HP5, High contrast, developing question

Quinten · May 23, 2005

I am still very excited about a picture I shot yesterday, the only problem is that it was shot with my first and only rol of Ilford HP5 (120).

Maybe someone has a developer suggestion for this film. I would love to have as little grain as possible, and have rodinal and ilfosol s at home. (but maybe something else is better.)

The contast was rather high but I am not sure wheter I should develop shorter since I would love the picture to stay a bit dark... Above that I had to slightly underexpose the shades since I didn't have a tripot with me.

I don't see myselves testing this film shortly since it's already hard to fully understand my first film APX100 and TriX is second on my list to learn..

Thanks for any tips in advance,
Quinten

gareth harper · May 23, 2005

Hope you bracketed the shot, always a good idea, particulary if it's a film you are not familiar with.

Rodinal tends to be contrasty, very crisp but grainy.
Ilford DD-X should give you fine grain with good tonality.
Ilfosol S, should give you reasonably fine grain with good sharpness but not as tonal as DD-X.

Also maybe have a look at http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/pdf/HP5_Plus.pdf

Fotohuis · May 23, 2005

I agree with Jay.

If I am looking in our program best fit for minimizing the grain with HP5+ is the SPUR HRX-2 but as E.I. iso 250. If you had an iso setting of 400, we can suggest the SPUR SLD which gives a very regulair grain on HP5+.

From the (Dutch) Amaloco program AM50 is rather critical about the exposure and the AM74 will give too much grain in combination with the HP5+ and is for your request less suitable and not recommended.

Alternative the staining developer from Moersch: Tanol, but also used on a lower E.I. (iso 200).

Best regards,

Robert

shyguy · May 23, 2005

I get what i think are very nice results from HC110 dil. B for 5 min. at 24c in a Jobo with HP5+ sheet film exposed at 2/3 of a stop less than the rated 400.

S.

Blighty · May 23, 2005

ID11 or D76 seems like a good safe bet to me. BLIGHTY

fschifano · May 23, 2005

This film usually works very well with D-76, even better with XTOL. I use either diluted 1+1 for D-76, or anywhere 1+1 to 1+3 for XTOL. Development times run on the long side and I lke that, since overdevelopment becomes a deliberate exercise instead of an accident. I've had good results with Rodinal 1+50 with HP5+ in medium format, but it is still not my first choice with this film.

Instead of jumping from one film to the next, you'd really be better off shooting with 1 film until you get the hang of it.

waynecrider · May 23, 2005

Without a doubt Diafine. It should give you a 1 stop increase and it develops in a wide temperature range. Buy it from Calumet as B&H doesn't ship it.

Quinten · May 25, 2005

Thanks for the tips! And I promise I will never load my camera with a film I don't know yet ever again, unless it's to get to know it....

I've written down some chemicals and I will try most of them soon (I need a 400asa film someday anyway)

Have a great day!
Quinten

Ole · May 25, 2005

Quinten, you have got many suggestions here and I'm not going to recommend yet another developer that hasn't already been mentioned.

Since you shot 120, I wouldn't worry too much about grain. I would rather worry about exposure and contrast, which seems to be where you started off anyway...

So if I did this and already had Rodinal at hand (as you do), I would go for Rodinal 1:100 and minimal agitation. This will pull most of the detail in the shadows, reduce the contrast, and give very "crisp" grain.

Normally I would use Ilfosol-S with HP5+ (and FP4+), simply because I like the tonality that gives. But in this particular case I might go for what I just described - or maybe Ilfosol-S at 1+14?

Magnus · May 25, 2005

HP5 and X-Tol go together like Sonny and Cher (in their good days then)

scottmcl · May 25, 2005

HC-110

HP5+ and HC-110 go together extremely well. I shoot EI 320 and 800 in dilution H with very nice results, and controlling contrast is a chief consideration for my style of shooting and printing.

Dilution H is 1:63. Easy to mix up. I soup EI 320 (or 400 in your case) for 9.5 minutes. 1 minute or so continuous agitation and then just one inversion every two minutes thereafter. I use a water stop bath.

FWIW, same drill with EI 800, except a total dev time of 13 or 13.5 minutes.

HC-110 is widely available, inexpensive and has great keeping properties. Very flexible developer and lots of good info on different films/situations on the Web.

Scott

psvensson · May 25, 2005

Whatever you do, first get another roll of HP5 and develop it. (Or just develop a snip of it and save the rest for future testing) Then, when you know the approximate time that's appropriate, develop the roll with the treasured picture.

Quinten · May 25, 2005

Ole said:
So if I did this and already had Rodinal at hand (as you do), I would go for Rodinal 1:100 and minimal agitation. This will pull most of the detail in the shadows, reduce the contrast, and give very "crisp" grain.

What is the function of the minimal agitation? I once forgot to do this with another film and the results where pretty off. And thanks again for the well thought of advice, if learned quite a few things from your posts already.

cheers!

Quinten · May 25, 2005

psvensson said:
Whatever you do, first get another roll of HP5 and develop it. (Or just develop a snip of it and save the rest for future testing) Then, when you know the approximate time that's appropriate, develop the roll with the treasured picture.

Actually there is one roll of HP5 drying and another one is washing at the moment, with all the advice I found it a bit tricky, I am going to develop my final one with ole his adviced method and go for the real one tomorrow. (and post a scan soon after that.)

Fotohuis · May 25, 2005

Minimum agitation for Rodinal at higher dilutions (1+100) is important to supress the grain.

That's why Rodinal is less suitable for the rotation process.

Regards,

Robert

derevaun · May 25, 2005

Quinten said:
Thanks for the tips! And I promise I will never load my camera with a film I don't know yet ever again, unless it's to get to know it....

I don't have anything to suggest, except that I've had more "keepers" on the first roll of a new film type, new (to me) camera, new subject, etc. Few have been technically perfect, but I always look forward to the magic first roll effect and personally would never write it off as a "test" roll.

Having lurked a lot, I kind of infer that Diafine or another "compensating" developer is a good choice when a roll is all over the map, exposure-wise. Is that really the case?

kjsphoto · May 26, 2005

If you are having contrast problems with this film you are most likely over developing and not setting your shadows and highlights properly.

You really need to test this film to dial it in with the combination you use. I use HC110 1:45 and have no problem at all, but I also did all the testing to get all my N, N+, N- times down. I tested with LF and MF so make sure you do this first as other peoples times and EI will not be the same for you.

Also you really need to pick one film and run with it. If you dont you are just going to get more confused. Pick one film you like and stick with it for a year and learn it inside and out. Without testing you will never get the results you want and your printing will become a nightmare.

Just my two cents for what it is worth.

Magnus · May 26, 2005

KJS, couls you share your test results with us please, I am more than intersted

kjsphoto · May 26, 2005

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HP5, High contrast, developing question

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