tonality: warm, neutral, cold

[jetcode]

Some questions for anyone who wants to contribute.

What drives the decision for print tonality?
Are there any things to consider in matching paper to tonality?
Has anyone purposely mixed tonalities in a print? i.e. warm tone paper, cold tone ink?

[Dick Hilker]

Assuming you're referring to B&W printing, I generally choose based on the subject matter, i.e. warm tones for portraits, most sunny landscapes, etc., cold tones for architecturals, metallic subjects, snow scenes.

[Petzval Paul]

I find neutral prints to be somewhat boring. My eye neds to see some sort of color to be satisfied. I really prefer warm-toned prints for the nostalgic look, but there are varying degrees of warmth and different ways of acheiving it which will give a variety of effects. Recently I have been using a copper-tone that I mix up in my darkroom which is a different look that from sulfide. Cold tones don't do it for me, but I know that they are appropraite in certain contexts, as mentioned above.

[Greg Lockrey]

I've had success in mixing tones... if your talking about conventional B&W printing. I even had an example posted here in the Portrait thread.

[Michael Graves]

I'm like Paul. I like cold or warm, depending on the subject. But have only found one "Neutral" paper that appealed to me. Of course, in Ansco 130, it was actually slightly warm.