In my opinion Ilford makes the best black and white film around.  In fact I only use Ilford for my B&W film needs.  You may be familiar with XP-2.  This is their B&W film which processes C-41, like colour film, thus you can have it developed and printed at the local 1 hour photo lab.  XP-2 has very fine grain and a creamy look which I’m a fan of.  And you can also develop XP-2 at home in your darkroom using D-76 chemistry.

I know that some of you are going to tell me this can’t be done.  Wrong.  It can be done.  I’ve seen it done.  I’ve done it.

I would like to give full credit for this – I did not invent this procedure.  One of my college photography teachers did.  Unfortunately I can’t remember his name to credit him.  Yes, lame as hell I know.

Important note: Follow the directions exactly.  Expose at 320, not ISO 400.  I can’t say what will happen if you deviate.

Ilford XP-2 processing using D-76

This is a very fine grain/dye black-and-white film.  It was designed to be processed in C-41 colour negative chemistry.  However it can be processed using the following method.

Developer: D-76 diluted 1:1 at 72°

Agitation: constant for the first 30 seconds and then 5 seconds each two minutes.

There is a 2 minute water bath between each 5 minute development cycle.

Procedure:

Develop 5 minutes, agitating the first 30 seconds then 5 seconds every 2 minutes, pour and hold the developer while pouring in water to sit for 2 minutes, no agitation.

Then dump water and pour in the developer for 5 more minutes developing, agitating for 5 seconds every 2 minutes.

Again pour out developer and hold while pouring in water and letting sit for two minutes, no agitation.

A final dumping of water and pouring in of developer for 5 minutes.

Total development time is 15 minutes.  Use an exposure index of 320 instead of 400.  You may also want to try using 200 as the exposure index.

The results will be purple colour film and a black-and-white negative image.  It’ll have low contrast but extremely fine grain.

After developing stop for 1 minute and fix with constant agitation for 4 minutes.  Orbit bath 1 minute and wash 5 minutes.  Dry.

Condensed process:
develop 5 minutes
water bath 2 minutes
develop 5 minutes
water bath 2 minutes
develop 5 minutes and dump
stop 1 minute
fix 4 minutes with constant agitation, and water rinse
orbit bath 1 minute
wash 5 minutes
dry

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BoP Episode One: Placement of the subject and cropping.

BoP Episode Two: Sunlight and photographing people.

A Girl and Her Toys