Slavich Unibrom Paper Color

[cbphoto]

I just got a pack of of this paper in double weight from a local store, and my first prints look great except for the borders and highlights - they are off-white. Is this paper not a very bright white compared to my usual Kentmere VC fiber, or did I get a bad pack (it did look as though it was sitting there for a long time in the store)? I turned off the safelight and worked in the dark, since i don't have a red filter at the moment.

 

[dancqu]

My pack showed a good white. Perhaps the
paper is old and/or inadequate fixing.

BTW, disregard the red filter directive.
It is a Graded paper and will work well under
the usual Graded paper safelights; yellow to
orange. Or your VC lights will do. Ditto
Emaks. Dan

 

[mmerry]

Not yellow from me either, I frequently print on this paper and enjoy it.

 

[cbphoto]

Thanks, both. I'm thinking it's just old. I spent $12 on it, so I'm not too worried. The tonality is really nice (especially the shadows), but the grade 4 looks like a grade 3 compared to my VC stuff (although I am using off-brand mg filters on the VC paper, so that may be the problem).

Any thoughts on this paper compared to Emaks? Most noticeable differences? Emaks is next on my list.

I may become a graded paper convert. There's just something about these that looks better than my VC stuff.

 

[rtuttle]

I haven't used it yet but I saw some demos of it at the show in NYC last year and it looked very nice too me. Maybe even nicest tone and contrast available. My only hesitation would be the quality control, don't know if there is an issue but have heard stories about QC with Soviet cameras.

 

[hansformat]

I've used it. No problems with the whites. It is an old style paper, so the whites won't blind you, but they are quite white enough. Tone is cool and with selenium you will get rid of the slight green cast, which is only noticeable once you selenium tone. Try 1:20 selenium for 3 minutes 45 seconds. My experience is once you hit 4:00 or 4:30 in time you begin to get reds...by 6:00 the reds are overpowering.

 

[cbphoto]

Thanks. I plan to try selenium with this soon.

Anyone compare this to Emaks?

 

[fschifano]

In general, fiber based papers do not exhibit the ultra bright white that we've become accustomed to seeing with resin coated papers. Maybe that's all you are seeing.

 

[naugastyle]

Interesting about the way the grading looks to you. I bought grade 2 of Unibrom because of general consensus here on APUG that it would look more like grade 3.

I've only tried mine a few times. One print was pretty bad--it turned out to be a negative that needed a LOT more work than I expected and I'm just not skilled enough to accomplish it with a graded paper. (Got beautiful results with MCC instead). The other two--I actually can't remember how they looked in straight selenium because the ones I ended up scanning/posting were split-toned with brown.

As for comparison: well, this is only a grade comparison, but some of the subway shots I've done on Emaks #3 needed both pre-flashing and Selectol which made me think that might be more like a #3.5. But another subway shot on Unibrom was done w/o flash in Dektol and seemed fine...so I figured Unibrom #2 is more like #2.5 rather than #3 for me. I'm sure everyone gets slightly different results, but for me Unibrom wasn't a full grade off, both Unibrom and K-888 are a half-grade off.

Here's an example from a place you might recognize, cbphoto: http://www.flickr.com/photos/naugastyle/4223872423/in/set-72157622442284597/

 

[cbphoto]

Very nice, Nancy!