Ilford MGIV & Warmtone (MGWT), a discussion...

[brian steinberger]

Expensive, but I agree it is the best all round paper on the market for depth and tonal range. In Eukobrom it is relatively neutral in tone too.

Anyone know if Eukobrom is available in the US?

[brian steinberger]

Just wanted to update everyone on where I'm at with these two papers at this point, and hopefully generate more discussion here.

I'm now in the process of printing three images for a local land conservancy art auction next month. I've recently given up on 130 BZT that I was using. I compared prints from LPD and also 130 BZT on MGIV and determined the results were so close and actually found the LPD to be slightly colder on MGIV after a heavy selenium. LPD is a phenidone based developer with organic anti-fogging agents (benzotriazole, and who knows what else!) but the tone on MGIV at 1:3 dilution is fantastic after a heavy selenium toning of 6-8 minutes at 1:9. My first image was printed this way and I couldn't be happier with the results, cold charcoally tones.

Next image was just toned today. It was on MGWT and developed in LPD 1:3. My attempt was for a split tone, with black shadows and just a hint of yellow to the highlights. Must say, I know things need to be cut way back when toning MGWT but this was the most subtle toning I've done so far on MGWT. First selenium toned 1 1/2 minutes at 1:19. Just a hint of warmth to the shadows. Then hypo clear and long wash. Then a massively dilute bleach (1g of pot ferri and 1 g of pot bromide per liter) for only 25 seconds. Toned with a medium high amount of accelerator. Print looked great when wet, but as usual lost much of its color after drying. I also lost some highlight detail. At this point I'm rather frustrated with MGWT when it comes to split tones. The negative is still in the enlarger and I plan to re-print the same image in the next few nights on MGIV and attempt to split tone with selenium, sepia and maybe even a hit of gold.

Also, I ordered some Neutol WA from Freestyle to try with MGWT. Don't like to try new things all the time, but it's worth a shot.