Black & White Films – More Sporty Still Lifes
I was experimenting a bit with different black and white films and developer combinations lately. Here are some more trials taken on black and white film.
I have already posted some black and white film still life photos of sport gear. Below is the football shoes version (soccer for those on the other side of the atlantic) taken on Ilford FP-4 Plus film (developed in Agfa Rodinal 1+25, 9 min).
As expected, gray nuances are softer and there is more shadow details than in the following combination. Here’s the same motive taken on Kodak Tri-X film, also developed in Agfa Rodinal (1:100, 20 min). It’s a high acutance combination. Gray values are still nice.
Weaker Rodinal solutions like 1:100 seem to work better for me than 1+50 or 1+25. Also, too much agitation creates rather harsh tonal transitions in the shadows.
Here are some more sporty still life pictures. These were taken on Tri-X too with available natural light. Baseball isn’t exactly popular here (the kids are all playing football), but it makes for a nice black and white subject. There are more sporty still life photos on my blog taken on black and white film.
And also the last one with the baseball bat was taken on Tri-X and developed in Rodinal. I’ve also used D-76 but Rodinal is easier to use because it’s liquid, and the stock lasts very long until expiration.
Another classic recipe is Tri-X stand developed in Rodinal 1:100 for 60 minutes with agitation during the first minute and after 30 minutes, as described in Feeling Negative?
There is a very useful iPhone app called Dev Chart listing all myriad possible film/developer combinations. The app includes a timer which leads you through the development process. There’s also a corresponding Dev Chart website listing development data. Another useful resource is FilmDev where many different film/developer combinations are listed with example pics.
Some Classical Rules for B&W Development
Classically, the rule for black and white film photography is to expose for the shadows so you don’t loose detail. With negative film, the highlights wouldn’t blow out that easily as with cheap digital cameras.
- Exposure controls shadow detail, and development controls contrast.
- Longer development increases contrast, shorter development decreases contrast.
- Agitation influences contrast too: more agitation gives more contrast.
«Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights.»
In reality, this means that in sunny conditions with hard shadows resulting in high contrast, it may be reasonable to overexpose by 1/2 or 1 stop, and to shorten development time (by about 30%, corresponding to Ansel Adams’ N-1 development). Again, here’s a useful website with starting points for several film/developer combinations.