Ilford HP5+ low contrast with D 76

[manojit_pusty1]

<p>Please let me know how to get low contrast , with more tones output with Ilford HP5+ and D- 76</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>Dealt with here:<br>

<a href="/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/00Se7E">http://www.photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/00Se7E</a><br>

N refers to normal development, N-1 is one step less (you really need to determine by test how much this is, 10% will do as a start), N-2 is 2 steps less, etc. If you're really keen. read up about Ansel Adams and the Zone System!</p>

[lex_jenkins]

For contrasty light, try rating HP5+ at 200 or 320 rather than 400.

Develop in D76 at the 1+1 dilution for around 9-10 minutes, assuming the

usual 20C or 68F temperature. I've found that a pretty good starting

point for most daylight situations. Adjust plus or minus 10% to suit your

preferences after trying that for a couple of test rolls.

[bruce_watson1]

<p><em>Please let me know how to get low contrast, with more tones output with Ilford HP5+ and D- 76</em></p>

<p>Nice try, but "low contrast, with more tones" is not going to happen. Film photography is analog, you'll get the same "number of tones" no matter how you develop it, if you don't do something to sabotage the tonality, like under exposure (aka push processing).</p>

<p>Indeed, I've thought the same thing in the past -- that I could "get more tones" by extending development (doesn't work, but does make the negatives hard to print and/or scan, and does run up Callier Effect in the high density areas which is a pain). Then I thought I might "get more tones" by developing less, but found that all that happens is that the tonality compresses (same "number of tones" but squeezed together slightly) until you get to rather severe under development when you actually start to loose some tonality.</p>

<p>The best tonality you'll get from film (any film / developer combination), is when it's exposed properly per your own personal exposure index that you've found by testing, and when it's developed for your own personal "normal development time" which you've again found by testing. The end result of this testing is to give you a negative with just enough density to print well in the darkroom, or scan well using your scanner (often a stop or so less density for scanning, but you have to test to find out), and no more. The right amount of density range is what you want. Not too much. Not to little. Just right.</p>

[pics]

<p>I think by "more tones" he simply means not getting large expanses of black and white with little detail in high contrast scenes, but I could be wrong. As others have said, the best way to deal with high contrast scenes is to rate the film at a lower ISO (ie: Overexpose to get shadow detail) and then cut your development time to control the highlights. What ISO and development time to use depends on a lot of variables (personal testing is beneficial). You can find plenty of data online that provides a good starting point regarding dev times for different ISO ratings of all films and developers. My experience is similar to Lex's. For bright daylight conditions I would rate HP5+ at an EI of 200 and develop in D-76 1+1 for 9-10 minutes at 68 deg. F.</p>

[chris_waller]

<p>I rate HP5 at 160 and reduce the dev time by about 40-45 percent from its 400 ASA dev time.</p>