I am trying to work out the technical issues regarding Salt Printing (Using the gelatin sizing approach), and I would ideally like to produce negatives of the correct contrast rather than making digital negatives with an inkjet printer.
However, I am finding it very difficult to get a negative with sufficient contrast. Yesterday I made some 4x5 negs on HP5+ and I chose FX-37 as the developer, because my previous experience with it showed me that it was capable of building significant contrast if you used longer than recommended times. However, yesterday I exposed the HP5 at 600 ASA and did an N+2 development and still the negative was not contrasty enough to get a good salt print.

Can anyone with experience in the process recommend a film + developer combination that is more likely to yield a negative appropriate for Salt Printing? I have Delta 100 available to experiment with - would that be a better choice? I've found HP5 to be rather flat in general, so maybe I just chose the wrong film?

Thanks!
Here's what I got yesterday:Click image for larger version.  Name: IMG_8642.jpg  Views: 89  Size: 67.1 KB  ID: 221826