Whar about Ilford Galerie? Graded paper, wonderful tones, in selenium it just goes warmer and "deeper", not plummy at all.
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Whar about Ilford Galerie? Graded paper, wonderful tones, in selenium it just goes warmer and "deeper", not plummy at all.
If you don't mind working with a graded paper, I would highly recommend Kentmere Kentona. Great for both straight printing and lith printing, it has gorgeous tones and is (AFAIC) a great high-performance paper.
You might want to buy 25 sheet packs and try out all of the contenders. So far I like Ilford VC, Forma #2 and 3, and Salvich #3 and 4, I just tired the Salvich slik, a very nice look for portatures. All seem to work in Zonalpro, Ansco 130, and Clayton P20.
What developer do you use? Does it repond to a water bath, or what other methods can/do you use for tempering contrast a bit when needed?Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverhead
Regarding developers, LPD is available here last I looked. I generally use 130 with VC paper, but I have used LPD, and found it to be reliable, predictable, and enjoyable to print with. However, I never got it to offer the tone control advertised on the bottle, with the paper I was using.
Jason-
it is my understanding that Kentona is very responsive to water-bath development. I haven't used it myself, but several friends of mine who were Azo-heads have switched.
Ilford Multigrade IV Gloss in Ilford Multigrade Developer followed by ten minutes in KRST 1+5.
Selenium makes that green tint go away, takes it a lovely rich black, and should be pretty archival.
Trouble with warmtone is it goes red. Can look lovely with just the right picture in a split tone sort of thing but for full permanence, with every picture, I'd rather have B&W than Red & White. Personally. But if it's what you want...
When I do want something warmer now my choice is to Sepia tone the MGIV. Just lovely. With the right print.
As to Developers. I finally got my hands on the Ilford Warm- and Cool-tone developers. Spent an entire night testing all combinations of them and plain jane Multigrade and the MGIV and MGWT papers. And, oh yes, the differences were dramatic. Until I dunked them in Selenium, after which there was barely a difference between the developers. So as it does its work in two minutes rather than three and comes in five litre bottles I decided to stick with the Multigrade.
But whatever choice you make, welcome back to the darkroom and hope you have yourself some fun.
Hywel
Oriental and Kentmere with Dektol work wonderfully - I tend toward the cooler look with deep blacks that are important in my work. You can search far and wide and never find a better and more nimble developer than Dektol.
I just returned to the darkroom recently and started with Ilford MGIV fiber. I really wanted to try selenium toning but it seems to have very little effect on this paper. I used Kodak selenium mixed 1:9 and left it in for 5 minutes. It has more of an effect on the warmtone version but it is not dramatic (same time, same dilution).
Oriental is my new love. With my negatives, it is about the nicest I've used (neutral tone variable contrast). I also recently tried out Arista EDU Ultra (FOMA?) and found it similar to Forte neutral paper. Nice stuff and almost as good as Oriental.
Mark
Kodabromide with Dektol and Selectol Soft... Oops, wrong Century...
How about Oriental and LPD?
Or stay with one manufacturer like Ilford?
It's still a wide field of choices out there.
How about Azo and Amidol?