Strange Results Developing HP5 in Rodinal

gone · Feb 19, 2014

The gal at my local coffee house asked if I could take a photo of some coffee in a cup so that she could make some cards for her place. I had my Canon T90 loaded w/ HP5 and a FD 50 1.4 lens, so it looked perfect for that. The plan was to develop in TD-16, but several days later I forgot what was on that roll and developed it in Rodinal. The results are fine on the outdoor shots, but some of the inside shots look pretty strange. Maybe this is more about my lousy focusing and the lens at f1.4 than the film/developer combination? I've never seen negs quite like these.

It's the transitions from the in-focus to out-of-focus areas that got my attention. The last one might be made to work, missed focus or not. Not all of them came out like these, but these stood out.

This Rodinal makes for some beautiful grain though. Wow. Developed at my usual 1:25 dilution.

FM2N · Feb 19, 2014

3rd pic with bag looks like the camera focused on the bags zipper pull which seems closer then front rim of mug. At 1.4 that would be enough to miss. 2nd pic were you focused on rear edge of mug? Do you know shutter speed on first pic? Looks a lot like hand shake.

Arctic amateur · Feb 20, 2014

The first one looks like motion blur.

Daire Quinlan · Feb 20, 2014

What specifically do you find strange ? There's some motion blur and some misfocusing there, that's about it. Also the coffee looks awful :-D

gone · Feb 20, 2014

What I find strange is the abrupt cutoff from no grain to grain, especially on the second shot. There's almost a hard line on the left side of the coffee cup rim where it suddenly changes. Must be the lens doing that. I have never seen that in my pics, there's usually a softer transition from in focus to out of focus. Perhaps the Rodinal exaggerating that effect w/ the cup going all grainy. I guess a lot of it is my mis focus combined w/ the f1.4 aperture. Better shoot it at f2 next time. Yep, I noticed that I nailed the zipper on the bag. How I could have done that and missed the coffee cup is a wonder. Too much coffee?

The coffee is actually delicious (Sumatra), but I better put it in a white cup to give contrast to it and the cup, and have them put some of that yuppie milk foam in it to top it off.

pentaxuser · Feb 20, 2014

The simple answer is that HP5+ is a very British film and it objects strongly to being used to photograph a foreign brew such as coffee. I have taken many pictures of tea and it performs superbly. When in the developing tank I'll swear that you can strains of Rule Britannia coming out of it as long as its pictures of tea of course!

On a serious note these scans( negs or prints and if prints what size?)do look incredibly grainy.

Are you sure this graininess reflects the negs'/prints' looks?Focusing looks to be an issue but this isn't a film/developer problem.

pentaxuser

mauro35 · Feb 20, 2014

I honestly can´t find anything strange at all, except I think the negatives needed a bit more exposure and possibly a smaller aperture to increase depth of field for the specific type of subject, depending on taste of course.

Lamar · Feb 20, 2014

My first out loud laugh of the day.... and I needed it!! That was good.

pentaxuser said:
The simple answer is that HP5+ is a very British film and it objects strongly to being used to photograph a foreign brew such as coffee. I have taken many pictures of tea and it performs superbly. When in the developing tank I'll swear that you can strains of Rule Britannia coming out of it as long as its pictures of tea of course!

Thomas Bertilsson · Feb 20, 2014

May I suggest using a tripod? Stop the lens down and use a longer shutter speed. Bracket your exposures to make sure you get a good one.

I think it's a focusing problem, even though you're getting an inordinate amount of grain from your development.

fotch · Feb 20, 2014

pentaxuser said:
The simple answer is that HP5+ is a very British film and it objects strongly to being used to photograph a foreign brew such as coffee. I have taken many pictures of tea and it performs superbly. When in the developing tank I'll swear that you can strains of Rule Britannia coming out of it as long as its pictures of tea of course!.............

pentaxuser

fotch · Feb 20, 2014

Start over. Use tripod. Spend time getting the lighting to convey what you want the picture to say. Focus. Choose the depth of focus to help tell your story, it is part of the message.

Maybe the white cup is a good idea, do it with both cups & choose later. Choose everything that should be in the picture to make the picture, example, background, table cloth, cup, and so forth. Make sure any reflections, hot spots, etc., are there by choice. Good Luck.

Lamar · Feb 20, 2014

Lots of good advice here. Try a bit of different lighting. To me black & white likes contrast so take a few shots with some back-light like this one. I snapped it while I was testing out my Zorki-4 after a shutter adjustment so it's not great but just to give you an idea.

BTW, The cup contains English High-grown tea. The picture is taken on Tri-X, an American film, but the shot looks ok to me and seems to break the afore mentioned rule....... soooo..... I thought about this for a bit then realized the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan owns Kodak Alaris now....... Hmmm, I guess the rule still stands.

Jaf-Photo · Feb 20, 2014

I think the previous posters have pretty much explained it. The main problem is in the exposures.

I agree with fotch. Tell the coffee lady you lost the film and start over, with the benefit of preparation. Maybe even choose a different film. I would suggest Neopan 400 as it alwas has great tones an light rendition, even in bad light.

But for these negs you can always play around a bit with your scanner settings. Sometimes that can do a lot for difficult exposures.

For instance you could scan it as a raw file and try to adjust it with selective processing in Photoshop, Lightroom or another software that you use.

As regards the drinks issue, I think that most coffees and teas are grown in Latin America, Africa and Asia. So your films should be fine with either, unless they are very bigotted

jsimoespedro · Feb 20, 2014

Arctic amateur said:
The first one looks like motion blur.

+1

jsimoespedro · Feb 20, 2014

momus said:
What I find strange is the abrupt cutoff from no grain to grain, especially on the second shot. There's almost a hard line on the left side of the coffee cup rim where it suddenly changes. Must be the lens doing that. I have never seen that in my pics, there's usually a softer transition from in focus to out of focus. Perhaps the Rodinal exaggerating that effect w/ the cup going all grainy. I guess a lot of it is my mis focus combined w/ the f1.4 aperture. Better shoot it at f2 next time. Yep, I noticed that I nailed the zipper on the bag. How I could have done that and missed the coffee cup is a wonder. Too much coffee?

The coffee is actually delicious (Sumatra), but I better put it in a white cup to give contrast to it and the cup, and have them put some of that yuppie milk foam in it to top it off.

You should consider that gain will be more evident in smooth mid tones. So on the second shot, blacks are black and whites are white with little to no grain. I think this is expected.

gone · Feb 20, 2014

Well, I had to do it. I brought out the heavy artillery (The Nikon camera and the Leica R lens), and developed the negs in good old D76. Same coffee cup, same coffee (Sumatra), same Tri-X, different results. Wearing my glasses helped w/ the focus thing too :] Rodinal and the Canon lens will have to shoot other things, this is the way to approach this subject. I want someone to slap me up side the head the next time I stray from D76 (or TD-16). I mean, the Rodinal grain IS gorgeous, but....

The prints are just what I was after. I took about 10 shots and they all came out fine.

Just for the heck of it I brought my own cup today and used the modified Nikon EM w/ a Nikon non AI H 50 2 lens and more Tri-X in D76. Interesting, but I prefer the Leica shots. There's just no substitute for an Elmarit lens. The difference between the Nikon at f2 and the Leica at f2.8 is amazing.

Lamar · Feb 21, 2014

In the first shot I like the effect of the light coming through the table and reflecting off the cup. Nice!

Thomas Bertilsson · Feb 21, 2014

Yes, the first one makes me want a cup of coffee.

Jaf-Photo · Feb 21, 2014

Yeah, the first one of the new series is definitely the clincher.

Strange Results Developing HP5 in Rodinal

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