Help! wedding (today) got moved indoors. how do I push HP5 for lowest contrast and minimal grain

I brought my Nikkormat for my friend's wedding, because I couldn't fit my P67 in my carryon, and my best lenses are all F mount. It's been rained out, so I now need to shoot available light indoors, and even with my 55mm 1.2 I need all the help I can get. (Fortunately I am not the wedding photographer, just a photographer at the wedding.)

I've pushed HP5 plenty before, but I'm a landscape photographer, and I've always done it for the dramatic high contrast and gritty grain. Now I need the opposite.

Ideally I'm looking for a 2-stop push, but I might be able to get away with less. I have Diafine (never tried it) and Xtol at home, but I can get whatever developer I need to.

thank you!

edit: all my prior crunchy pushing was done in either Xtol or Rodinal. perhaps it's time to finally learn what microphen is?

Here's a website with instructions for rating HP5 @ 1600 ISO in XTOL. Can't vouch for results, but at least it is something...

I have never used Diafine but would think XTOL would be a good choice.

Diafine will work work, very fine grain and low contrast, maintains shadow detail, pushing in XTOL, D76, Clayton F76+ you will lose all your shadow detail with a 2 stop push. Down side to Diafine is that it can look somewhat mushy, the very fine grain means low edge sharpness. HP5 should push 2 stops in Diafine but you need to check the package to see what the recommended ISO is.

Anchell and Troop recommend Ilford DD-X for pushing MORE than two stops. Since. you are pushing two stops Xtol may work okay.

atomicthumbs said:

Ideally I'm looking for a 2-stop push, but I might be able to get away with less.

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I'd try shooting at around 640-800, and selectively shoot what happens to be in good/decent light. After all:

atomicthumbs said:

I am not the wedding photographer, just a photographer at the wedding

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this means you can cherry pick!

koraks said:

I'd try shooting at around 640-800, and selectively shoot what happens to be in good/decent light.

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agreed.
also, shoot some shots with slow shutter speeds.
some of them will be blurry, but some will be ok, and I'd rather have a slightly soft, but well exposed image over all of them being sharp, but dark and murky (specially at a wedding).

Personally, if I was not the wedding photographer, I wouldn't sweat it. Let it go grainy, it might have a moodiness and immediacy that could make the photos more interesting.

I don't mind grainy either, but underexposed images often have a not very cheerful feeling, specially if the light is flat - not ideal for weddings.

Take lots of photos of the small details, that tend to stay still while you photograph them.
Find a location with semi-decent light, and convince people to come to you for informal/casual portraits.
Encourage everyone to celebrate, and "snap" photos of that!
Don't sweat documentation. Enjoy the shared experience.

I'm hoping you just decided to use a flash