What is the best combination of exposure and developement to use to create portraits which show a minimum of skin blemishes with only the lighting shadows evident ? Even filters don't give the effect I want ! ..thanks, Wolf

-- Wolfgang Fritz (wolfritz@king.igs.net), July 30, 1999

Answers

Try: 1. Using a soft box in front of your light. 2. Printing high-key. 3. A moderate soft-focus filter, such as a Hasselblad Softar I or a Nikon Soft 1. 4. Overexposure and underdevelopment, to keep contrast down and improve shadow detail. 5. Selectol or Ektaflo Type 2 paper developer instead of harsh Dektol. 6. A paper with a long tonal scale, such as Ilford Warmtone.

http://www.ravenvision.com/rvapeter.htm

-- Peter Hughes (leonine@redshift.com), July 30, 1999.

I assume you want a high-contrast result. Kodak IR film, with your subject lit properly with tungsten bulbs, gives you little skin detail and some halation on very bright reflected surfaces. Grain is big. You'll have to bracket your shots.

For less grain and no halation, try Tech Pan and a high-contrast developer. I've only used this combination for cityscapes, but it might give you what you want.

What have you been using that's given you poor results?

-- John O'Connell (oconnell@siam.org), July 30, 1999.