Warm-tone or cool-tone paper?

Petzi · Mar 15, 2007

Do you prefer warm-tone black & white paper, or would you like cool-tone paper? Or maybe just neutral. We are talking about regular baryta or RC paper here.

ann · Mar 15, 2007

cold tone better than even cool

Colin Graham · Mar 15, 2007

neutral to slightly warm

Petzi · Mar 15, 2007

ann said:
cold tone better than even cool

OK, I didn't realize there was a distinction between cold and cool for photo papers. I assume that cold is colder than cool.

Or did you mean to say that cold-tone is cool?

Dan Henderson · Mar 15, 2007

it depends on the subject. Some images want to be warm, others neutral, some cool.

Travis Nunn · Mar 15, 2007

Different paper for different subject and printing styles. For lith printing, I definitely prefer WT. Neutral for most of my regular printing, though.

Petzi · Mar 15, 2007

Makes sense!

DWThomas · Mar 16, 2007

When last I did this stuff thirty(?) years ago, I generally preferred neutral or cold tone. I've now had a couple of significant printing sessions in the past month and find myself using more warm tone than cool -- and even brown toner in a few cases. There's a few kinks to work out yet, and some darkroom improvement appears desireable, but all in all getting back into it has been quite satisfying. From my current viewpoint, I'll be using all of the above, depending on the subject and what (I imagine) I'm trying to achieve.

DaveT

Colin Graham · Mar 16, 2007

Interesting; there's cold, cool and warm tone but no hot tone...Or is there?

Monophoto · Mar 16, 2007

I generally prefer neutral tone papers (eg, Ilford MG-FB), but for some subjects, a warm tone is wonderful. Don't especially care for cold-tone papers.

Lee Shively · Mar 16, 2007

I am very happy with a warm tone paper that is cooled down with diluted selenium toner.

Petzi · Mar 17, 2007

Please vote! 273 views of the poll, but only 36 votes? :confused:

Rob Archer · Mar 17, 2007

Interesting one! I suspect there's more than a little 'fashion' here. When I first got into printing about 15 years ago I simply used Ilford Multigrade RC and never really thought about the 'colour' - after all, black and white is just that, isn't it? About 6 years ago someone gave me an old box of Agfa Record Rapid and a bottle of Neutol WA. I was instantly hooked om warmtone and started experimenting with different paper/dev combinations. It seemed that almost every print I saw in books, mags or exhibitions was printed 'warm'. About a year ago I started to look for something different and wanted to get back to neutral or colder prints. I really like warm papers like Kentmere Art Classic (RIP!) in Ilford Cooltone - cool shadows and warmer highlights. I suspect that the pendulum will swing back to cooler tones, particularly if Ilford release a 'cooltone' paper. I've got some negs that really call for a cold blue/black, though - any suggestions?

Rob

reellis67 · Mar 19, 2007

I prefer cool-tone prints in most cases, but my wife prefers warm-tone prints. Much of what I print is neutral to cool, and very little is warm, but I will say that certain process work better with warm-tone papers than neutral papers, as do certain subjects, so you might consider things like that when you observe the results.

- Randy

Ole · Mar 19, 2007

I prefer warm-tone - not because all my prints look best on warm-tone, but becauce warm-tone papers tend to react much better to different developers and toners.
Try gold-toning two prints - one made on cooltone and one on warmtone.

If I can't be bothered to change the tone, I'll use neutral.

argus · Mar 19, 2007

Ole said:
I prefer warm-tone - not because all my prints look best on warm-tone, but becauce warm-tone papers tend to react much better to different developers and toners.

That's the main reason why I would switch back to warmtone papers.

G

rogueish · Mar 20, 2007

I prefer neutral papers.
One can always tone one way or the other. If need be, you can always stain the paper as well.

thefizz · Mar 20, 2007

Lee Shively said:
I am very happy with a warm tone paper that is cooled down with diluted selenium toner.

I mostly go for neutral papers but I have done some prints with warm tone paper which I didn't like until I toned them in Selenium.

karavelov · Mar 21, 2007

I work mostly on WT because the greater freedom of varying its characteristics through developers and toners. Developed in Ansco 130 most WT papers give neutral tone and are easily toned in selenium, selenium/thiourea toners for exact tone.

darkroommike · Mar 22, 2007

Cold tone, Fiber based. Loved the old Ilfobrome.

Petzi · Mar 22, 2007

Interesting how the vote shifted from 60% warmtone and 15% cooltone, to 48% warmtone and 21% cooltone.

Paul. · Mar 22, 2007

Sorry Petzi can't vote, I use all of them as the mood strikes me.
Best Paul.

mjs · Mar 22, 2007

generally I prefer warm toned for portraits and neutral for landscapes but that isn't a hard and fast rule. Sometimes I like to switch it up. Images seem to have their own ideas about how they want to look.

mjs

Thomas Bertilsson · Mar 22, 2007

For my purposes, definitely warm tone. I am having a love affair with Ilford's Warmtone matte FB papers.

- Thomas

Oren Grad · Mar 22, 2007

No vote, because my answer is none of the above: within very broad bounds, it doesn't matter. Finding the best curve match between negative and paper is much more important to me than print color.

Warm-tone or cool-tone paper?

Which do you prefer for a black & white silver-gelatin paper?

Warm-tone

Neutral

Cool-tone

Petzi

ann

Colin Graham

Petzi

Dan Henderson

Travis Nunn

Petzi

DWThomas

Colin Graham

Monophoto

Lee Shively

Petzi

Rob Archer

reellis67

Ole

Moderator

argus

rogueish

thefizz

karavelov

darkroommike

Petzi

Paul.

mjs

Thomas Bertilsson

Oren Grad

Warm-tone or cool-tone paper?

Which do you prefer for a black & white silver-gelatin paper?

Warm-tone

Neutral

Cool-tone

Moderator

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