Shooting More Ilford FP4+ with the Intrepid 4x5 Mk4
Even with a camera as compact as the Intrepid Mk4, shooting large format is always a somewhat cumbersome process. There’s a lot to think about and set up before you take your shot and reactive photography largely goes out the window. Unsurprisingly this means the types of films available reflects this. While there are some high-speed films like Ilford HP5+ and Portra 400, there’s no Portra 800 or Ilford Delta 3200. Instead, we have many other low and medium speed films like Portra 160 and Ilford FP4+. The latter is what I will talk about in this blog.
I started out with a box of Ilford HP5+, a good, cost-effective start with a high-speed film that keeps you away from the dangers of reciprocity failure during long exposures. You often use small apertures of F22 or smaller in large format photography and more so when you start out and are less familiar with movements. However, once you get the hang of it all, it’s straight forward using a slower film to get even more detail. I scan these sheets of film by taking three photos on my Nikon D850 and stitching them together in Lightroom, and even this quick and dirty method gives me 279MB files with oodles of information.
Coming from Ilford’s ‘plus’ line of films the look and feel is similar to that of HP5+ but when you look closely you can really see the difference in grain. On HP5+ you could still see it but on FP4+ it’s so small it’s practically invisible unless you are looking at areas completely devoid of any texture. Rest assured that if you really need to capture every last fine detail, this film stock will do it. What I love about large format as well is that with such a large medium you really capture tonal gradients in a way that just isn’t possible on 35mm or even medium format. There’s just so much more life in the photos, a realism that more closely matches what you see with the naked eye. That’s the real magic.
Unfortunately, I did also take this camera and film with me on a trip to Norfolk, but all the photos were lost after I made an error in handling the film holders and exposing all the sheets to light. It’s the sort of mistakes you make when you are unfamiliar with a system, but you live and learn. I can’t blame the film on that one! At least I was also shooting with my Kodak Retina iiiS that day which you can read about here.
Shooting outdoors I managed to largely avoid shooting with B or T mode, although there was no way around it when shooting inside the church. Once you get a hang of reciprocity failure it’s really not a big issue (unless you end up with very long exposure times of say ten minutes), it’s just another quirk of film you have to get used to. I personally much preferred to shoot FP4+ over HP5+, if I am going to shoot this slowly then I might as well try to absolutely maximise the detail coming out of the camera. Next up for me though is one of my favourite film stocks – Ilford Delta 100 (I am honing my large format skills with black and white before I take the plunge and spend bigger money on colour film) Unfortunately the box is still sitting unopened, and I haven’t quite decided what I will shoot with it. Perhaps an exciting day trip out somewhere is in order.
As ever if you have any questions or comments then please do leave them down below.
You can read my previous blog about shooting this set-up in London by clicking here.
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