Under exposed or under developed?

**Dean Jones** · 14-May-2007, 02:29

Just developed some 4x5 HP4 negs....I realize the film is long out of date, but earlier devs in LC29 gave a remarkable blue tone with nice density.
I just repeated the process using FD10 1+9 and finished up with PINK negs that totally lack density. (7 minutes @ 20C).
I know the HP4 is old but gives me an appealing, if slightly grainy neg when rated at ISO 100.
So is it the developer, or did I just under expose?

Cheers.

**JW Dewdney** · 14-May-2007, 03:17

I had a few surprising trials where I actually lost some significant film speed. Though - this was with older film that was exposed three years before - so I don't know if my experience counts here.

**RDKirk** · 14-May-2007, 06:57

Dean, look at your shadow detail. If you're underdeveloped, you should still see the expected amount of shadow detail.

But as JW mentioned, you might have lost a lot of film speed, so underexposure is more likely.