af1664886136

Large even toned areas tend to show grain. Increasing contrast will make it worse. The small cures involve processing, different developers and such. The large cure is slower film.

I never thought of the part about even tones! Thank you for your response. I'll look into using slower film.

+1 to Conrad's answer.

 

Also using a slower film, or larger format, will definitely help. T-Max 100, for example, is practically grainless if properly exposed and processed. OTOH, there's nothing you can do with a film like Ilford Delta3200 that will stop it having golf-ball sized grain.

 

What film did you use?

I used Ilford HP5 Plus 400, and I believe I had the ISO on my camera set to around 800. Thanks for the suggestions!

Also, underexposure and either pushing or adjusting the exposure (and contrast) during

printing or scanning tends to show grain.

 

Strong light through the window might cause the meter to underexpose the rest.

(See the recent thread on shadows and highlights.)

Thank you, I wasn't aware that strong light could cause underexposure. I'll be sure to check out the thread.

I printed a couple of pictures that were shot under "normal" afternoon room lighting. Some of them came out with a grain that became more prominent when I increased the magenta. Other pictures taken on the same roll did not have nearly as much grain, or none noticeable at all.

Here is a scrap print from a project to hopefully show this:

Again, this was taken in the afternoon with relatively strong lighting coming from the window.

What causes grain, and is there any way to control it? Is there a way to increase contrast without making grain more visible? Or, alternatively, is there a way to reduce the appearance of the grain during printing?

My apologies if this question is elementary; I am completely new to black and white photography. Thanks in advance!