Old look ? New Look ?

[srtiwari]

As I try out and read about B&W films, developing etc., I frequently come across references to "Old style" film, " a more modern look " etc. Can someone please explain these and with some examples . if possible ? I personally like the look of wide tonality, and a smooth, creamy texture. Where does that fit in ? And what film+developer combo might best approach that ?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Subhash,

There are two separate questions here: film technology, and look.

Traditional-technology films (FP4, HP5, Tri-X, etc.) films have roughly cubic crystals of widely varying sizes. 'New-technology' films (Delta, T-Max, etc) are much closer to monosize and the crystals are a different shape. Delta and T-Max are somewhat different technologies, incidentally, though both produce flattish crystals.

Monosize or monodisperse emulsions can be faster for a given grain size, or finer grained for a given speed, but have less exposure latitude, a smaller developer repertoire, and poorer tolerance for over- and under-development. They also differ in tonality. They're a lot better than they used to be -- the new TMY is a vast improvement over the old -- but many still prefer the flexibility and look of old-technology films.

'Look' is another matter. Some films re-create the tonality of the past. Others don't. It's very subjective and it's also affected by developer choice, development regime, camera lens, format and paper choice.

Cheers,

Roger.

 

[lZr]

You can see the agged and old-newspaper fashioned version of my downtown shootout

 

[oscroft]

Can you expand a bit on why the "roughly cubic crystals of widely varying sizes" produce more latitude

My thought on that is that larger grain produces higher speed (it takes less light to activate a single larger crystal than several smaller ones, so you end up with more silver in the same area for less light). And so a wider range of grain sizes will give greater latitude, since not all spots on the film are activated to the same extent by the same amount of light. Does that make sense?