't possible with developing negatives, then I'm fine with that. I don't mind doing some post for images I plan to print of put up on a website to share. I never did any darkroom work so I'm unfamiliar with how you'd add contrast and darken grays from a negative.

Now that I just looked at the uploaded picture that compares the two it looks different than it did before I uploaded. Oh well, I think you get the idea.

 

[ChrisN]

You can vary the density of your negs by varying the processing time, but this has to be done in association with varying your exposure too at the time of capture. And of course you can use (eg) a yellow or red filter to increase contrast.

Have a read of this article (http://theonlinephotographer.com/the_online_photographer/a_simple_system.html) which will give you an outline of how to tackle the exposure and developing part of the equation.