Developer... cool tone warm tone? what is the difference?

[hanaa]

Okay.. i'm going to buy some developer and i have three choices Multigrade, cooltone and warmtone. now i know what multigrade is and was going to puchase this. but i would like to know what is cool tone and warm tone developer (for B&W photography). what does it do? thank you so much for any info you can give.

 

[Donald Miller]

Cold tones are normally characterized by blacks that tend to blue black. Warm tones are normally characterized by blacks that tend to brown black.

 

[Dave Miller]

It's stating the obvious, but cool tone cools the image by shifting the tone towards the blue black, whilst warm tone goes the otherway, shifting the dark tones towards the red/brown.

 

[srs5694]

I'm guessing you're talking about Ilford products, since they have paper developers marketed with all the terms you mention. Donald's covered the cooltone/warmtone difference, but as to Multigrade, don't get hung up on that name in a developer; it's just a marketing name. Any paper developer will work with multigrade papers. FWIW, similar comments apply to some other developer names. For instance, Kodak's T-Max developer works fine with non-T-grain films, and any film developer will work with T-Max films. That said, there are certain combinations of film/paper and developer that work better than others, but you've really got to get into specifics to discuss that. If you're just starting out, I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially for paper developers. Once you get some practice you'll be better able to appreciate the subtle effects of different emulsion/developer combinations.

 

[fschifano]

Like srs5694 wrote, don't get hung up on which paper developer to use. You might even want to consider Kodak's Dektol. It's been around for years, is cheap, and works like a champ. The stock solution, which you make up from the packaged powder, has very good shelf life as well.