I have been using Oriental Seagull G grade 2 paper. It seems to have increased in price since I last bought a box, and I was wondering if anyone has had good results with Fortezo, Luminos Classic graded or Cachet graded? If any of these are similar to Seagull or Galerie I'll give them a try, otherwise I'll probably shell out the extra dough for what I've been using. Thanks!
Erik,
Stick with what you have been using. Graded papers have been gradually disappearing from dealer's shelves, and the Oriental Seagull G is good stuff, if you can find what you need. Well worth the price.
If you are merely looking for a slightly lower priced option, look at the Forte papers.
I like Seagull, but I like Cachet Expo graded a little more. It holds shadow detail beautifully. It's also supposed to respond well to amidol, but I haven't tried that yet. I develop it in Agfa Neutol WA.
The only one I can commnet on is Fortezo, which is beautiful warmtone stuff, but not like Seagull (also my favorite).
Fortezo, Bergger and Kentmere is all good stuff. I really like the Bergger Art CB (Warm tone) papers, and the NB (neutral) papers have remarkably stable colour in selenium toning.
I love the Fortezo Semi-Matte. It is my main paper. I found it works extremely well with Edwal Ultra Black at high dilutions. At any rate, I've also tried and loved Galerie and Bergger NB papers but they only come in glossy and I prefer a semi-matte or semi-gloss. The Fortezo can give you warm to cold tones depending upon the developer and fixer used. Great stuff.
It pays to shop around...B&H has the best prices I've found on Seagull
I've just returned to Seagull Graded paper after having printed on Seagull VCFB for the last several years. My feelings are the graded paper is a very fine paper and I intend to return to only it for my enlarging paper. The expense is a consideration, certainly, but when I look at a print made on it and a print made on other papers it just makes the price justifiable for me.
I find Fortezo too green for my taste, but maybe it's more attractive in some other developer than the ones I tried.
In any case the best thing you can do, since this is such a personal kind of thing, is buy a 25-sheet pack of each of the premium papers and print the same neg on each of them and compare. I keep the test prints in a file for future reference, in case one of those papers that I didn't pick as my main choice might be just right for a certain kind of image.
To Mike Chini - I have Ilfobrom Galerie in matte surface, grades 2 and 3 . I think the matte surface is available, but only in grades 2 and 3. It is a nice paper. I use the glossy in grades 2, 3, and 4 also.
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