When shooting black and white film, I almost always push it. It does depend on what film it is of course, for example I do not normally push Fomapan, because I really like how it looks as is. I like to push other films because of the higher contrast and increased grain pushing film inherently causes. For a long time I would shoot pretty much only Kodak Trix 400 at either 800 or 1000. It was what I had found I liked and I saw no reason to not use it. A few months ago I bought the Monochrome Bikkuri Film Case from JapanCameraHunter, and inside it came with a number of black and white films I had not used before. It had Ilford HP5, which I think is the film I was using when I was in the darkroom club as a kid at school. One thing stood out on this film in particular: it had a check box to say if you shot it at 400, 800, 1600, or other. So, with my rolls of HP5, I decided to try each ISO out.
ISO 400
This is the ‘normal’ ISO for this film. It looks pretty standard in my opinion. It is grainier than other films I have used at 400, but it fairs well as just a standard 400 black and white film. I used it at a hanami, where one has a picnic under a sakura tree in Japan, and I like the results. You can see them below.
Ilford HP5 Plus at ISO 400
Great photos as always! I love how you can sleep on the ferry – the rooms are so Japanese! They bizarrely reminded me of an izakaya…
My favourite shot was ‘Down the back’.
Thanks! If you come and visit me here you can ride the ferry! Seriously though, it’s about time!!