Developing Film for Fat Grain

Some examples of which Film + Developer combinations give Fat Grain. These also take into consideration any altered Exposure Index (EI) and Developer dilution and timing.

The appearance of fat grain also depends on what is being shot and how it is lit. The grain is more apparent if there are areas of flat tonality. Unfocused areas also show fat grain. The more texture there is, the more the grain will be camouflaged.

The higher contrast in these photos is not necessarily due to lighting. It is inherent in the overdevelopment of the film.

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These next few photos are ordered by EI, the higher rendering fatter grain in general. 

 Ilford HP5+ 400 at 400 in Rodinal 1+25 6 min, by Rick Paul

  Ilford HP5+ 400 at 640 in Kodak XTOL 1+1 12 min, by Niklas Groop

  Ilford HP5+ 400 at 800 in Ilford DD-X 1+4 9 min, by Fred Herion

 Ilford HP5 400 at 800 in Diafine 3 min, by Ramanan Sivaranjan

 Ilford HP5+ 400 at 800 in Ilford Microphen 1+1 16 min, by Evgeniya Marchenko

  Ilford HP5+ 400 at 800 in Kodak XTOL 1+1 13 min, by Yevgeny Yezub

  Ilford HP5+ 400 at 3200 in Ilford DD-X 1+4 21 min, by Daniel Tim

 Ilford HP5+ 400 at 6400 in Ilford DD-X 1+4 21 min, by Daniel Tim

These last 2 shots are at night so it is not possible to evaluate the shadow detail because there is none at night anyway. But there still seems to be some separation in the near dark areas.

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Conclusions for Ilford HP5+ by Developer:

Ilford DD-X: develop longer (1+14 for 21 min), shoot at 3200 or 6400 not 400 or 200.

Kodak XTOL: develop 1+1 longer, shoot at 640 or 800.

Ilford Microphen: shoot at recommended 800 develop 1+1 for 16 min; shoot at 3200 dev stock for 16’.

Rodinal: develop at 1+25 (stronger) and longer (11 vs 8 min), shoot at 400, 800 or 1600.

Diafine: develop at 3 min as normal, shoot at 800.