Kodak Tri-X has been around in one form or another for a very long time. It is Kodak's most popular Black and White film, which probably says a lot right there. It's not the sharpest or finest grained film on the market, but a lot of people like its "look." This series of images looks at my own Tri-X 400 results dating from 2013 through 2021, presented in time-sequence order.
Skyline on film by
Paul Sager, on Flickr
Kodak Tri-X was initially introduced in 1940 as a sheet film. It took nearly 15 years until Tri-X was made available in 35mm and 120 formats. The introduction of these two formats in 1954 is commonly cited as the official 'birthday' of Tri-X.
Totem pole Tri-X panchromatic film was once one of the most popular films used by photojournalists and amateurs. A
panchromatic emulsion is a type of black-and-white film that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, producing a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye, although with no colors.
Merrick Butte Tri-X has undergone a number of minor engineering changes during its long history. An early change in ASA (ISO) speed from 200 to 400, around 1960, was due to a change in the ASA standard rather than the film. In 2007, Tri-X was extensively re-engineered, receiving the new designation 400TX in place of TX or TX400, and it became finer-grained. The amount of silver in the film stock was reduced during the 2007 re-engineering.
Green River - Chicago 2016 The images through the Chicago River above were all captured without a colored filter, with the film rated as ISO-400. Most of the following images use either an Orange or Deep Red filter, as well as adjustments to the ISO rating. In sourcing some of the text and descriptions of Kodak Tri-X 400, a lot of the "vocabulary" of black and white film don't really work for my own self-expression of B&W photography. Expressions about "tonality" or "beautiful highlights" or "classic grain structure" are not the words / phrases that I'd use in describing this film.
Wood National Cemetery What I do see in some of these images is too much grain for my personal taste. What I've learned is to overexpose both C41 color and B&W film, either by adjusting the ISO when loading the film or using Exposure Compensation. Exposure adjustments are needed both without a filter, and especially when using colored filters.
Old Car City on film I'd say now my default setting for Tri-X 400 is to rate the film as ISO-320 or ISO-250 when loading into the camera, and then adjusting to the filter and / or conditions from there.
USS Alabama Both the USS Alabama above and the Ft Clinch cannons below are +2 EC for the orange filter at ISO-400. I feel there's an opportunity for a bit less grain if the film had just 1/3-stop more and had been loaded as ISO-320.
Coastal Defenses This winter frame in March 2021 is the first Tri-X roll loaded specifically for investigating and proving the new exposure approach. On an overcast snowy day, the film was loaded as ISO-200. I love the results, but in comparing with rolls show at ISO-250 in similar low light, I can see how the fine details are beginning to be lost when so far overexposed.
Wrigleyville Winter I've become better at keeping notes about what days a film is shot and with what lens(es), most times including what colored filter was used. But still, since the filter doesn't report in the EXIF data I can extract from the EOS 1v, sometimes it's still a guess. I don't think this image of Gabby used a filter, where the effective ISO was ISO-160 after the EC adjustment and the ISO loading adjustment. So even the comment about losing fine details when overexposed is difficult to demonstrate, unless a specific comparison frame is available.
Gabby on Tri-X Another difficulty of the color filters is getting enough light for the slower shutterspeed. At Old Car City and in the park outside the USS Alabama, above, I just brought a tripod. But when traveling around downtown Chicago, I need to select a bright day or an IS-enabled lens, and / or be very careful in my technique with a non IS lens.
Quincy L Station Another comment I found about Tri-X is it isn't so good for sunny days. The first view of Chicago above was a clear sun-lit morning. The Fisher Building below is a blazing April afternoon sun, with an orange filter. In both frames I can't find support for the bright light comments.
These final three images are my favorites of the Tri-X review and what prompted this respective post.
The Fisher Building Here Gabby is shown indoors at ISO-320. Consider whether the details are better here vs the earlier Gabby image with 1-stop greater exposure at an effective ISO-160.
Gabby in B&W This final image is indoors at Chicago Union Station with the film is loaded as ISO-250. Note all the shadow details. The lack of sharp contrast in this image makes it one of my favorite results of the multiple trips to Union Station in April 2021.
Union Station So of the oldest images were probably processed and scanned by TheDarkroom.com. Most of the film was processed and scanned by North Coast Photo. All the scanned JPEGs were processed further in Adobe Lightroom v6 where the scanned film was just a starting point to the final image. The film grain doesn't remove like digital noise unless you want a completely details-free image. All the exposure, camera and lens details are available from the host Flickr pages, via the URL links of each image title.