Suggestions for a warm tone developer with long tonal range?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : B&W Photo - Printing & Finishing : One Thread

Hello!

I'm looking for a good warm tone paper developer that also gives a long tonal range. I've seen some recipes for wa developers, but they contains a lot of, or only hydroquinone. How about Agfa Neutol WA? Or maybe a developer with Glycin? Any recipes?

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), September 28, 2000

Answers

Try LPD (I think it is made by Ethol but it could be Edwal). Through dilutions you can go from a cold toned to a warm toned developer. It is a great developer and very long lasting. I do have several recipes if you can accept a PDF file. Cheers, Scott

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), September 28, 2000.

Thanks Scott! I'm looking for all kinds of formulas for photo chemicals, and it would be great if you can send me some! Yep, a .pdf file will work for me!

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), September 28, 2000.

Platinum is the Edwal product.This developer gives a very nice long scale and dosen't irritate my hands. If you are looking for an old style developer,see if you can locate a copy of"Lootens on Photographic Enlarging and Print Quality". There is a section on developer formulas. BTW this is an OLD book my edition is the 7th printed in 1948. You will be surprised to see how many things have not changed.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), September 28, 2000.

Try a chlorobromide paper like Ilford Galerie FB and either Agfa Neutol WA or Photographers Formulary TD 106. It contains Glycin and gives nice rich warm blacks on chlorobromide papers. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), September 29, 2000.

James, I use Agfa MCC and Portriga Rapid. I also use Emaks K888. Thanks for the rekommendations. I will taka a look at some developers with Glycin. Kodak D-155 contains Metol, Hydroquinon AND Glycin. Hmmmm, all those formulas making me

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), September 29, 2000.


Try Ansco 130. This formula contains metol, hydroquinone, and glycin. It is tried and true. The formula is here: http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Developers/Formulas/formulas.htm. For an even longer tonal scale, try Adams' variant that leaves out the hydroquinone. I have recently been experimenting with a formula that has hydroquinone only--an early Agfa 120 formula that is used at a very high dilution--but it has such a long scale I had to go up a paper grade.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), October 01, 2000.

Thanks Ed! How come that a developer like Agfa 120, that has only Hydroquinon as developing agent, gives a warm result and a long tonal range? Hydroquinon is known to give hard contrast.

Now a comparsion of Ansco 130 with Kodak D-155:

Ansco 130

Water (125 degrees F) 750 ml Metol 2.2 g Sodium Sulfite (Anhydrous) 50 g Hydroquinone 11 g Sodium Carbonate (Monohydrate) 78 g Potassium Bromide 5.5 g Glycin 11 g Cold Water to make 1 liter

Use undiluted for high contrast. Dilute 1:1 for normal work.

--------

Kodak D-155

Water (1250F/520C) 750 ml Metol 0.4 g Hydroquinone 4.0 g Glycin 2.6 g Sodium sulfite 22 g Sodium carbonate (anhy) 18 g Potassium bromide 4 g Water to make 1000 ml

USAGE Dilute 1:2 for general use and more for warm tones. -----------

Hmmmm, the only difference I can see is that the Kodak formula uses less of everything. I guess the results depends on the dilution only with these developers.

The Adams version of the Ansco formula is interesting also. I guess one could meet the half way and only reduce the hydroquinon to half and get a longer tonal range and lower contrast.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), October 01, 2000.


Patric,

Also, according to an old Ansco Formulas book I picked up dilute Ansco 130 1:2 for softer working lower contrast.

BTW the differences are not just in the amounts, but in the ratios. In Ansco 130 the Metol to Hydroquinone ratios is 1:5 in the D-155 formula you gave it is 1:10.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), October 02, 2000.


Ansco 130 lasts for a long time--I use it for three or more sessions before I dump it--and it gets softer working as it ages (the hydroquinone oxidizes). I usually use it at a 1:1 dilution.

As for the Agfa 120 formula, it gets a long tonal scale out of a hydroquinone-only formula by using it highly diluted--1:4 or 1:5. That makes it cheap!

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), October 02, 2000.


Thank you all for your suggestions! I will buy a kit of Ansco 130 from Photographers' Formulary. They call it "FORMULARY 130 PAPER DEVELOPER", but it is the Ansco formula.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), October 03, 2000.


I just went through zone in college last year. I have a recipie for one called Defender. I think it may have been some thing my came up with. Anyway he gave us a small book of them. We also tried one for cold tone paper called Dynamite. I really liked the defender with Kodaks creamy based paper. Which isn't a "true" warm paper. Besides that the only other warm papers I liked were Agfa portiga rapid, and sn Oriental seagul one. I spent alot of money playing with paper last year so if you want the formulas let me know. have fun either way. Jane

-- jane (jmng@juno.com), October 15, 2000.

Defender is the name of a line of photographic chemicals and paper made in the 1940's. I don't know if they were always made by Dupont but by the mid '60s the defender name was no longer used and the materials were marketed under the Dupont name.I believe Defernder (later Dupont) Varigam was the first VC paper (I still have a set of filters).At any rate Dupont was out of the business by the early 70's. Some of us are still bemoaning the demise of "Velour Black". I have a 1948 edition of "Lootens on Photographic Enlarging and Print Quality" that lists the formula for Defender 55-D on page 245.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), October 16, 2000.

I recently got some Agfa Neutol WA to try with Azo and also ran a few prints through it on Ilford MGIVFB, and the results with the Multigrade were astounding--not exactly warmtone, but much better blacks than Dektol.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), October 20, 2000.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ