Pushing Film to Increase Contrast and Grain
Over the past few months I have been itching to shoot some black and white. While I still think my work is better conveyed in color, there is something about black and white that is so endearing. So I decided to shoot some rolls of Ilford HP Plus with my Leica M4 and to also shoot some 4x5 to practice (it’s a lot cheaper than color sheet film) with my Toyo 45AX. And to cut overall costs, I also decided to process the film at home.
I have a lot of experience shooting black and white and in particular with Ilford HP5 Plus. I used to shoot HP5 underexposed a stop or two to get more grain and contrast. I do prefer my black and whites to be on the contrasty side so I have been shooting at 1600 ISO and developing my film at 1600. As you will see with these photos, the 35mm is super grainy, maybe just a touch too much for my taste. It definitely gives it a rougher look. I am curious to try it at 800 ISO. But with 4x5, the grain is a lot less noticeable but the contrast that I like is still there.
For my 35mm setup, I used a 2 stop neutral density filter. My Leica M4’s fastest shutter speed is 1/1000th of a second and my 35mm lens can only close down to F16. A 2 stop neutral density filter allowed me to shoot the film back at 400 ISO and if I removed it, I would be at 1600 ISO again. This setup allowed me more versatility on what my exposure could be. I highly recommend using a neutral density filter if you plan on shooting with a higher film speed, especially during the day. With the Toyo 45AX paired with a 150mm Schneider APO lens, I decided to shoot without one. The lens closes to F64 so even with its 1/500th of a second maximum shutter speed, I could still shoot in brighter conditions.
Ilford HP5 Plus is a really easy film to use. It’s forgiving, you can push or pull it several stops, it’s readily available, and it looks great! There are films with finer grain and films with more grain. But while it may be a safe film to choose, you really can’t go wrong with it.
These photos were taken in San Diego about a month ago. I was shooting with a Leica M4 and a 35mm summicron. There are more photos than these but looking back at them, I like how these come together and make a series on its own.
The 4x5 shots stand on their own. They were taken a few months back at Sandy Hook New Jersey.
The negatives were scanned with a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 100mm Macro L Lens and processed with Negative Lab Pro.
These next two are my 4x5 photos.
