How to accentuate grain in development.

Cluster

Suspended / Banned
Messages
770
Name
Dave
Edit My Images
Yes
I'd like to play more with my super simple P&S 35mm cameras. I guess that they give a kind of Holga/Lomo style of image.
These are simple cameras which probably need 100 speed film, or maybe 50 on a bright day.
Fomapan 100 and Kentmere 100 work quite well but give fairly grain free images at the size I use. To add to the distortion and other image defects that these cameras can create, I would like to accentuate the grain in my images.
I have some bulk rolls of Fomapan 100 and 400 and presently can use Rodinal. Is there a development process that I can try to give more grain?
 
Overdevelop. Or use a developer intended for papers.

If you can adjust exposure, overexpose.

If you want to try something more risky, attempt reticulation - mild reticulation resembles grain. Reticulation is a crazy paving effect that can occur (difficult with modern films, I had it happen once in the 1960s) when processing chemicals are at different temperatures. I doubt you can predict what will happen if you try it, but it could give an effect you like.
 
Last edited:
I guess that, as I intend to try Fomapan 400 at 100 - 50, then under-develop (for 100 as per the massive dev chart), that might have a noticeable effect.
Thanks.
 
OVERdevelop, NOT Under.

Grain increases with development time and exposure. You might also try developing at a higher temperature,
 
OVERdevelop, NOT Under.

Grain increases with development time and exposure. You might also try developing at a higher temperature,
Oh, I'm not experienced in development, but doesn't overdeveloping push the film? So maybe exposing F400 at 100 and overdeveloping in order to accentuate grain is not a runner....
 
That's overexposing and overdeveloping - the simplest way to increase grain.

Pushing merely means underexposing the film, then overdeveloping in the hope that you'll get shadow detail.
 
You might, if you take it far enough, need to reduce the amount of developed silver to be able to extract an image, but there are chemicals called (appropriately) reducers to do that. Different ones, different characteristics, but you can ignore this if you don't need to use them.
 
Back
Top