[pure-silver] Re: finding a new paper
- From: Christopher Woodhouse <chris.woodhouse@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 21:25:54 +0000
I love Agfa Classic and admit to buying a few boxes more than usual when
their demise was apparent. From the calibration work I do for RH Design
customers, I see a lot of papers from all over the world, (mostly European
and occasionally China. IMHO there were only 3 companies that made good
variable contrast papers, Agfa, Kodak and Ilford. By good, I'm referring to
long controllable contrast range, as well as good blacks at soft grade
settings and most importantly, consistency. I saw evidence of strange
tonality at soft grades with many other papers, with portions of the tonal
range virtually without contrast. I also could see colour shifts throughout
the tonal scale (without toning).
Agfa was my preferred choice, since with one paper I could achieve subtle
cool or warm tones and its reaction to Selenium was especially useful
pictorially. With Agfa and Kodak gone, we are in the hands of Ilford. Their
coating plants are more advanced than others (or so I have been led to
believe by ex-employees) and you can achieve most things with Multigrade IV
and Warmtone together.
Straight prints on Fibre are very similar, but for me MG IV takes on a
magenta hue in Selenium, hence the reason to switch to Warmtone on selected
images.
I for one shall be returning to Ilford products once my Agfa paper expires.
Regards Chris Woodhouse ARPS
www.ktphotonics.co.uk
On 17/2/06 23:17, "Shannon Stoney" <sstoney@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I am trying to find a
> paper that substitutes for Agfa multigrade FB. Today I tried Forte
> polygrade FB, but so far I don't really like it. Maybe I need to try
> different dialings on the color head, but the images look sort of
> flat to me, with poor separation in the highlights. If I try for
> more contrast, they get too dark in the shadows. Also it has an
> unpleasant greenish cast to me. I am still using my old Agfa neutol
> WA paper developer. Could that be the problem?
>
> I guess my next attempt will be with Ilford. Ilford paper, Ilford developer.
>
> Is there any consensus about what paper is closest to Agfa in scale?
> I like the Agfa developer and some people say that somebody bought
> the right to keep making it, but I am willing to switch.
>
> --shannon
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