I've been refining my B&W reversal techniques over the past few months.  I'm curious to know if any of the other MF3D folks shoot B&W at all.  If so, what is your favorite film?  Subject matter?  Where have you found that it works well and where does it not work at all?  ;-)

Best,
Aaron

Aaron,

Search the list for references to Ilford Delta-100.  It's my favorite black and white film for MF3D (reversal processed at www.dr5.com).

Delta-100 has tremendous image latitude in the dr5 chemistry - it's great for contrasty scenes where the Velvia blocks the shadows horribly and even Provia has a hard time.  Sunsets are amazing - you can actually see a lot of detail in backlit subjects while clouds very close to the sun are still rendered without being blown to pure white.  I've got one black and white sunset that really grabs people, it's so rich with detail, a thousand shades of grey, just a little bit of deep black and a pure white sun.  Backlit forest floor scenes are great, too - spattered light isn't blown out and yet the shadows on the near side of trees and rocks are still open.  To darken blue skies behind white clouds, try a yellow-orange filter.

Mike Davis

At 11:39 PM 7/26/2008, you wrote:

I've been refining my B&W reversal techniques over the past few months.  I'm curious to know if any of the other MF3D folks shoot B&W at all.  If so, what is your favorite film?  Subject matter?  Where have you found that it works well and where does it not work at all?  ;-)

Best,
Aaron

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, Aaron Muderick wrote:

>
> I've been refining my B&W reversal techniques over the past few months.
> I'm curious to know if any of the other MF3D folks shoot B&W at all. If
> so, what is your favorite film? Subject matter? Where have you found
> that it works well and where does it not work at all? ;-)
>
> Best,
> Aaron
>

Hi Aaron!

Yes, of course, Black and white slides are great! I still shoot with Agfa Scala 200x. It is still
available in Berlin/Germany and there is also a photo service a few blocks away, that is
developing the film with the original Agfa Scala service!
But I don`t know if everybody has the oportunity to shoot with Agfa Scala. It´s usually
hard to get in other countries! If you can get it and have the chance to get it developed,
take the chance! The pictures are absolutely GREAT!!!

Kind regards, Chris

Aaron writes:

> I've been refining my B&W reversal techniques over the past few months.
> I'm curious to know if any of the other MF3D folks shoot B&W at all.

Yes.

> what is your favorite film?

Unfortunately my favorite film is no longer avilable. It was Kodak Tech
Pan 2415. A truly magnificent film with undetectable grain.

Mike Davis sent a short post, but he has so much more to say. I hope he
doesn't mind me reposting something of his I have saved as I don't think
anyone else has done the reasearch he has done:

> I researched the dr5 process extensively about four years ago and have
> continued to use David Wood's services since then. I just shot four rolls
> of Delta 100 for the dr5 process last weekend.
>
> About four years ago, I set up my tripod in front of an abandoned farm
> house in St. Jo, Texas, about 50 miles north of where I live and made 220
> exposures (110 stereo views, 22 rolls of 120-format) of that one subject,
> using 5 different B&W films for dr5 processing, totalling 200 exposures
> and two rolls of Provia 100F to have as a color reference. Bracketing
> exposures at -1, -1/2, 0, +1/2 and +1, with the light alternating between
> harsh and diffuse as clouds passed by overhead all day long, by the end of
> the day, for each film, I had managed to shoot all five brackets in both
> types of light for each film type for two different dr5 processing times.
>
> These are the B&W films I tested under dr5:
>
> Kodak Tech Pan
> Ilford PanF+
> Iford Delta 100
> Ilford FP4+
> Kodak TXP
>
> Here's the result of that initial testing, with some refinements applied
> over the past four years:
>
> My preference is to shoot Delta-100 when the subject will mask its barely
> detectable grain. If grain will be a problem, shoot with TechPan, but
> only if the ambient light and subject motion will support the slow speed.
> Use Pan-F otherwise.
>
> Ilford Delta-100:
> Process dr5 Pushing to ISO 80 from dr5's Normal rating of 64, but shoot it
> at ISO 100.
>
> Kodak TechPan:
> Process dr5 Pulling to ISO 12 from dr5's Normal rating of 25, but shoot it
> at ISO 16.
>
> Ilford Pan-F:
> Process dr5 Normal at ISO 32 and shoot it at ISO 32.
>
> Ilford Delta-100 has tremendous tonality. This is what David Wood
> sometimes calls "smoothness": lots of intermediate greys between pure
> black and pure white, instead of just a few greys that leave the image
> looking "stepped".) Getting this right, means seeing detail in the
> shadows - something you don't get with Tech Pan, until you pull it down to
> very low ISO settings. Delta-100 has a spectacular image latitude of
> 9-stops, in addition to tremendous exposure latitude. (Image latitude is
> the luminance range seen in the final image - in this case, within the
> reversal chrome. Exposure latitude is a measure of the film's tolerance
> for incorrect exposure relative to an intended development time.) In
> short, I have found that it's nearly impossible to overexpose Delta-100
> for the dr5 process. This doesn't mean you should be sloppy with it -
> that would be a travesty, because the shadow detail in properly exposed
> Delta-100 under dr5 processing is stunning. Bring on the harshest light -
> Delta-100 in dr5 can handle it. The shadows are completely unlocked - you
> can see plenty of texture and detail everywhere. An incident meter is
> ideal for use with this film, by the way. Just hold the meter (set to ISO
> 100) out in front of the camera and aim the dome toward the front of the
> lens (not at the light source).
>
> Kodak Tech-Pan is unavailable, but some people still have stockpiles. I
> have to pull it all the way down to 16 to get the contrast lowered
> sufficiently to open the shadows. If you like deep, rich blacks, and that
> famous lack of grain, look for subjects that are perfectly motionless in
> good light. Unlike Delta-100, Tech-Pan has very little exposure latitude
> - much more like Velvia than a black and white negative film, in this
> regard.
>
> Iflord Pan-F's grain is finer than Delta-100's, though certainly not as
> good as Tech-Pan's, but to my eyes, Pan-F just doesn't have the "punch" of
> Delta 100. It's tones just look kind of "flat" to me. I've never
> bothered to experiment with pushing it, to bring up the contrast, because
> doing so would only increase the grain and I'm already getting what I want
> with Delta-100, shooting it at ISO 100. So, for me, Pan-F remains the
> finer-grained, slower, "flatter-looking" alternative to Delta-100 when
> there's a lot of open sky (where a finer grain is wanted) or super harsh
> light (where a low-contrast film like Pan-F can shine).
>
> Here is his somewhat confusing order sheet that you must print, fill out,
> and enclose when you mail him your unprocessed film:
>
> http://www.dr5.com/writeup.pdf
>
> I specify the following on his order form:
>
> Number of rolls (to the left of "Film Type"
> Film type: Delta 100
> Exposed ISO: 80 (even though I shoot at 100)
> DEV-1 Neutral (not the Sepia toning he offers)
> Check marks for "No Clip", "120", and "Sleeved-uncut"
>
> I would dearly like to see David Wood's business prosper, as he is the
> only guy out there offering this service. David also offers contact
> dupes made with the same film type as your originals. (He probably can't
> do this for TechPan unless we can provide him with the unexposed film.)

Thanks,

David W. Kesner
Boise, Idaho, USA

David,

At 12:21 PM 7/27/2008, you wrote:

>Mike Davis sent a short post, but he has so much more to say. I hope he
>doesn't mind me reposting something of his I have saved as I don't think
>anyone else has done the reasearch he has done:

I was hoping Aaron could find that information by searching the
list. Thanks for reposting it.

Mike