Pan F Plus 50

Pan F Plus 50 is the finest traditional grain Ilford makes. At 50 speed the crystals are small enough that a 35mm negative prints large with no visible structure, which is the whole reason to accept a stock this slow.

It is also the hardest of the three fine grain stocks. The contrast is high and the exposure latitude is short, so the film gives you black shadows and white highlights and very little argument in between. That is a look, and it is the one thing T-Max 100 and Acros 100 will not give you.

Ask for no visible grain at all, then ask for very high contrast with black shadows and white highlights. Both halves are needed. Fine grain alone reads as a clean digital picture, and the contrast is what makes it read as this stock.

Skin comes back glassy. At a normal print size a face has almost no surface texture, and the high contrast takes the shadow side straight to black. Ask for glassy smooth skin with fine detail held, and light the face from the front or add a fill.

The sky is where the contrast pays. A blue sky prints pale without a filter, and the high contrast then pushes it to white and takes the clouds with it. A yellow filter gives mid grey, and a red filter gives a near black sky with white clouds standing off it. For speed, this stock does not push: one stop to 100 is the most it takes before the highlights block.

Use it in bright sun, in a studio with flash, or on a tripod. Use it when the print will be large and the subject does not move: still life, architecture, a posed portrait, a landscape at midday.

Leave it alone for anything handheld indoors and for any scene with a wide brightness range. At 50 speed and with short latitude it fails at both ends at once.

T-Max 100 reaches similar fineness with tabular grain and a long straight curve, so it holds highlights that Pan F Plus 50 burns out. Acros 100 is flatter still. Pan F Plus 50 is the contrasty one of the three, and that is the reason to name it.

Cinema publishes High Contrast, Low Key and Chiaroscuro at /techniques/cinema/ as separate entries about light and grade. Pan F Plus 50 is a stock, so it brings the hard curve with it before any light is placed. Name the stock for the curve, and name the cinema entry for where the lamps go.

The Pan F name goes back to the 1930s and Ilford sells the current Pan F Plus in 35mm and 120. Its datasheet carries a warning the other stocks do not: the latent image fades, so a roll must be developed within a few months of exposure or the shadows thin out. Photographers run it in ID-11 or Perceptol for the finest grain, and it is the usual choice for a very large print from a 35mm negative.

The picture comes back with motion blur or camera shake, because the model takes 50 speed literally and a handheld night scene cannot work. Say bright sun or studio flash, and put a tripod in the prompt.

The colour to grey trap is at its worst here, because the contrast doubles every error. A blue sky goes white, red lips go near black and a red dress goes almost to the same tone as the shadow behind it. Name the filter, and keep strong reds out of the frame unless you want them dark.