Shooting kodak Tri-X at 800/ 1600 Speed?!

Tomorrow I will be shooting indoor portraits under low light. I would like to

try kodak tri-x 400 rated at 800 or even 1600 speed. What can I expect when I

set the iso dial to that speed with this particular film?

Increased contrast, some increased graininess, loss of shadow detail. Bear in mind you will have to increase development time to compensate for the underexposure.

<br>

<a href="http://members.arstechnica.com/x/jbode/mark4_small.jpg">Here's</a> an example I shot a couple of weeks ago. However, bear in mind that I underdeveloped a <em>lot</em>, and some of the contrastiness comes from compensating for that, but I think it gives a good feel. Compare against <a href="http://members.arstechnica.com/x/jbode/mark3_small.jpg">this</a> image which was rated and developed normally.

The first image was from a roll rated at 1600, btw.

There are a couple of developers that do well with this film rated at this speed, but I've only used one - Daifine. Tri-X does quite well when rated at 1250 and developed in Diafine, and, since it's a compensating developer it will help control the contrast. If you do a search you should be able to find some other suggestions for developer and an idea of what kinds of results you can expect from them.

 

- Randy

Not a combination I would recommend for a portrait unless you're looking for a grainy contrasty look on purpose. But if you were going for a studio-style portrait you wouldn't be shooting under low light so that may suit your purpose.

I have used Tri-X rated at up to 3200ASA some years ago. The german (Tetenal) Emofin two-step developer does the trick... usually this stuff pushes one or two ASA steps. Grain is very acceptable. Since part of the chemistry is "stored" in the film after the first step, it also limits contrasts: at the highlight areas the developper is exhausted quickly and does not develop too much, while in the shadows it will be less exhausted. This contrast reduction only happens at the ends of the contrast scale.

 

I did not try Diafine (it is available in Germany but every lab shop has Emofin), this two-step stuff might work similar.