Replicate this Photo, How many stop higher for ASA setting and How to D76 Development ?

Hello there, This photo is taken in a normal day at 1:30 PM with diaphgram blade blocked olympus xa2 and developed by a professional with secret developer. As you see , its so much dark but highlights are clean white.
Film is Ilford FP4.

Now I have Canon EOS 1000 with EF 35-80mm lens , FOMA 100 ASA Film and D76 Developer and Epson Scanner. I will put ASA setting higher to replicate this dark image but how many stop should I go higher and how to develop the film ?

This is a Grocery.

The real trick is to find a place where you have two sources of light, one behind bare trees and a second source directed to the scene but not flooding. Maybe late afternoon/sun behind trees and a car/headlights on the fruit stand.

Set ASA normal and overdevelop.

I would use D-76 1:1 for 17 minutes to get increased contrast like this.

Bill Burk said:

The real trick is to find a place where you have two sources of light, one behind bare trees and a second source directed to the scene but not flooding. Maybe late afternoon/sun behind trees and a car/headlights on the fruit stand.

Set ASA normal and overdevelop.

I would use D-76 1:1 for 17 minutes to get increased contrast like this.

Click to expand...

Dear Bill , Thank you for your answer. That is great. Does overdevelopment increase the grain ?

It will increase grain to develop more, but not dramatically. The first photo looks like there might be a street light because the ground is not stark black.

Bill Burk said:

It will increase grain to develop more, but not dramatically. The first photo looks like there might be a street light because the ground is not stark black.

Click to expand...

Bill, Foma 100 ASA film has 8 minutes development time and are you quite sure 17 minutes goes to pure black and whites when there are some mid tones or is it a photoshop curves trick that I am after ? Or together ? I saw 17 minutes is N+3 development and does it enough to do the trick ?

Mustafa Umut Sarac said:

I will put ASA setting higher to replicate this dark image but how many stop should I go higher and how to develop the film ?

Click to expand...

There are several ways to get to a similar point.
1: Underexpose using the camera meter and without changing the ISO setting from what the film is officially intended for. So keep the ISO at 100, but take a meter reading (evaluative or partial, depending on what you prefer) and dial in exposure compensation of around 2 stops underexposure (i.e. 2 stops faster shutter speed than the meter reading suggests).
2: Underexpose by setting the ISO to a higher number; I would pick something like 400 for this rather dramatic underexposure.
3: Correctly expose the film, and decide later on in digital post processing or darkroom printing where the black point should be.

I would personally go for #3 because this is the most flexible and if you end up liking the image better with some more shadow detail, it will still be in the negative.

Btw, @Bill Burk is right in pointing out that the real 'magic' in this photograph is probably not its exposure; it's the light and the atmosphere of the scene. Technique is a side-show; 95% of photography is seeing, not metering, development etc.

Push the film to get strong contrast and blocked shadows.

Lots of burning in the darkroom to get every dark parts as dark as you want them.

Split toning sepia/selenium to get the highlights to glow, as well as that brown-pinkish hue.

That would be how I would try it. I don't think what you see comes from film ASA-setting and development alone, but with a lot of darkroom work. The glow and washed-out textures of the highlights — especially apparent in the second photo — tells me bleach was propably used.