Ilford HP5+ exposed @ ISO 200..Do I develop this film at 200 or 400?

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Normal development at 400 or pulled to 200?

-- Don M (Maldos@home.com), December 17, 2001

Answers

If your subject matter wasn't long scale (that is, low contrast), just develop as if it were exposed at 400.

If your subject matter was higher contrast, pull to 200.

Or, use a divided (two-bath) developer.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), December 17, 2001.


Depends on your developer. In HC-110(E) I normally rate HP5+ at 200 anyway. In Microphen I rate it at 400.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), December 17, 2001.

Yes Bob, but when you rate it at 200, are your developing time those of 200 or 400?

-- Don M (Maldos@home.com), December 17, 2001.

Don, For normal contrast I rate Hp5+ at 360 develop in Xtol 50/50 with H20 at 20 degrees celsius 12.5 minutes. Excellent results for my diffusion enlarger. If this is an important negative you may want to shoot a couple more rolls of HP5+ and experiment with different times, and your preferred developer.

-- Justin fullmer (provo.jfullmer@state.ut.us), December 17, 2001.

If you have experience with HP5+ at ISO 400 and have a development time you are comfortable with at that ISO, then cut your development time about 15% for ISO 200. As mentioned above, this assumes a normal (or high) contrast range of the scene. If the contrast range of the scene was low (completely overcast day, etc.) then you might want to use your normal ISO 400 development time. There really are no "standard" development times because of differences between enlargers (diffusion vs. condenser), agitation technique, etc.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), December 17, 2001.


Don - There is no "normal" dev time for HP5+ at ISO 400 because it's not an ISO 400 film (in HC110 E). There's no such thing as a "normal" development unless you mean the times given by Kodak (or Ilford) which are almost always pretty far from optimal.

For me, HP5+ IS an ISO 200 film (which doesn't depend on development time) and my development time is that which gives me the required density in the highlights. Shadows determin film speed and exposure, not development, is responsible for shadow density.

So the answer is my development time is for ISO 200. If I shot it at EI 400 and increased development time, I'd get underexposed but pushed negatives lacking in shadow detail and high in contrast.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), December 17, 2001.


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