Back when I shot lots of film, my favorite black-and-white options were Ilford Delta 100, and Ilford Delta 400 when “high ISO” was necessary, as back then I considered ISO 400 to be high ISO. I didn’t use Ilford HP5 Plus very often, but I have used it on several occasions. I still have a few rolls of the film lying around, which I should go out and use just for the fun of it. The differences between Delta 400 and HP5 Plus aren’t huge. Delta 400 uses tabular-grain, which is supposed to be a finer grain that produces sharper images, but I think in real-world use it’s not really noticeable. Delta 400 has a hair more contrast than HP5 Plus and in my opinion is a bit better for push-processing, but HP5 Plus seems to have more exposure latitude, making it more forgiving if you didn’t get the exposure quite right. Overall the two films produce very similar results.
I’ve been asked a number of times to make an Ilford HP5 Plus film simulation recipe for Fujifilm X-Trans III cameras. The title of this article says “Fujifilm X100F” but these settings can be used on any X-Trans III or IV camera. In fact, you’ll find a few Fujifilm X-T20 examples at the bottom. I already have a number of different black-and-white film simulation recipes that I like, so I didn’t really need to make a new one, but I enjoyed doing this and I’m pleased with how it turned out.
A few days ago I was asked if my Agfa Scala recipe is a close match to HP5 Plus, and as I thought about it I realized that it’s not all that far off, and only some small changes would be necessary to get it right. Of course, any time that you attempt to mimic a certain film the problem is that the film can vary in look. How was it shot? Developed? Printed? Scanned? There isn’t necessarily one aesthetic that’s right because there are so many variables. Still, I feel like this is recipe is in fact pretty close to Ilford HP5 Plus film.
I captured the photograph below, Airport Lobby, using a Canon AE-1 about 20 years ago using Ilford Delta 100 film. I printed it on Agfa Classic paper using a split-filter technique and toned it with sepia (just barely). This is a (rather poor) scan of the print. I included it in this article for the heck of it, as it doesn’t really have much to do with this film simulation recipe. My experience with Ilford films goes back pretty far, and perhaps that’s the point of including the picture with this article.
Airport Lobby – McKinney, TX – Ilford Delta 100 printed on Agfa Classic paper.
You could modify this recipe to shadows +3 if you need more contrast or shadows +1 if you needed less, or highlights to +3 if you need to prevent clipped highlights. If you feel as though the recipe needs some changes to best capture an image, don’t be afraid to make those adjustments. I don’t always stick rigidly to my recipes, and I’m not afraid to adjust them when needed. The example photographs in this article are all the exact recipe, but with some other pictures (that I didn’t include) I made some modifications to the settings because the scene required it. A few of the pictures here might have been better off with a modification to the shadow or highlight, but I wanted to demonstrate the aesthetic of this recipe as is.
Acros (Acros+Y, Acros+R, Acros+G)
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +4
Shadow: +2
Noise Reduction: -3
Sharpening: 0
Grain Effect: Strong
ISO: Auto up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 (typically)
Example photos, all camera-made JPEGs captured using my Fujifilm X100F Ilford HP5 Plus Film Simulation recipe:
Grey Salt Lake – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Kids On The Salt Lake Shore – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Hurry Up & Wait – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Downtown Workday – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Monochrome Caution – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Window Pentax – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Tunnel Chevy – Zion NP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Virgin River From Canyon Jct Bridge – Zion NP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Monochrome Vista In Zion – Zion NP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Zion Juniper – Zion NP, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Rock & Trees – Zion NP, UT – Fuji X100F “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Fujifilm X-T20:
Frozen Leaf & Grass – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T20 “Ilford HP5 Plus”
The Last Leaf – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T20 “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Morning Clouds Around The Mountain – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T20 “Ilford HP5 Plus”
Grey Sky Over Antelope Island – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X-T20 “Ilford HP5 Plus”
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Hello from Paris.Thank you very much for this post. I appreciate your film simulation recipe and your beautiful pictures . Frank >
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Thank you so much!
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I try all of your simulation recipes, and this is my favourite. For the color I like the Kodachrome II. Thanks for your work!
https://500px.com/photo/297722251/no-title-by-arnaldo-sacchelli
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Thanks! I like both of those recipes, too. Nice photos, thank you for sharing!
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One of my favorite recipes!
Have you thought of making an Acros II simulation by chance?
I love the way the mid tones and the whites are more distinct, as show here in the comparison. the new Acros II has slightly stronger contrast and stronger tones.
https://thedarkroom.com/acros-v-acros-ii/
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Thank you! I’ll have to look into that. I appreciate the link, that will certainly help.
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Thank you so much for providing all this information, I am new to Fujifilm (x pro 2) and your recipes are a big help.
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I’m so glad that this blog has been helpful to you. The X-Pro2 is such a great camera!
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really love these tones!
i use almost only trix but i think this is really good to. do you think to update this one to the xpro3 sensors? thanks a lot 😉
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Thanks! It would be interesting to see what a little Clarity might do with this recipe.
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Really like this one, brilliantly captures the HP5 feel, I used this film a lot when growing up and getting into photography, thanks from Amsterdam!
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I’m so glad that you like it!
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Hello Ritchie, i occasionally play with your simulations and it is a lot of fun, thank you for this! I have a question regarding adding grain in this recipe with iso auto max 6400. I read somewhere that the fuji cameras when using acros simulation increases grain adding inside the camera if the iso goes up. My question: do you think there is a higher iso setting above 6400 where the grain will give the same look, but with GRAIN EFFECT OFF in custom settings… as the camera is then adding the grain itself exponentially? Thanks very much, best regards, Robert (Netherlands)
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You bring up a good point. Not only does Acros have built-in Grain that increases as the ISO increases, but the digital noise, which has a grain-like quality, does, too. So by the time you get to ISO 6400, a Weak Grain might be more appropriate, and by ISO 12800, maybe Weak Grain or Grain Off is what you want. I don’t know for sure where exactly the “equivalent” of Grain Strong begins for the built-in Acros Grain (compared to Monochrome, for instance, which doesn’t have it built-in). Maybe it would make for an interesting experiment. Thank you for the comment!
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Thanks for all your recipes! I’d love to see the HP5+ recipe for the X-Trans 4 sensor of my X100V, are there any chances that might happen? Or would it be just fine to use this one here?
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You can use this one. It would be interesting to explore it with some of the new JPEG options, to see if it can be refined a little. But this recipe does indeed work on X-Trans IV cameras.
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I have some problem when using acros on my xt3. I can some times se some square nois pattens in the shades and dark parts on my images. Am I doing something wrong when I use acros os is there something wrong with my camera. I love this film som and an other acros film sim. But im afraid of using acros becaus of the pattern I se some time.
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Are you editing the pictures, for example, straightening? I experienced this problem before, but only after editing the picture (cropping and straightening) in the Photos app on my iPhone. It has to do with the software handling the grain (or, really, not correctly handling it). Interestingly, I’ve experienced something similar in the past with high-ISO film scans + editing. I’ve never experienced this issue with unedited SOOC images, so if that’s the case, I have no idea—maybe try Fujifilm support?
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OH. Ok. That might be it. I have edited some of those and cropped for shore. Umm. I need to try it again and replicate som of those images without touching them or esiting them and campare the new sook i take with those old i took. But in monochrome must work totalt diferent caus i dont get thise problems with monochrome.
Thanks for replying this might help alot.
And thanks alot for tha amazing work you do and this amazing comunity.
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Acros has built-in Grain, while Monochrome doesn’t. Might be the culprit, but I’m not certain.
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Amazing. I used to shoot with ILFORD film. We need more black and white recipes for xtrans II !
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Thanks! I’ll definitely have to work on more. 😀
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