I4m planing a trip to Patagonia in South America for this summer and I will be taking B&W photos, wich film, developer and process you recomend me? If you have a good developer for ilford fp4, please give me the name, the time, temperature., thanks

-- Eduardo Katz (Kato@manquehue.net), December 11, 1997

Answers

instead of asking what other people are using for thier photography, you need to pick a film, film developer, paper and paper developer and figure out how they relate to your photography. test the negative film and developer to get a handle on how they work. if you dont have any idea of how to test, then a trip to the library might be in order, find a photo book that has basic tests in it and do them. fred pickers zone vi work shop would be a good place to start. i certainly would not base all of the picture that i was going to take on someones suggestions. any film and developer combo will work fine, they are all good,just different, but if you have never tried any of them, then non of them are going to be any good to you. you no doubt will spend a lot of time and money on this trip, so a dozen or so rolls of film and a box of paper will just be chump change. i dont mean to sound hard, but advice and opinion will never, never, ever, take the place of practice and experience, talking about it is not doing it, like the ad says, just do it.

-- (mthompson@clinton.net), December 14, 1997.

B&W landscapes

M. Thompson gave VERY good advice. You need to find a film/developer combo that work for you. However: you might shoot some test, before you leave, with the slowest film you can find, 25 asa or less, as you want less grain and more contrast, (I think). The slower films will have less grain and should provide an answer.

-- H. David Huffman (craptalk@ix.netcom.com), May 11, 1999.