Shoot mostly Tri-X, I'm blowing out

[kshapero]

Shoot mostly Tri-X, I'm blowing out my whites and light colors in the Florida sun. Would an ND filter, say +2 help? Or should I just overexposure +2?

 

[Ororaro]

Just go Plus-x.

 

[kshapero]

Just go Plus-x.

I would but I like having the 400 asa ready for low light or indoors.

 

[rogue_designer]

what developer? a compensating dev might get the contrast back in control.

If you're metering and blowing out, adjusting with an ND will have you metering the same, you'll still blow out. You could deliberately underexpose and process the same, but you might lose shadows...

Are they totally gone? or just not showing in scans or prints? Its pretty hard to totally block up TriX... Do you have a densitometer?

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

I would cut development time or underexpose by perhaps a stop. Waht are you rating it at for normal development.I'm not sure if it's relevant but i used to develop TX rated @250 for 11 mins in PMK PYRO instead of the recommended time of around 14 - i've now rated it @400 and kept to 11 mins to reduce the contrast of the recent film stock. When i look back at my notes the rating of 250 came from film stock of 1997!

 

[michaelging]

If you are blowing out the highlights, you do not want to do a +2 exposure unless you are cutting back on your developement. I have shot may 10's of thousands of rolls of Trix, in Arizona sun, which is about the same as Florida ,but with out the nice clouds. If you are shooting in summer light , try shooting your tri-x at asa 200, or 1/1000 at 5.6 or f8, then develop the film in D76 , 1 to 1, at 68 degrees for 8 min. You will have a beautiful neg that will scan or print with a full tonal range.

 

[bibimbap]

I'm also shooting Tri-X in Arizona (no where near 10,000 rolls!) but improved things by cutting the developer concentration in HALF compared to what Kodak reccommends in their spec sheet. In my case the developer is HC-110 ...

 

[sienarot]

I second the idea of cutting back on the developer concentration. Perhaps agitating less may help as well.

 

[RayPA]

I shoot in the California sun with TriX at 400 in D76 1:1. You can hold quite a bit. If you're exposing correctly and still getting too much contrast, then try a split D76 (compensating developer). It works really well. The other option reminds me of Henny Youngman and the guy who went to the doctor and said, "Doc it hurts when I do this." The toughest time to shoot is roughly between 10 and 2, and in FLA, AZ, CA and other bright spots you can extend that later end until 4 in the summer monrhs. Check your metering and development, but you should be able to work with TriX.

🙂

 

[John Bragg]

Sounds like plain over-agitation. Try HC-110 at dilution H and minimal shaking of the tank combined. see the link you should find it useful.

Regards, John.


http://www.dragonsgate.net/mbell/leica/hc110.html

 

[iml]

I would either shoot it at 200, or use a dark orange filter, or both.

Ian

 

[Ronald M]

Blown highlight are from overexposure or overdevelopment.

cut developer time or dilute it or reduce agitation to once per minute.

You really need to run some 6 exposure tests and print them cutting the development time until it works.

 

[kshapero]

Thanks to all for the comments. I think I got it. Anyway, I am off to Boston and the Berkshires for a week. Change of scenery.