Snow Trees

Hey Jim,

It's just garden-variety Amidol (MAS formula). However, that Nuance really is a great paper. The closest I've found to Azo so far and the color of the grade 3 (they call it "hard", I believe) is a wonderful warm tone.

Ahh, really beautiful, and I love the warm tone. When developing Nuance, do you use the Amidol formula for enlarging paper, or the regular Azo mix.?

Hi Amund,

Just the regular Michael A Smith formula. This paper really is the best kept secret out there. It hasn't gotten much attention, but I urge people to give it a shot. It's incredibly slow for an enlarging paper and only comes in two grades, but it's the best I've ever seen. Even with a bright enlarger head, some of my expsoure times have slipped to 1 minute or so. It also responds really well to a water bath and changes in development times so you have a lot of tonal control.

Great, Freestyle managed to Fu** up my paper order, so I I`ll have to buy some Nuance soon.

Thanks.

Dave Goldfarb recently posted here that Nuance is the same paper as Cachet Expo, of which I have a 25 sheet packet of G2. I did note that when I made some contact sheets with it under the Saunders enlarger at Visarts how incredibly slow it is. Slowest enlarging paper I've ever used.

I'll try some in amidol. I think everyone's wondering about the formula because MAS's amidol formula for enlarging paper calls for 60 cc of a 1% benzotriazole solution which it seems to me would've ruined the color of this print.

Thanks for posting this print. Begs to be seen in person. I ordered Nuance in both grades to see how it stacks to AZO. Do you thin that print with too much contrast in AZO grade 3 will print fine in Nuance soft grade?

Excellent stuff - love the composition and graphic nature of the image!

Jim - I didn't use the MAS enlarging formula, I used the Azo formula. However, I should note that I don't bother to mix up a 10% solution of KBr, I just toss in a pinch.

Colivet - I think the softer grade of Nuance is much closer to a real grade 2 than the new Azo so if your negative has too much contrast for Azo grade 3 and perhaps not enough for new Azo grade 2, then the soft Nuance would fit roughly in the middle. Like Azo, the soft and hard grades of Nuance seem like they have different characteristics. Nothing I can really put my finger on - it's subtle, but perhaps the color is a touch cooler in the softer grade. I hated this paper the first time I used it, but mostly because I was still mourning the loss of Azo and didn't like having to learn materials all over again. However, I came back to it and gave it another chance. I'd be curious to hear what others think.

Joe Freeman reports that one may use huge amounts of KBr (up to 70cc of 10% solution per working liter of amidol!!) with Nuance and thereby obtain colors unobtainable with Azo. I've always loved his green tea-toned Azo prints. From what he tells me the Nuance ones are even nicer. He's also experimenting with some exotic toners I've never used on Nuance. I must get up there and see his recent work.

Scott, another beautiful print. This must really "glow" when you see it. I think you convinced me to order some Nuance hard. I only have a few sheets of old G-2 Azo and a 500 sheet box of new G-2. I love the tone of this print!
Jim