Shawn ; I think I understand what you want - a beautifully graduated palette of grey mid-tones, with well defined blacks and glowing highlights, underpinned by sharpness, but with a grainy "mask" that appears integral with the sharpness. I think that achieving this is entirely possible.(posted 8876 days ago)To simplify things, you basically have two choices in black and white film & developer combinations ;
(i) a slow contrasty film with high resolution ; the best developer is probably something like Rodinal 1:50, or D76 1:1, which will enough compensating effect to control contrast, and whose emphasis on sharpness at the expense of grain is more than offset by the high resolution of the film, or (ii) a higher speed film, which will have proportionately more "latitude", but higher grain ; standard developers would be D76 full strength, or indeed Microphen if you want to get the full emulsion speed. Although these developers are called "fine-grain", they contain a solvent which dissolves the sharp edges of the silver grains, and hence they might be better described as diffuse grain developers.
May I suggest to you that you are having difficulty achieving what you want because you are using very high resolution films (TMax100 / Technical Pan), where it is difficult to force the grain to appear, and which can have a tendency to get very contrasty at the expense of local contrast in the mid-tones.
Why not try to approach your problem from a different angle by using a higher speed film, which you can actively manipulate for (a) the range of local contrast in the mid-tones and (ii) perceived sharpness. I think you are using 35mm / 120, so here are two film developer combinations that might get you what you want (try to keep the development temperature consistent, or you introduce an unknown variable) ;
Tri-X, in D76 1:1, at 20oC ;
N+2 ; rate at EI 600 ; 16 minutes
N+1 ; rate at EI 400 ; 12 minutes
N+2 ; rate at EI 200 ; 9 minutes
N+2 ; rate at EI 100 ; 7 minutes
N+2 ; rate at EI 50 ; 5.5 minutes
Fuji Neopan 400, in full strength Microphen, at 20oC ;
N+2 ; rate at EI 1250 ; 11.5 minutes
N+1 ; rate at EI 1000 ; 8 minutes
N+2 ; rate at EI 640 ; 6 minutes
N+2 ; rate at EI 320 ; 4.5 minutes
N+2 ; rate at EI 160 ; 3.5 minutes
Why dont you try the N+1 shown above? As you are then pushing the highlights out about 1 zone, you need to be careful with exposure placement. For example, you might normally put white skin tones on zone 6.5, or thereabouts. If you go for N+1, you will need to place these on zone 5.5, and the extra development will push these out one zone - and in doing so will expand the range of local contrast in the mid-tones. The same sort of principle will apply to N+2, but I wouldnt place highlights at less than zone 5, and in any case, I think youll get what you want with N+1. [NB ; this assumes that you are happy with the shadows, which should really be determining your exposure - Im assuming here that they are 2-4 zones lower than the skin-tones].
Now, sharpness. Agitation for the above times is constantly for the first minute (to minimise the risk of any streaking), and then 5-10 seconds every 30 seconds thereafter. However, with the longer times attached to N+, you have more ability to induce "edge effects", which can dramatically affect the perceived sharpness of your final print, even if the reality is that it is less sharp than it appears. Trust me on this - I have Tri-X prints which you would swear are much sharper than the same print rendered on Tmax100, even though examining the negative tells a different story. You might try reducing agitation to every two minutes after the first minute of constant agitation, and lengthening the development time by about 10% to compensate.
Personally, I would avoid unusual filters such as blue, as it will simply introduce another variable into the above. I would stick a yellow-green filter on the lense and leave it there until I got consistent results, from which I could then judge the effect of more deeply cutting filters. (Unless such a filter would affect the tonal range in the image - e.g. if your subject is wearing yellow-green clothes, or god forbid, is highly jaundiced (only kidding). Apply the filter exposure factor after youve been through all the exposure placement stuff, and determined your zone 5 exposure, or alternatively take it out of the EI before you start.
Good luck ; let me know how you get on.