Eco-Pro paper developer -- some observations

[Ulophot]

I recently bought some, Dektol still being on back order and my Multigrade developer replacement running out. Eco-Pro advertises itself as good with warm-tone papers and especially for toning.

My first trials were not rigorous but offer some initial indications. I used Ilford Warmtone Fiber semi-matte with two negatives, one a full-range portrait, the other a landscape including fairly dense clouds against a light sky. Development was 2 minutes around 72 degrees F.

Eco-Pro is a markedly softer-working developer, and gives a slightly warmer tone than Multigrade. The contrast is about 1/3 grade lower than Multigrade, in addition to which I had to add roughly 15% to the exposure to yield a comparable result in the print. This yielded a bit more of a shift in the mid-low values than in the high. I was trying to get comparable, not absolutely identical prints (just as well!) so that I could see toning differences, and I was trying to match the sky and clouds in one and the skin values in the other.

For toning, I used selenium, just topped-up with an ounce of fresh stock, which made it a bit stronger than 1:19 and therefore led me to a shorter toning time than I would normally use, but that's all relative, relatively speaking. I toned all prints for 4 1/2 minutes, giving a definite but not full toning. Viewing the dry prints, I see no obvious differences in the effect of the toner.

That's what I know for now.

[Ulophot]

Just note from further examination of the prints. Since I print on semi-matter but prefer a more lustrous surface that brings out the fuller range of values better, I varnish the prints with Paul Strand's formula, as elsewhere posted. With this applied, I see a bit of what I seemed to see in the toning tray but had seemed to disappear, and that is, that one of prints developed in Multigrade began to turn a bit toward red in mid-low-value areas, whereas the Eco-Pro prints did not. This is evident in the portrait print, which has large smooth mid-low- and low-value areas (subject 3/4-lit at a dark desk in front of a mid-low-value backdrop), not in the much busier landscape, which has no such areas.

More experimentation will further clarify this.

[Pieter]

I usually develop Ilford MG FB prints in eco-pro 1+9 for 3 minutes. I have not done extensive comparisons with other developers, but the contrast seems fine and the tone neutral.

[Doremus Scudder]

Developers will affect the way prints tone in selenium (that figures into my choice of developers). You may have to tone longer with prints from one developer to get toning to your desired amount and the tone maybe a slightly different color.

Also, if your prints have differing low-value densities, the toning will proceed differently. Toning is often most apparent first in the lowest values and then proceeds into the mid-tones and higher values. This is somewhat of an optical illusion, since the silver in the print all tones at the same rate; it's just that the density of the toning is greater in the dense areas and appears to the eye first. At any rate, if the multigrade-developed prints have denser low values, you'd expect to see more toning there than in a similar print with less-dense shadow values.

Best,

Doremus