Response to "Low contrast" developer suggestions?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try reducing developer time. I think it's true that manufacturer times tend to lead to heavy negatives-- I've been using the published times for XTol, and have also experimented with Rodinal.

A while back I used to shoot HP5 at 200 and pull in the development time with D-76. I got some low contrast negatives, but in the right light I would get a beautiful scale of tones. I print with multicontrast paper and I like to add contrast to a scene rather than "removing" it. I know this sounds arbitrary so I guess it's out of habit. And I *hate* the look of paper-white that's been burned in to a readable highlight zone.

Seems to withstand logic to say that you can also blow out something that's in the negative but you can't reign in something (like highlight detail) if it's not there.

Will report back with more experiences.

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