Paper negatives for portraits

[Norman Rubenis]

If I were to shoot portraits using paper negatives instead of film, what paper type would you recommend? I was thinking Ilford Multigrade but keen to hear if others have done this and preferences. Also, what iso should I aim for under studio lighting? (Constant daylight balanced). I'll be shooting on a MPP monorail 5x4. Currently getting a 50th sec at f5.6 with a 5ft octabox close in @400 iso.

[Mark Sampson]

Norman, welcome to the forum.
I'd start by going through the long thread entitled "Paper Negatives". And from my limited experience, photo paper is about ISO 6.

[Peter Gomena]

You can find panchromatic black-and-white paper cut to size on the Ultrafine website. It's intended for RGB laser b&w printing, but apparently works fine in pinhole cameras.

[blindpig]

Norman,Think you are going to have fun with paper negative portraits I've been using Multigrade IV glossy for my negatives to reduce texture, as I enlarge mine but think it would be good for contact printing as well. Seems with my set up am getting an ISO of about 4 with my hot lights and processing. Really like the possibility of emulating old Hollywood movie star type portraits.
Best of luck,
Don

[Ted R]

the first things that come to mind.....

contrast control may be a problem (paper is inherently contrast expanding whereas film is contrast compressing)
no red sensitivity may be a problem (we are used to skin tones rendered panchromatically with film, paper has no red sensitivity)
slow speed may be a problem (paper is much slower than film)
enlarging may be a problem (paper has a higher base density than film leading to longer exposure times)

apart from that things should be lovely.............

[kevincook]

RC paper is great for paper negatives, but it isn't archival, fiber is. As far as the sensitivity of the paper, not an issue. ASA 4-7 of paper is more than enough on a fully sunny or partially cloudy day. It sounds low, but a nice sunny EV day of 10 & my exposure for the slowest paper neg is sitting at 1/30th at f5.6. Not Bad.