Re: maximum grain was Re: There are a lot of mistakes in this IR pho

[George L Smyth <GLSmyth@xxxxxxx>]

Sandor Mathe wrote:
> 
> >I would think that if you are looking to maximize grain that you would want to shoot
> >considerably slower.  I knock the EI up to 1000 (metered TTF) when I am looking for
> >high contrast images, and down around 50-100 for a more "ethereal" look (reference
> >"House of Dreams I" or "Discovery" at http://www2.ari.net/glsmyth/north.htm).
> >
> >george
> 
> Both increased exposure and increased development increase grain.  I
> think increased development has a much larger effect, so people
> usually decrease exposure slightly (use higher ISO) and increase
> development.  If you do both you'll get *Very* dense negatives that
> may be useless.  Of coures increased development increases contrast
> as well, which may or may not be desired.

I can only speak from experience.  You may wish to try the experiment I went through
to get my results.  The following is a portion of what I did.

I took pictures of a scene, bracketing each shot.  I selected EI 60, 125, 250, 500,
and 1000.  When I finished I had seven groups of the bracket.  I then cut the film
into seven strips and developed each strip for a different time.  Finally, I printed
all 35 images, attempting to match each one (was not possible, but in many cases I
came somewhat close).

I then had a handful of prints that I was able to use as a guide.  Without doubt, the
lower EI gave me much higher grain than any other factor.  As a matter of fact, I was
not able to come close to matching the EI 50 prints with the others because of the
low contrast level.  Perhaps you will have different results.  This took me a full
weekend, but has been very important in my understanding of this film.

I don't have Joe Paduano's book (when's the new edition come out, Joe?), but Laurie
White's book has examples of the differences when HIE is shot at EI 50, 100, 200 and
400 (page 51).

george

- -- 
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End of Infrared-Digest V0 #286
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