Avoiding graininess

If you like your pictures smooth and grainless then you need to pay special attention to its avoidance throughout the process. The best approach is correct exposure, development and method; once mastered graininess will not be a problem. When you start using film speeds above 200 ISO it becomes more critical to get the exposure right in some cases a faster film has been used when a slower one would have done the job just as well. In this instance a fine grain or ultra fine grain developer will go a long way in inhibiting the clumping of the silver hilade crystals during the processing, allowing quite large prints to be made without the grain showing.

The main causes of grain growth are:

• Over exposure.
• Too highly concentrated developer solution.
• Too long a development time.
• Too high a temperature.
• Too much agitation during the development process.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  This picture was taken using Rollie's R3 variable ISO film set at 1600 ISO developed using R3 developer. If I had used a fine grain developer the grain would not have been this exaggerated. This picture was taken late almost to late as the sun was just off touching the horizon. If I had set 400 ISO it would have been a blur. Apart from that I think it is a good shot caught just at the right moment.