Contrast and Tonality Part 3: Characteristic Curves for Film and Paper – By Sroyon
Most major manufacturers of film and photographic paper release datasheets with technical details about their product. If you’ve ever looked at such a datasheet, you may have seen graphs like the ones below:
These graphs are called characteristic curves (because they show they show the characteristic properties of film or paper) or sensitometric curves (sensitometry being the study of light-sensitive materials). In this post I’ll try to explain how characteristic curves can help us with film choice, metering, exposure, developing and printing – in short, at pretty much every stage of the (film) photography process.