Photo Printing Paper for enlarging and not Inkjet........

[John Wiegerink]

I'm a huge fan of fomaspeed 313. The velvet texture is far and away my favorite. I've also been using a roll of 5" Kodak polycontrast III that I picked up on eBay for 5x7 prints and that's pretty nice stuff.


I've mostly been developing in id78, though I've been doing some experiments recently with using parodinal 1:20 as a paper developer which seems to yield surprisingly good results.

I've heard other folks say the velvet texture finish is to die for. I have never tried it, but might someday just to see. As for pricing of papers and film? Since this administration threaten and put in place some tariffs, all prices are insecure. I can now buy Kodak B&W films cheaper than Ilford films and shy away from Ilford papers, even if I prefer them, since they are increasing in price. The trouble is we haven't even reached the peak yet when talking about tariffs. Hmm, I thought the price of things were suppose to go down and not up? The price of my photo hobbies goes any higher I'll revert to an easel, paper and charcoal. I just want a good film, a good paper and good developer at a reasonable price, but fear that won't be possible in the near to distant future.

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

Purchase a reliably available paper with a good track record.
The same can be said for a developer and other processing chemicals.
I have tried other impressive papers but they are now long gone !
The masters of yesterday made their mark with a handful of single grade papers and not so obscure developers; same goes for film.
There is no magic bullet that will replace good darkroom practice.