HC110 B with HP5+ @ 100

[RodinalDuchamp]

Hello everyone. I can't find a development time for HP5 shot at 100 in HC110 dilution B. I am seeking first hand experience with this combination and film speed. Any help is appreciated. I am switching from Pyrocat mostly because HC110 promises excellent results with a much reduced development time at least in my case.

Going off of available materials it seems that HP5 shot at 400 in HC110 B requires a 5 minute development at 68*
That means that going by the old rule of thumb -20% per stop I am ending up with a development time of about 192 seconds or 3.2 minutes for ASA 100.

That seems awfully short but maybe that's normal for this developer.

[Pere Casals]

Neal Chaves recomended 5 min at EI100 dil B, which is the standard time for EI400, but I find it good for EI100.

https://www.largeformatphotography.i...=1#post1482309

[Neal Chaves]

Neal Chaves recomended 5 min at EI100 dil B, which is the standard time for EI400, but I find it good for EI100.

https://www.largeformatphotography.i...=1#post1482309

Thank you Pere, I know you have made an intensive study of sensitometry .

Years ago I learned an excellent method to find the correct developing time and EI for any film. The source was an article by William Mortensen. Mortensen wrote some excellent books and articles about basic sensitometry. The last time I did this test was when I abandoned Tri-X in HC100 and switched to HP5+ in Ilfotec HC due to cost about five years ago. I proceed as follows.

I set up my trays with my favorite developer HC110B (1:31), now Ilfotec HC (1:31). I pull out a sheet from the package in the dark. and then when the package is sealed again I turn on the room lights. This part of the test is done under the lights. I cut the sheet into five strips and mark them 1-5 by punching holes with a paper punch. Lets say the recommended time is 5:00. I want to see 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00, so I throw all the strips into the developer and agitate as usual until 3:00 when I move the No.1 strip over to the stop bath. Then I pull No.2 at 4:00, No.3 at 5:00, etc. I fix, wash and dry the strips as usual. What we are looking for is the best usable film DMax value. Obviously the film has been fully exposed! When strips dry lay down a page of news print on a table in good light. Find the strip through which the news print is barely visible. That's your developing time. Now to find the film speed.

Go outside in unchanging light conditions and expose five sheets and expose one at the manufacturers rating and then the other four at one half a stop and one stop less and one half a stop and one stop more. In the dark, develop them all together for your newly derived time. Contact print them together exposing and developing the paper for maximum usable paper DMax value through the film base plus fog negative rebate area. Pick out the best-looking contact print and you have your film speed.

Because my 7:00 negative looked the best on the first test, I did the test again with 7:00 as the central developing time and found that 8:00 was indeed too dense. This HP5+ time was the same as the as the developing time I had been using for Tri-X and film speed was also the same, EI400. I have also switched to Ilfotec HC developer due to cost and availability and find it to be a clone of HC110.

Many of the last generation of B&W gurus favored a development time of 5:00 for Tri-X and suggested an EI of 64-100. You can do the above test backwards, developing for 5:00 minutes and finding the film speed. I like 100. The difference between negatives exposed at 100 and developed for 5:00 and those exposed at 400 and developed for 7:00 is quite subtle. Both could be considered "normal" or N negatives. The 100 negative has slightly greater shadow and highlight detail that only a careful, knowledgeable viewer could detect. This slight improvement might not be worthwhile trading for two stops in the field. I do routinely rate HP5+ at 100 under powerful strobe light in the studio and it produces beautiful skin tones.

From here, if you are still with me, you can derive expansion and contraction schemes for both the 100 and 400 "normal negs". I do this by changing dilution rather than time. Make sure you have at least 1 oz. of the concentrated sauce for each 8X10 sheet or equivalent. For contractions I found that 3/4 oz. concentrate to 31 1/4 ozs. H20 yields an N-1 neg at a one stop loss in film speed and 1/2 oz. concentrate to 31 1/2 ozs. H20 yields an N-2 neg at a two stop loss in film speed. For expansions, 1 1/4 oz. of concentrate to 30 3/4 ozs. H20 yields an N+1 neg at a one stop gain in speed and 1 1/2 ozs. concentrate to 30 1/2 ozs. H20 produces an N+2 negative with a two stop gain in speed.

If you look at the chart of Tri-X film speed in Phil Davis' BTZS book you can easily pick out the film speed in HC110B 5:00 as EI 64.

Don't apply reciprocity exposure and development corrections for long exposures (1/2 sec. +) based on published data. Test for yourself and you may be surprised. I wasted a lot of time and effort producing long exposure negatives that were thick and flat. When I finally tested, I found no compensation was required for TXP or now HP5+ out to one minute.

[Pere Casals]

William Mortensen.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...ist-180953525/
https://web.archive.org/web/20170205...ist-180953525/


Of course a practical approach like that is sound, you set a development for suitable DMax and later you bracket to find best practical result.

We may have to calibrate a lot to find the same, and this is before knowing if the result is the one we like the more.

Me, I try to combine both ways, plots help me to understand what I'm doing. I'm following your recommendations to learn to make studio portraits that are easy to print optically.

I find LF portraiture is technically way more difficult than landscape, many landscapes are great even if they look unnatural, but a great portrait requires many things to be well done.

[Tracy Storer]

Hello everyone. I can't find a development time for HP5 shot at 100 in HC110 dilution B. I am seeking first hand experience with this combination and film speed. Any help is appreciated. I am switching from Pyrocat mostly because HC110 promises excellent results with a much reduced development time at least in my case.

Going off of available materials it seems that HP5 shot at 400 in HC110 B requires a 5 minute development at 68*
That means that going by the old rule of thumb -20% per stop I am ending up with a development time of about 192 seconds or 3.2 minutes for ASA 100.

That seems awfully short but maybe that's normal for this developer.

For "too short" development times with Dil B, I make up Dil E. (which is the weakest solution that is replenishable if you happen to still have a stock of the long discontinued replenisher.)

[Luis-F-S]

You're going to have to figure this one out on your own. No one else's time will prove accurate for your specific situation.

[Luis-F-S]

I find it extremely hard to believe that no one on this forum has tried this combo and doesn't have information to relay back / share with everyone if they choose to. I thought this was a forum of freely interchanged ideas but it seems like its more esoteric or mystical than I remember a few years back.

No, we don’t have your camera, meters etc not to mention whether as to how you’re developing, agitating etc.

Any values we give you won’t apply to your situation. Besides I don’t expose HP5 at 100 but at 180 which is what works for me determined through testing.

[jim_jm]

I usually shoot HP5 at 200 and develop normally, at 100 I would reduce development time by 10-15%, but that's just me. You'll have to determine your own adjustment based on the results you like.
Less than 5 min development times are not recommended as any variation in timing could have a more noticeable effect on your film. For HC110, I commonly use dilution H, which is mixed at 1:14 (from stock, not concentrate) and double the development time of dilution B.

[RodinalDuchamp]

You have given me the most informative answer yet. I appreciate it. I'll look at dil H and times. Cheers!!

[Jerry Bodine]

Time and dilution are only two of the significant variables involved. The agitation method/technique is also important. Only you can know exactly how you agitate, so you're own testing will provide your answer.