Film Chronicles: Pushing Ilford HP5 +1 Stop

Personal Projects

Nov 14

Written By Maggie Parise

I had never tried pushing film before, so I tried pushing a roll of Ilford HP5 +1 stops.

Why Push Film?

Some of the advantages of pushing film are:

More contrast
Increased grain
Increased low-light capabilities

To push film +1 stop, you need to set the ISO of your camera a stop higher than the film. Since Ilford HP5 is normally ISO 400, I had to set my camera ISO to 800. The camera will now meter for a film at ISO 800 and underexpose the film by one stop. You can also decide to push it +2 stop, meaning that you would set your camera ISO to 1600. This would result in even more contrast and grain. I did not end up doing this since I wanted to shoot during the day.

The next step happens at the film lab. When I brought my film in, I told the technician that it was 1 stop underexposed, and asked if they could ‘‘push’’ the film one stop in development. Basically it means that the film will spend more time in the development chemicals. Take note that this process will be more expensive than just developping a normal film.

The subject: Montreal’s Olympic Stadium

I love the Olympic Stadium. I see it everyday as I live on a street that leads to it. I love the angles, the fact that everything is basically concrete and also the fact that it can feel a bit abandoned (but it is slowly regaining life though!). I decided to walk around it, trying to see it from new angles.