Pushing Film: Ilford HP5

In November 2019, I shot a weekend of Roller Derby Tournaments; Seven’s Tournament & Bout Against Cancer. I took along my digital camera to get the main images I needed for the teams but I also took my Pentax Z1-p which I loaded with Kodak P3200, Ilford Delta 3200 and some Ilford HP5. I intended on shooting the fast film at a 1 stop push and the Ilford at about 1600. I actually ended up accidentally shooting the HP5 at 6400, just because I forgot to change my camera ISO settings.

When it came to developing the film I only had CineStill Df96, which doesn’t actually have any official timings for pushing to 6400, for any type of film. I had a bit of a disaster trying to develop the Ilford Delta 3200 in it at 6400. The negative didn’t clear properly and I had lots of big chemical spots on the film after drying.

I decided to do a bit of research online and discovered that Ilford Microphen developer is good for pushed film and does not result in any grain size increase. So I gave that a try.

Compared to some of the results I have seen from Kodak p3200 and Ilford Delta 3200, I actually like the look of HP5 pushed to 6400 best.

What are your experiences with pushing HP5 and do you find certain developers give more favourable looks for you?

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