Henry Wessel/Philip Perkis, HC-110 or Rodinal

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Welcome Nicholas and thanks for that superb information! Your book Lost in the City brings back so many memories of my time there - beautiful photographs!

 

[Nicholas Sack]

Thanks for your welcome, Charles! Glad that 'Lost in the City' sparks good memories. I'm looking forward to the stimulating exchange of ideas and info on this forum.

 

[brothernature]

Here's part of his reply:

"I use Tri-X shot at 100 ISO and developed normal minus 25% in D-76, diluted 1:1. My current paper is Ilford multi-contrast Warmtone processed in Edwal TST, using a flat, cold formulation. No pre-flash, no toning."

Reviving this thread, as my great appreciation for Henry's photographs, ethos and technical approach still hasn't died.

How was he taking the kind of, for lack of a better term, "street" photos he was with such a slow film?

 

[Coldkennels]

How was he taking the kind of, for lack of a better term, "street" photos he was with such a slow film?

You'll be surprised at how slow you can go and still get good stable exposures hand-held with the right gear.

I'm not a "street" photographer by any means, nor am I really interested much in it, but I've been reading a lot of 1930s magazines this year and thinking about how slow emulsions were back then, and it got me inspired to try some of my favourite "special occasion" film - Eastman 5302, a 6 ISO duplicating film - out and about in London, just as an experiment:



Like I said, I'm not a "street guy" by any means, but this is totally possible. The photo of the two men on the step was at 1/15 and f/4.5, and the couple by the railing was 1/60 at f/4.5, both with a Summar on a Leica IIIf. I could have gone for the faster f/1.5 Sonnar, but the focusing tab + muscle memory for the Summar made life much easier.

 

[Coldkennels]

For reference, here's the films Agfa offered in 1942 along with their characteristics & intended use:



1940s Weston speeds are the easiest conversion to modern ISO ratings. 100 Weston = 160 ISO, 50 Weston = 80 ISO, 24 Weston = 40 ISO, 12 Weston = 20 ISO. This is what a lot of the early "street" photographers were using - Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz, etc. 6 ISO is extreme, but 100 ISO would have been considered pretty fast back then.

 

[Formerly presspass]

Thanks for reviving this thread. I missed it when it was first posted. I enjoy the tones Wessel got and am also a fan of James Ravilious' work documenting rural English life. He, too, worked to get open midtowns he wanted in his prints, eventually going to uncoated early lenses for his Leica. My attempts have not been anywhere near as ambitious, but I now use replenished D23, which I began using when Kodak was having one of its periodic meltdowns and good Xtol was impossible to find.