Response to "tonality" and "acutance"

I think different people mean different things by the word "tonality". When referring to a print, it is more clear that one speaks about the subtle colour of the grey tones that compose the image (warm, cold tonality). On the contrary, when talking about a negative, it is not really clear if someone is talking about the separation of different tonal values or the subtle contrast of the different parts of the image (maybe the highlight contrast ?) It is sure that since no "objective" or "agreed" definition has been established, a subjective opinion about whether this or that developer gives better tonality or not shall be given by every B+W fan. On the other hand, acutance is something we all understand easier and have more or less an objective definition for. So, we can say that the developers that favorise edge effects shall ameliorate the acutance of most films and those that are supposed to give finer grain shall, in general, make it worse. Rodinal does not have a grain shrinking effect, so it shall give good results on the acutance part of the story, especially if used in such dilutions that compensation effects (edge effects) will take place.

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