Which FB paper for sales/exhibition do you recomend?

eli griggs

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As the title states, I'd like to hear what is the ONE fiber based silver printing paper you'll turn to in 2020, should you want to sell quality silver prints or have them represent you're best work in an important show?

Personally, my old favorites of Ilford Gallery in grade 3, or Oriental Seagull, also grade 3, needs updated feedback as I have been using old stocks of papers, both FB and RC, because I print for myself in the main and things have seemingly changed so much, I find myself wondering if the old standards are still the same product of old.

I'd like to buy some new papers, simply for their 'freshness, and my developers remain Ansco 130 and Amidol, which I am still looking around for a set formula to standardize on.

I'll be grateful, regardless of your choice of one paper, and why, if information on the Seagull G papers is also offered, and the warnings on using only a 15 bulb watt, as I use a Thomas 30 watt sodium bulb/safelight and will have to set up additional low wattage lamps, if there recommended lights are a must.

I'll set up a second thread asking for single recommendations of RC Papers, Now.
 

Paul Howell

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I use Foma, 3 and 4, really very nice, I also like Ultrafine Sliver Eagle RC VC glossy, tones well. Not sure who coates it for Photo Warehouse. Pretty sure it's not Foma, Foma is OC safelight while Silver Eagle is OC or Red safe.
 

Doremus Scudder

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The good-old graded papers are getting harder to come by. Seagull G disappeared long ago along with Brilliant, Kodak Elite and, more recently, Emaks. Even Galerie has been discontinued (any grade 3 you find for sale now is old stock). Foma makes Fomabrom 111 in grades 3 and 4 and a nice VC paper. I use those quite a bit. I like the MCC-110 VC paper from Adox, but there's a production hiatus now while they are revamping their coating line and it's not clear when it will be available again.

In the meantime, I've been quite happy with Ilford Multigrade Classic. It has a whiter base than the Fomabrom 111 (and the Arista Edu) and has a bit more "snap" and max contrast. It also tones quite nicely in selenium.

If I had to pick one paper to work with these days, the Multigrade Classic would have to be the one, just out of considerations of availability and consistency.

There's no reason to limit yourself to just one paper, though... I've still got a stash of Slavich Unibrom that I'm saving for just the right negatives.

Best,

Doremus
 

mshchem

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Ilford and Foma make terrific papers. I use Ilford for neutral tones, Fomatone for amazing warm and pretty much any toner..

We have more and better papers to choose from today than ever.

How people can get by with simple scanning is beyond me. Get in the darkroom and print. The newest version of Ilford Multigrade RC is fabulous too. Ilford has nailed the RC paper.
 

R.Gould

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It depends on the subject, For still life and some ''old fashioned'' type portrait's, say Victorian style then Ilford art 300 is very hard to beat, it tones in sepia beautifully, and has a nice warm tone, Ilford classic is again a lovely paper, again tones nicely in both sepia and selenium, I have also used a lot of Adox MCC 110 paper, sadly it is currently unavailable, and I am down to my last few sheets,also Ilford Warmtone is nice, very subtle warmth, and for sheer warmtone especially when developed in Fotospeed WT10 at 1in 20,
Richard
 
OP
OP

eli griggs

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Yes, I have an assortment of papers, including MCC-110 VC, of which I have two boxes, one unopened and the other 3/4 full, Ilford Warm-tone, FB and plenty of Ilford RC on long roll for cutting 4" x 5" paper negatives and making prints, but no Oriental Seagull and no Foma.

I've been seeing a photographer whose work I like, on Youtube and he seems to like the Foma as well, so I'll give that a go,Happily, and just to inform, B&H has some Oriental Seagull G but it might be old stock they are ordering as one of two reviews complained it was fogged, AND, it may be RC.

Thanks for the advice, if anyone has something to add, I'd love to hear it.

Godspeed, Good Health and Cheers,
Eli
 

Paul Howell

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At one time I had a list who made paper, as the market contracted I've lost count, not sure if Fuji still coats Rembrandt for the Japanese market, Lucky coated for Chinese Market, only know for sure Foma and Harman who then contacts coats for a number of brands, Bergger, Adox, Agfa, Multitone, Adorama, Photo Warehouse,Salvich in Russia may or may not be business no longer seem available in the U.S. Not sure what the difference are between Ilford and Kentmere. Ilford and Foma seem to make a wide range of papers but the choice of graded seems to down to 3 and 4.
 

Lachlan Young

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iakustov said:
any proof? It is still listed on their site, and I thought you can purchase all sizes from silverprint, but I have not bought from them recently..
Click to expand...
Grade 2 was discontinued, grade 3 seems still in production - and is available in stock from Ilford. Likely they'd make whatever grade you wanted if you could hit the MOQ.
 

Doremus Scudder

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Lachlan Young said:
Grade 2 was discontinued, grade 3 seems still in production - and is available in stock from Ilford. Likely they'd make whatever grade you wanted if you could hit the MOQ.
Click to expand...

I guess I stand corrected. It seems strange to offer only one grade of graded paper, and grade 3 at that, though... Maybe Ilford just still has a large master roll of grade 3 Galerie and when that's gone, who knows? Maybe Ilford will chime in here.

Best,

Doremus
 

Lachlan Young

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Or it shares fundamental emulsion(s) with the GDS FB papers & they can be coated back-to-back with minimal machine change-over apart from safelights. G3 has always seemed to outsell G2 here for whatever reason (at least in the last 10 years or so). I suspect that it's also been found that people who use G3 tend to land their negs in the G2-3.5 range anyway, which is within the standard developer manipulation window.
 

Rob Skeoch

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I like to do the entire show with one paper. I have settled on Ilford Multigrade FB Glossy. I have done a couple "collections" on the Warmtone version, but decided this year to just use the more black and white paper. So I used up all the WT I had and now print everything on regular. I had some Gallerie paper around but sold it to a friend. I'm trying to simplify and granded papers weren't helping things.
 

removedacct1

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Fomatone Classic - its spectacular. Its the closest to Portriga Rapid I have found.
 
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