Grain is good.

[John Bragg]

I spent a long fruitless time in my early formative years of developing my own film, trying at all cost to minimise grain. It took a while to dawn on me that actually, the presence of grain in a mono film image is a good thing. I dont mean golfballs or giant hailstone like grain, but good honest natural grain that makes up the film emulsion and denotes its character. For me it adds to the charm and makes for a biting sharpness that is absent when film is souped in a grain reducing developer. I think it is why I prefer Tri-x to Tmax and HP5+ to Delta 400. Some films are too smooth for my taste and tonally lacking compared to cubic grained emulsions. I like a fair degree of bite and micro contrast and I just dont see it in the tabular emulsions. Thoughts on this anyone ?

 

[photomoof]

For 20+ years I used nothing but Tri-X @ 800, I never gave grain a thought. I was only interested in the photos.

 

[Keith]

Originally I used Xtol with whatever black and white film I was using because I got minimal grain .... then I switched to Rodinal, got plenty of grain but really liked the look far better than with the Kodak developer.

 

[John Bragg]

Originally I used Xtol with whatever black and white film I was using because I got minimal grain .... then I switched to Rodinal, got plenty of grain but really liked the look far better than with the Kodak developer.

I concur Keith. It is the overall look that matters. I tried Rodinal, but settled on HC-110.

 

[Bill Clark]

Another way to look at it is the larger the print the more grain shows especially the closer you get to catch a view!

With some prints I like the grain while others not so much.

 

[Lauffray]

I've always loved a little grain, never understood the appeal of grainless aesthetics (whether film or digital).

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Yep. Same with me. T-MAX and Delta as boring and flat as most of digital BW for my taste. Not enough "structure". Even dirt cheap Polypan F gives me more interesting prints under enlarger.
But if I ever go with Minox, I might use this films again
Can't afford TRI-X, enjoying HP5+ and recently discovered FP4+ as lovely "classic" film.
I like HC-110 as main developer with switching to Rodinal once in a while. D-76 gives nice results, but it leaves my reels dirty, XTOL is too neutral.

 

[kiss-o-matic]

I've found Rodinal can bring it out a bit too much at times. For example, with TriX. I usually use DDX for my 400 films and Rodinal w/ the slower ones. I'm far more worried about contrast than grain though.

 

[f16sunshine]

I like fine grain
I like gritty strong grain.

I like grain so you could sand a hardwood floor with yor negatives

Often posted and still my favorite. Tri-x/Rodinal