Film manufacturer Ilford Photo has published a new ‘Behind the Scenes’ video taking viewers into the company's HARMAN technology factory located in Mobberley, England. Ilford produces its Kentmere and ILFORD black and white 35mm and 120 film products at this factory, as well as its chemicals and photographic paper.
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This is the first time Ilford Photo has shared an official look behind the scenes at Ilford Photo, according to the company. The 18-minute video presents multiple aspects of work at the facility, including everything from making the emulsion to research and development, quality control and distribution.
The short film was made by Exploredinary and the end credit photos were captured on ILFORD HP5 Plus black and white film.
I use to use FP4 and can remember the debates about what was the best developer of it such as Paterson Acutol that let you shoot the film at ASA 160 (none of this ISO rubbish back then).
Different developers would render the grain differently and also the contrast.
That and a bit of dodging and burning was about as far as post processing went and I can’t say I missed the endless tweaking you can perform in image editors.
Spent many a hour unloading 35mm cassettes and threading the film into the spiral of the developing tank in a changing bag.
You could also buy the film in bulk 30m rolls and load your own 35mm cassettes. As a poor student I used to do this as it was by far the cheapest way to buy film and you could reuse the cassettes.
I did the same with 3m colour slide film as well, not just ilford black & white film.
Would I go back to it? Well maybe when I retire and it have the time it might be fun to set up a darkroom again if the hardware is available.
Great documentary. I grew up not far from the factory and when running photography for our student newspaper Ilford HP5 film and multi grade paper were our workhorses. Glad to see the company thriving.
Use to use it all the time, nothing quite being a 12 year old in our school darkroom seeing your photos suddenly appear in the chemicals. That experience is almost lost but thankfully companies like Ilford are still keeping it going,
This almost makes me want to do real film again. Almost. The Ilford product that I couldn't do without in the late 1970s and early '80s was the emulsion for radioautography with the transmission electron microscope. Ilford was by far the best.
Excellent production and kudos to DPR for showing it. This place is mecca for me, I still shoot Ilford film and am a loyal customer. I've just got back from holiday and shot several rolls of Pan F on my OM1n and Texas Leica, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing, as long as Ilford produce black and white film I'll be shooting with it.
Wow !!! Very well shot and edited. I now have a greater appreciation for this product. I started using the HP5 B&W film . I like the shadow detail I was seeing. To me I thought I was seeing better microcontrast with the HP5 plus than with another film I was using. I also tried the Delta 400 and liked it . Thanks for making this short documentary , it was awesome.
I drive by the factory nearly every week and never realised there was so much inside!
Photographer, Dave Butcher, works (or used to work) there. Bizarrely, we met on the tour du Mont Blanc and obviously have similar interests. I like his work https://www.davebutcher.co.uk
As an aside: Mobberley is also the birthplace of George Mallory who died in 1924 attempting to summit Mount Everest. His father was the vicar at St Wilfrid's church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory
Yes, from Dave Butcher's FAQ "I used to work for Ilford Photo for 21 years until 2002 so I have seen the products from both sides. The chemical products are what I worked on while working at Ilford; 6 years as a research scientist developing new chemical products and 15 years as the Technical Manager responsible for specifying the performance and testing of all new Ilford chemical products and ensuring the worldwide compliance to chemical regulations"
I used mostly there papers.. The MG are exceptional in quality and very economic. The FB have a more demanding development process, but produce nicer results.
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