Cool tone developer for paper

Dear all,

Five years ago Tetenal Centrabrom developer was available, which I obtained beautiful cold-tone prints.
Now this one is no longer produced.
What devepor do you use to have a cool tone? As a rule I use Eukobrom with dear Bergger Prestige Varible NB.

Thank you

michael_r said:

The only commercially available print developers that produce true cold/blue-black tones are Moersch. Moersch also makes a developer additive called Finisher Blue which you can add to standard print developers in small amounts depending on how much colour change you want.

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I read something before to reply. It seems to be a lith developer.
But something that take the place of the Centrabrom exists?

InExperience said:

I read something before to reply. It seems to be a lith developer.
But something that take the place of the Centrabrom exists?

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You could also experiment with adding Finisher Blue to other developers - Moersch states it works with several of his formulations. The bigger issue here is that Centrabrom S (which is what I think you're referring to) was a contrast reducing developer. I'd suggest that you might want to consider Moersch's Separol Soft developer (which includes a bottle of Finisher Blue).

michael_r said:

Moersch makes some lith developers but that's not what I'm referring to. Specifically, there are two: SE3 (cold) and SE6 (blue-black). They are both excellent.

These are the only two commercially available print developers that will produce cold/blue-black tones on current printing papers.

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Lachlan Young said:

You could also experiment with adding Finisher Blue to other developers - Moersch states it works with several of his formulations. The bigger issue here is that Centrabrom S (which is what I think you're referring to) was a contrast reducing developer. I'd suggest that you might want to consider Moersch's Separol Soft developer (which includes a bottle of Finisher Blue).

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Thank you both for your suggestions. I use Tetenal Eukobrom (earlier Centrabrom) , and didn't know anything regarding this Moersh.

Then to summarise:

• Cold tone: Moersch S3
• Centrabrom style: Moersh Separol

I think it's all, will find out. Thanks

InExperience said:

Thank you both for your suggestions. I use Tetenal Eukobrom (earlier Centrabrom) , and didn't know anything regarding this Moersh.

Then to summarise:

• Cold tone: Moersch S3
• Centrabrom style: Moersh Separol

I think it's all, will find out. Thanks

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I think that's probably a fair starting point - though SE4 Neutral or SE6 Blue with Finisher Blue added may be closer to taste depending on how blue-black cold you want the image to go.

Lachlan Young said:

I think that's probably a fair starting point - though SE4 Neutral or SE6 Blue with Finisher Blue added may be closer to taste depending on how blue-black cold you want the image to go.

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Thank you. I am going to start collecting information to decide what could fit for me.

With the specific paper you mentioned - Bergger neutral tone - I've gotten very nice cold tones via fresh Ansco 130 developer followed by a variation of GP1 gold chloride toner. The look is similar to classic old Seagull G graded paper, but without the hint of purple-brown (which could be introduced by just a tiny bit of selenium toning following the gold toning, if desired). Gold toning is not necessarily expensive. Most formulas waste gold like crazy. I mix my own. You only need about a quarter strength of the old published GP-1 version, and just enough to cover the print with tray rocking. Longer toning time will make up for less concentration. It has to be discarded each session.

The irony is that successful gold toning for coldness is most effective if the developer itself trends a bit warm. Hence 130.
Going straight to a cold tone developer like Amidol with benzotriazole, or certain MQ tweaks, won't actually give as rich a neutral black as the method I've just described with neutral tone Bergger paper, or even with a true cold tone VC paper like Ilford Multigrade Cooltone (an excellent product in its own right). But if you do go the amidol route, make sure its the high quality European amidol, and not the cheaper Chinese variety, which is contaminated with something discoloring. For those in the US or Canada, Artcraft in NYC has good amidol.