Ilford HP5+ in Rodinal – A One Shot Story

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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