Your preferences in b&w printing materials?

[Jim Galli]

Well, I may as well throw in with the rest. I've arrived at a combination I really love. J&C Photo has some triple weight Hungarian or Czeckoslovakian paper that just makes the most gorgeous brown blacks in Ansco 135. Add a little selenium and you won't worry about Kodak brown tone. It easily trips the Macbeth 924 with 2.20 blacks. Really pretty. They call it J&C museum weight or something like that. Comes in 12X16 and 16X20. I make my negs on the long side for AZO or platinum but they fall onto this paper just beautifully. If you need a formula for 135 I've re-formulated it so that it fits into a 750ml wine bottle. Do I need to explain why?

[ronald lamarsh]

I have used Photographers formulary 130 exclusively for a number of years now. I used to use bromophen. I can't really say that there is such a thing as a "best developer" after all Ansel used and recommended dektol as does Bruce Barnbaum and I dare say their prints didn't suffer.
To my eye there is just an extra "something" to my prints when using 130. Another reason I like it is its very high capacity and long shelf life. I normally dilute 2:1 or 3:1 and have found that if I don't use it to exhaustion I can save the "working solution" for up to 3wks and use it some more. Have fun

[Randy_5067]

I know this is gonna sound a little off the wall and not right, but....
For a nice brown-tone liken unto something turn-of-the-century type look, try brewing up a pot of real good strong tea (yep, the kind you drink), and after fixing, put the print in the tea and watch until it turns the shades you like, take it out and rinse it. Hell, once I got kinda smashed and poured a cup of coffee on one just for kicks. Turned out looking like an old wet-plate colloidian-type print. Kinda cool. Haven't tried it again (the coffee print, that is) Ya never know what works till ya get stupid enough to try it.

[Henry Ambrose]

John,

I'll throw in with 130, TF4 and add Bergger VCCB paper to the mix.

130 lasts and lasts and gives lovely warm blacks and detailed bright highlights on VCCB and generally great results on all papers I've tried.

TF4 also lasts and lasts. I use it after a plain water rinse/stop.

The only catch is the Bergger paper -- I understand from a recent post here that its been changed. We'll have to wait and see how its changed.

[John Cook]

Thanks, guys, for all the information. Armed with your replies, I'm now actively on the case.

By the way, the market deterioration continues. Just received the following e-mail from Digital Truth:

"Kodak has announced a plan to cease production of photographic paper
bases later this month. All raw paper products will be sourced from
third party suppliers in future."

It seems we are soon going to be down to a single paper worldwide, with our choice of box design.

[Bill_1856]

Untoned Agfa Multicontrast in Ansco 130 is gorjesus stuff. How long it will be available is anyone's guess.

[paulr]

someone recommended tea toning; this is really a stain--it will stain the paper base and emulsion to give you a warmer base, but not the silver image. it can be nice if your favorite paper has a brighter white than you want.

my favorite warm toner has always been nelson gold. on fortezo (r.i.p.?) i used it diluted because it worked so fast. i also typically toned in a very weak selenium toner first in order to get the cool brown that i like (by itself nelson gave a redder brown).

every variable will make a difference. paper, obviously. also developer and development time and temperature. it takes a while to get comfortable with the way the toner works. but the results were always beautiful.

i heard from some old timers that mercury sulfide toners were the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen. i even got my hands on a recipe, but learned from good sources that you'd have to be borderline suicidal to have mercuric chloride in the house. so i never tried it.

by the way, nelson gold is available as a kit from the formulary. or if you have a lot of chems sitting around you can mix it from scratch.

[Mark Sampson]

What my experience shows is that with cold-tone enlarging paper, developer choice doesn't make much difference. Formulary Amidol looked nice, but no better than Calumet Zone VI paper developer, at 10X the price. Ansco 130 is indeed beautiful- just the smallest hint of warmth-but you have to develop for 3 minutes, and those minutes add up. It too is 10X the price of Dektol. That developer does a fine job, I suppose all the paper makers have to be sure their products work in the world's most popular developer. I just tried some Ilford Multigrade liquid, looks colder than Dektol. I'll try it again.
But of course warm-tone papers are another story. I'll save my opinions because I haven't used them enough.