maybe you aren't trying very hard. I found it in all normal sizes within 3 vendors BH, Adorama, and Freestyle. I'm sure there are others who carry it. It was sold out in some sizes and special order if you want rolls of it. Even Ebay had some.Originally Posted by Drew Wiley
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
http://www.searing.photography
Not to gainsay Drew, but I have found that I get nice cool tones with Ilford MG Warmtone by using the D-72 formula from Steve Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook and substituting 15 ml of 1% benzotriazole per liter for all of the potassium bromide, and using it at a 1:1 dilution. It also tones nicely in selenium. To be clear, I have not tried his suggested strategy.
(NB 1% benzotriazole is 10 g of benzotriazole in a liter of water.)
I've gotten to really like MGW but it's quite expensive, and according to Ilford, not packaged in larger boxes than 50 sheets of 11x14.
I am learning a lot from all these suggestions but keep in mind that I am fairly new at all of this so please be sure that no too many "strange abbreviations" make your contribution difficult for the uninformed to understand!
A number of folks have mentioned paper as being a key piece to the "cool tone prints" that I am hoping for. This makes perfect sense and I probably should have included it in the first place. I was a Senior Citizen and went to school a few years back (Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI in Indianapolis) and I have some paper left over that has been saved and is turning out to be just fine. So, the papers I have are:
1. Ilford Multigrade FB Classic, Glossy
2. Ilford Multigrade IV Fiber Matt
3. Ilford Multigrade FB Classic, Matt
4. Ilford Hahnemühle MG Art 300 Textured (I have not yet tried this, but it was recommended by one of my instructors)
I also see lots of recommendations that I tone my prints and this is something that I also have not yet tried. Perhaps this information will help folks focus there responses to my query. I really do appreciate all the helpful suggestions from everyone!! Thanks!
Martha, none of those papers are truly cold tone. Multigrade Cold Tone would be if you use an appropriate cold developer. But the papers you do have can be tweaked via specific developer choice and toning method to achieve a colder tone than they generally would render. But that's exactly where opinions begin to differ. Some cite MQ developers like Dektol, but to me they render an off-greenish tone on such papers that I don't personally classify as cold. So you just need to experiment to decide what you like best for a given image. I do not believe that one shoe fits all, not only with regard to personal preferences, but with what is appropriate to one specific images versus another. But unfortunately, in this day and age, very few true cold papers still exist to choose from. That wasn't always the case.
I'll second the earlier suggestion of Moersch SE-6. Works some magic with Ilford MGWT (great also with Forte if you can find it), cools MG Classic quite a bit, and cools Cooltone even more. Personally, I'm currently finding that I can usually cover most of my needs by keeping a supply of Moersch 4812 and SE-6 on hand, along with stocks of both MG Classic and MGWT. The Moersch developers do cost a bit by volume...but they (especially the 4812) have generous capacities/shelf lives.
With the Ilford emulsions you have ,and using ,in my case, home mixed D72, and Dektol previously , I would strongly suggest finishing with a gentle treatment in Selenium Toner. I use Kodak,but Ilford should be similar. 1 to 20 dilution for 3-4 minutes. The idea is for the print to not appear "Toned". You should expect a cooler effect,with richer blacks. Comparing two prints should prove my point.
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