Tuesday, November 06, 2018
Tri-X
I have to confess that one of the main reasons I like to attend the yearly Day of the Dead Marigold Parade in Albuquerque's South Valley is the excuse it gives me to shoot some Kodak Tri-X. It seems a film ideally suited to this sort of event. I'm always surprised by the fine grain of this fast film which looks good even in big enlargements. Tri-X responds well to HC110 development, with good contrast and wide latitude which captures detail in shadows and highlights. It is also pretty economical; the 24-exposure cartridges are just $4.49, and for a dollar more you get 36 at B&H. I shot two rolls of Tri-X this year in a Pentax ME Super with the SMC Pentax-A f:2.8/135mm.
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8 comments:
I always enjoy your photos from El Dia!
The parade's web site and the conduct keeps getting better, but it seems to me that it gets a little smaller each year. There are numerous other similar events around the city. I suspect there are social and political components to it all that I am not aware of.
I still have a roll of 36 color to process. I'm uncertain of the outcome as the camera I chose for the color work had some problems.
These Tri-X negatives (and the way you scanned them) look great. The HC110 is a good match for Tri-X. I am impressed with the fine grain, especially compared to the Tri-X of about 20 years ago. Do you clean up lint or chemical blobs on the scans with a heal tool on some software? I usually use Photoshop CS5's heal tool on B&W TIFF files.
I have a copy of CS2 which was given away free by the company for a short time. It has a good set of tools that help with spotting and other needs. I did a little spot cleaning with the healing brush on this set of images, but it was pretty clean. I processed the two rolls together in a two-reel Paterson tank and was careful about time and temp with agitation at 30-second intervals and two sharp taps to remove bubbles. Stand development may give a little better grain and tonal depth, but I'm generally happy with hc-110b.
For cleaning blobs, scratches, and lint, try Pixelmator. It is (or was) quite low cost, and the heal tool is superb. But the software has an odd bug: when you edit a 16-bit tiff file and then save, the only option is a full-color 16x3-bit file, so triple the original size. I never found a workaround other than opening in some other package and saving as 16-bit (clumsy). So I only use Pixelmator with full-color tiff files. But for 16-bit monochrome files, I use Photoshop. Photoshop will let you save as 16-bit.
Oops, I should have written above that Pixelmator is a Mac tool. But it is only $15. Amazing price.
I'm always amazaed when people exhibit their work on line with dust spots and lint. I can never decide if that is just gross carelessness or if I am missing something they are trying to convey.
There's a reason Tri-X has been around for 78 years...in the hands of a competent photographer it can yield outstanding results. And even in the hands of a bumble like me, it can look pretty darn good! Outstanding Tri-X work here Mike!
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