MorseBlog

I have been experimenting with Fomatone MG Classic Warmtone paper recently. I have found it has a pleasing look when developed in ECO 4812 which is not a warmtone developer. It maintains a warmer tone that can verge on green in some light. I do not like green toned prints and have remained confused as to why this is considered a warmtone.  However this paper has grown on me. Along the way I have tried some toning, and this can clean up any residual green tone if it becomes too bothersome. The paper tones well in sepia toner if more brown tone is desired.  As part of this process, I decided to investigate the same print on Ilford MGFB Classic which is a neutral to cold tone paper. This is my usual paper which when developed with Eco 4812 developer has a nice neutral tone. This paper does not tone well in sepia . A very small amount of sepia takes the colder 'edge' off the print, but further toning gives a cloying pinkish tone. As an aside Ilford MG ART 300 paper gives a much ni...

When I first began to learn printing in the darkroom, I went through a phase of picking up different expired papers. Partly because they were cheap and also to experience what the properties and history of these old papers were like. Eventually I came to the conclusion that most papers are too fogged to be worth the effort and whatever characteristics they had once have long since diminished with time.  Of course, I use a number of these for lith printing and toning with some great results. Papers like Fohar Raster with an embossed pattern of dots I suppose was to suggest the idea of a CRT? ORWO, Oriental Seagull, Agfa-Gevaert Rapidoprint are some other examples. One paper that stood out for me was Negra Portrene made in Barcelona. At the time I bought some I researched the paper as best I could here ... and determined it went out of business in the 1970's when Spain was still ruled by a fascist dictator.  I bought the paper because it was unopened and 16x20" and I wanted to t...

I have returned to this old paper recently and have decided to try lith printing it again. It is a single grade warmtone paper from the 1970's. When I first bought it I found it lithed well and this has been born out again. I used Fotospeed Lith developer in that first trial and now I use Moersch EasyLith and have learned a bit more about lith printing since then.  Everything I learned in that original post bore out in my work today. The paper develops really fast in hot lith developer within seconds for the first print at a +3 stop overexposure. The developer settled down as the developer cooled and I reduced the exposure. I actually managed to get good prints (indeed the best) with very little exposure. As a gauge of this a reasonable conventional print was made at f8 for 32 seconds. The second print was made with less exposure at f8 for 22 seconds.   I used a negative from my Fuji GFX 50s ii digital camera made at Gammatech . This was an image I took at night during a...

There are a couple of different narratives here but let's see how this unfolds... This was also written over a month ago and I have finally gotten around to posting it. Firstly, I returned to Holme Fen this week after a series of big storms passed through the UK. Here in the east of England we did not suffer much damage compared to some areas. Never-the-less I was able to see a number of trees down.  On a related item we had some friends visit and one commented that I must like trees as she was looking at my 'gallery' in our downstairs bathroom (toilet in the UK as there is no bath there). I hadn't really noticed my subject was trees as I was thinking woodlands, but she was not wrong. I reflected later that this was because that was all there is to see in Cambridgeshire landscape-wise. Not entirely true but if you have been here, you will get my point.  Part of the 'Gallery' While Mollie and I were walking it was apparent how much change had been wrought by the ...

I decided to break out the Moersch MT 4 Sepia toning solution and give it a try. I am usually not a fan of warm tone prints or sepia toned prints. It is a just a matter of personal taste but it is always worth exploring things outside of your own creative sphere. (This is the smelly form using sulfur (or sulphur if your are from the UK.) Moersch MT 4 Sepia Toner I read through the documents on the Moersh Photochemie website .  The sulfur/sepia toning documents are here (NSFW images) . Like most of Wolfgang's documents I find them poetically confusing. Whether this is because English is a second language or just a style I find it frustrating and entrancing at the same time.  The article is really part of an overall discussion on toning and bleaching with the linked section focused on sulfur toning.  Here are some things I gathered to aid in understa...

I picked up some more old paper. Based on my recent project to allow bigger enlargements I was on the look-out for 16x20 paper. Good fortune came my way in the form of Negra Portrene. An unopened box of 16x20 paper. The seller said he tried some from another box and it was good. The price was right and so I took a gamble. There is not much information on this paper on the web. Most references are from Spanish language sites as the paper was made in Barcelona. The Negra company went out of business perhaps as far back as the 70s. Some research revealed a stock certificate. And other research indicates it started in 1956. Negra Industrial Stock Certificate I found and translated with the help of Google the following footnote in a book on Spanish archaeology photographs. The Spanish industries tried to compete that had little entity and disappeared soon, and unable to sustain the harsh foreign competition.  In 1893 a manufacturer of photographic products in  ...