Results of HP5 Developed with D96 or D76

mr_sarat · Mar 8, 2025

Hi Guys, please don't mind me aking, i'm still learning Developers and what does what, But I wanted to understand it an HP5 shot on box speed is developed in D96 OR D76, what would the results look like, also does D96 tends to give silver highlights ?

loccdor · Mar 8, 2025

What do you mean by silver highlights? Do you have any example images?

dokko · Mar 8, 2025

mr_sarat said:
But I wanted to understand it an HP5 shot on box speed is developed in D96 OR D76, what would the results look like...

they would look very similar and both very nice

bit more seriously, those developers are so closely related that you'll only see some subtle differences if you have a very consistent workflow.

I fund that best way to learn about different developers is read the film developing cookbook (and this forum) and then just do a lot of practical film processing.

xkaes · Mar 8, 2025

I shoot it at ISO 400 and develop in D-76. I love the grain.

Romanko · Mar 8, 2025

Stock solution of D76, 1+1 and 1+3 dilutions will produce different results. What format are you shooting?

MattKing · Mar 8, 2025

Welcome to Photrio.
As posted above, D76 and D96 are fairly similar. D96 was/is optimized to be used in motion picture development lines and to produce slightly lower contrast results on motion picture film designed to produce out of camera negatives.
You can, however, obtain essentially the same contrast from the two developers by adjusting development parameters.

bernard_L · Mar 9, 2025

Picture worth thousand words.
Could you please post an example of an image with silver highlights? And a counter-example image, non-silver highlights (dull?? harsh??)

F4U · Mar 9, 2025

No mention was made of film size. If 35mm enlarged to 8x10, it would be fairly grainy. But nothing like the complete mess that Rodinal would make of it, for instance. The upside is that 400 speed would turn out to me exactly 400. D-76 is a very trustworthy developer, giving good sharpness with a bit of grain. But nothing so bad it would ruin anything. I don't believe there is any such thing as a bad negative when D-76 was used.

albireo · Mar 9, 2025

F4U said:
No mention was made of film size. If 35mm enlarged to 8x10, it would be fairly grainy. But nothing like the complete mess that Rodinal would make of it.

Many people routinely use HP5+ in Rodinal and produce wonderful photography.

I really wouldn't call their results "a complete mess".

If you really don't like grain, you could just buy a modern mirrorless camera and call it a day couldn't you. Bags of detail and no grain up to 6400 ISO.

Isn't choice wonderful?

koraks · Mar 9, 2025

bernard_L said:
Picture worth thousand words.
Could you please post an example of an image with silver highlights? And a counter-example image, non-silver highlights (dull?? harsh??)

Thanks, yes, this would be essential. Could you show us an example, please, @mr_sarat ? Thanks and welcome to Photrio!
Also, with an acknowledgement to the relevant remarks of @dokko on the differences between D76 and D96 - consider that the main impact on the tonality of the image is made by a host of factors. Choice of the developer as such is pretty far at the bottom of the list. Subject matter, light and viewpoint/framing are all the way at the top. The bottom half of the list is made up of choices like film, lens, development time and if you dig down very deep into factors that have only very subtle influences, you'll encounter the developer and parameters like agitation.

snusmumriken · Mar 9, 2025

@mr_sarat: You don’t say what film and developer you have used up to now? The differences between developers are quite subtle. My advice would be to get used to one film and developer, for at least 10 rolls, and then consider carefully what you don’t like about the results. Then come back to the forum with some examples for advice on what changes to make (there are some awesomely knowledgeable people here); or just quietly change developer (or film, but not both together) for another 10 rolls, and compare.

Results of HP5 Developed with D96 or D76

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loccdor

dokko

xkaes

Romanko

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bernard_L

F4U

albireo

koraks

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snusmumriken

Results of HP5 Developed with D96 or D76

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