Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/17

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Subject: Re: [Leica] B&W film development question
From: Christer Almqvist <christer@almqvist.net>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 01:09:09 +0100

Harrison,

I would go in full f-stop steps and do all ten zones. That would show you
the whole picture, and include information about film speed (zone I)  and
contrast (zones seven/eight and above).

To state it differently, if you do all ten zones, then you will be able to
see if it is your expsure that needs to be adjusted or the lab´s
development procedure, or both.

A guideline for the densities would be 0.10 above film base and fog for
zone one, and then add 0.17 for each zone. But this is just a guideline

Why not do a test rund with a film/development combination that you find
works well for you and see what densities you get. Try to get the same
densities (same curve) for other film/development combinations, that makes
printing easier. Of course, the curve will look different if you push a
film, and slow speed films have somewhat different curves to high speed
films even when developed normally.

As they say: shoot more pictures.
And develop your b+w films yourself!

>I am trying to calibrate my film development/exposure with my lab.  I
>had the idea of shooting a Grey card, bracketing in 1/2 stop
>increments up to two stops over and down to two stops under then
>taking a densitomiter reading to see which exposure gives me a mid
>level density.
>
>This seems like a good idea, but what should the densitomiter reading be?
>
>Is there something wrong with my logic in doing this?
>
>I am shooting Ilford Delta 400 and 100.
>
>Thanks for any help/advice.
>--
>Harrison McClary
>http://www.mcclary.net


- --
Christer Almqvist
D-20255 Hamburg, Germany and/or
F-50590 Regnéville-sur-Mer, France