When do you use matt paper?

[cyrus]

Most photographers are obsessed with using glossy. However for certain images, I find that matt works better. When do you use matt - and have you even experimentd with matt paper?(B&W)

[Emil Schildt]

I normally use matt surfaces. I don't really like the glossy shine on a glossy paper.

Also - the motives I do, are goes more with the matt surface. Especially when I distress the negative ot the final print.

I also use liquid emulsion all the time - and here, the surface is also matt/semi-matt..

all in all - choise of type of paper is a tool like all other choises made in photography.
some pictures cry out for glossy - some don't...

[Ken Lee]

Warm-toned images - and those of limited dynamic range - can often look nicer on matt paper, especially if the paper is itself slightly warm-toned. On the other hand, if the subject is shiny like metal or water, and the image is cold-toned and of high dynamic range, then glossy paper can enhance the "brilliance".

[Vaughn]

Some of the best images I saw on matt surfaced paper were on Portriga Rapid 118 and were of Chaco Canyon ruins. The black of the ruins' windows tried to suck you inside. Wonderful!

Vaughn

[Greg Lockrey]

I always liked the look of un-ferrotyped gloss paper best.

[KenM]

Never. Don't like the look, at least for my photographs.

[mhulsman]

I use matt paper for portraits.
I like it for the skin tones.
Tried it for other than portraits, but than the blacks are not so intense.
Maybe selenium toning can reach more intense blacks on matt paper. Have to try that another time.

[Emil Schildt]

I use matt paper for portraits.
I like it for the skin tones.
Tried it for other than portraits, but than the blacks are not so intense.
Maybe selenium toning can reach more intense blacks on matt paper. Have to try that another time.

development - development and then development....

when my girlfriend (much better than me in the darkroom) makes her magic - she can make the blacks as black as a dark hole in the universe - and still keep the details.....

It's not the paper - it is the development. (in my experience)

[Vaughn]

There is more light scatter on the surface of matt paper, which in turn tends to make the blacks not as deep as on identically printed and developed glossy paper.

[cyrus]

There is more light scatter on the surface of matt paper, which in turn tends to make the blacks not as deep as on identically printed and developed glossy paper.

Hmmm...one would think that the opposite would be true - that the matted surface is less likely to be reflective and therefore the blacks would be blacker - just as black velvet is compared to black satin