Greenhouse Hallway

Beautiful composition and contrast.
What do you mean by taming this paper? What challenges does it present?

Daniela said:

Beautiful composition and contrast.
What do you mean by taming this paper? What challenges does it present?

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Thanks Daniela.

Recently I decided to try the Multitone brand of paper because it is much cheaper than what I was using before. I had to downgrade on some things so that I can continue doing photography. I also went from Ilford down to Kentmere for film because of price. Anything that I can save on and still be able to do photography is a plus for me.

Multitone paper is a very active and high contrast material. Even when stopped down on my enlarging lens I get very short exposure times, around the 4 seconds region. Too fast for doing any dodging or burning in, if needed. The image comes right up in the tray within about a few seconds and development of the image is done in about 10 seconds. Way too quick. I have never experienced paper this fast and punchy as long as I have been doing photography. I have had to use ND and lower contrast filters and also cut the developer by half of the recommended dilution just so that I could get more softer tone results from this stuff. Liquidol at 1:18 instead of 1:9

I am wondering if something like a Selectol or something similar would be more workable than Liquidol. Liquidol is my favorite print developer but with this paper they really are not a fitting combination. Not that long ago I got into making my own film developer. I have been on the D-23 wagon for a while and I like D-23 a lot. I could try to put together a soft working print developer.

What About Bob said:

Thanks Daniela.

Recently I decided to try the Multitone brand of paper because it is much cheaper than what I was using before. I had to downgrade on some things so that I can continue doing photography. I also went from Ilford down to Kentmere for film because of price. Anything that I can save on and still be able to do photography is a plus for me.

Multitone paper is a very active and high contrast material. Even when stopped down on my enlarging lens I get very short exposure times, around the 4 seconds region. Too fast for doing any dodging or burning in, if needed. The image comes right up in the tray within about a few seconds and development of the image is done in about 10 seconds. Way too quick. I have never experienced paper this fast and punchy as long as I have been doing photography. I have had to use ND and lower contrast filters and also cut the developer by half of the recommended dilution just so that I could get more softer tone results from this stuff. Liquidol at 1:18 instead of 1:9

I am wondering if something like a Selectol or something similar would be more workable than Liquidol. Liquidol is my favorite print developer but with this paper they really are not a fitting combination. Not that long ago I got into making my own film developer. I have been on the D-23 wagon for a while and I like D-23 a lot. I could try to put together a soft working print developer.

Click to expand...

I've been using Multitone paper for years. Are you getting proper exposure for your negatives? They need to be rich but not too dense. Are you using a smaller aperture on your enlarger lens> Are you using VC filters, if not you definitely need to. If you are still getting very short exposure times add a neutral density filter to your enlarger or a smaller wattage lamp, or both. My enlargement times run around 20-30 seconds and my developing time is two minutes. I use an Omega D-5 condenser enlarger with 75 watt lamp , 80mm Rodagon lens @ f11 (120 film) LPD developer 1+4

Rick A said:

I've been using Multitone paper for years. Are you getting proper exposure for your negatives? They need to be rich but not too dense. Are you using a smaller aperture on your enlarger lens> Are you using VC filters, if not you definitely need to. If you are still getting very short exposure times add a neutral density filter to your enlarger or a smaller wattage lamp, or both. My enlargement times run around 20-30 seconds and my developing time is two minutes. I use an Omega D-5 condenser enlarger with 75 watt lamp , 80mm Rodagon lens @ f11 (120 film) LPD developer 1+4

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Hi Rick

Negatives show details in both shadows and highlights. One of the reasons why I really like D-23 is in its slight compression of the highlights. D-23 works nice on the highlights.

Ilford was my go-to paper. With Ilford I would get good exposures at around 12 seconds at f/11. With Multitone I have to stop down the lens and use some ND filtering and lower grade filtering. With flat to normal negatives the punchiness is still evident with Multitone paper. Diluting the print developer does help a good deal and it brings the developing time close to what my preferred time was when I was working with the Ilford paper.

My enlarger is a Saunders LPL C6600 with a Schneider 80mm f/4 Componon-S lens and uses a PH140 - 75 or 150 watt bulb. I use a 75 watt bulb. A 150 would fry the paper, lol. I did try using a lower wattage LED bulb, equivalent to 40 watt regular, but when the enlarger light is turned off the bulb emits about a 1/4 output of light that remains on until I kill the plug. This doesn't happen with my PH140.

I have two sets of Ilford multigrade filters along with ND filters and some older Ilfochrome CMY filters for when I used to work with Ilfochrome/Cibachrome back in the 90s.

Users appear to be mixed from what I am seeing; from here and other places. Some people like the paper while others don't. "Good for preview or work prints but not fine art", "You get what you pay for", "It is a graphic arts type of paper thus not surprised that it has more punch to it"", "If you can't control contrast through what you are doing then chances are it is just the nature of the materials", "paper is good and have used it for X amount of time", Tones are great from it for such a cheap paper", "Great for students on a budget", "Blacks are very rich", Good quality, well constructed paper", "Just as good as Ilford", etc. Those are the statements I have come across in my journey of struggle with this material.

I hope I can figure it out. For now I have to use this brand because of its price point but yet I think I may have hit a wall with these materials. Without filtering and the dilution of Liquidol that print above would have looked very different.

@Rick A - By the way I like your signature.

What About Bob said:

Thanks Daniela.

Recently I decided to try the Multitone brand of paper because it is much cheaper than what I was using before. I had to downgrade on some things so that I can continue doing photography. I also went from Ilford down to Kentmere for film because of price. Anything that I can save on and still be able to do photography is a plus for me.

Multitone paper is a very active and high contrast material. Even when stopped down on my enlarging lens I get very short exposure times, around the 4 seconds region. Too fast for doing any dodging or burning in, if needed. The image comes right up in the tray within about a few seconds and development of the image is done in about 10 seconds. Way too quick. I have never experienced paper this fast and punchy as long as I have been doing photography. I have had to use ND and lower contrast filters and also cut the developer by half of the recommended dilution just so that I could get more softer tone results from this stuff. Liquidol at 1:18 instead of 1:9

I am wondering if something like a Selectol or something similar would be more workable than Liquidol. Liquidol is my favorite print developer but with this paper they really are not a fitting combination. Not that long ago I got into making my own film developer. I have been on the D-23 wagon for a while and I like D-23 a lot. I could try to put together a soft working print developer.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation!
I can certainly relate to getting more affordable materials as I have also switched from HP5 to Kentmere and APX for film. I hope you get to tame this beast! It certainly sounds like you're doing your homework; and having plenty of paper to play with makes such a difference in the process...good luck!