Luminous tones.

John Bragg

John Bragg

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Hi all.
I love a photo that seems to glow with bright vibrant tones whilst keeping highlights as real as possible. what is your favorite recipe for this? My current favorite is Tri-X exposed generously @ ei200 and developed in
HC-110h.
U3754I1342595919.SEQ.0.jpg
 
Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights.

There's no secret formula here. In fact HC-110 results in an up-swept curve in the highlights, whereas D-76 is more damped.

It's also possible at the print stage to use bleaching to lift the highlights and upper mids without significantly affecting the shadows - effectively expanding the tonality.

Negatives are usually never the final product and not meant to be.
 
I wasn't looking for a secret formula Clayne. You are very right though there is no alchemy at work but some folks have a favorite technique or two and that was what I was after. How about expose for the shadows, develop for the mid tones and agitate (or not) for the highlights?
 
John Bragg said:
Thanks Gary. Those are just beautiful. Thanks for the link.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. If you click on "Video" on the right side of the linked page, you can hear him talk a bit about his attraction to, and his handling of the hard bright light of California.
 
I can get it with any film, its just a matter of correct exposure and carefully tested developing times along with printing skill (or scanning quality and photoshop editing skills for those of us who scan our fllm now).
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I can get it with any film, its just a matter of correct exposure and carefully tested developing times along with printing skill (or scanning quality and photoshop editing skills for those of us who scan our fllm now).
Click to expand...

Indeed Chris. The more familiar you become with the process, the easier it is to make a swag too. ie Scientific wild ass guess. usually fine adjustment from there brings it right on target.
 
I'm not sure about Henry trying to get 'luminous tones:' he does get something with TriX and D-76. This guy lives near me and I have gone to his 'haunts' in his neighborhood, to see exactly what caught his eye (I've never met him). Here is a short video that shows his process artistically not technically. I know he has been quoted before in this thread, but I've watched them all before, and I like this one. Especially, the shooting from the car, but again I am not sure he is going for luminous tones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCvuhLKZW8
 
Someone above said 'that harsh California sun.' He/she is right, we learn to live with it (especially now with the internet and healthy development, exposure, and printing discussions). But if you want a real exercise in harsh sun move to Panama' like it did in the late 60's. Highlights blew at 8am.
 
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This is with ORWO UN 54 - a movie stock, rated at @100 iso. It has a remarkable capacity for handling midtones (bright sky can burn out bi though). Developed in Td 201 (Anchell/Troop "The film developing cook book") Split developer, A 3 min, B 3 min and constant agitation.
You can find the ORWO stuff @ Orwona.com.
 
That's nice Tom. Better still with being finished in home brewed developer. Wasn't the first Barnack Leica designed to test movie stock? The circle is complete.
 
A couple of years ago I was in a quest to find a way to tame very bright scenes in Athens, Greece. (Robert (Honus), visiting at the time from California, told me he found the light to be about 1/2-1 stop brighter than in his neck of the woods.) Remembering Wessel's technique, I tried TriX @ 100 in D76 and the tonal palette seemed to be in the ballpark. Here's a photo I kept for my reference:

El Ven 10/11 by Strangefinder, on Flickr


.
 
I've tried that 100 EI with Trix but with HC-110h. It has been a couple of years so I don't remember too well. I did something similar to the John Sexton High Contrast Scene formula. This is very dilute developer and you lose film speed so I went with 100. It worked great with high contrast scenes but was difficult to get a good image with a normal or low contrast scene.

There was a member here that had a web site called 'zone simple' where he had his times and developers. I can't find it now but it was helpful if you are interested in trying EI100.

EDIT: our members website is http://zonesimple.com/
 
It would be interesting to try this sort of thing with slower film such as FP4+ as tonally it has a lot in common with Tri-X. Perhaps rated at ei 64 as a starting point ?? The results may resemble Plus-X ?
 
...There was a member here that had a web site called 'zone simple' where he had his times and developers. I can't find it now but it was helpful if you are interested in trying EI100.

Charlie Lemay, "Zonesimple.com"

Cheers,
Giorgio
 
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