Years ago I developed N1600 with ID-11, and tried it also with solvent developers when hoping less grain (didn't like it!) but never was its grain close to this... I guess several factors helped in the same direction (although precisely I wanted grain...) Maybe as color negative, avoiding underexposure helps for finer grain. I believe it's 640 for most developers I used on it before, but as I use a dark yellow filter (1 ½ stops), I metered handheld 2 stops below, at 160, thinking of some Rodinal speed loss too... As it was midday with direct sun, and the subject was in the shadows but surrounded by light, the scene's tough contrast made it “one of those”... So I shot starting on metering, 1/500 f/11, and opening by half stops, shot until reaching metering in the shadows, 1/250 f/8. Five shots.
My contacts (near pure black film base) showed #4 was the best exposed frame for the given development. That shot was 1/250 f/8 ½, and that's 1 ½ stops more than 160, near ISO64! This means that the supercontrasty by nature N1600 can hold a mixed scene with a wild exposure and a short development. No big news as a concept, but what's unexpected (to me) is that even that delicate film could do it, and with Rodinal, and with almost no grain... Then, developing:
It was 1+50 for 6 minutes, 20ºC, with 5 gentle invertions first, and 5 more in the middle (minute 3). No more.
Maybe it's not that strange, and any film would react the same way... Pulling is a real thing, at least, unlike pushing...
