>
> >
> >Philippe,
> >
> >For me, more important than grain is the tonal quality from a film
> >developer combination. I use Kodak HC-110 with Tri-X film.
> >
> >Of course you may want finer grain for another reason.
> >
>
> Well, because I cannot afford a large format camera yet. I am building my
> own slowly, piece after piece. But I plan to use 35mm tri-X shots for alt
> processes. What is seducing in tri-X of course is its tonal range, and I
> wondered if it would better suit to platinotypy, just for that reason.
> I noticed that one may have huge grain differences when processing tri-X
> with different developpers.
> Maybe some old recipes with slow developpers could suit for finer grain ?
>
> Thanks for your mail
>
> Philippe Monnoyer
>
The beauty of the tri-x/HC110 combination is the evenness of the tone
spacing from deep shadow to highlight. Arnold Gassen's "Handbook for
Contemporary Photography" has a series of parametric curves which
illustrates this quality quite clearly as compared to other film/developer
combinations. Given the inherent "softness" of the Pt/Pd process, I wonder
how large you are going to have the grain "objectionable". Fine grain
developers, usually incorporating silver solvents to soften the grain
edges (resulting in smaller grain size) usually loose sharpness as a
result.
John