Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/03/01

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Subject: [Leica] Neopan-Xtol Xpert-Tease Sought - Cutting-To-Chase Version
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Thu Mar 1 10:09:25 2007

On 3/1/07 12:32 AM, "bob palmieri" <rpalmier@depaul.edu> typed:

> Folks -
> 
> I just realized that instead of my rambling musings of the first post
> I should just ask the following:
> 
> 1) What time/temp combo do y'all use to get good results from Neopan
> 1600 (shot at 1600) in Xtol??
> 
> 2) Do you like this film/developer combo better when you shoot at a
> lower ISO and if so whadd'ya like for a winning formula??
> 
> Bob Palmieri
> 


The winning formula to me is to shoot a film and its developer dilution at
its true film speed. You don't want to either over or under expose.
Especially over. You want a minimum density neg to get prints with the kind
of contrast which works best with your paper.

In this case Xtol 1:3 the best film speed for Neopan 1600 is 1600.
To over expose it won't improve quality. It will lessens it.
And by over expose I mean lower your film speed.
Which mainly when I see it done feels very arbitrary to me.

People who pull their film have a kind of weird smug attitude that they're
doing something better than other people. In most cases and certainly in
this case its just over exposing. Which coincidently is the single worst
thing you could do to a back and white neg.

You get a veiled over look in your neg which transposes perfectly to a
poorly separated in the highlights print.

And if there's something worse than a "poorly separated in the highlights
print." than I don't know what it is.

Your eye will go right to those light areas first every time.

Mark Rabiner
8A/109s
New York, NY

markrabiner.com



In reply to: Message from rpalmier at depaul.edu (bob palmieri) ([Leica] Neopan-Xtol Xpert-Tease Sought - Cutting-To-Chase Version)