Can I rescue HP5 shot at ISO 12?

[bj_bignell]

I accidentally overexposed a 120 roll of HP5 by 5 stops (ISO 12), due

to what must have been a complete brain failure when reading my light

meter. The pictures are all taken in bright, almost overcast

conditions so there will not be a lot of contrast to start with. Is

there any way to salvage this film?

 

I'm going to pick up a couple of extra rolls, and expose them

similarly, so I can do a number of different tests. I have Ilfosol

1+9 mixed up right now, and if I have to get something different,

would like to stick to a liquid developer for ease of preparation.

 

These shots are not important, but I can't just throw them away

without trying! Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

BJ

[jbq]

I'm interested, out of pure curiosity. My instinct tells me that they should be salvageable, and I'd like to know how thick the resulting negs will be, and/or how much contrast you'll be able to get.

[andre_noble4]

Actually, since most B&W films like HP5 are overated by a full stop anyway, consider it more like only 4 stops overexposure.

 

In Ilford ID-11 (1:1)developer, HP5+'s true film speed rates at ASA 125 for normal development (per a study in the magazine Photo Techniques). Now you have just 3 stops over to deal with.

 

Then you might try reducing development by 35% of Ilford's recommendations to get you closer to a normal negative.

[goemon]

Owww. Well, there's Perceptol/Microdol-X. Digitaltruth has times for ISO 200, but that's a long way away from where you are so you're going to want to do lots of snip tests.

[lex_jenkins]

Normally this would be a job for Microdol-X or Perceptol, if anything. But Ilfosol-S is a very good developer with slow films and may do the trick for this roll.

 

I've underexposed many a roll, to the extent of film abuse, in the course of push processing, but I've never accidentally or deliberately overexposed film to this extent.

 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[chris_waller]

I've rated HP5 at 64 ASa intentionally. Negs were very flat indeed. I'd suggest you dilute Ilford LC29 to about 1+39 and pro rata the time from 1+19.

[titrisol]

Very flat and bullet proof negs indeed.

I'd use a higher dilution of Ilfosol (1+14 or 1+120) and develop for about 1/2 the time reccomended. With that you'll over expose for 2-3 stops and then print in paper #00 or 0 with long exposure times

 

I did something similar in Xmas (due to a lot of wine) and shot 8 pictures in HP5+ with the flash set for ISO 64. Developed for ISO 400 though. Silver plated negatives!!!

The results were fine after 2-3 minute exposure in the enlarger using a filter #0 and Ilford MGIV. Someone suggested I use a green filter in the compartment to get better results, which I did and the tones looked quite similar to the 00 filter.

Since these were my family pictures of Xmas they were not fine art, but they looked fine. :D

[skygzr]

At least one response suggested that the negs would be flat...lacking in contrast. Why would you then want to print with a #0 filter?

 

My limited experience with severe overexposure (none with HP5) suggests that the negs will be more printable than you expect. But alas, I can't back that up with numbers.

[bruce watson]

Interesting. By looking at texts like Haist, it would seem that you have, indeed, recorded the information you wanted on the film. You've just put the information much higher up the curve that you wanted. Since modern films have latitude to spare and then some, this shouldn't be so bad.

 

Shortening development time will in fact make your highlights more easily printable, this is true. It will also cut down on overall density. Both the lower density and shorter development time will give you somewhat less grain than if you developed normally (which would be a huge amount of grain due to the very high density you would get). The problem, as has been pointed out, is a flat negative. But that's what grade 5 paper is for, isn't it?

 

My advice would be to use a solvent developer and pull processing up to 50%. You'll probably have to dilute the developer to keep your processing time up to five minutes or so. You'll still get dense flat negatives, but they should print fine on a harder paper, with very long exposure times.

 

BTW, if you dilute developers, your development time changes by the sqrt(dilution). That is, if you use developer X with a normal development time of eight minutes, and you want to cut that in half, you end up with four minutes. You want a time above 5 minutes, so you dilute X 1:1 with water (the extra water doubles the amount of solution). Your new development time is (4)(sqrt(2)) = 5.7 minutes, or 5 minutes 40 seconds.

 

Since your volume has increased, check to make sure you'll have enough active developer in your tank for the amount of film. You've got enough problems already, you don't want to add to the list exhausted developer!

[tim obrien]

Try developing in Cherry Koolaid 1+500 Stand development for three or four hours.

 

Oh, you tried that?

 

There is always Farmers Reducer. Nothing is unsalvagable if the information is there.

 

 

tim in san jose

[dean_williams]

Tim, you know darn good an' well that cherry Kool Aid is only recommended for Fuji films. For Ilford use blackberry, natch!

[bj_bignell]

Well, I messed up, and accidentally processed my overexposed roll of HP5 normally (Ilfosol-S 1+9, 7 minutes, 10 seconds of agitation once per minute). I pulled the negs out of the tank, and although they're darker than I'm used to seeing, they're not that bad... In fact, I think that they'll print pretty nice (in my amateur opinion).

 

So I'm scratching my head, trying to figure out what I just did. Overexposure by five stops? Not likely; maybe three stops at best. Complete lack of brain function on a sunny Sunday, leading to confusion and overreaction? Most likely.

 

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions; I hope I haven't been a bother. And, if I ever do overexpose a roll of HP5 by five full stops some day, I know that I'll have to run straight out for some blackberry Kool-Aid :-)

 

BJ