Looking for High contrast warm tone paper developer

[Jersey Vic]

Happy Holidays All;
Sometimes my Holga film negatives and big pinhole derived paper negatives still dont have enough punch even when using a 5 filter. I know dilluting common developers will warm the tone but also believe that this cuts the contrast of the solution. Am I wrong? And are there any high contrast/warm tone developers and/or dillutions that anyone can recommend?
Thanks in advance for your consideration and help.
-J.Vic

 

[Les McLean]

IlfordPhoto have just released both Warmtone and Cooltone paper developers in the US, I made a couple of prints today with the Warmtone and the contrast was good but no greater than any other regular developer that I know. I'd suggest that you obtain a supply of Benzotiazole, disolve 1 gram in 500ml water and add about 50 to 100ml of that solution to your normal Warmtone working developer. This will increase the contrast but it will also slightly cool the print colour.

You could also try adding 10ml to 20ml of a 10% solution of Sodium Carbonate to your working developer to strengthen the blacks which will increase the contrast. I've never tried these to little dodges together but it may be worthwhile for you to do so.

Best of luck and have fun.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

Warmtone paper would be a good call, I like Ethol LPD with it.
Also, you might want to try sepia toning some prints. You can print as contrasty as you want and still get the 'warmth'..

 

[ineffablething]

Instead of benzotriazole, I would add potassium bromide to your warmtone developer. That has worked for me in the past and it won't cool your print tone.

 

[Ole]

Yet another alternative is lith printing - which can give anything from very hard to very soft prints, and combinations of the two (hard shadows, soft highlights) depending of a bewildering number of variables. It's fun when it suddenly works, and frustrating when you try to repeat what you just did.

 

[phfitz]

Jersey Vic,

Condensers in your enlarger will raise the contrast about 1 grade over a cold-light / diffuser head.

Adding up to 1 teaspoon of Potassium Bromide to 1 liter of stock developer will make it warm-tone but it is a restrainer so check your highlights.

Adding Sodium Carbonate will make it colder tone and develope faster.

Diluting will make most developers warmer but fewer prints per tray and longer times, check your shadows.

Check your developer dilution for max time to chem. fog, then develope for 80% of fog time and adjust your exposure to match. Maximum developing time / minimum exposure fog will raise the contrast.

Have fun with it.

 

[psvensson]

Bromide should work, but the one time I tried it, adding it to Neutol Plus, it didn't do anything.

I second the suggestion on lith printing. It can give any contrast you want, and it really isn't very hard. It produces very warm tones.

You could also use Farmer's Reducer or sepia-type bleach to bleach back the highlights. Print dark, then bleach back. The bleach usually gives a warm tone.

Thirdly, you could try intensifying the negative with selenium toner or Afga 600: (there was a url link here which no longer exists).