Black and White photography is very malleable as a process, and can be
formulated to fit any photographer's preference for the visual outcome.
W. Eugene Smith tended to shoot at the very toe of the curve, hence his
images have that dramatic lighting with lots of shadow and deep blacks.
Imogen Cunningham on the other hand tended to shoot closer to the
shoulder of the curve, showing lots of middle tones and texture. I was
of that brand of shooting at the shoulder.
To know exactly where you fall along that possible curve, it is necessary to test the negative you are using, with the developer that you use, as well as the developing time. There is a simple way of doing that. My method was to take a white bath towel, the more texture the better, then following the course below;
Place white towel in north light, evenly lit all over the area you will be shooting. Easiest way is set up the camera on a tripod for consistent results. Center your shot in the middle of the illuminated towel area and focus on that spot. Meter that spot. All metering returns Zone 5 (middle gray ~ 18% reflective). Take that meter reading and stop down four stops. That represents Zone 1. Take a shot, open up one stop, shoot again, open up another stop and shoot again. If you can take ten shots that's good. Depending on the lens and how many stops it makes, you may have to also use the shutter speed for a stop or two to arrive at ten stops. If you do this, begin with the shutter speed setting as stops. The shutter speed is less accurate than aperture settings so when used first Zone 1-3 won't be as affected as using shutter speed at the upper densities. Take ten shots of the towel, then develope.
That first test will show you standard developing time, because you will be developing this test roll or sheet film with a particular developer, for the standard developing time. What you are looking for is the first time that the towel's texture begins to show up in the densities. That frame would be Zone 3, the first frame where the shadow detail begins to show texture. If you count down two frames, that will give you Zone 1, or deep black; DMax. If you can then count up (denser) four stops from that Zone 3 frame, and that frame shows texture in white, that will be Zone 7 (white with texture). One more should come out blank white, and that would be Zone 8. The development time will be affecting those final three upper tonal zones; Zone 6, 7, and 8. It will be those three upper densities that will show you if you need to develop less or more, to arrive at the correct densities of those tonal ranges. If the frame above the white texture range (Zone 7) is not fully blank white, add time to the development. If the Zone 7 range has not texture and is blank white, less time is needed. If the first frame at the bottom is not pure black, or there is a frame before the one that is pure black, your metering is off or you will want to reset your ISO, as shooting controls the shadow detail (Zone 3), and the development controls the highlights, above Zone 5.
Best way to do this is using a bulk film loader to roll ten or twelve frame rolls for testing puroses so you don't waste film. For sheet film use, for those using a view camera, there is a way to do this test using one sheet of film. See below;
Sheet Film Testing;
I found a thin black flexible fiber material that was inexpensive, and easy to cut to fit in the cut film holder, as well as cut diamond shapes out of it for the testing. I used a simple Exacto knife to do the cutting. You need six cut slides as shown with diamond, or other shape cut out for the testing. The numbering keeps them in order, and after the first six shots, the first two are flipped over and used for the final shots, making up the bottom line. You get eight shots from these six slides. I cut them then tape the top edge with slide number to keep track of the order. You end up with one sheet film with eight diamond shaped densities that can then be contact printed onto the medium you will be printing in, using the developer used in the test. I would strongly urge two more test be run, for the expansion and compaction development options.
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