black photo paper instead of white

[richard ide]

The paper I used came in red, blue, yellow, green and orange. The paper colour coating was matte but the paper base was a high gloss white. I think the bleach etch was copper chloride/hydrogen peroxide (2 solutions)? The company also produced gold and silver. The emulsion was a grade 2 (approximately) although the bleach/etch only worked with high contrast images.

[TangledBranches]

I know you posted this several years ago but I was wondering if you ever found a company that makes black photo paper? I really want to get my hands on some but I am having no luck finding anything but white or pastels

[Ian Grant]

There's never been a black based conventional paper, I did experiment with a white toner to give white tones on a black base in the mid 70's but the toner was cadmium based and wouldn't be legal with today's environmental concerns. The tones were a dirty white anyway.

Luminos was the company who marketed EFKE films and papers, and EFKE made coloured based papers packaged & sold by a number of companies. As previously mentioned Kentmere also sold similar papers. There main uses were as display materials and they were marketed at the Graphics & Display industry rather than conventional photographers. This was a field that Kentmere excelled in and one reason Ilford bought them was for their range of high end display materials designed for wide inkjet printers.

Ian

[Maris]

Harman Direct Positive Paper comes out black if developed without exposure. The direct positive portraits I've done on this material don't look like tintypes but they do have the mirror reversed view of a face that tintypes (and Daguerreotypes) deliver.