I have been reading in previous posts about the combination hp5 plus and hc-110, where the film speed should be rated at 200-250 iso.
Considering I am shooting 4 x 5, what is the downfall of exposing this film at 400 and developing it for double the time of dilution B ( from 5 min to 10 min) ?
How my 20 x 24 prints will look concerning grain and contrast?
Domenico, What I always do is test my film and developer combination to determine what my actual film speed is, then when I shoot I set my meter for 2/3 of a stop below this. That way I am intentionally slightly overexposing the film so that I have less chance of losing shadow detail. The highlights will be denser, but this is not a problem as they can be printed through.
Email if you need the proceedure for a film speed test.
First, I doubt you would have to double development time to "push" HP5 to ISO 400. Second, you'll never know what your ISO is without testing. I rate HP5 at ISO 200 mainly because of the old, single coated or uncoated lenses I use. When I use HP5 with my medium format gear and modern, multicoated lenses, I rate it at ISO 400. And with my old Turner Reich triple convertible, its closer to 50.
You don't need a densitometer or all of that BTZS B.S. to test your film. Just shoot a typical scene, bracket your exposures two stops in each direction, and eyeball the negs.
As for grain, thats totally subjective, but my guess is even if you need a one stop push, you'll be fine.
The truth is I already shot the film at 400, but it still need to "simmer in the soup".
I recently trid HC-11o which I really like,( before I have always used Rodinal) and I would like to develop the film in this developer.
It is too late for bracketing I am afraid, so before I do the damage I want to be sure.
I have always liked Rodinal for its acutance and edge sharpness but I have always had trouble to print trough skies expecially when the dodging or burning looks like an impossible task.
I am tired to flash the paper all the times , although this is my favorite way to deal with the problem.
HC-110 is so much more forgiving in overcast skies that I would like to keep it as my faithful companion.
I suggest you shoot a couple of more sheets at 400 then develop in HC110. Then you'll have an idea of what you'll get on your important film. You're not that far off on exposure.
I'd try higher dilutions like H (1:63) or G (1:119).
" what is the downfall of exposing this film at 400 and developing it for double the time of dilution B ( from 5 min to 10 min"
Assuming the it should have been rated at 200 and processed for 5 minutes, the effect of rating it at 400 and doubling the processing time will probably be to underexpose the shadow areas (i.e. you may get blobs of solid black without any detail in the darker portions of the scene) and the highlights may be too dense (i.e. they may print as paper white without any texture or detail). How bad this is depends on the scene and what you wanted from the print. If there wasn't any important detail in the shadow areas and if the brightest highlights didn't contain any important detail or texture then it will make little or no difference. But if there was important detail in those shadows that you wanted to caputre in the print, and/or if there was detail or texture in the highlights that you wanted in the print, then your negative may basically be unprintable.
I'm with Brian on this.
HP5 and HC110 is great combination. HC110 tends to give a fuller film speed than metol based developers. Highly dilute developers are used mostly to control highlights but always at the cost of film speed. Therefore I would not recommend using a highly dilute concentration.
The problem with giving an exact recommendation to you is that we do not know what paper, paper developer and filtration(if any) you will be using and even if we did it is not an exact science. However my tests with this combination on 4x5 film exposed at 400EI seem to indicate that a dilution of 1:49 is suffciently dilute and a development time of 8.25 mins @ 20 degC with agitation for first 30 secs and two inversions every 60 secs will produce and easily printable neg on Ilford MGIVFB paper without any significant loss of shadow detail. A film speed of 320 might have been better but you can compensate for that by giving 3 inversions every 60 seconds if you wish. I don't have times for rotary processors. I use a combi plan tank for 4x5 film.
There is a myth about needing to reduce film speed to get good shadow detail. The truth is that this is very much dependant on which developer is being used and its dilution. HC110 is quite an active developer giving shortish development times, especially when used at higher strength. At that higher strength shadow detail and film speed is preserved extremely well at the expense of pushing highlights up the scale. With HC110 the compromise is to be found somewhere between the two extremes.
Rob I will try your suggestion, and thank you for the detailed information.
Ilford Mg IV FB is exactly what I use, and Edwal Platinum II is the Paper developer I have always used.
I will try and let youknow.