T-Max 100

T-Max 100 is the cleanest way to get a black and white negative. Kodak built it on flat tabular crystals, which catch more light per unit of grain than the cubic crystals in Tri-X, so the film is almost grainless at 100 speed and still very sharp.

The tone curve runs straight for a long way. Highlights keep climbing instead of stopping, so a white shirt or a bright wall holds its shape. That straight curve is what makes the stock read as clean and modern rather than as a photograph from an older era.

Say almost no visible grain at all, and then say very high edge sharpness. The two together are what tabular grain does, and a model will otherwise give you a soft clean picture rather than a crisp one.

Skin comes back smooth and current. The stock adds no texture of its own, so pores show only where the light puts them, and the long curve keeps the bright side of a face from blowing out. Ask for clean modern skin with fine detail held.

A blue sky still records pale, because every panchromatic film does. The difference here is that the long curve holds the gradient from the horizon to the top of the frame, so clouds separate without a filter. A yellow filter drops the sky to mid grey. For speed, this stock pushes badly: one stop to 200 is safe, 400 is the limit, and the contrast blocks after that.

Use it for architecture, still life, product work, copy work and any large print from a small negative. Use it whenever the picture must look like a photograph made this decade and not in 1968.

Leave it alone for reportage and street work. At 100 speed it needs light or a tripod, and it has none of the grain that the fast stocks bring.

Acros 100 is the other fine grain stock at the same speed. Acros is flatter and smoother in the midtones and it holds a long exposure. T-Max 100 is sharper and a little more contrasty, so it is the better choice for detail and the worse choice for a two minute exposure.

FP4 Plus is traditional grain at 125 speed. It has more grain and more forgiveness. Cinema publishes Monochrome at /techniques/cinema/ as a grade, and a grade cannot give you this tone curve: the straight line and the held highlight belong to the emulsion.

Kodak launched the T-MAX line in 1986 with T-Max 100 and T-Max 400, and the flat crystal technology in them was new to consumer film at the time. T-Max 100 measures about 8 on the Kodak RMS granularity scale, which is the finest grain of any 100 speed film Kodak has sold. It goes into sheet sizes for large format, and it is the standard stock for architectural and technical work where the negative must resolve every line.

Grain creeps back in, because a model treats film and grain as the same request. Say almost no visible grain at all, and add smooth clean tone in the shadows.

The result comes back soft. Fine grain is not the same as soft focus. Say very high edge sharpness and fine detail held, and put the camera on a tripod in the prompt.