510 Pyro and Ilford HP5

Hendo'svan

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Hi All
My kids bought me some 510 Pyro and some Eco fix so I could give it a go, I usually use Rodinal, D23 or Ilfotec HC. I loaded up a roll of HP5 in my Olympus OM1 and took around 6 shots, then I removed these from the camera in the darkroom and developed with the Custom time from the Zone Imaging PDF, 13 min 45sec.
With the rest of the roll, I followed John Blackmore's instructions on how to find my personal exposure index.

In the darkroom, I printed 2 of the shots at Grade 2 and was delighted with the results, I also printed off the 10 prints at each Zone again following John Blackmore's instructions. Looking at the Zone 1, 2 and 3 prints these looked as the book described at full box speed, ie, faint texture at Z2 and full texture at Z3, all well and good.
However my Zone 10 print was pale grey with texture and looked more like Zone 8.

With the remainder of the roll, I re did the test but added 20% more time to the development, 16.30 min as apposed to the recommended 13.45 min.
Again in the dark room I printed of Z 1, Z2, Z3 and Z 10 prints, the Zone 10 now looked as it should, almost paper white, while the Zone 1 now looks like Z3 almost black with full texture.

So my question is..... is the staining in the highlights from the 510 Pyro " moving " my Z10 to Z8 or have I made a mistake in my testing somewhere.

As a side note, John Blake recommends photographing a towel and focusing on it so the texture shows, this is what I did, but others, like John Finch recommend keeping the photographs out of focus as it's thought the texture can influence the results.
I'm only doing this through curiosity, as I said earlier, my initial results with 510 Pyro gave me great results, but I like trying things out, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Andrew
 
I regularly use 510 Pyro with HP5, mainly in 120. Not sure about the zone reduction in highlights myself as I scan mostly though if I were to guess I'd put it at one zone down on the highlights. I'm just looking at clouds for my highlights but it seems equivalent to using a yellow filter.

As an aside I used to have an Uncle and Aunt who lived near you in Queensferry Road.
 
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ok so I have never used 510pyro for hp5 but taking a look at the dev sheet something is off here.

HP5 Times for standard development are as follows

1722261118734.png
The time you stated does not match with the semi-stand times either

1722261206277.png

I would double check your timings first, did you use standard dev or semi stand?
 
ok so I have never used 510pyro for hp5 but taking a look at the dev sheet something is off here.

HP5 Times for standard development are as follows

View attachment 4861
The time you stated does not match with the semi-stand times either

View attachment 4862

I would double check your timings first, did you use standard dev or semi stand?
Hi Lensworx
If you scroll down the page you will see a " Custom " time for some films including HP5 and it states 13.45 min.
I originally used 8.15 plus 20 % but the negs where incredibly thin, I was going to throw the developer out, but re reading the PDF gave me the other custom time. I have no idea why the 8.15 minute time is still there.

Andrew
 
I regularly use 510 Pyro with HP5, mainly in 120. Not sure about the zone reduction in highlights myself as I scan mostly though if I were to guess I'd put it at one zone down on the highlights. I'm just looking at clouds for my highlights but it seems equivalent to using a yellow filter.

As an aside I used to have an Uncle and Aunt who lived near you in Queensferry Road.
Interesting, I lived nearby on Ferry Road near Davidson Mains. What developing time did you use, 8.15 + 20% or the 13.45 ?

Andrew
 
Hi Lensworx
If you scroll down the page you will see a " Custom " time for some films including HP5 and it states 13.45 min.
I originally used 8.15 plus 20 % but the negs where incredibly thin, I was going to throw the developer out, but re reading the PDF gave me the other custom time. I have no idea why the 8.15 minute time is still there.

Andrew
Hi
I have taken another look at this and found the time you are referring to, I had to download the latest sheet as it seems to have changed since the version I have.
Being that this is a partial semi-stand I would imagine the issue you are seeing is partially down to the method used and the combined staining. The partial semi-stand having some compensating effect on the highlights and then combined with the stain to again further restrain them.

I too would be interested to hear from people with more experience in this regard.
 
I've stand developed 510 and got even more restraint in the highlights following a watch of Martin's video on stand development a while back, I can't say how much exactly but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a -3 contraction. It was 1:500 per Martin's youtube piece for 45 mins if memory serves me right.
 
I have always used Martins way of developing in 510 since watching his video, I have had great results, even with Formapan.
 
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