Pulling Tri-X to 100

mich8261

mich8261

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I picked up a great little Brownie Flash six 20 today at a yard sale. Cleaned it up and then realized that I could load 120 film in it if I just trimmed the spool on the film. I put in a roll of Tri-X (400). Since I am probably dealing with 1/30 @ f11 I think it would wise to pull process to 100. I can't find any pull info on the Kodak site either in the Tri-X support pages or the D-76 pages (which is the developer I use). There's also no info on the massive dev chart (it shows 200 and 50 but that is for the old formulation of Tri-X).

Can anyone suggest another source of information on this?

Thanks,
 
Sorry, I can't really help except to suggest some snip tests. Just shoot a test roll of the same subject, cut into a few sections and try some different times.

BTW, I like your avatar. Reminds me of Elliot Erwitt's self portraits.
 
I would take 30% off the developing time as a starting point to test. Don't fear- I've had much success pulling films. HP5 @ 50 was a regular one for contrast compression with me for a while. Microdol-X 1:1 was the best pull deveoper I found for HP5 after a bunch of testing.
 
Lemures-Ex said:
Sorry, I can't really help except to suggest some snip tests. Just shoot a test roll of the same subject, cut into a few sections and try some different times.

BTW, I like your avatar. Reminds me of Elliot Erwitt's self portraits.
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Jared, thanks for pointing me in the direction of Elliot Erwitt. Some very interesting stuff there.
 
processing chart

processing chart

wintoid said:
Have a look here: http://www.chrisjohnsonphotographer.com/charts.shtml

These guys decided TriX 400 has a true speed of 320. From that, they have published times for N-1 and N-2. I guess N-2 is therefore equivalent to ISO80, but I am not a zoney so please verify my assumption before processing a film based on it.
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Thanks for the link Wintoid. The fact that they rate the Tri-X as being a 320 film would mean to suggest that it should be exposed at 320 and then processed according to their chart (8.5 minutes), right?

For Delta 400 there's a huge difference between their recommendation (11 minutes for 320ISO) and Ilford's which is 14 minutes for 400ISO. I guess I'll have to test this out.
 
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HC110 1:125 12min 3inv every 3min TX400 @100iso

HC110 1:125 12min 3inv every 3min TX400 @100iso

73560944.jpg
 
N-2 does not mean EI of 80. The EI is still 320 for that link. It's just that the contrast way two stops higher than "normal" and development was reduced to compensate. But it's still shot at EI 320.

30% would be a minimum to try. What developer options do you have? If you can, extend overall times with higher dilutions, then cut by closer to 40-50%, IMO.

allan
 
Kaylen, I am working with D-76, the only developer I have ever used (I am kind of new at this). I have read that the Brownie Flash Six-20 operates at 1/30 and f11 so according to sunny 16 rule and the conditions on Saturday, I was probably overexposing by 3 stops (at 400). Henry Hornenstein's book Basic B&W recommends 10-20% for one stop pull and 25-30% for two stops, but not to exceed 30%. I usually process my Tri-X @ 400, 9:45. If I reduce by 30%, that brings me down to about 6:50. There's no way for me to tell if the shutter is really 1/30, so I think I'll try the above and test a roll in a camera I can depend on.
 
Certainly, testing first is your best bet. D76 might not give you the quite the development latitude that some other developers would, but it is of course quite a flexible developer.

I didn't realize you literally had only 1 shutter and aperture option.

You will have more than enough shadow detail, that's for sure :).

Let us know how it goes.
allan
 
kaiyen said:
N-2 does not mean EI of 80. The EI is still 320 for that link. It's just that the contrast way two stops higher than "normal" and development was reduced to compensate. But it's still shot at EI 320.
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Thanks for clarifying Allan. I had a feeling my guesswork might prove to be wrong, hence the disclaimer in my post :D
 
In contrasty situations, I have shot a lot of 35mm tri-x at 100 and developed in D-76, 1:1 for I think about 5 to 5-1/2 minutes (it's been a while) at 68F. Because of the short dev. time, pre-soak film in water first to improve evenness of development. You will get pretty flat negs doing this in normal to low contrast scenes, but can probably adjust in printing/post-processing.

Why not just use a slower film? Or ND filter?

Good luck.
 
Thanks gns, I will consider your suggestion and will pre-soak for sure. This was just an impromptu project that came up after finding the great looking Kodak Brownie Flash six-20 at a yard sale and realizing that I could load 120 film in it. All I had on hand was the Tri-X. The pictures are probalby not worth the effort, but it will be fun to see anyway.
 
Oh, so you already shot the film. I didn't get that.

I would then go by the scene contrast. If it was contrasty, I would stick with the short dev time. If the scene was normal to flat, I would up the dev time accordingly. Remember, the development time will effect the highlights the most and will not have much effect on the shadows.
For normal to somewhat high contrast I would shoot tr-x at 200 and dev for 7 minutes, if that helps at all.
 
well. I got off the pot. I presoaked for a minute, freaked out when I poured out the water and saw that it was all blueish; processed in D-76 1:1 for 6:30 minutes. And I got frames - images!!! These puppies are huge, 2.25in x 3.25in I think. I have varying degrees of density on the negs which is to be expected from a camera that has only one shutter speed and one f stop. Only problem is that I don't have a scanner to do medium format. I'll have to head over to a rent-a-darkroom place.

Thanks to all those who helped me with my query.
 
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