I have been doing some black & white portrait photography of young children using open shade lighting. I have been very frustrated with finding a good film for varying degrees of light. I usually find that Plus-X is just a bit too slow (especially with small wiggly children) but Tri-X is too grainy. Any suggestions in regards to film type or choice of developing chemical would be appreciated. I am looking for as much film speed as I can get with very little grain.

-- Kari Wolf (KariWolf@msn.com), September 24, 1997

Answers

Film

I have recently tried out Ilford Delta 400 for similar reasons to yours. I like it a lot. I find it nicer than TMAX 400 in terms of grain and simplicity of use (perhaps just more forgiving of shooting/processing problems). Give it a try, or TMAX 400 if you're a meticulous processor.

-- Cindy Stokes (cstokes@creative.net), September 24, 1997.

Film & Developer

Delta 400 (EI250) in PMK pyro developer is VERY low in grain and has superb contrast range. It won't hit the wall in the top end like T-Max.

-- Michael D Fraser (mdfraser@earthlink.net), September 26, 1997.

I've heard alot of good press on Ilford's XP2 for portraiture. It essentially has no grain, it's ASA 400 and it reproduces skin tones beautifully. It's developed via the C-41 process but you print it as you would any BW film (I have printed it myself). I know alot of photographer's who are using it for their portraiture and they are very happy with it.

-- Andy Laycock (pbrlab@unixg.ubc.ca), September 29, 1997.

KODAK's CHROMOGENIC

Kodak has also released a black and white file (TMAX T400CN) which is processed in C41 chemistry. I have just tested a dozen or so rolls, metering at 400, and found the grain to be surprisingly fine and the tonal range to be excellent. The film is supposed (according to Kodak) to be pushable to 3200, but I have not tried any pushing at all.

-- Tony Doucet (tdoucet@hydro.mb.ca), October 10, 1997.

T400CN vs. XP2

I used to use a lot of XP2, and mostly use TMX/TMY these days. XP2 has a characteristic curve with a fairly long toe and prominent shoulder that starts in the mid-tones. T400CN has a curve much more like TMX/TMY - not a terribly long toe but nearly linear up into the highlights. I happen to vastly prefer this look, but studio portraiture might be better for XP2. T400CN is also a faster film than XP2 (honest EI 400 vs. EI 200 for XP2) and much finer grain. If you plan to use it above EI 800, Kodak says you must use push processing.

Dana K6JQ Dana@Source.Net

-- Dana Myers (Dana@Source.Net), October 13, 1997.

You can try developing Tri-X for nine minutes in D-76 1:1, thats one part D-76 and one part water. Rate the film at ISO 200. This should cut down on the grain. You can also try T-max 400 rated at 200 and developed in D-76 1:1 for ten and one half minutes. Tri-x rated at ISO 400 in Edwal's FG-7 with 9% sodium sulfite for six minutes should also work. T-max films are not noted for good shadow detail, unless you overexpose them, by rating the ISO lower than Kodak recommends. You may not want to use them in open shadows. There are a couple of developers developed for pushing film, such as Diafine and Acufine. I don't normally use them, however, I have had excellent results with split bath developers and there was an article in Darkroom Techniques magazine by David Vestal using one of those developers with T-Max.

-- Kenneth Williams (loftaall@email.msn.com), April 25, 1998.