ilford galerie vs multigrade fb ..

[danzyc]

hello friends could you explain me the difference between ilforbrom galerie graded paper and the ilford fb paper?? (glossy)

thre s much difference?

thanks

 

[DanielStone]

are you referring to the MGIV FB papers? if so, they're multigrade. otherwise, you have your graded galerie papers.

I like both, but I'm experimenting more with foma and slavich papers right now. they're nice too

-Dan

 

[Ian Grant]

They are quite different tonally, Galerie has a very vs slightly warmer tone but also an much longer tonal range it's extremely good at holding delicate highlight details. The big disadvantage is the range of grades is more limited than it used to be, also it's useful to use a developer like Dr Beers Variable contrast to fine tune contrast.

Ian

 

[Tom Kershaw]

I've found that Galerie grade 3 doesn't have as much contrast as Kentmere Bromide grade 2, but gives a different tonal range as Ian suggests. However, the lack of a grade 4 version does limit application in my case. Perhaps if one was always working in high contrast scenarios this wouldn't be such an issue.

Tom

 

[kevs]

They are very different papers. I find that Galerie takes a red-brown hue in selenium toners, whilst Multigrade FB turns very slightly blue, thus Galerie is easier to split-tone, although you *can* do that with Multigrade using careful observation. In sulphide, Galerie takes a richer, warmer tone than Multigrade. Also, I find that, although Multigrade is no slouch, Galerie gives deeper blacks. Mind you, it's been a few years since I used either, so it could have changed by now.

 

[Slixtiesix]

I thought about asking this question myself beause the Galerie always fascinated me. How does it compare to Multigrade FB warmtone?
Best regards, Benjamin

 

[Ian Grant]

Again it's quite different, the Warmtone is significantly warmer and doesn't have the long tonal scale that Galerie can achieve.

Galerie is far better at holding the highlight details but I prefer the other papers for the depth of shadows etc.

The best paper I found that really balanced everything for my work was Polywarmtone but choice of a paper is very much personal choice.

Ian

 

[AlanC]

I find that if I print the same negative on Galerie and Ilford Mgd 4 fibre glossy, and get the best print I can on both, the mid tones come out darker with Galerie. Can anyone explain this?
I usually prefer the brighter looking Mgd.4 print.

Alan Clark

 

[Martin Aislabie]

Alan, Galerie has a very long soft round toe and shoulder compared to MGFB.

It may well be that you are moving the mid tones further up the density curve for the same Toe seperation

Galerie always seems to me to be a much smoother toned paper than MGFB - it looks fabulous for some photographs - but does need lots of enlarger manipulation to get the best out of it

Martin

 

[Martin Aislabie]

I thought about asking this question myself beause the Galerie always fascinated me. How does it compare to Multigrade FB warmtone?
Best regards, Benjamin

Colour, Galerie is about mid point between MGFB and MGWT.

Galeries’ response to colour changes during Toning is also about mid way between the two as well

I did some comparison tests between all 3 papers last year and found

MGWT – shortest exposure difference (by a large margin) between highlights & shadows, with a very sharp toe & shoulder

MGFB – moderate exposure range between highlights and shadows, moderate toe & shoulder

Galerie – the longest exposure range from highlight to shadow, with very gentle toe & shoulder characteristics.

Galerie had slightly more mid tone exposure range than MGFB, which itself had much more than MGWT

Martin

 

[AlanC]

Martin,
Thanks for your reply. Perhaps I should adjust exposures to get the same mid-tones with both papers then adjust contrast to see if I can get the highlights and shadows how I want them on both papers.
I have found galerie very forgiving to print compared with WT and MGD4, and I think your answer gives the reason for this.

Alan Clark