Newbie Questions

<p>I'm a color bigot (Fuji Velvia, Provia) who is going to try my hand at B&W through my old manual focus 35mm and medium format gear.</p>

<p>I'd prefer:<br>

1) FILM: A film that a lab will process, scan and (possibly) print. If the film in question usually requires a filter for an even exposure, which filter is recommended. I'd prefer to avoid C-41 (B&W as if it were a color film). I did that once, and the results were poor, perhaps due to my choice of the lab.<br>

2) LATITUDE: A film that has good exposure latitude. I like my color exposures to have narrow latitude. But one of the reasons I'd like to go to B&W is to explore a broader range of gray scale within an exposure.<br>

3) GRAIN: Relatively fine grain. I'm new to this, so my standards will not be as high as y'alls. But I would like a relatively smooth looking end-product.<br>

4) LAB: A recommended lab who will do the work. I have my color slides done through North Coast Photographic Services in Carlsbad, CA, and they do nice work. If you have had good luck with them, I'll stay there. If there are superior labs for B&W, please advise.</p>

<p>Much of this may have been covered elsewhere at Photo.net, but my preliminary searches are giving me too much chaff and not enough wheat. Feel free to just give me URLs to the good stuff that has already been discussed.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Whoopsie! </p>

<p>First, thanks for your consideration and guidance. Plus!:</p>

<p>5) SPEED: It would be nice to shoot at ASA 200+. 400 would be ideal, I think. A couple of additional stops would keep me productive in lower light where my ASA 100 Provia totally gives up. :-)</p>

 

<p>Brad<br>

North Coast is an excellent B &W lab as well. If you wish to discuss films and processing with me please call 310 538 9530.<br>

Lowell Huff</p>

<p>I'd say that Ilford XP-2 would meet essentially every one of your criteria, except that is a C-41 process film.<br>

It's tough to get B&W, regular-developer films done these days, around my neighborhood anyhow.<br>

Develop-it-yourself and scan is what I do when I shoot regular B&W films.<br>

Digital conversion of color negative to B&W is both easy and also allows flexibility of unparallelled variety compared to what you can do in post processing in B&W. Aside from a slight 'blue' shade problem, Ektar 100 is superb.</p>

<p>JDM: Thanks for the advice. I'll take a look at XP-2. My prejudice against C-41 B&W is due to a single bad experience back in the late '90s / early 2000s. I trust your advice based on the images you post in CMC.</p>

<p>Neutral grey food and skin tones are the hardest to get right during color printing. Thats why the C41 BW on RA4 paper frequently looks odd. OTOH: XP2 prints pretty nice on conventional silver paper and is probably easier to scan. I'd only go for silver film if I wanted to process it myself or pay somebody else arms & legs to do it right (or at all). I tried C41 once at home and goofed it up.<br>

Fine grain silver films would be TMY & Delta 400, maybe there is a less expensive East European T-crystal 200 too. - I would go with the big brands for MF & smaller.<br>

Not sure about filters; I think orange is handy to render sky darker than clouds. - Would be my 1st to buy for a new lens. </p>

HP5 and a good lab like theDarkroom.com, Swann,

or the Ilford processing.

And when you want to slow it down - FP4

<p>My experiences with chromogenic (C41) B&W films have been quite good, and the lab my rolls get sent to is just one of those 'mass production' labs. The prints have colour casts, and the scans they deliver are rubbish (but also with colour) - but the negatives are fine. I scan them myself at home, and get absolutely fine photos that way.<br>

Kodak BW400CN shot at ISO400 left me a bit ho-hum; treating it as ISO200, I liked its results a lot better. Ilford XP2 no issues whatsoever. If I am not mistaken, Kodak ended production of BW400CN anyway, so XP2 is the only choice remaining in this sense.</p>

<p>I just started developing B&W at home (complete and utter newbie - but B&W development is unavailable here otherwise), and I am surprised that it is quite a bit easier than I expected it to be. The joy of seeing the negatives coming out of the tank is just really really nice, and for me adds a dimension.<br>

That said, scanned, the grain of the B&W films I use is visibly different from the C41 films - looking at my scans. From your post, I think you might like the look of chromogenic films better, so I'd start with XP2 and see how that works for you. Fine grain and ISO400 do not go great together, but XP2 and BW400CN are really quite smooth in my (limited) experience.</p>

<p>C41 color films have a small gamma (contrast) which gives them more exposure latitude, but makes them harder to print. BW400CN (discontinued, but some might still be around) has the orange mask like color C41, and similar gamma. It is designed to print along with color C41. It isn't so hard to print with ordinary black and white paper. I have done it with variable contrast paper and filter 4.<br>

I believe XP2 doesn't have the mask, but haven't used it. That should make it easier to print with black and white paper, not as easy for color paper. </p>

<p>With any ilm, you have to get the color balance right when printing on color paper.</p>

<p>Thanks, folks. It sounds as though I should start at Ilford XP-2 and NCPS. I'll try the c-41 process for a few rolls to see how I like it. </p>

<p>The more I think about it, the more I think I need a new hobby. I may have to go get myself into a darkroom setup for the "silver process" films and home-brew developing and printing. There are worse vices.</p>

 

<p>As the old UPI press photographer Bill Kilgore used to say:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I love the smell of fixer in the evening. It, it..., smells like photography!</p>

</blockquote>

<p>;)</p>

<p> </p>

XP2 if you want to go c41 but if you want

traditional go with either Kodak Tri-x or Ilford

HP5. They are the two classics of B&w

photography and the films every B&w

photographer should start with.

<blockquote>

<p>I love the smell of fixer in the evening. It, it..., smells like photography! </p>

<p> </p>

</blockquote>

<p>Like many others, I started with roll film, and then went to 35mm. Recently again developing some roll film, I remembered from many years ago the smell of the backing paper. I don't think I ever thought of fixer as the smell of photography, but the smell of Kodak backing paper, yes. 35mm film doesn't have a smell.</p>

<p>I have 1 roll each of TMax, Tri-X and XP-2 in hand. </p>

<p>Shooting with 400 ASA is a revelation after the constraints of 50 (Velvia) or 100 (Provia) color.</p>

<p>Cityscapes that assuredly would have been lousy color photographs are now great opportunities in B&W. I'm excited. I'll post when done ....</p>