Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

By CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH

1 May, 2026

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One Shot Story

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Portrait Photography
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This imaged silenced the voice in my head that tells me that there must be something better on eBay. For now. I was rushed at the time, and thought I would probably get a slightly soft image, probably a bit underexposed, flat and grainy, but I would correct most of that in printing. I didn’t even mind the grainy part, it would lend some mood. Instead I got this.

This image turned out much better than expected and maybe cured me of GAS – temporarily. Taken in window light with a Canon A1 and a 135 mm f/3.5 FDn lens that I have had since the 1990s. The lens was wide open at 1/500 sec. The film was HP5+ pushed to 800 ASA and then developed in Rodinal (the Blazinal version) using a 1+50 dilution (16 minutes, 20⁰C). It was printed using a Saunders LPL diffusion enlarger with a 50 mm Schneider Componon S lens, on Ilford MGFB paper, developed in E72 and toned with dilute Kodak (1+19) selenium toner. I rephotographed the final print with my phone.

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About The Author

By CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH
Analogue film shooter and printer since the mid 1980s. Also a home-brewer.
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Comments

Ibraar Hussain on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Wonderful portrait and print
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Thank you - it's one of my favourites.

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David Pauley on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Beautiful portrait and fantastic printing and toning. The selenium deepens the blacks, the highlights are ethereal and the eyes -- my goodness -- are spectacular.
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Thanks! It's amazing what can be done with these older formulas. And of course the original looks ten times better.

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Gary Smith on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Looks amazing Christof!
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Thanks Gary, I appreciate the comment!

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Michael Jardine on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

That looks great. I have a bit of advice that I try to keep bouncing around my thick skull: spend the money on film, paper and chemicals and follow your feelings to take good photos, you don't need another camera, lens, etc... well, sometimes I heed it and sometimes I don't.
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 01/05/2026

Haha.. good advice! Especially as film and paper are getting really crazy expensive.

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David Hume on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 02/05/2026

Hey Christof… I don't know if I should even say this, because as others have commented it is a wonderful shot. I think her left eye, the right eye in the photograph looks quite a bit darker than the other eye and I did find that to be a distraction - probably because the definition is lost in the shadows.. And only because I saw that you say you're a printer in your profile I wonder if you might do a print where you dodge that and very subtlety lighten it up a bit. Of course I could be wrong, and maybe you've tried it already, but once I saw it, I couldn't un-see it. I would be interested in your thoughts and not at all offended if you disagree. Cheers, David.
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 02/05/2026

Hi David, thanks for the comment. I always appreciate criticism, for sure. I had a a look at the original print and indeed her left eye is quite a bit darker. It doesn't help that her lashes are much more pronounced there too, likely because of their angle. I have always liked the 'half shadow' portrait but now I am intrigued! I might just give that dodging a try and see if I like it better. Thanks again for the comment.

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Jeffery Luhn on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 02/05/2026

Christof,
Great photo! You really nailed the focus with such short depth of field. The 135 was always a bit long for portraits for me until I put a +1 close up filter on it. About Rodinal: Man that developer produces sharp images! It's like using the sharpening filter on a digital image. I've even seen mackie lines with stand development. Jeffery
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 02/05/2026

I agree about the 135 being too long. I bought it when I was a student and it was just so much cheaper that the 85! I recently bought a zoom (my first one) - the FD 35-105 f/3.5, and I am surprised by how much I like it. And as for Rodinal, I have been using it since I started back in 1991, and I am glad I stumbled across it so early on.

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Nik Stanbridge on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 02/05/2026

Lovely toned print. Shows real skill. HP5 in Rodinal: my sweet spot too.
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 02/05/2026

Thanks! I'm trying to spread the word..

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Scott Peterson on Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 06/05/2026

A beautiful portrait. I have my first role of HP5+ in my Pentax Program A that I hope to be developing soon. I'm a total rookie though and will using Cinestill DF96. I guess I'm heading down the rabbit hole of film photography. :)
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CHRISTOF RAMPITSCH replied:

Comment posted: 06/05/2026

Be very careful with Df96! Horror stories of things going wrong abound on Reddit, and many of them have their origins in Df96. I am not too sure what the caveats are though, never having used it myself. Having said that, there are also examples of nice images made with Df96, so maybe do some reading if you haven't already. if you haven't bought it yet, consider D-76 or almost any other traditional developer/stop/fix method.

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