More HP5+ Development Experiments

This is another in my series of hunting for a good developer/exposure regime for HP5+ film on my 4x5. I am taking a more subjective and less sensitometry-based approach to this film. I started here. (For FP4+ I took the sensitometry route in an earlier blog post here.)

I aimed to take two images of the same subject under similar lighting. The subject is a hide on the edge of Holme Fen overlooking Trundle Mere, a small pond. I took an image at my new provisional EI of 200 metering to place the shadows in zone III. I then took an image at box speed EI 400 with the same objective. The EI 200 images I made with f22 while the EI 400 were at f32 with the same shutter speed.

(Blog page cover image)

I developed the image exposed at EI 200 in HC-110 dilution H at 8 minutes at 21C (this is -20% of the recommended nominal time of 10 minutes) Previously I had tried an image at 7 minutes (-30%) at EI 200 so I was trying a slightly longer development. 

EI 200 Developed 8 minutes HC-110 dilution H inverted only
(That is Mollie photobombing me.) (raw0003 inverted.tif)

Histogram for above image.

The histogram confirms the exposure and development were good as the histogram does not crowd the black or white ends of the histogram. The highlights are quite bright however. I picked two areas of interest to show shadows and highlights.  

Shadow crop of above.

Highlight crop of above.

The shadows show great detail inside the hide while the highlights look slightly blown though there is detail there. 

The EI 400 image I developed at the nominal time of 10 minutes at 21C. I scanned the images, cropped the borders and then simply inverted the images, no other adjustments. The images shown here are scaled to upload from 3200 dpi to 600 dpi 16 to 8 bits and saved as JPEGs. 

EI 400 Developed 10 minutes HC-110 dilution H inverted only. 
(raw0002 inverted.tif)

Histogram from above image.

The histogram from the scan confirms the developed image is well exposed and developed as it does not crowd the white or black edges. 

Shadow crop. 

Highlight crop.

In the case of nominal exposure and development the shadows lack detail while the highlights hold more detail. 

My conclusions from this pair of images is that the instinct to rate the EI lower is good as the shadow detail is very nice due to the 'overexposure' putting more light in the shadows. The development is perhaps too much and perhaps I should return to the -30% (7 minute) development time to calm the highlights. Alternatively I could expose less at EI 250 or 320 to reduce the highlights but at some risk to the shadow detail. My sense is to stick with EI 200 and reduce the development time.

And for those interested here is a crop of Mollie...

Mollie
(EI 200  8 minutes development)