Ilford HP5 black & white look for Lightroom & Sony Alpha
HP5 is the reportage black and white stock: visible grain, punchy midtones, blacks that stay deep while still holding detail, and highlights that never quite reach paper white. Grittier and more forgiving than Acros, and far more forgiving of pushed exposure.
How to shoot and edit it
- Grain is a feature. Dial it up further than feels comfortable on a digital file.
- Push-processed HP5 gains contrast — increase midtone contrast rather than global contrast.
- Street and documentary work suit it; studio-clean subjects fight it.
What you'll get
A Lightroom Classic preset you can import as a .xmp, a Sony Alpha Creative Look recipe for new-menu bodies, and a Picture Profile recipe that works on every Alpha back to the A7 III — all tuned to this look, in one generation.
Generate it nowRelated looks
Acros is Fujifilm's black and white profile, named after the film stock: exceptionally fine grain, strong micro-contrast and clean gradation from deep blacks through to open highlights. It holds detail in the shadows better than most digital monochrome conversions.
Dark, desaturated and contrasty: the look that dominates urban photography feeds. Shadows go deep and cool, colour is pulled back to near-neutral, and grain keeps it from feeling digitally clean. Light separation matters more than colour.
Bleach bypass comes from skipping the bleach step in film processing, leaving silver in the emulsion: contrast climbs, saturation collapses toward monochrome, and the whole frame takes on a metallic sheen. Harsh, gritty and unmistakably cinematic.
Make your own version of Ilford HP5 black & white look
Adjust the description, add a reference photo, or import a preset you already own — Preset Lab returns the Lightroom values and the in-camera settings together.
Open the generator