Marty from the Netherlands has printed the same negative onto 23 different types of paper and posted the results in an album at the Film and Darkroom Users' group. You have to be a FADU member to view the album but it's free to join and they're a great bunch of people who don't engage in the snarkiness or one-upmanship that can be found at some other forums.
It's well worth taking the time to check out Marty's test just to see the different tones that are achievable depending on the paper type. Some are far too warm for my taste, it has to be said. I like the look of Ilford Galerie the most but there are others that are attractive, too. I've included a few of them here to whet your appetite.
There's a forum thread about the test as well which anyone can read
here - no sign-up required.
* That's a giant test of paper and not a test of giant paper in case you're wondering. :)
I wonder what he is trying to achieve.
ReplyDeleteAll 23 papers at grade 2 in the same developer is not what I would call a fair comparison.
What I do know, is that for the same negative, my split grade controller tells me:
MGIVRC 15,9sec grade2
MGIVFB 14.1sec grade1.5
MGWT 33.3sec grade2.3 advised to use a different developer
So that is quite a difference which he does not take into account.
But it keeps him off the street.
Frank
Frank, that is how you do it. I printed the Encyclopedia of Inkjet Printing. It was 600+ media samples in 12 volumes. I didn't try to fine tune 60 samples. They were all compared to 2 control papers...a gloss and a matte sample. You compare apples to apples.
ReplyDeleteHe should bind up the 23 prints and make an artist's book out of them. 23 must be all the samples of silver paper out there nowadays.
Tests aside, I love the photograph.
ReplyDelete