Ilford Galerie Fiber dev'd w/ Ansco 130, Neutol WA, or Dektol, thoughts?

[Bruce Barlow]

"I was just talking to somebody recently about Lodima. I would love to try it, especially for contact printing 8x10. Maybe one day."

Again, too bad. Got a freezer full of Lodima grades 2 and 3. Bring your negs, print, eat lobster.

Hey! We're having our first snowfall of the winter tonight. How does it get any better than that?? Especially for someone from Georgia???

[Corran]

I'll keep that in mind if I head up that way! I would love to see Maine - it's one of the places my wife and I are really interested in going to someday.

We sometime get snow here...once or twice a year, a light dusting...

Only thing is I don't eat lobster .

[John Olsen]

A good friend and mentor of mine pretty much only uses Dektol. I can't fault him for it and the prints looks good. Yes, there's always an element of "silver bullet" searching I suppose but I do love to try different things. It's fun. I do absolutely think my prints with Ilford Warmtone dev'd in Ansco 130 look objectively "better" than my Ilford MGIV dev'd in Dektol. There's clearly a difference. Also MGIV + Dektol is definitely a bit on the cool side in paper tone. Neutol WA gives it a bit more neutrality. Of course all this is meaningless since MGIV isn't made anymore, but I haven't used any Classic to compare (I have two boxes on the shelf though once I finish up this last box of MGIV).

Do you think Dektol is just the perfect paper developer? Do you think there is nothing better?

What? You have Ilford MG Classic and haven't tried it? It is a big step forward, so please try it soon.

As for the Dektol exhaustion cliff, I record how many prints (8x10 equivalents) I've done with my working solution, and toss it at the 80-100 print per gallon point. Certainly, I mix new solution if I'm embarking on a big print campaign.

[Corran]

Cool, I'll be interested to try it. I am just trying to push through the last of my MGIV, most of which I've had for years since I wasn't really able to print seriously until this year after building out a proper DR.

[Bill Burk]

I use Galerie with Dektol 1:2 at 68-degrees for 3 minutes. I find the color to be very neutral.

I have been Selenium toning, 1:20 for a few minutes, certainly not to completion. I don't see a significant change in the tone.

When mixing spotting dyes I find that I use mostly Spotone 3 (gray) with a little 2 selenium (brownish).

Greenish, I haven't seen in a long time, pretty sure it was from adding potassium bromide to the tray.

[George Hart]

I have tried most of the currently-available fibre-based papers from Ilford and I have settled on Ilfobrom Galerie FB for prints that end up in a frame and on the wall. For some years my choice of developer with this paper has been Bromophen, though I'm going to try Adox Adotol (Calbe N113) because Bromophen is now available only in 5 L quantities. Prints for the wall get toned in selenium 1+19 for 3 min. The colour shift from green to black/very slight red is obvious but only when a direct comparison is made with an untoned print. IMO selenium clears up the "snottiness" of an untoned print and makes it more luminous.

[Pere Casals]

Just curious if anyone has comments on the tonality, color, or whatever of Ilford Galerie (G2 or 3) in either Ansco 130, Neutol WA, or Dektol?

I'm giving Galerie a try to see how I like it. I have never used a graded paper before. These are the 3 developers I have on hand - though I would consider something else if it's imperative.

Of course I'll try a variety of things but just thought I would ask.

Time ago I made my choice: Dektol.

I printed some contact copies of the Stouffer density wedge with different print developers and I found little difference about grey scales.

At the end when printing with Galerie you may end with Selenium and/or Gold toning, so final tone is adjusted later. IMHO Galerie paper is for serious works, so long term stability, and richer blacks should be a requirement, so toning would be there.

Of course one may want Galerie without the toning finish... but again there are a couple of paper tone manipulation techniques beyond developer. What I say is that grey scale manipulation is done in other ways, and IMHO for FB tone Se/Au/etc bath is what rules, so the paper developer is a least concern to me, if later I'm to tone it.

[j.e.simmons]

I found that with 130, one can make small contrast changes similar to old water bath techniques by stopping agitation for part of the development time. For instance, if developing for two minutes, agitate for one minute and still for the second, or 1 1/2 to 30sec.

[Pere Casals]

I found that with 130, one can make small contrast changes similar to old water bath techniques by stopping agitation for part of the development time. For instance, if developing for two minutes, agitate for one minute and still for the second, or 1 1/2 to 30sec.

ok, but this should also work with other developers, specially with diluted or partially exhausted developer... as we play with selective developer exhaustion before a new agitation is performed.

Also a requirement for this would be a not complete development, because if not all latent image is developed anyway at the end. I guess this would modify tone a bit to the warm side because incomplete development, please correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm a darkroom printing learner.

[Corran]

Thanks Bill for your thoughts on Dektol. It is good to know that the tone is neutral with Galerie. I am still going to keep Dektol around, especially for larger prints requiring a lot of developer.

George, I have never heard of either of those. What qualities do you attribute to them that make them your preferred developer, as opposed to more common developers?

I am now looking at my finished/dried comparison prints between Ilford Warmtone and Galerie, both in Ansco 130. Again, the Warmtone is semi-matte while the Galerie is glossy. Due to this there is an obvious difference in DMax. But beyond this, the lower tones, around Zones 2-4, have a bit more "luminosity" on the Galerie paper. It's like the contrast was kicked up just in the low tones. As previously mentioned, the Galerie paper was also easier to print down the highlights on, and they have a bit more subtlety looking at the very lightest tones, Zones 8-10. The Warmtone is fine but it goes from light grey to white pretty fast.

I read somewhere online that Warmtone has an abrupt toe/shoulder. This would roughly explain what I am seeing. However it might be invisible if I were to try one more print on Warmtone Glossy (but I don't have any). I think I am going to stick these two prints in a frame next to each other and hang on the wall near a window and see if I can easily ascertain any difference. I think they will probably both look nice and any subtle differences will be irrelevant behind glass. However I am definitely very happy with the Galerie paper, with a negative that properly aligns with the contrast grade (I tried printing a less-than-perfect negative, which showed clearly the limitations of a graded paper with an improper negative).