A buddy in my photo club told me my prints were flat and he was right

I was shooting Tri-X 400 for months and developing it the same way every time. Then this older guy named Mike looked at my prints during critique night and said 'your highlights are muddy, you need to push that film one stop.' I tried it with a roll I shot down at Pike Place Market last week and the difference was huge. Has anyone else had to completely re-learn their developing times after getting some honest feedback?

2 comments

2 Comments

sullivan.elliot28d ago

Mike hit the nail on the head when he said your highlights are muddy. Same thing happened to me with HP5. I was developing it at box speed for years until a guy at my lab told me to push it to 800. Total game changer. Now I test new films with different times before I settle on a process. Sometimes you just need someone to point out what you've been missing.

maxp6828d ago

Box speed is great until you realize it's just a starting point, not a rule. Ever notice how the same film can look completely different depending on the developer you use? I had the same muddy highlights with Tri-X until I switched from D-76 to XTOL and suddenly everything opened up. Sometimes it's not the film or the ISO, it's the chemistry you're throwing at it.