Ilford PQ Universal vs. Multigrade

[Dan Henderson]

I recently spent several sessions in the darkroom reprinting an older negative from which I wanted to get a nice, subtle sepia tone. I used Ilford MGIV, developed in Ilford Multigrade developer, bleached and toned in scratch-mixed bleach and thiourea toner.

My finished prints seemed to take on a persistent olive hue that I had a terrible time with, since I wanted a nice brown with no greenish cast. I finally selenium toned the prints after the sepia, which did kill the green to some extent.

Older prints that exhibit the nice brown tone that I was looking for were developed in Ilford PQ developer. I recently switched to Multigrade developer and I am wondering if that is what introduced the olive cast. I don't have any PQ left with which to make comparision prints, and I am wondering if anyone can offer any advice.
Thanks,
Dan

 

[Blighty]

Never used PQ universal on MGIV but I did use it on their warmtone paper. I got warmer image than multigrade dev. It's only a subtle difference, but it's there.