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Old 13th February 2011, 04:23 PM
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Keith Tapscott. Keith Tapscott. is offline
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Question What B&W Papers?

At a recent meeting on Dartmoor with some of our fellow FADU members, there was some mention of the merits of different photographic papers.
Some liked glossy, others preferred matt, semi-matt or satin surfaces for various reasons. Some liked warm tones, others neutral or cool tones.

What currently available B&W papers do you like and what is it that you like about them?
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Old 13th February 2011, 04:31 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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I mostly use the Fotospeed rcvc, Oyster, I like it for the slightly heavier weight, and the warmth when developed in the WT10 developer, I also like the Fomatone again for it's warmth,much warmer than Ilford WT, although I don't use a lot of FB paper, I find I prefer RC paper,Richard
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Old 13th February 2011, 04:59 PM
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For projection printing Ilford's WT FB, glossy is my current preference. Nice weight and base colour, I prefer a whiter base, variety of warmth depending on developer. Very consistent paper, quality control is second to none

For contact printing I really like the look of Lodima grade 3. For some reason I get warmer tones then I get with grade 2, plus the blacks are much richer. Beautiful warm tones when developed in Kodak D165 diluted 1:3 (selectol-soft).

I'm lamenting my last 50 odd sheets of Forte polywarmtone, FB, glossy. If this paper was to return it would be my favourite, despite some quality control issues.
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Old 13th February 2011, 05:12 PM
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I prefer matt papers as they give me the impression that the image is in the paper rather on the surface. My preferred papers are Ilford MG FB 5K (Matt) and Fomatone Chamois 542 (the old one, have not tried the new version yet).
As for tonality, I love Fotokemika Emaks (Adox Nuance), sadly only easily available in glossy surface.

You might guess by now that I like Ilford Satin surface when it comes to RC papers.
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Old 13th February 2011, 05:45 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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I was quite an Ilford RC Satin fan but for certain prints they can appear flat and low contrast so now it's not an unqualified endorsement.

So far the best paper and surface I have used is no longer made. It's Jessops RC Lustre. It has a depth, blacks and sheen that I find Ilford Pearl doesn't match.

Maybe Fotospeed Oyster will come close and I must get around to using the pack I have. Given that Jessops had Agfa filtration values I suspect that what I have was made by Agfa so may be Adox Semi-Matte will be very close.

Yet another road for me to go down.

Mike
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Old 13th February 2011, 05:55 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Mike, your are correct, the Jessops paper, as was their own brand black and white film,was agfa by another name, if you liked the Jessops then you should like the Adox, and yes, I would say that the Fotospeed paper is probably as good,or very very close,I believe it was once made for Fotospeed by agfa,Richard
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Old 13th February 2011, 06:40 PM
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I've never having been a great fan of glossy prints. Always preferred a semi matt or matt paper. What I used to like was the look and feel of air dried Record Rapid. For a cool tone matt image I used to use Kentmere fineprint WT, split toned in selenium and gold it had a really nice depth of tone. Sadly that paper is no more. Currently, for cool tone I'm impressed with Adox Vario for it's neutral image quality. I also use Foma 131 & 132 for both lith and b&w printing. Both are nice papers that can be made to go either cool or warm. I'm waiting to try the new Adox MC110.
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Old 13th February 2011, 06:44 PM
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Quite a variety of preferences so far with a balance of resin-coated and fibre-based papers.
Thank you for the replies so far. Do any of you make your choice simply because of the look of an untoned print, or because of the way the emulsion responds to toners?
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Old 13th February 2011, 07:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Tapscott. View Post
.... Do any of you make your choice simply because of the look of an untoned print, or because of the way the emulsion responds to toners?
My choices are made primarily how a paper looks untoned. Toning for me gives rise to another set of choices.
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Old 13th February 2011, 07:07 PM
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I like the Fotospeed for the way the untoned print looks, it was the same with both foma and Ilford, the fact that the Fotospeed takes to toning well is an added bonus,Richard
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