Since Forte is no more I decided to buy a small pack of 8x10 Polywarmtone Museum weight Glossy fibre paper to try out and see what the fuss is. I am going to state off the bat, I love the warmtone results, it give the print an almost organic feel. Now to get these results I realized after the first printing session I had to up the strength of the Ilford Multigrade paper developer from 1+14 to 1+9. Even then, I was leaving the paper in to develop for extra minute or two. Also, I had get used to the longer exposure time. If I reprint any of these photos on Ilford double weight FB,I will have to cut the times back on average ten seconds. I realised as much as I love the results, I am an Ilford guy at heart.

The photos below were shot last fall in Kensington Market and Chinatown in late September with a Pentax Spotmatic II and Kodak Plus X film. I scanned the prints in colour and desaturated by 50% to give the approximation of the warmtone appearance.




Comments

Petrol said…
I've been using Forte Elegance (polywarmtone, vc, fb, semi-matte) all this week for my final project and I must say, it produces gorgeous results. Drydown is a little flat - semi-matte after all - but one can compensate by using a higher filter in the enlarger. It's an excellent paper. Just wish I had more.
11:24 PM
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