What lith developer for Fomatone VC Classic?

[Fintan]

I'm looking for lith developer suggestions for this paper, I'm after a moderately cold dark brown tone.

Any suggestions/examples would be appreciated.

Fintan

[DrPablo]

Fotospeed developer is gorgeous with this paper. It tends to be sort of peach or salmon colored, but if you selenium tone it you get a colder brown tone.

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Fintan, I have used the Fotospeed LD-20 with this paper and got, like Paul suggests, a very warm pink/orange tone. That is if exposed normally. I did some photography with negs that were very thin in the low values, but had close to normal highlight detail. So to decrease contrast I exposed the hell out of the paper, probably 50s at f/5.6 for an 8x10 (compared to about 30s @ f/8) and I got some almost greenish tones mixed in with the orange.
I haven't tried selenium toning yet, but might after Paul's description.
I know of one more photographer here that uses the Fomatone paper with the Macolith chemistry and she gets similar colors.

- Thomas

[DrPablo]

I tend to get more intensely orange prints if 1) the developer is well used, and 2) it's very heavily exposed. The selenium imparts sort of a copper color.

This is a crop from a split toned lith print. You can see the brown color of the selenium toning in the darker areas, and the blue from the gold toning in the lighter areas.

[Fintan]

Thanks for the replies. The photographs I want to print are rock bands so warm pink / orange tones mightn't suit the look I want [and they might sue ]

Selenium sounds interesting, thanks again for the posts.

If anyone else has other ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

Fintan

[Travis Nunn]

Naccolith has given me brown tones on Forte Fortezo and Kentmere Art Classic but I haven't tried it in combination with any of the Foma papers.

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Try printing with Fotospeed LD20 on Fotokemika Varycon. Gives a very nice brown/green tone that isn't the 'cutest' around. You can build some really impressive densities with this too, so check it out. It's also pretty cheap, available from Freestyle. Here's an example. Hardly a rock band, but you get the idea.
The second example is of the Fomatone in the same chemistry. I used 15+15+970 dilution at 70*F.
- Thomas

[Silverhead]

You can see an example of Fomatone Classic 132 processed in Fotospeed's LD20 lith developer 1:14 in Freestyle's current catalog. The tone is a very warm peach/sepia color.

[VincentM]

Naccolith has given me brown tones on Forte Fortezo and Kentmere Art Classic but I haven't tried it in combination with any of the Foma papers.

Do you know where to buy this Naccolith? even in the US I don't find it !

Thanks

[Mark Layne]

Fomatone MG is very dilution sensitive. I am usually looking for the pinky colours which are best in very dilute developer, say around 1+1+40 with LD20.
Stronger developer will give colder browner colours
Mark