Film & Processing

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.

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.

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.

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.