RC-VC or Fiber VC? Which, and why?

[Ari]

Tray siphons work fine, but you need to monitor constantly for continuous motion, and always shuffling prints from top to bottom. I find siphons practical for 2-5 prints, but for larger quantities, I love having a vertical, slotted archival washer. Just drop the prints in when you've finished all your printing, and wash for 5-10 minutes (RC papers). When they're done, pull them out and hang them to dry. No wet hands, and they all wash at the same time.
You can cut down on washing time by 50% by using hypo clear as a fourth bath.

[Oren Grad]

I haven't used RC since college. How do you wash it? For how long? We just used a tray with a Kodak tray siphon back then.

I still just use a tray with a Kodak tray siphon. For my RC prints it's 30 seconds rapid fix, then 2 minutes in running water, per Ilford's recommendation.

Which paper has richer blacks or tones better is entirely a matter of the specific paper. If you want to see inky blacks and a hyperactive response to toner, try the RC version of Ilford MG Warmtone.

But the surfaces are certainly different, even comparing glossy against glossy. Which you'll prefer is up to you.

[eli]

I seem to remember a 'blind' test in which folks that were shown prints on high grade FB and RC papers actually preferred the RC glossy papers. I don't remember much more so, does anyone here know anything about this test?

Eli

[Bruce Barlow]

For a university course, I'd go cheap and use RC. I proof on Arista EDU and it's just fine.

Set yourself a goal to learn as much as possible, which means print as much as you can. With inexpensive RC, you'll feel better about that. Using less water to wash all those RC prints will let you feel morally righteous, too!

BTW, graded papers aren't necessarily better than VC. Download the now-stale articles I wrote on papers and developers from my website for some ideas and, maybe, insight. The exception to this is Lodima, but that's an entirely different animal, since it's limited pretty much to contact printing.

[Sal Santamaura]

I seem to remember a 'blind' test in which folks that were shown prints on high grade FB and RC papers actually preferred the RC glossy papers. I don't remember much more so, does anyone here know anything about this test?...

No, but Fuji's consumer preference tests lead to things like Velvia. Relying on the public to have good taste isn't necessarily a wise approach.

[William McEwen]

I just looked at Ilford's data sheets -- says Ilford Multigrade RC should not be wet for longer than 11 minutes. That's from developer to end of washing. WOW! I tell people that when I walk into the darkroom to print, I've committed to about four hours (which includes wash time for fiber prints).

[eli]

"No, but Fuji's consumer preference tests lead to things like Velvia. Relying on the public to have good taste isn't necessarily a wise approach."

I don't disagree but recently I've been considering offering both RC and FB prints of the same subject, perhaps with a size differential to let potential buyers decide for themselves which they prefer.

I do think of photograph as an art form but I also believe that even though I think FB is the way to go, I want people show their appreciation of what I'm doing with the medium by taking it home and enjoying it. Income aside, small as it might be, the idea of my work in someone's personal space is more important to me than the ground it is printed on.

When I start doing carbon printing I'll likely still make silver gelatin as well.

Eli

[Sal Santamaura]

...recently I've been considering offering both RC and FB prints of the same subject, perhaps with a size differential to let potential buyers decide for themselves which they prefer...

Even though photography's not a business for me, I almost always print on fiber based papers. The difference is apparent even at normal viewing distances, even under glass -- as long as one uses the correct glass (Tru Vue AR Reflection-Free).

If I ever did sell any work, I'd never consider offering RC. See Ctein's "Post Exposure" for his experience doing that.

[Greg Lockrey]

When I was in college, RC papers were still new and lousy. We were forbidden to use it. Later it got better for b&w and color was pretty much all RC. It was great for commercal applications especially if you had an Arky RC print dryer so you cold dry 900 prints an hour if you had to.

[Santo Roman]

You might want to find out if the university has the room and the water baths that FB papers require. It does need to dry a bit longer and having large steel plates also help as the FB paper will tend to curl a bit when it dries. I prefer FB when I can use it but for daily use...RC is the way to go.

santo