B &W Paper

[stephen_gray98]

Hello.

I'm trying to find a slow B&W paper around ISO 6 10X8 not too expensive. I thought all papers were this speed but the one I bought was ISO 640 ! As you can tell I'm a beginner so any recommendations ?

SPG

[Rick A]

Are you going by the printed ISO for the paper? That number has no meaning if used as paper negative. The only purpose that number serves is as a guide to compare to other paper when printing. The only way to know what ISO for shooting in a camera is by testing and taking notes of exposure times (and aperture if using a lens). Paper can be as high as iso 12 or 25 and as slow as 3 for metering purposes.

[stephen_gray98]

The odd thing is that with an f stop of 333 in sunlight, it took around 15 seconds to make a good print whereas I was expecting at least 1 minute. I used Kentmere VC Select Fine Lustre and Ilford multi diluted at 9+1.

SPG

[Rick A]

Don't forget to preflash your paper, helps cut the contrast for a better negative. You can also shoot graded paper for better negatives, no need for a filter like you have to use with MG paper. Check out this site for more info on pinhole photography.
http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl