What are Master Printers using for enlarging paper?

[jnantz]

I don't know anyone doing that today, but some 15-20 years ago Michael Smith had some Azo type ( silver chloride) paper made by a fairly well known emulsion maker, and sold it as Lodima (= emordnilap of amidol). I suspect that Michael consulted with Ron Mowrey re: silver chloride papers.

It is not terribly difficult to make your own silver gelatin emulsion. You can a lot of information on the subject at www.thelightfarm.com of Denise Ross. Denise also published a book on the subject in the Focal Press series of Routledge, The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print.

Sandy

Sandy

Hi Sandy

Yes that was around the same time that Ron Mowrey was giving people his silver chloride paper! Seems it would be a great business for someone who wanted to provide a master printer with a custom emulsion, like
Jason Lane's Dry Plates would be if he only supplied 1 person with them ...

Denise Ross also has book is available on Blurb, like her website it's got real recipes in it, the old Silver Gelatin Emulsion book (published in the 80s? By M.Reed/ Lighthouse(?) )
is full of errors and recipes that don't work (as Ron Mowrey would say people published wrong things on purpose because they didn't want to give up their secrets ).

I agree, it's not difficult to make one's own emulsion, I regularly make one that takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.

[Tin Can]

LET"S repeat this loudly


the 80s? By M.Reed/ Lighthouse(?) )
is full of errors and recipes that don't work (as Ron Mowrey would say people published wrong things on purpose because they didn't want to give up their secrets ).

Happens here all the time, but far worse years ago

[Michael R]

The way in which someone wants to print a picture can change significantly over time. I have a few examples of this. One is Petit’s Mobil Station by Tice. Very different over time. That’s a significant variable. Sometimes a photographer finds a new technique or refinement etc. that leads to a contemporary printing being a little different than an older version. This happened in the recent past when John Sexton was reprinting his well known Pemaquid Point picture.

Once variable contrast papers became first rate, many printers adopted them and in some cases were able to make improvements to their prints of some pictures because of the additional control.

Making something on one paper look like it does/did on another paper isn’t always entirely a matter of skill. Sometimes things like toning properties can be quite different. For printers who regularly do a lot of multiple toning (Rudman comes to mind) it might not always be possible to duplicate the look of one paper on another. Then there are also differences in surface characteristics.

[Oren Grad]

Making something on one paper look like it does/did on another paper isn’t always entirely a matter of skill.

Right. If someone compiles a body of work in which film and paper characteristic curves are chosen in combination to achieve a particular tonal scale, there's no guarantee that it will be possible to achieve a similar match if the paper goes away and another needs to be substituted. Sometimes darkroom heroics can compensate for curve differences in the replacement paper, but sometimes it's impractical or impossible. C'est la vie.

[Michael R]

It’s also worth noting it isn’t necessarily an all-or-nothing proposition. Some people move on when materials go away, and make do. Others are like “I will never print this image again because I have no more Velox”.

Regarding sensitometry (characteristic curves, film/paper matching etc.), yes some will claim that is important and/or that they have fine-tuned that relationship, but that is largely BS. If they didn’t know what they were using they would unknowingly work around it when printing, since that is where the real control is anyway, and that would be the end of it.

Right. If someone compiles a body of work in which film and paper characteristic curves are chosen in combination to achieve a particular tonal scale, there's no guarantee that it will be possible to achieve a similar match if the paper goes away and another needs to be substituted. Sometimes darkroom heroics can compensate for curve differences in the replacement paper, but sometimes it's impractical or impossible. C'est la vie.

[bob carnie]

Lately I have been a fan of Ilford Warmtone semi matt, with split printing and flashing I think one can pretty much make stellar prints.

[MartinP]

I don't know anyone doing that today, but some 15-20 years ago Michael Smith had some Azo type ( silver chloride) paper made by a fairly well known emulsion maker, and sold it as Lodima (= emordnilap of amidol). I suspect that Michael consulted with Ron Mowrey re: silver chloride papers.

It is not terribly difficult to make your own silver gelatin emulsion. You can a lot of information on the subject at www.thelightfarm.com of Denise Ross. Denise also published a book on the subject in the Focal Press series of Routledge, The Handmade Silver Gelatin Emulsion Print.

Sandy

Sandy

This short video explains how that AZO-replacement paper came to be. Interesting stuff. The photo-chemists and tech people involved were/are the new Adox.

[Alan9940]

The way in which someone wants to print a picture can change significantly over time. I have a few examples of this. One is Petit’s Mobil Station by Tice. Very different over time. That’s a significant variable. Sometimes a photographer finds a new technique or refinement etc. that leads to a contemporary printing being a little different than an older version. This happened in the recent past when John Sexton was reprinting his well known Pemaquid Point picture.

An example of this that comes screaming to my mind is Ansel's Moonrise...later examples of this image were very different from the early versions.

[John Layton]

Man do I ever miss the old Portriga - although I get a similar feel with MGWT souped in Morsche SE-6 (others mileage may vary, but it works for me). But as I now need to re-stock my paper supply, I will definitely give Fomatone Classic a try!

[paulbarden]

Man do I ever miss the old Portriga - although I get a similar feel with MGWT souped in Morsche SE-6 (others mileage may vary, but it works for me). But as I now need to re-stock my paper supply, I will definitely give Fomatone Classic a try!

John, I think you may be pleasantly surprised by Fomatone Classic. Its a bit warmer in color than Portriga Rapid, but I'm using a custom warm developer, so plain old Dektol (or similar) might give it cooler colors. But man, that's a beautiful print it makes.
One caveat: it doesn't deliver a D-max as dark as many other papers. But I don't mind - I find that useful.