Photography Tutorial, Black and White Tone Reproduction 5. f8 Pro Photo

Resolution, Definition and Sharpness can be confusing terminology for the layman. Put simply, Resolution is to with the lens’s ability to resolve fine detail onto the film. (this applies to the enlarger lens also) Definition is about the films ability to record fine detail governed by what it receives from the lens and, of course, how the film is processed. Sharpness then, is the culmination of all of the above into the visual quality we see in the print - a quality seriously lacking in the portrait here, as you can see, it’s grainy as hell!

Just to re-cap, it’s fairly obvious that course grain structure will demolish fine detail and conversely obvious that techniques to induce a finer grain structure should yield better definition, increasing sharpness simultaneously.

Overall contrast in the finished print has a visual effect on sharpness also. A contrasty print may initially appear sharper compared to a less contrasty version and is due to the ‘adjacency effect’ where two contrasting tones meet, being more abrupt in the contrasty print therefore sharper, but not so. Closer scrutiny will reveal more detail in the boundary area between tones of a flatter print.
   With this in mind choice of printing paper grade should receive due consideration. As a general rule go for the lowest grade of paper that will produce the image you want.

   One other factor affecting both grain and definition is the type of enlarger illumination. A ‘condenser enlarger has a lens to focus light onto the negative and through it to the enlarger lens. Being more of a point source illumination this will emphasize fine detail but also the grain structure.
   A ‘cold cathode’ enlarger has a diffuse light projecting through the negative so subduing grain structure, detail therefore becomes less sharp though better for reproducing print tonal quality.

Try this out. Some of the purists, landscape photographers in particular still use Kodak’s ‘Technical Pan‘ film. There is no quoted ISO rating for this stuff but somewhere between 12 and 30 ISO gets results depending on subject contrast range. You need practice with this and bracketing exposures is essential until you get the feel of it . This film has it’s own dedicated developer ‘Technidol’. Diluted 1:3 the images are exquisite.
Alternatively try developing this film in Agfa’s ancient ‘Rodinal’ if you can still get it*. Dilute this 1:200 yes 1:200. With quite a long dev. time. You’ll cut your fingers on the image as it’s so sharp and a 20x16 enlargement from 35mm. virtually grain free. OK, tonal range suffers due to high dilution, but the detail is awesome as in the shot above. You can’t appreciate it on screen but believe me, this is sharp!

* I believe Rodinal is becoming scarce now that Agfa have abandoned us. I think I have the formula somewhere if anyone wants to make their own.
Also I hear some of you out there preferring Rodinal S which is not the same stuff at all as Rodinal.
Can anybody tell me why ?

Text, graphics & photographs C steve rostron 2007

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