gym | The 35mm Project

This post is a continuation of my previous post, for a full review and information on the creation of the film(s) and the people involved please visit Ilford HP5+ 400 Pushed to 3200

This was the first film that i shot pushed however i decided to upload it after the HP5+ for various reasons. I began shooting this film along the embankment and around Tower Bridge (inside the bridge) my Mother come to London to visit me for a couple of days and wanted to do the touristy attractions, being a Londoner i take the sites and sounds for granted as i see them every day, unsurprisingly i haven’t done much of the tourist experiences here because i do other things like work and wondering around with my camera.

When i arrived at the gym this film was almost finished, i was unsure whether 1600 would be fast enough so wanted to keep a few frames just to see how Neopan coped being pushed in the lighting available.

Shooting with my 24-70 at f/2.8 was interesting to say the least, poor lighting made it difficult to get the desired speed i wanted however i didn’t want to lower the f/stop too much because keeping some details in the background was important for this type of photography. I brought my 50mm f/1.4 incase i really was struggling for light although i wouldn’t have ventured any lower than f/2 in these circumstances.

In the end because the 1600 push wasn’t coping with the limited light i pushed a roll of HP5+ 3 stops which gave me much more freedom with shutter speed and aperture.

This roll of Neopan has degraded quite a bit, i am unsure whether the push/developing has affected the emulsion or if the process of coating the film has failed in some way as there is considerable dust/scratches and chunks out of the photographs which had to be repaired quite painstakingly in some areas (retouching with grain is always fun).

Interestingly Neopan developed similar grain properties as the HP5+ at a lower push, the contrasts are appealing however not as consistent as the HP5+ however saying this the quality of the photograph is not compromised and finishes with a classic grainy style.

I am going to enquire what developers the company i use practice with as i would like to see the results of microphen and xtol being used in development. “Do it yourself” i hear you cry once more at me, the simple answer is i would if i had the time, i do miss developing my own film however it’s much easier and faster for me if i can send it off to a developers as i work a lot. Although the next stage for the development of this project will be developing my own work at times to create my own form of photography, however i make up for some this in editing after scanning.

You’ll notice that there is only a small collection of photos in this post, this is due to me doubling up a little with the photos, plus there was some i just didn’t want to include in the final publish. Doubling up is a habit i need to get out of when shooting with film, I have used digital for such a long time it is sometimes second nature to click the shutter more than once.

I would be interested to see Neopan pushed a few more stops as i feel that it would create some fantastic punchy results.

Ilford HP5+ 400 Pushed to 3200

Yesterday I finally received my replacement negative scanner, hazar!

For this film i asked a few of the lads that go to the same gym as me if they would be happy to have their photo taken whilst they do a bit of training, being the friendly bunch they are they of course said yes!

The lighting in the gym was not fantastic but good enough to get some moody shots, i didn’t want to use flash as i didn’t want my subject to look too flat, also i wanted the nuances to show more elegantly in the photographs rather than killing them with flash. “Use bounce/catchlight or reflectors” i hear you cry – this did cross my mind however the ceilings are far too high for bounce plus i didn’t have an assistant with me.

Delta 3200 has been used a fair bit already in this blog so i clearly couldn’t shoot with that, i tried looking for some other manufacturers that rate their film as 3200 and was astonished that NONE are available. After a bit more digging i found Kodak was one of the last (other than the current Ilford range) however they unsurprisingly discontinued their P3200 range in October 2012 (recently i acquired a roll after a bit of searching which will appear at a later date).

Before shooting i did a hefty amount of research on film types and pushing as i didn’t want the photographs to be insanely contrasty that they’re unperceivable nor did i want there to be so much grain that it actually begins to impair the photograph quality. I needed to find a film that pushed beyond 2 stops fairly well and gave decent results at the same time.

Kodak Tri-X is the classic with HP5+ not too far behind, it all depends on the developer though, xtol and microphen are meant for pushing and reducing grain at the same time, while rodinal is good for a smooth, grainy classic look. There are some great examples of Tri-X pushed to 3200 however i wasn’t sure of the developer the company i use practice with so i opted for the HP5+ which Ilford state on their website it will easily push 3 stops to 3200.

The contrasts on the HP5+ i shot are quite even considering such a big push, there are some areas that are a little over done however it doesn’t ruin the photograph nor does it step into a more avant garde type of photography as the photo is still clear and detailed. The grain has increased dramatically which is to be expected however it’s fairly pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately it’s a bit snowy looking in the blacks which is a little off putting, the grain on the Delta 3200 is much more appealing.

I would happily push this film another stop or more to see the results as it has coped fantastically well with the 3 stop push.