Here is a link to a series of pictures from fp4+

[stephen_persky]

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0086NH

 

I posted this on the Leica forum. Just wanted to share some of the

info and techniques, since this group has been so helpful with my

attempts at black and white.

 

Any questions?

 

thanks

 

Steve Persky

[silent1]

Nice! I like the edge light in #3, but then I'm a sucker for lots of sharp edges in a print.

[stephen_persky]

I really wish you could see the real prints. Web prints suck, and I am worse than most at coverting my prints to the web. I lose alot of shadow detail in the conversion.

 

thanks

 

Steve

[pat_wilson1]

I have the same problem Steve. Consequently I haven't scanned any prints forever because of this. If you figure out how to fix it let me know

[silent1]

My experience has been that scanners have poor response at low levels -- so, you might find you need to print lighter for scanning than you would display; that would correspond to the well known need to produce thinner negatives for direct scanning than you would for enlargement. One simple way to do this would be to get the print just the way you like it, and then print again with one or even two grades lower contrast, but identical exposure and development (assuming you have constant exposure contrast change capability, otherwise it gets tricky); the reduced contrast will lighten the shadows without affecting the highlight details (much), and give your scanner a narrower range to work in; you can then stretch the contrast again, if needed, in software after scanning, but at least you'll have shadow detail to push down into the black if you choose to do so.

 

In fact, the details you seek might well be in the scans you already have, but just don't show on your monitor -- you should first check to be sure your monitor is correctly adjusted (typically, that means contrast all the way up, and brightness adjusted so you can just tell a 0,0,0 hard black from a 4,4,4 or 8,8,8 gray). If that doesn't reveal the hidden detail, then you can use the curves control to boost contrast only in the dark parts of the image, or use levels to raise the brightness of the mid-gray or shorten the scale, or use the contrast stretch to ensure the image contrast fills the full range from 0,0,0 to 255,255,255 in the image file itself (substitute appropriate values if you store in greater than 24-bit color).

[john_murphy1]

I like the look of FP4, and I would like to try X-tol with it. But I thought X-Tol gave an increase in film speed. Why did you use EI=64?

[stephen_persky]

John,

 

I heard that Xtol does give an increase in film speed. I just exposed it based on Barry Thornton's recommendations in his book "The Edge of Darkness". In theory, when you overexpose film you are going to capture more information particularly shadows. Now, I went by kodak's recommended times for FP4+ at EI 64. So, I assumed that the increase in film speed (which the developer is supposed to cause) was taken into account by that develope time.

 

Develope time was cut back from EI 125, and the shadows detail had plenty of time to develop, while the highlights where cut short in the development process.

 

I hope that helps.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[john_murphy1]

Steve,

Thanks.

John