ilford HP5 @ 1600 …. I love the look ….

As a follow up to my recent post “Fathers Day” on the 52 Rolls project blog …. link in post below.

Here is the rest of the roll that I shot with my F80 and some HP5 at 1600 iso which I love shooting at even more than box speed.Even though the grain is more pronounced it does not impair the image in fact in my opinion it ready adds to the look that I love when shooting B&W.

The sharpness of the images also compares well to when shooting box speed too, the only slight drawback is the slight loss of shadow detail but if scanning there is a bit more you can do to the image whereas in the darkroom (I am not a master printer) it is a bit harder to do.I did a few test prints in my darkroom of the top image of this post and the level of detail in the negative/print is very good and so is the overall tonal range.

I did get a little more detail in the scan and would also get a slightly sharper print if I went the inkjet route but there is something much more satisfying printing in the darkroom.Overall I think that HP5 looks great at 1600 iso and gives me the look I love in my B&W, the grain/contrast and sharpness. I process all my B&W films using ilfotec HC so I don’t know if it would look better or worse using other developers and I may try a few others in the near future.click on an image to view larger …..