Returning to my roots

Many years ago my father and I had an active darkroom. We rolled our own Beutler film developer - Neofin Blue - and enjoyed Luminos fb paper. Off to college and I fell from photographic grace.

In my late 20's a dear friend and I set up a bw/color darkroom in his basement. We tried to make money shooting weddings and sporting events, but rarely made more than would support our habits. Our serious work was bw on fiber paper, since the relatively new RC stuff was in our eyes awful.

That was in the late '70s. Joe moved away and died; I soldiered on with color prints and slides, being unable to stomach the drugstores' ravages of bw.

I went to a hybrid analog/digital system about 3 years ago, shooting my Pentax LX and a Pentax K10d. The color prints from my Epson R1800 are fine, but I can't get a bw print worth bothering with.

Now that I've retired I am going back to "wet work." I scored a Beseler 23c III XL, a Componon S 50mm f2.8 and a Negatrans carrier - all used - to fill out the old darkroom stuff. The hardware is what I'd dreamed about back in the day, and now its affordable - even if paper isn't! My dear wife suggested that I use the upstairs bath, which is only for overnight guest use.

Some advice from the group mind:

My thought is to use RC to make "proofs" in 8x10 to see if I want to explore working up a "proper" fb print. Are the RC and fb papers from the same manufacturer equivalent in speed?

Back in the day we used graded papers. With the cost of paper (in the mid 70's Joe and I bought Ilford sw 8x10 for $10. per 100) variable contrast seems the way to go. What is the consensus about comparative quality?

I notice that there are several makers of vc filters. Are they essentially equivalent, or should one use Ilford filters for Ilford papers, for example.

Thanks for any help. Its strange to feel like a neophyte in an area in which I was once pretty good.

"Ah, the smell of hypo in the morning...."

George, living in Jonesboro, GA

Hi George,
I don't think the brand of filters is as important as they are newish because they do age. I use a color head myself rather than filters and I also print color.

Have fun.
Jim

Find a decent run of the mill poly contrast RC paper for the bulk of printing, with specialized FB papers for "that look" that only one paper can give, that works with that special negative. There are some great papers to use still, and fun to experiment with.

BTW welcome backto the dark side.

Rick

Dear George,

PM me your home address and I will send you the ILFORD MULTIGRADE Printing manual, should save you a few bucks, and will be a good guide whichever variable contrast paper you choose to use.

Enjoy

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology LImited :

George - The work method you describe is what I do. I use Ilford MG VI RC to develop the image and "recipe" for the final print, recording everything, often split filter printing to achieve the results I'm looking for. I use Ilford filters also.

I spent many years with graded paper, and shared your reaction to the 70's RC papers, but today's Ilford RC is nice paper. I wouldn't use it for exhibition, but the convenience of short wash, etc is great for exploring an image.

I find that when I move to final prints on fiber, the recipe (balance/proportion of hard and soft filtration) is very close to the original 8x10 RC print. Usually I am scaling up, so the relative speed of the RC to the fiber is not important. However, when I use a scaling up guide to estimate the exposure for the larger fiber print, it's usually very close. I don't think the papers vary in speed any more than one emulsion batch to another. I always test first anyway, bracketing exposure from what I think it will be.

I highly recommend the Ilford papers. I miss Forte fiber paper, it had a beautiful tonality when selenium toned, but over time, I think the Ilford papers are more consistent.

If I remember correctly, the 23C has a filter drawer, try the filters. It takes longer to work up an image from scratch, but the control is much better with split printing, and even with single filter grading, I don't think you will find the paper to be lacking in quality compared to graded papers.

Another George

1) RC and FB papers are close, but not identical. You may see up to a full grade and/or a full stop of speed difference between the two - figure you will need to do a confirmation test strip when going from RC to FB. Many printers don't seem to mind (or notice) the difference. As paper loses speed and contrast with age it is possible, in theory, to find a box of RC that matches a box of FB.

2) Stick with Ilford filters for Ilford papers, other filters do work but the contrast grades are no longer spaced evenly. IIRC, using Kodak filters with MGIV results in the #3 filter giving a softer print than the #2 1/2. Get a fresh box of filters. The price asked for a filter set is outrageous - the budget method is to do split grade printing using Cinegel for the blue and green filters.

3) Try Ilford RC in the pearl finish - it hides most of the flaws of RC emulsions.

Thanks to all for the quick and informative responses! I was heartened to see that my proposed course of action was reasonable, and I appreciate Simon's generous offer of the Mulitgrade guide. George in Richmond, VA, I lived in Chester, just down Rt 1 and then went to U of Richmond. Great town, Richmond. The 23C does indeed have a filter drawer, and thanks, fotch, for the tip about VC filters fading. That could be a nasty and expensive surprise.

Last year (I think) Ilford did a filter promotion, those who knew about it and required filters for filter drawers, received a good deal.

Basically it was a set of filters packaged in an 8x10" 100 sheet box. The trade off was that you received about 75 sheets of paper, which made room for the filter pack.

In my country there are still some of these around, maybe a look around your country may unearth one of these boxes.

Mick.

Truly a good deal, Mick. Here in the states the filters in 6x6 for my 23c are about $50, and the best price I've seen on RC 8x10 is about $53. I'll scout around. Thanks!