HP5+ & D-76

[doubs43]

Another thread asked about which developers were best for HP-5+ film. Yesterday I took a roll of HP-5+ and developed it in D-76 straight. 7 1/2 minutes at 68 degrees F with an initial agitation of 10 inversions followed by 3 inversions at 6, 4 1/2 , 3 and 1 1/2 minutes. I also tap the base of the stainless steel tank on a pad twice to dislodge bubbles after each inversion series.

The pictures below were taken with a Leica IIIf BD and 90mm Elmar. Most were taken at f/6.3 and f/9 using 1/100 and 1/200. A lens hood was used.

The only problem I see is with shots taken that include both sunlight and shadows. The contrast is a bit high but in most cases can be manipulated to moderate the image.

Walker

 

[kaiyen]

Hm. To be honest, the grain is higher than I'd expect with D76 1+0. But it's hard to tell at these resolutions.

How do you feel about them?

allan

 

[back alley]

walker, did you use usm as part of the process?
the edge sharpness looks kinda strange on my monitor, like too much usm.

as for d-76, my only complaint is it's a powder, like id11 in ilford.

i prefer ilfosol s & ddx as i like the look but i also like the liquid. it's so much easier and i'm so lazy.🙂

joe

 

[doubs43]

Hm. To be honest, the grain is higher than I'd expect with D76 1+0. But it's hard to tell at these resolutions. How do you feel about them? allan

The grain is tighter and less evident than it is when developed in Rodinal 1:25.

Walker

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Seems too grainy to me as well.

These were shot with my SLR, but thought I'd share them anyway. D76 stock, HP5. I'm wondering where your grain is coming from.

This is a resized version. This is the full scan from the lab. As you can see, I'm seeing far less grain.

 

[doubs43]

walker, did you use usm as part of the process?
the edge sharpness looks kinda strange on my monitor, like too much usm.

as for d-76, my only complaint is it's a powder, like id11 in ilford.

i prefer ilfosol s & ddx as i like the look but i also like the liquid. it's so much easier and i'm so lazy.🙂

joe

Joe, all images were manipulated and sharpened. A straight scan would be too contrasty in most cases. They look fine on my monitor so yours may account for the difference we see.

Walker

 

[doubs43]

Seems too grainy to me as well.

These were shot with my SLR, but thought I'd share them anyway. D76 stock, HP5. I'm wondering where your grain is coming from.

This is a resized version. This is the full scan from the lab. As you can see, I'm seeing far less grain.

Stephanie, I just scanned another image and have done no additional sharpening. One is the full negative while the other is cropped. Both are at 200dpi and sized to 740 pixels on the long side...... the same as your resized image. Perhaps the grain isn't quite so bad now?

Walker

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Yeah. Using unsharp seems to exagerate grain quite a bit...I try not to use it as much as possible. Could be the case with the other photos. That one looks a lot better. 🙂

 

[kaiyen]

Yeah, definitely way too much sharpening, then. Those last two look a _lot_ better.

I realize that it's subjective, but it's hard for the grain to be both tighter and less evident 🙂. At least in terms of how grain is usually described and how the developer works on it, that is.

allan

 

[kaiyen]

Stephanie,
BTW - you might want to talk to your lab about how their washing your film. There is some weird water mark/drying mark/thing on the lower right of that image...

allan

 

[back alley]

do you sharpen or use unsharp mask?

 

[Stephanie Brim]

That was me. I used regular tap water to wash my negs with after I developed them and we apparently have a bit of stuff in our water other than water...I've since switched to using distilled water for wash and no more unsightly spots have come up (that are my fault, anyway). All the lab did with those is the scan.

 

[doubs43]

Yeah, definitely way too much sharpening, then. Those last two look a _lot_ better. I realize that it's subjective, but it's hard for the grain to be both tighter and less evident 🙂. allan

My "problem" may be that I like an image to fill my screen and to keep the file sizes reasonable I resample them to 100 dpi and size them to either 11 inch in width or 8.5 inches high depending upon whether they're horizontal or vertical shots. I probably tend to over-sharpen as well. I'll experiment with 200 dpi and less sharpening as I did with the last images. Then I'll find what pixel count I need to fill my screen.

By "tighter and less evident", I meant that the grain is much more noticeable when I developed the same film in Rodinal 1:25. I'm attaching a picture developed in Rodinal that I've posted before but it's my granddaughter and I like it. 🙂

Thanks to everyone for the critique. It's given me something to ponder for awhile.

Walker

 

[doubs43]

That was me. I used regular tap water to wash my negs with after I developed them and we apparently have a bit of stuff in our water other than water...I've since switched to using distilled water for wash and no more unsightly spots have come up (that are my fault, anyway). All the lab did with those is the scan.

Stephanie, it may be cheaper in the long run for you to devise a filter such as I use. The case and filter are sold by Sears and the rest came from hardware stores such as Lowes and Home Depot. The picture should be self-explainitory.

Walker

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Most likely, but I like distilled water. It's also most likely impossible to put one of those filters on either of the sinks that I use. I cut costs by only doing a final wash in distilled water and this seems to be enough to get the stuff from the tap water off.

 

[RObert Budding]

I shoot a lot of HP5 developed in D76. I shoot EI 200 and develop 1:3 @ 68 degrees for 14min with two inversions each minute. Not much grain as I shoot mostly 645. It's a very nice film.

 

[allthumbs]

Final distilled-water wash works best for me as well. Our water is hard as a rock, and photo-flo doesn't seem to be very effective with it. If I'm feeling really cheap, or don't have a tankful left, I'll spray the distilled water on the hanging negatives, which I'm pretty sure is a trick I picked up on this very forum.