Response to How much can you push pull HP5+?

'Pushing' film usually refers to under-exposing/over-developing to get more 'speed.' With HP5+ you can 'push' it nearly to lith film, if you want to. But what I think you are talking about is 'expansion/contraction' of the 'subject brightness range,' often erroneously referred to as 'contrast.' I have managed to develop HP- 5+ to a +3 ZONE expansion as measured on a densitometer, but have NEVER had to do this for a photograph. Once in a great while I have had to contract a negative by one ZONE, and even more rarely, by two. The local contrast remains perfect with a single zone +/- and suffers only mildly with 2. BUT I use PMK exclusively, which is extremely well suited to ZONE manipulation. Get Gordon Hutching's Book of Pyro. All the times for ZONE system use are there, and are surprisingly close to what I found with my tests.

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