Why Forte?

[John Cook]

Mr. Martin Reekie kindly posted an announcement recently that the Forte website is back in action. Nice looking site. But it got me wondering.

I’m not much of a fine artist, but I’ve managed to earn a (commercial) living with sheet film since “Laugh-In” was on television. For everything I’ve seen and learned over the years, I have never actually seen a box of Forte film. Never knew anyone who used it, either.

So I was just wondering, what special product qualities do these folks have to compete with other films and papers? What’s the company history? (They seem to be Hungarian?) Could any of you “heavy users” bring me up to speed?

Many thanks for your help.

[clay harmon]

It has the same cult appeal as pet rocks and chia pets. Mumble 'silver-rich' and 'thick emulsion' and dismiss sensitometric data as senseless, and there you go.. ...

Seriously, it is not a bad film, but if you do real world tests on it, it has trouble building significant image density, and does not respond with a wide contrast range to development time variations. It seems to work a little better in pyro type staining developers. But it is a nice inherently low contrast film that works well in high contrast pictorial situations.... like many other films. It is relatively cheap, and if Kodak continues on its current course, it may soon be all we can get. Like most things, you can make it work if you put in the time to understand its quirks.

[Nick Morris]

I have used the company's polywarmtone fiber semi-matt paper, and it is a very nice paper. It looks good. It does respond differently than the Agfa and Ilford papers I have been using, but appears to offer some very nice results. I need to work with it more to better evaluate it's potential. Seems to be a well-liked warm toned paper, from what I've read.

[Arne Croell]

Their papers, especially their chlorobromide fiber-based ones, are probably much better known than their film. For instance, John Sexton uses Polywarmtone occasionally.

[Garry Teeple]

I tried Forte paper a few years ago and found it to ge excellent when I first opened the box. After letting it sit in the paper safe for a couple of months it had changed dramatically. The images were lower in contrast and when washed the emulsion peeled off around the edges. The Kodak and Ilford papers also in the paper safe had not change any.

[wfwhitaker]

I'm not a "heavy user", but I am very fond of Forte Polywarmtone Plus fiber base paper. I love the results I get with it and have not experienced any problems. And frankly in this day and age, the more film and papers that remain on the market, the better off we all are.

[Ole Tjugen]

Fortezo Museum gives beautiful lith prints. I haven't used any of the films, poly- or RC papers, though; I'm changing to all graded paper since there are so many really good papers out there!

[Jim_3565]

"It has the same cult appeal as pet rocks and chia pets. Mumble 'silver-rich' and 'thick emulsion' and dismiss sensitometric data as senseless, and there you go.. ... "

Never having bought either one, I wouldn't know about pet rocks or chia pets, but I have tried all the alleged "old style" films which purport to deliver qualities similar to Super XX Pan. The best of these is Efke PL100, but none of these films (Forte, JandC Classic 200, Bergger BPF 200, Efke R50, Efke R25, Efke PL100, Fomapan) offers the density, ease of control and overall consistent quality of 400TMax. The prints I get from it are consistently better by any measure, whether sensitometric or intuitive. When the Great Yellow Father announces this film's demise, I'll be buying a lifetime supply. I can't tell you anything about the Forte papers (I use only Azo and Bergger papers), but as to the film my advice would be "don't waste your money like I did".

[David A. Goldfarb]

I tried Forte Elegance paper and found it too green for my taste, but some people seem to like it. I also tried Fortepan 400 under the "ClassicPan" label and found it didn't have the density range I needed, but they have said they planned to improve it sometime around now.

Fomapan T200 (35mm and 120 only) is kind of interesting as a special effect--like a film from the 1930s.

Efke PL100 is a nice film with a good density range and attractive curve, and it comes in all sizes. I've been testing it in 4x5", and I'll probably use it in 11x14". It looks great in pyro.

Another East European product that I really like is Maco/Cachet Expo enlarging paper. It's neutral to very slightly warm with solid blacks and good shadow detail. They claim to have a higher gold chloride content than other premium enlarging papers.

[Martin Reekie]

John,

Forte are Hungarian, they are based in the old Kodak works in Vac. They are one of the last manufacturers to maintain a full range of traditionally formulated fibre-base papers. For this reason alone they should be supported! They also actively research new products such as the innovative warm-tone VC fibre paper Polywarmtone.

As commented above they are better known for their papers, their films are reasonable and certainly have applications. From the large format point of view they will cut any size of film you want, for a smallish production run.

Their papers are, however, stunning. The new VC Polywarmtone is a gorgeous paper, similar in effect to the old Kodak Ektalure or Oriental Seagull Portrait, warm emulsion with a warm base. The Fortezo Musuem is a great paper for exhibition printing, very heavy base 280 g/m² and an emulsion that takes selenium toning beautifully, very reminiscent of the old Agfa Record Rapid, the blue label stuff before Agfa “improved” it.

When companies like Agfa are deserting large format altogether, Kodak are rapidly closing down anything that might be looked upon as minority interest and Ilford are rationalising their traditional black and white materials companies like Forte have to be supported because without them the choice we have as photographers will be very limited. Besides they are very good products!

Martin

[Scott Walton]

Their films aren't bad at all. I have done alot of tests on them and particularly like the Portrait100, in 120 (only made in 120) and I do like their 4x5 films too... It is a very full scale, albeit lower contrast film and has a retouching base on both sides!... Not that I have dragged the Mitchel retoucher out in a long time but it has a really nice feel to it. The 4x5 films are similiar to Agfa although I feel are a bit richer. Their papers are very silver rich and have been made that way for years. With all the "improvements" that most other manufacturer's have made, they have made them for the "masses" and not the "purist" and the luster has been bred out. Forte still has the rich luster/luminosity that Kodak used to have with the Ektalure paper and their older films like Ektapan! Very much worth a try of both the films and the papers!!!

[tim o'brien]

The only Forte stuff I have used is their Elegance papers. Since I haven't found any other really good graded papers here in the south bay (SF), it'll have to do and I have been rather pleased with the results. Not up to the standards of the Ilford Gallerie I used in the late 80's, the last time I was involved in a lot of printing.

For other films, the Classic200 has been a very consistant film for me, which is good as it is the only film I have found in 3x4 (until the recent release of Adox100) and by using it, I can standardize across a lot of film formats. The one film I am not pleased with yet is the Efke 100. Just can't get the same tonals out of it that I can Agfa APX100. It seems thin in a lot of the same lighting conditions I shoot both films in and has been relegated to 127 roll film use only. I have picked up some 4x5 Efke25 but haven't shot enough of it to make a comparison, or even an evaluation whether I like it or not.

While I am not a complete film snob (I do shoot a buttload of TriX in 120)(and do really like 135mm Fujipan 400 and 1600) the actions of Agfa reveal how tenuous the film situation can be. Fortunately Agfa mada a LOT of 4x5 APX100 before they announced their abandonment of the sheet film industry and I have picked up several years supply. But eventually, it might just be the small eastern european manufactures that keep our passion alive. We do need to make sure they are still there when the big boys go 100 percent digital, whether that's 10 years or 30 years down the road.

tim in san jose