I've just started playing around with black & white photography & would like suggestions on possible 35mm print films to use for portraits. One that won't be too grainy when enlarged 8x10 or more but has good contrast and works well with natural & controlled lighting. All tips & technical info. are welcome.

-- Mary Sacquety (sacquety@tamu.edu), September 20, 1999

Answers

If you're not doing your own developing Kodak T400CN and Ilford XP-2 (super) are your best choices. If you shoot at EI 200 grain will be extremely fine. Get your final prints on real B&W paper. Machine prints on color paper are really useful as proofs.

-- Tim Brown (brownt@ase.com), September 20, 1999.

A film that lands perfectly on Agfa Portriga Rapid FB paper, grade 2, developed a little too light and Selenium toned afterwards; I'd say Tri-X when it's 4*5".

-- Lot (lotw@wxs.nl), September 20, 1999.

Technical Pan. Process in Technidol or TD3. Has a realtively steep learning curve but once you get it, it's the best thing since sliced bread.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), September 20, 1999.

Agfpan APX 100 is a simply wonderful film for portraits, and it has finer grain and more punch than Plus-X (which I also like a lot.) It's also very agreeable in terms of exposure and development latitude (I use D-76 1:1, 9 minutes at 68.)

Tri-X is also a classic for portraits, but (depending on the developer you use) you'll may see a little too much grain in 8x10 prints. Ilford's classic films, FP4+ and HP5+, are nice too.

(As you can see, I really prefer the "old tech" films for portraiture. T-Max and Delta are great films too, but they can be difficult to work with, and I find their look sometimes less than flattering on human subjects.)

Anyway, try APX 100 - a fabulous film...

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), September 21, 1999.

I agree with Michael, APX 100 produces nice punchy portraits.

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), September 23, 1999.

I enjoy using Ilford's FP-4 film, ASA 125. It's a very nice film with great latitude; meaning it's very forgiving. The grain on it is very nice. I HATE grain!!! Technical Pan is wonderful but slow as hell; ASA 25. Not good for children. Ilford's Pan F at ASA 50, though I shoot at 40, is wonderful too! T-max films are too unforgiving for me and they eat up my fixer like no tomorrow. I find their exposure latitude far too narrow. If I'm not right on the money with the exposure, either I loose my shadows or my highlights glog up. Under stodio conditions, it's fine but I like to work both in and out of the studio and I like to have my work look consistant and that's why I like to limit the variety of different emultions..

-- shawn boyle (shawn6@ids.net), November 09, 1999.