Ilford HP5 | Film Exposure Limit Test

HP5 literally doesn't care what you do to it lol

Thanks for showing this, super helpful! Could I seek your advice - if I increase iso during shoot and reduce exposure compensation correspondingly during shoot, do I still have to push it during development?

Great video Kyle! Thanks for doing these types of tests they are super helpful especially for beginning film shooters like myself.

Many films don't quite reach box speed in typical developers, if you go for the D=0.1 rule for Zone I, they are regulary 1/2-1 stop under that. The development times published by the manufacturer are often a slight push development already.

This may be the reason why your +1 shot looks better.

For your conspiracy theorists .. in the 1960s they changed the way film speed is defined/measured, so that all the box speeds doubled.

Does Ilford Delta behave in the same way as HP5 for overexposing?

So, you placed you camera iso at box speed and you conrolled your stops (under/over) with f-stops and shutter speed and developed for box speed? What was your normal f-stop and shutter speed and what was it for 1 stop over and the one for 1 stop under. I am trying get my barrings because I really love the look of the photos (handsome) and the simplicity of this method.

Really enjoyed the video. Thanks!

I always over expose by 1-stop on HP5. Maintains contrast while extracting detail in the shadows.

So if I’m shooting indoors I can rate HP5+ at 1600 and tell the lab to push my film +3 stops and that will give me +1 stop over exposed

great test! not only informative but fun aswell.. thx a bunch mate.. much love

I guess you don’t even need an ND if you see your exposure reaching 2-3 stops over box speed areas

🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍👍

It's quite a good video. It's a very valuable test. Thank you very much!

You can’t have a lab scan your negatives without them correcting them which renders this test useless. You have to develop your own film and scan yourself with no corrections

I like shooting HP5+ at 200 ISO and then pulling 1 stop in development. It also shoots well up to 1600 ISO with push development. You can definitely just shoot it overexposed without pulling like you can with color neg but it really gives good highlight detail while also giving lots of shadow detail if you pull in development. With Black and White there is so much flexibility in development because the development process is not standardized like C41 so you can get all kinds of different looks from using different developers, dilutions, and times.  

FYI I recommend you try Ilford Delta 100 and 400 next (if you haven't already by now)

Hi which Lab do you use to develop your Ilford HP5 films in the UK?

My experience is that if you are overexposing by 3 or 4 stops you are going to have a hell of a time printing in a darkroom, unless you are compensating in dev, if your end game is scanning then have at it.

Thanks for doing this. I’m going to order some HP5, and this will save me some experimentation

Will you do Ultramax, please?

Bro I'm already watching the video with your face I don't care if I see more of your face in the photos you got a nice face

Very valuable, thank you . Did you develop the film at different stops differently?

wow, great tips and video, GREAT beginner film, esp. for 4x5" sheet, if this responds simmilarly, but great to hear how it works, BEST over exposed, NOT under, so a good safe film to start on, just err on the OVER side, little lost in quality, but not much.

Thanks for doing this. A friend gave me a roll of HP5 to shoot and I just loaded it today for the first time. I was curious.

so for the wet collodion look just overexpose by 8 stops. easy enough.

Oh, no actual PRINTS so you have no idea what you are talking about! Typical "Millennial" "FILM" expert. Have you EVER made a B&W darkroom ENLARGEMENT in your LIFE??? Have you ever processed a roll of B&W FILM yourself??? I learned with an FR Brand film tank when I was 5 years-old and my sister was 9, with Ansco All-Weather Pan in 620 size shot in my Father's Kodak Medalist roll film camera, processed in a Kodak Tri-Pack chemistry set with developer, stop bath and fixer in dry packets. We got a few "cinch" marks loading the film on the reel, but did OK and made contact prints with his daylight contact printer and processed them in the bathroom with a towel over the window on Kodak AZO contact paper. Then made some 8X10's at night.

Fomapan reviews please 😊🙏

Hey, I am about to shoot some and was wondering. Should I adjust my aperture to push or my iso? Does it depend on what depth of field I want?

Hi Kyle. New to the channel and new to film. Part of my journey is shoot, dev and DSLR scan. I may have missed it, but with this test, was the processing 'normal'? No shortened or lengthened dev times? Thanks in advance. Thanks for the info on the channel.

A really informative video! Who would have guessed that you could shoot 4 stops overexposure and still get great images. In fact, I like 2-3 stops better than 0 stops!

7 stops and still looks crazy good! it would have been nice if you zoom in to see what the grain is like on rating the ISO to 50 or 25. my take on hp5: its freaking versatile, i should say!

Hi, Kyle, I have a question for you, do you think it is best to do a dynamic range test with a color check for the HP5+, for if I am using a sekonic light meter?

I love this film because i can run it on my mamiya 645 80mm at 1.9f wide open at max 1/500 without filter (have the older one, not a 1000s)

No clue why your results look so poor, but I've been shooting HP5 at 200, developed with Bergger superfine, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular; smooth, rich gradations, very sharp details, with excellent shadow and highlight retention.

I think HP5 is the most versatile B&W film out there!

So can you shoot different iso on one roll of film? If so i never knew this.

This is an excellent overview. If you ever have the time, I'd love to see a repeat under a much wider range such as full sun with shadows as well as the histogram for each image. Such a test would give a better indication of how the film blocks up under varying conditions. This same test with Fomapan 100, 200 and 400 would be invaluable. None of the Foma films seem to live up to box speed, but are decent and cheap. I've heard multiple people say Fomapan 200 shot a stop over
is great.

can you imagine a digital camera trying to do this. This just shows how amazing film is.

I think you made a mistake here I mean if you really have metered on you face then your normal exposure was underexposed because your face was in the sun but the scene is in the shadow so you're started from underexposed position. I think the grass would be better to place your meter for this scene.

What are you using to develop? The type of chemistry, its dilution, and how much it has been used can really impact your results. If outsourced developing there can be a lot of variables preventing consistency. If developing in house, you may want to take a densitometer to some frames of 18% grey, black, white, or otherwise, cards at various exposures using the developers you want to use with the film. Nailing down all the variables can be hard, especially with a hybrid process where each step has the potential to cary your results.

Unfortunately,not good test. Tested and tweaked by lab scanner settings + you did your own tweaks. It doesnt give comparable results.

Hi, when you said you would probably shoot HP5 at 200 would you alsotell the lab you shot it at 200 or 400? Cheers :)

Wow! Thanks so much for doing this! This is really helpful! I wish you would do more experiments with HP5+ since it's such a popular and widely used film. For example exploring results with different developers (Ilford ones) or pushing it.

The last roll of HP5 I shot on my 1970 Miranda Sensomat RE 35mm was bad. Most of the roll was underexposed by about three stops. My light meter reads too low, so I've been pulling my film by rating it at least one stop below box speed with the needle slightly high. It seems to have done the trick. That HP5 roll was mud city.

Thanks Kyle! Fantastically useful! 🙏🏻

9-10 stops began looking like a Daguerrotype

any plans to try this same with tri-x 400? curious to see how it holds up in comparison

From a old school
Darkroom guy HP5 was always my go to

Do Tmax !

Do you have the details of how your lab developed the film? I would assume D-76 with Ilford's suggested agitation, but I could be completely off.

Man if you wanted the look, the 9 or 10 stop creates an interesting effect. It could work as a series.

I just loaded up on Fp4+ and it would surprise me if it can't handle the same. I'm almost thinking I should have some HP5 in 120 on hand. I shot it a lot in 35 when I was in school, and now I see why my university sold it bulk loaded to students.