Re: [Leica] Neopan 1600 latitude

[Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net>]

Thanks, Mark and Don.  I wondered about Neopan.  Opinions in the literature 
seem to be mixed on whether Neopan is a true 1600 film or a film that 
pushes well to 1600.  The former would imply a full tonal range, the latter 
some compression.  Sounds like the way you guys handle it, it is full-range.

Yes, I did indeed get a spot meter.  A list member offered to sell me a 
Pentax Spotmeter V at a nice price, and I've been playing with it for a 
couple of days now.  It's elegantly retro, looks like a 1960s Star Trek 
Phaser, and has a nice big calculator dial.  It's funny to be using a meter 
that is bigger than my camera!

All my life I've mostly used a 30-degree hand meter--first a CdS LunaSix 3, 
and recently a Luna Pro Digital and the M6TTL internal meter.  I mostly 
metered close, used an incident reading or a substitute reading in similar 
light to a farther-away subject.  Or metered my palm and opened up one stop 
for B&W and color print film, a half stop for slides.

Most of the time this worked just fine.  But I enjoy photographing theatre 
and classical musicians, and I can't always get on stage before the 
performance with the lights the way they are going to be.  I often guess 
right, but not always.  I recently took some concert shots on Neopan 1600 
where the contrasty lighting fooled me--the faces were much brighter than I 
thought.  So I ended up with badly overexposed faces.  A spot meter would 
have told me the truth, and I would have exposed less or cut development time.

Now that I've got the spot meter, I find myself running around measuring 
everything in sight.  This phase shall pass, but it's very 
educational--it's quantifying my thinking about light.  And it's good for a 
bit of fun too.  Yesterday a co- worker saw me metering stuff during my 
lunch break and asked me if I was working for the CIA!   :-)

- --Peter

Me:
> > The normal rule of thumb when you meter well-lit caucasian skin close up
> > or with a spot meter is to open up one stop for negative film, or 1/2 stop
> > for slide film.  Does this apply to the very fast films, or do we need to
> > open up less because of lesser film latitude?
> >
> > Or a more general question: What is the general over/underexposure
> > latitude of Neopan 1600 compared to, say, Tri-X at 400 and/or 800?

Mark said:
>Peter I don't think the faster black and white films have lessor
>latitude! Unlike color slide films.
>If you think of it color neg fast films don't have less latitude that
>slower color neg films.
>That's my experience anyway!
>The easiest films I've ever printed were Neopan 1600 at 1600 in Xtol 1:3
>and T-Max 3200 at 1600 in Rodinal 1:50
>So I'd open up a half to full stop when I use Neopan 1600 on a Zone VI
>face otherwise I'd be underexposing and a brunette would have no detail
>in the hair. Blondes would appear to be brunettes. The horror!
>I'm sure you're aware that in a scene you'd be placing other areas, not
>Zone VI. You might be exposing for a lot of dark important detail which
>really has to be there and not have time to check that against the face.
>That's one thing that you hear talking about on zone system stuff.
>What you take readings of when you only have time for one quick reading.
>
>My guess is Neopan has perhaps a half stop MORE latitude than Tri-X at
>400 in Neopan 1:2 (was my dilution then).
>I cant see how Xtol is going to get an ISO of 800 out of Tri x. When i
>expose less; the shadow detail disappears. And of course all the
>development in the world is not going to make it appear again. In this
>case at lease. I believe there area developers which one can use to get
>an extra stop out of film like Acufine, Diafine and Kodaks T-Max
>developer which makes T-Max P. 3200 3200 as a starting point. Awful
>stuff though.
>
>If you're not kidding and you really did get a spot meter then your
>going to learn a lot about the zone system fast or at least your
>thresholds and latitudes. And a nice veranda.
>
>Mark Rabiner
>Portland, Oregon USA
>Photography


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