ilford HP5 plus and aculux3

Hallo there!
I am having some problems when trying to develop ilford hp5 plus with the aculux3 developer. according to the manufacturer's instruction the time for development at 20 degrees is 13 minutes which i normally reduce to 10 1/2 as the temperature of my solutions is 22 degrees. when i scanned the last couple of rolls that i've processed (and even the first ones i did) the images i got were extremly dark, despite the fact that they were taken on a bright sunny day and that i was actually expecting the exact opposite.
i started reading a little bit and i had a look at the massive dev chart and discovered that they recomend 14 minutes and 1/2 for developing hp5 plus with the aculux3...i am now a bit puzzled as i don't know whether i should keep the time the same as before and change something else (but what?!?) or use the time given by the massive dev chart.
any suggestions?

many many thanks!!

Elisa

I'd recommend to follow the instructions with the developer, not the massive dev chart, which is fraught with errors. So, you are familiar with the developer, but not HP5 Plus? Please explain a bit more about what you do and then we can try to help.

ok, so i will follow the developer instruction. what i normally do, once the film is in the tank is adding the developer and the use the follwing agitation protocol every minute: invert 4 times, swirl once and let stand for the rest of the minute, then repeat again. a friend of mine suggested me this as it works very well in her hands...i am a beginner so i don't have much expertise in anything...
any suggestion will be very much appreciated!
thanks

Hi Elisa,

I also use this combination of HP5 and Aculux, and I use it for important work such as weddings. My temperature is 20deg. and I agitate for the first minute, and then 10 seconds every minute, usually 4 inversions. (I wouldn't worry about the "swirl")

For HP5, 35mm, which I am printing with a DeVere diffusion enlarger, I give 14 minutes. For 120 film I give 15-16 minutes. A diffusion enlarger prints less contrasty than a condenser enlarger, and I like fairly contrasty prints, hence why I found 13 minutes to be a below normal development time, for me.

Everyone is different - tHe best thing is to just test the film with different times and see what happens. It might sound boring, but it really helps, because everyone is looking for their own look, and what is right for me may not necessarily be best for you.

Matt

thanks matt, it's really helpful!