Ulophot
1-Dec-2021, 19:24
This will be for a limited audience using these materials. No great revelations here for those familiar with darkroom work.
After confirming, following a reply to a previous post, that Fomatone Classic (the warm-tone paper) needs longer development to attain D-max, about 3 minutes in the Eco Pro I use, I got some Multigrade developer to see if it would make any difference. I figured it would be more active and produce greater contrast. To my surprise, it's a bit softer-working.
In saying this, I note that have not made extensive tests. I chose a long-scale negative, an interior portrait with a window to the side and another to the rear of the subject. The print holds details from deep shadows to the high values at gr. 1 1/2. The Multigrade print showed just a hint more deep shadow detail with comparable high values and slightly lower mid-highs; the Eco Pro rendered a bit more local contrast in the facial tones, from about Zone IV+ to VI. Both were developed for 3 minutes. A Multigrade print developed for 2 minutes held a soft black while opening up detail in the IIs and lower IIIs and rendering a greater sense of light overall while keeping detail in the (of course quickly-developing) high values.
The nice thing about standard 3 minute development is this extra leeway in timing for certain negatives like this one. Yes, the same can be done with a 2-minute standard (and no, I'm not ignoring exposure fine-tuning, but that's potentially a bit different), but the variation is shorter and, for a larger print, thus perhaps a little trickier.
I also developed two prints from the same neg made on Ilford Warmtone, developing one in Multigrade and one in Eco Pro, 2 min each. They are virtually indistinguishable from each other.
After confirming, following a reply to a previous post, that Fomatone Classic (the warm-tone paper) needs longer development to attain D-max, about 3 minutes in the Eco Pro I use, I got some Multigrade developer to see if it would make any difference. I figured it would be more active and produce greater contrast. To my surprise, it's a bit softer-working.
In saying this, I note that have not made extensive tests. I chose a long-scale negative, an interior portrait with a window to the side and another to the rear of the subject. The print holds details from deep shadows to the high values at gr. 1 1/2. The Multigrade print showed just a hint more deep shadow detail with comparable high values and slightly lower mid-highs; the Eco Pro rendered a bit more local contrast in the facial tones, from about Zone IV+ to VI. Both were developed for 3 minutes. A Multigrade print developed for 2 minutes held a soft black while opening up detail in the IIs and lower IIIs and rendering a greater sense of light overall while keeping detail in the (of course quickly-developing) high values.
The nice thing about standard 3 minute development is this extra leeway in timing for certain negatives like this one. Yes, the same can be done with a 2-minute standard (and no, I'm not ignoring exposure fine-tuning, but that's potentially a bit different), but the variation is shorter and, for a larger print, thus perhaps a little trickier.
I also developed two prints from the same neg made on Ilford Warmtone, developing one in Multigrade and one in Eco Pro, 2 min each. They are virtually indistinguishable from each other.