8/12/2005

More Film

Dispite the heat - I've been out shooting a lot. The odd thing is that I picked up a roll of PLUS-X and a roll of TRI-X of all things. I also shot a roll of TMY @ 200. And Fujifilm Neopan 400 has been recommended by a few but I can't buy it in the neighborhood. Maybe on Sunday.

This could be some sort of multi- mid-life film crisis. Ah, I remember the beautiful gray tones I got from Plus-X. And - on top of all that - I actually got some good shots:

- Water main broke and they dyed the water red. So lots of people stopping on the corner with puzzled expressions as if this was some sort of conceptional art exhibit - which in a way it became. Can't say there were a bunch of HCB type of jumping over the puddle - New Yorkers mostly walk around it. But there were lots of puzzled expressions - everyone asking me if I knew what it was all about.

And then I found a stray cat wandering around through these sort of underground passages created by steps and garbage bins - and followed the cat around for about a half hour.

Even found the source of the water main break and took some welding shots. All in all - a good morning.

I think I should at least keep some variables constant - so it's either HC110B or TMAX Developer for all of them...

Oh and speaking of Tri-x and Plus-x there seems to be three types of each:
For example:
Plus-X Pan (what's that the old version from HCB days?)
Plus-X Pan Professional (Ah - you've graduated to a professional, congrats?)
And what I got: Professional Plus-X 125 (shortest development times)

I'm using time / temp. from the box it came in. The times for using HC110B are way to short for either the Tri-x of the new and improved (I hope) Plus-X.


News at noon (tomorrow).

2 comments:

Dave Beckerman said...

greg, I have a roll of tri-x washing now.
rated at 400 - they say 68F for 6.5 minutes. I did it at 6 minutes because so far everything has been coming out too dense.

I am looking for that long tonal scale I guess... with some forgiveness in the highlights.

hrtl media said...

it seems the times for HC-110(B) are not too accurate.
I hated every roll I developed with it, switching to dilution
H (1/2 of B, twice the time) gives more room to play
with time and agitation.
If you're looking for a 'long' negative, Neopan is not the
right film - it is very contrasty and shadows tend to get
blocked. I get the best results with Tri-X, for slow speeds
(400&800) I soup it in Ilford DD-X, for 1600 (which I shoot
90% of the time) I use Diafine.