Your choice of film/chemical for hard summer light?

I'm currently plodding my way through the development of a dozen or so rolls of HP5 & FP4 that I used whilst travelling around France this summer.

On the whole, the results have been ok but the one thing I take away from the whole experience is that I'm yet to find a film that gives me satisfying results in hard summer midday type light.

Golden hour stuff, indoor and night time I've got covered, I just wonder what film/chemical combination people choose to use to tackle these high contrast situations.

Clearly development pays a key role and I've experimented with several chemical/film solutions over the years but am yet to find a sweet spot.

I think Delta100 with HC-110 B has been the most pleasing so far, but I've got a freezer FULL of HP5/FP4 and I often struggle to control the grain (even with fine grain developers) when I've been shooting in hard light.

I'm interested to know how others approach this situation.

Pyrocat-HD. I've used it for years with HP5 and FP4.

Andrew O'Neill said:

Pyrocat-HD. I've used it for years with HP5 and FP4.

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Agree, I've used it for 11 or 12 years now with Delta 100& 400 as well as HP5' great in all light even in hard lighting. Fantastic with HP5.

Ian

What format are we talking about here? You obviously want fine grain, so I'd assume it's some kind of small camera. But Delta would probably be my
last choice in high contrast scenes due to its inability to handle shadow gradation well. I'd rather use FP4, or if you need finer grain, ACROS. TMax
films are great if you meter them carefully. Pyro helps with all the above, and many more films too.

I use D-23 with Ilford Pan F to tame the contrast. It also provides fine grain. You can use it FS or 1+1.

Ian Grant said:

Agree, I've used it for 11 or 12 years now with Delta 100& 400 as well as HP5' great in all light even in hard lighting. Fantastic with HP5.

Ian

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Yes, I'm talking 35mm. I shoot 120 also but have no issues with this. I love FP4 and most of the time here in the UK it works wonderfully for me. Perhaps I'll try some ACROS next year.

Gerald C Koch said:

I use D-23 with Ilford Pan F to tame the contrast. It also provides fine grain. You can use it FS or 1+1.

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I love PanF and use it on 120. It's probably my favourite film. I have trouble with the faster stuff though on 35mm. Walk around street stuff- f11 1/250 etc...

Yes, Acros is lovely stuff. I intend to stock up on 4x5 when I'm back in Japan next Spring!

I just shot a lot of FP4 in 35mm and 120. I used Xtol 1:1. The light was early September (so not quite as harsh as mid-Summer) but it was in The Alps, at altitude. Pretty harsh and light is reflected back from the limestone/marble. The grain seems very fine to me (I am enlarging the 6x7 negatives at the moment) and almost all of the negatives so far print at grade 2 without difficulty (although some tweaks are probably needed). Xtol is not my usual dev (I usually use DD-X) but I am very pleased with it indeed so far. PS: I use a yellow filter pretty much all the time unless it's very overcast.

Attached a (partially successful) example of FP4, 6x7, Xtol 1:1 with a strongly backlit subject at near noon in Early September. Also another in the harsh mountain light.

HP5+ rated @ Ei200 and developed in HC-110 dilution H.

Sculptured tree stump, Charlestown, Cornwall. by John Bragg, on Flickr

For the past 30 years I have lived and photographed in the desert. I find that most people don't understand that is the noon day lighting can be very bright but also very flat. Here in the desert even more so due to so much reflected light. Today, before a weather system moved through, around 11:00 AM bright Arizona sun there was 3 stops of difference between deep shadows and highlight. It may be as simple as increasing your development time with your current developer to boost the contrast or print higher contrast, or maybe use Pan F which has more contrast than HP5. My main developer is MCM 100, but on occasions like today I will use Edwal 12 to pump up the contrast.