Warm-tone or cool-tone paper?

[Petzi]

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]

cold tone better than even cool

 

[Colin Graham]

neutral to slightly warm

 

[Petzi]

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]

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

 

[Travis Nunn]

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

 

[Petzi]

Makes sense!

 

[DWThomas]

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]

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

 

[Monophoto]

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]

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

 

[Petzi]

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

 

[Rob Archer]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Cold tone, Fiber based. Loved the old Ilfobrome.

 

[Petzi]

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

 

[Paul.]

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

 

[mjs]

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]

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

- Thomas

 

[Oren Grad]

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.