Ilford MG Cool Tone - Developer for Dmax discussion

[BCM]

There was a thread (I thought here) where someone tested a few common paper developers including Amidol and one or two from Photographer's Formulary with Ilford FB MG papers including some that were selenium toned. I'm unable to find it using several typical searches here and on-line. Does anyone remember this?

 

[DREW WILEY]

There's an ongoing thread on the Large Format Forum right now. Cooltone and most other VC papers don't respond well to amidol developers. Otherwise, DMax is attained simply with sufficient development time plus post-toning in either selenium toner (which warms the image tone) or gold chloride (which cools the image tone). You won't achieve full DMax without supplemental toning. I use 130 developer, which requires reasonably fresh glycin.

 

[BCM]

There's an ongoing thread on the Large Format Forum right now. Cooltone and most other VC papers don't respond well to amidol developers. Otherwise, DMax is attained simply with sufficient development time plus post-toning in either selenium toner (which warms the image tone) or gold chloride (which cools the image tone). You won't achieve full DMax without supplemental toning. I use 130 developer, which requires reasonably fresh glycin.

Thanks. Perhaps that's where I saw it. I'm looking at my old information and have used 130 for years except for one contact paper where I was using Amidol.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Ilford s own Multigrade developer works as well as any other. Just make sure you follow the instructions that come with the paper.