Help please! I am racking my brains here. I am trying to create a print with silvery type mid tones with solid blacks and pure whites. I am presently using Ilford Galerie grade 3 with bromophen developer and the images are too warm. Does anybody know how to get silver tones into a print either using paper/dev combination or maybe toner? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks

-- sharon oliver (sharon@hebden18.freeserve.co.uk), June 01, 2001

Answers

Try LPD. there are several dilution rates that you could try. 1:1 , 1:2, or 1:4.

-- Ann C lancy (aclancy@mediaone.net), June 01, 2001.

I'm not sure if i understand correctly the effect you are trying to achieve , and if i do, i don't think it's possible, cetainly not with Gallerie and bromophen...As far as i know, you can't have whites, "silver looking " midtones and black on the same print.You can either have a metallic silver base with black image, or silver image(no real black) on a white base.

Here's 2 methods, none of which i tried myself (i guess i'm not very fond of "silvery type" mid tones):

Rockland Colloid makes a thing called Halo Chrome (www.rockaloid.com).This is like a toner , in the sense that you develop and fix the print first normally, than dip it into a bleach and then to another chemical solution.

Cachet and Luminos make papers with a silver metallic base.You develop this with a standard developer.Both are RC.I don't think this is the look you want though,there won't be anything white on the print.

If i misunderstood your intent, and you just want neutral looking midtones, just use Dektol with Gallerie, this will give you a very neutral print.

Good luck

-- Cem Topdemir (cem-1@softhome.net), June 01, 2001.

To add to what Cem said,

You could mask parts of the print with rubber cement before bleaching & processing to prevent changes from the image tone in those areas that are masked.

Test before you do it to something important, of course.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), June 01, 2001.

Sharon, try Oriental Seagull G developed in Dektol, or Tetenal's Eukobrom which is a cold working liquid dev. and if that dosen't work use their Dokumol dev. which is even colder working. Regards,

-- Trevor Crone (trevor.crone@uk.dreamcast.com), June 02, 2001.