Re: [Leica] Chalk and Charcoal in HC110

[Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>]

Walter S Delesandri wrote:
> 
> I'm always amazed when I hear otherwise fairly knowledgeable
> photographers talk about films and developers....as if the
> various combinations have fixed, unvarying tendencies...
> 
> The so-called "soot and chalk" print quality is simply caused
> by high values in the negative being too dense (usually above
> 1.25 net density or so) to print with any tone less than
> paper-base white.  It is not an inherent, unvariable trait of
> a given film and developer...read and heed the various books
> on the "zone system"....Ansel's books are good, as well as
> many others.
snip 
people should read the whole above post

Enjoyed your excellently put post:
I concede HC110/TriX does not have to equal soot and chalk, or chalk and
charcoal as I think I put it which is the same.
To my defense I will say that certain film/developer combinations are
more highly thought of than others and this I remember being stated on
this forum and about the HC100/tri x.
I too am particularly irked when someone says a certain film is
"contrasty", often referring to slow films which might have a slightly
narrower tonal range (but which to me is inconsequential). 
If the film has too much snap develop it less, or with more dilution
(and on and on to using a more compensating developer, a two bath, a pre
rinse, less alkali in the formula, or even a colder temperature.)
In this case of HC100/tri x which apparently AA's old assistant Sexton
(who has certainly come into his own as teacher/shooter) has it down to
a science and members of the Lug have used for years. This would
certainly shoot down my saying that this combination has a bad rep. But
in my immediate time warp continuum it does. If Sexton came to Portland
and did a workshop that some of us attended it could have swung us back
to give it another shot. We've printed it from thin and thick negs and a
range of ASA's and dilution's  and different papers but most of us like
rats on a sinking ship switched to FG7, Rodinal or went back to trusty
old D76 1:1. I used Beutlers which I mixed up with Potassium Iodide for
most of my career.
Mark Rabiner