It’s true that black and white negative film is very forgiving but I quickly got what I wanted: high contrast images or very light contrast, depending on what I wanted to show with that picture.

Ilford HP5+ Film Review Ilford HP5+ Film Review

Today, it’s available in a large variety of roll and sheet sizes from 35mm to 20x24” as it remains one of the best-selling black and white films ever made. The sky looks unnaturally bright (I don’t think it was particularly hazy that day) though I’m sure this can be corrected with a yellow filter. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But for portraits, I really do enjoy Kodak Portra 400 and a number of the newer Tungsten films that have come out in the past few years. Historical note: Somewhere I have a clipping with a letter to the editor complaining that if Ilford really went ahead with discontinuing HP3, it would mean the end of photography as we know it.Medium contrast, grain not overbearing but not the cleanest, ISO 400 like so many others… It all sounds a bit middle-of-the-road. Without turning a photography article into a political piece, suffice it to say as someone whose political interests predate their photography, I found myself on a train to Manchester, grabbing a camera and some film almost as an afterthought – my Rollei 35B is small enough to fit in a pocket, and cheap enough to not stress too much if it met the wrong end of a baton or the hard ground. It’s okay to shoot HP5 with exposures ranging between ISO 200 to ISO 800 on the same roll with normal development. All black and white negative film does this, though HP5+ does it better than most: its shadows reserve more detail than many comparable films (including Tri-X) and its highlights are least likely to get washed out by over-exposure.

ILFORD HP5 PLUS - EMULSIVE Love at first roll: ILFORD HP5 PLUS - EMULSIVE

Even when pushed in low-light scenarios, the shadow details reproduced on this film are second to none. Like many traditional grain films (Kodak Tri-X 400 being a notable example), ILFORD HP5 PLUS deals with scenes with a wide exposure range with ease. The negatives were clear, and only minimal tweaking in Lightroom was needed to get scans I was happy with. There’s a reason it’s been around for so long and is today one of the most commonly shot black and white films in the world.

The subheading on that last one is ‘black and white professional film for high print quality and flexibility in use’. I might add that my preference for Ilford films stems not so much from the emulsions but rather for the straightness of the base that makes it so much easier to scan. If you’re shooting in contrasty light, then it’s going to neutralize the situation when shooting outdoors in the real world. In the image below, you’ll see that the initial scan (top-left) lacks definition — which appeared even more evident when I printed it. Kentmere films offer superb value for money and are a great starting point for students or anyone learning film photography, before stepping up to ILFORD films.

Ilford HP - Wikipedia

The new formula doesn’t last as long as the old syrupy version, but if it’s mixed into multiple sealed 250ml bottles or bags, it’ll last just as long as new bottles. Ilford, a Harman Technology brand was founded in Alfred Hugh Harman ’s basement in 1879 — just 52 years after the first photograph was produced. That said, they also advise their Delta films display less grain, thanks to their tabular-grain emulsion vs. And at the same time, if you want a perfect final print, Ilford HP5 still has the ability to achieve these professional results too. This only lasted for two years until being superseded by the imaginatively titled HP3 in 1941, which was rated at different speeds depending on when in its life cycle you bought it.See part one of my High EI Shootout for examples and thoughts on HP5 PLUS shot at and developed for EI 12800.

Ilford HP5 - A photo comparison by The Kodak Tri-X vs. Ilford HP5 - A photo comparison by The

It certainly has limits — for example, the lower part of the car interior shows a lot of contrast and some significant loss of detail in the deepest shadows. The Canonet while a great little camera, of course, produces lower contrast images than what a more modern lens does. Both films favor photojournalism, street and documentary photographers due to the finer film grain and contrasting exposures. HP5 PLUS can be processed in a wide range of different developers using spiral tanks, deep tanks and automatic processors. Having said that, any film or digital camera will give more contrast in certain light than in others, and I certainly found this with HP5 Plus.SFX 200 - this medium speed film has extended red sensitivity so when coupled with a deep red filter can produce infra-red style images. You can add your support by contributing your thoughts, work, experiences and ideas to inspire the hundreds of thousands of people who read these pages each month. According to Ilford, the main difference between the two is that DELTA PROFESSIONAL films use a newer emulsion. That said, a poll conducted in a large group of film photographers on Facebook suggests most users prefer to push HP5+ using Kodak HC-110 developer. The downside of over-exposing or pulling film is that it can create flat images without much contrast.