Down a hole and having to push HP5+ to 3200.

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CharlesDAMorgan

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To avoid heavy traffic in tourist season I decided to visit the tin mine ruins at Botallack, and the preserved Geevor tin mine, run by a charity preserving it as it was when it closed in 1990. Both are about as far west as you can get in England, and a hundred mile run each way on ok roads from my home (which is pretty remote too - by UK standards).

Of course, I packed the R7 with Delta 3200 for down the mine, and my Leicaflex for colour, but forgot my R8 with HP5 for the exterior photography and the second roll of Delta 3200. So by the time I'd visited Botallack, I was out of the fast film.

So with only one roll of HP5 in the bag, I decided to push that to 3200 and see how that turned out, using Tmax developer.

I'm not greatly fond of either Tmaxp3200 or Delta3200 finding them very grainy at box speed. This of one of the many ruins at Botallack is like that. This was done in Tmax 1:4 - it was a foggy day!

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The mine building interiors have been fully preserved, and boy, they were dark. I had a Summilux R 80mm f1.4 on the camera and I was shooting most of these at 1/30th - so several had camera shake. But the HP5 pushed beautifully with a large amount of mid tone and shadow detail retained, and with much less grain. The Leicaflex SL2 focussing screen was blissful in this light.

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The mill, where the stone with about 1% tin in it comes to be crushed and sorted, was a bit less dark with more illumination from the roof voids. The noise of the machines going must have been hideous.

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Finally, the 18th century Wheal Mexico workings. Forget photography, the tin seam is at 45 degrees as is the tiny, low, narrow, filthy and insanely wet tunnels, as well as totally dark bar some bulbs. The miners were not paid before they started work, and at the deepest mines they had a 1200 ft climb down and up each day. You could only work with candles, so if you couldn't afford many, your day was exceptionally short (and very poorly paid). All the hauling was done by small boys carrying hand carts in rubble strewn passages.

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Conclusion - HP5+ pushes beautifully to 3200, with tons of shadow detail where there is sufficient light, much more attractive grain, and no loss of sharpness. All done with Tmax developer at 1:4.

I might try it at 6400 but probably with Microphen. Given the cost of HP5 vs the high speed alternatives, it looks to be a complete no-brainer to use this excellent film!
 
Down a hole and having to push HP5+ to 3200.

These results are fantastic Charles.
This last weekend I did a modest push to 800 in HC110, shot on medium format. Negs looked good but still got to print them... I still have yet to try pushing +2 or 3 stops, and surely a "higher tech" developer such as XTOL, DD-X, Tmax or Microphen will be better for it.

Under the same rationale, HP5 is well priced and IMO rather flat at box speed (being shot in lower contrast light doesn't help it). My usual routine in HC110E and EI320 finds me using harder grades at printing, so I might begin to routinely do EI640-800 with a respective push. Great for handholding MF.

Jon Canlas (Find lab owner and wedding photog) swore by HP5 at 3200. I have some skepticism as the guy owns a lab and there's quite some magic in scanning that might not translate in the darkroom.

Dark days are mostly behind, but I might find good occasions to push.
 
Yes, these are scans and I hope to print several this week to see how they turn out, but with all the detail in the negatives, I suspect the limitation will be my own inexperience in printing!

I think HP5 really comes into its own when pushed, but even at 400 (or 250 as I have been using it with PMK Pyro) it really prints beautifully.
 
Those really are great results. HP5+ always looks too grainy for my tastes when I push, but there’s none of that here. Clearly I am doing something wrong! Very accomplished work, Charles.
 
Thanks LCSmith - that's very kind. I just used my normal developing - 5 minute pre-soak, then 30 second initial agitation, 10 secs each minute, and 15 seconds extra for the pre-soak. Pretty fresh TMax developer too! I metered using the Leicaflex SL2's spot meter always trying to meter off 18% greyscale and using that for the pic. Even pulling out shadow detail in LR I'm not finding much grain.
 
CharlesDAMorgan said:
Thanks LCSmith - that's very kind. I just used my normal developing - 5 minute pre-soak, then 30 second initial agitation, 10 secs each minute, and 15 seconds extra for the pre-soak. Pretty fresh TMax developer too! I metered using the Leicaflex SL2's spot meter always trying to meter off 18% greyscale and using that for the pic. Even pulling out shadow detail in LR I'm not finding much grain.
Click to expand...

Very nice results, Charles. Better than I've achieved with HP5 (though, of course, I'm not blaming HP5... just the 'darkroom technician'. ;))

In addition to your success at push-developing HP5, there are several very pleasing compositions. Great work - thanks for posting.
 
Now that I've seen this, I like the grain of HP5 a lot better than that of the Delta 3200!

I'll have to remember this. Thanks for posting these great shots!
 
Wonderful photos and documentation, Charles. I've been looking for a substitute for 3200 film and this just might be it. Thank you.
 
They are excellent too - good to know that HC110 is equal to the task as well!

It's fun to think a trip down a tin mine was so productive (unlike the mine itself!).
 
First image was scary, just like Fomapan 400 @400 in Rodinal :). But rest is nice.

I push HP5+ @3200 regularly now. Tried new Kodak 3200 TMAX @3200 in TMAX this year, the grain is enormous comparing to HP5+ @3200.

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TMAX 3200 @3200 in TMAX (DR print)

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HP5+ @3200 in hcA (DR print)
 
Nice Kostya!

I did deliberately pick a poor one with Delta 3200 but they are all grainy and I'm only fond of the really black ones - it hides the grain more!. The only poor HP5 ones were with shutter shake or where I got the exposure completely wrong.

It's quite a revelation really as to what some films can do.
 
Having fun printing - trying to control the highlights while pulling up the shadow detail is fun, but getting there - the good thing is that contrast takes care of itself! A bit more playing to do, but ran out of time this morning.

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Charles, these photos are impressive. Thanks for sharing them, and the link. I have quite a lot of HP5+, and now you've inspired me to give it a push (the most I've pushed is only to 800).
The print looks great too.
 
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