Developing Ilford Delta 100

[soupdragon]

I have never really had any success with black and white film regardless of format.
The box of Ilford Delta in my freezer really needs to be used and so to the questions.

I see a lot of pictures that have low grain and fairly high contrast and it's a look I like.
Will Delta produce what I want?
Is it the film that produces this look, the developer or a combination of both?
Does the dev time play a factor in how a film finally looks?
What about exposure in the camera?

In truth I do not have the experience to judge B+W negs.

I guess the way the image is scanned has a huge effect on the final result.

These things are why I always shoot colour.

 

[Ian Grant]

It's the combination of film, developer, exposure and development time. I've been using Delta 100 since 2007, because I couldn't get Tmax100 while living abroad. It's a lovely film.

We use exposure to control the shadow details, and development time to control contrast.

Ian

 

[David M]

As Ian says, it’s a combination of factors. If you were wet printing there would be other tools available.
You can get high contrast by underexposing and overdeveloping the film, sometimes called “pushing”. The Zone System describes this differently and provides other tools for getting a negative that suits your style. Unfortunately, it’s not a system they you can simply apply out-of-the-box. Some testing is needed to fine-tune your process And consumes both film and time.
The best starting point would be a normal negative, with a full range of tones. Ideally it will look a little bit flat. This will give you the greatest freedom on-screen. Best to make a copy of your original scan to experiment.
You don’t mention your software, but it may have some presets that you like.
Otherwise, you can begin by adjusting Levels. This will determine the black and white points. it sounds as though you like thoroughly black shadows and Levels can give dense blacks and very bright highlights. You should be able to make overall adjustments to contrast too.
After this, Curves will give finer adjustment. Finally, the dodge and burn tools can make local adjustments, as in a we darkroom, except that you can choose to dodge or burn shadows, midtones and highlights individually - another valuable tool for adjusting contrast.
Leave sharpening to the end, as the operations above can gave strange effects when applied to a sharpened image.

With a bit of experience you may decide to modify your exposure and development practices. The Zone System awaits! On this forum, other members can give excellent and extensive advice on developers that give different results. My own advice would be to begin at the beginning and follow the instructions on the box.
If you are past being a raw beginner (as I suspect) most people find that exposing at half the box speed and giving 20% less development is a good basis from which to start.