I find that sometimes 'crushing' the blacks is called for in a contrasty b/w image. I love when I can achieve inky blacks. Sometimes the highlights get blown. I haven't done b/w film in over 30-years, but from memory, seems like a developer timing issue.
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Photo of the Day November 2022
- Thread starter Hughmac
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@mollyc When I had thoughts of returning to film, I did some research on film and came across Fomapan. Seems to have a greater exposure latitude than some of the go-to films out there.
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Playing a bit more with the T4i loaner. Pulled the B&W from the RAW image after doing a massive red shift.
Canon EOS T4i camera.
Canon EOS T4i camera.
I love contrasty street photographs with (some) details lost in the shadows or crushed into blacks.
For me...that lack of information stirs imagination, letting myself (and viewers) conjure their own narrative, whatever that might be. Any narrative will do - there is no "correct" one.
Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama's photos, for example, speak to me about the possibilities.
Also... one of my favorite photo books is by photographer Kikuji Kawda and is called The Map. Pretty heavy subject matter and his high contrast images speak to that.
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Been almost 30 years since I worked with B&W films. My approach back then was to do my metering on the deep shadows. Negs are the opposite of transparencies or digital, you have to capture the detail in the shadows in order to print it. Highlights can be burned in as needed.
For 4x5 my go to developer was 2-step D-23. You had to mix this yourself, if I recall I used sodium carbonate as the second bath (might have been borax?). The purpose of the two step was that the second bath assured that the shadows were fully developed while exhausting the developer in the highlight areas and thereby compressing the highlights to some degree. Usually I ended up printing on high contrast papers and was able to show both highlight and shadow detail nicely.
FWIW I am often quite happy letting shadows go black or almost black, I do not find that nearly as detracting as blocked up highlights. In the image above that was quite deliberate, it would have been easy enough to maintain the shadow detail but I preferred this version.
I have seen Daido Moriyama's work, and it is interesting - mysterious.
the image i am struggling with is mostly because the open sky has no clouds and became the same tone as the pavement in the foreground. the actual subject of building and plants has plenty of contrast. i know that in theory i can add a filter to help with skies, but 1) i haven't gotten that far along yet and b) the yashica tlr isn't the easiest to add filter to. i'm working a bit in lr to help it.
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LR has some AI presets for skies (left hand panel) - if there is some detail in the sky these may be of use.
Exposure Time: 1/87
FNumber: 1,78
Photographic Sensitivity (ISO): 80
Lens Model: iPhone 14 Pro back dual wide camera 6.86mm f/1.78
surprisingly LR doesn't recognize the skies as skies in negatives. i have to convert it to a positive tiff for it to work, and i prefer working on the actual raw file. i'm getting better though, all the controls just work backwards on a negative. i had better luck masking in the foreground and darkening it.
Dunno if you've tried this, but AirDrop the scan of the photo to your phone (assuming you have iPhone), and play with the Shadows/Contrast controls in the Photos app edit mode. Been able to pull really great detail in shadowy zones in photos, while still maintaining a high enough contrast ratio to make the b&w super crisp.
(I also have cheated, and used my red and orange filters over my phone while shooting for b&w)
Since you do your own scanning you could try one scan for the shadows and one for the highlights then merge them together, you should get a wider dynamic range
Late August 2020 on the east coast of Sweden.
iPhone XS Max - f/1.8, iso 100, 1/100s
Definitely we are friend now, maybe because it started to snow?!
When they were little, I had my kids convinced the windmills made Earth spin.
Nikon D80 w/18-200 Nikkor VR lens. Livermore, California. Sep 2008
Just got back from the studio installing the two new prints.
