----- Original Message -----
From: "Collin Brendemuehl"
Subject: Re: OT: Blacks in darkroom
So, not being knowledgable about papers,
what are some recommendations you might
have?
In RC, give Polymax a try. They keep bragging
about it. Multigrade IV has a pretty good black,
but it used to suffer from bronzing when put
behind glass or laminated. I don't know if it
still does.
FWIW, I have never liked Polycontrast III,
I like both warm and cool toned papers. I am not
so hot on the neutral ones. I loved the old Zone
VI Brilliant that was made in France. I still
have a small amount of it in cold storage. I
haven't tried the new stuff. Ilford Gallerie is
nice, for a neutral. Aaron mentioned an Agfa
paper. Agfa make some nice stuff.
Check out the Seagull papers. I've done some
nice printing on them.
If you are into portraits, consider giving the
warm toned papers a try. They can make for
really nice pictures. The other day I mentioned
using Ektalure paper. It is Kodaks sleeper. It
is a paper that is impossible to hate. It is a
little soft, go with a grade 2 and either a 3 or
4. It responds well to developer controls.
Selectol Soft 1:3 will give the least contrast,
straight Dektol will give the most contrast,
probably you can get a full grade out of the
stuff with developer control.
Finish it with a selenium toner, and the colour
goes from a rather olive green to a really nice
warm brown tone. I think it only comes in the G
surface, which is quite textured; the prints
appear almost like fine leather.
Forte papers are really nice too. They are very
silver rich, and tone nicely. Very rich looking
images from it.
Ilford makes a warm toned paper, but I can't get
it to work for me. The colour is very creamy,
but I didn't get a lot of depth out of it. This
is not to say you shouldn't try it. I have
always liked the Ilford RC papers, even with the
bronzing.
I still think the nicest papers are graded, not
variable contrast. With this in mind, it becomes
really necessary to start tailoring your
negatives more to your paper.
You will find that variable contrast papers have
a very short range that they work really well
in. Even with VC papers, you should be aiming
for a particular grade.
I think a lot of people inadvertantly get it
backwards, and try to match paper to negatives.
I think it best to match negatives to paper.
Film is much more responsive to control than
paper.
Figuring out how to expose a film starts in the
darkroom.
Take an unexposed piece of the film you want to
use. Process it as per the manufacturers
instructions, or you best guess if you have one.
Your best guess is probably more accurate.
Set your enlarger head to a height that will
give a nice magnification for the print size you
want to make, most of the time.
Default to 8x10 if you can't decide.
Focus the lens and set stop it down 3 stops or
so. or to its best aperture if you know it.
Do not change these settings for the duration of
the procedure
Put the processed film into the neg carrier and
make a series of exposures to find the time it
takes to make D-max.
Now we can go out and start making pictures. Use
whatever test method you use. I tend to just
shoot several rolls of film with exposure
bracketing, and process them one at a time,
until I find an exposure/development combination
that works with the paper exposure that I have
decided on.
If you are using sheet film, and to an extent,
this can be done with roll film, you can tailor
the exposure/ development of each individual
image to fit the paper of choice.
William Robb
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