The paper I use for my negatives - Ilford MGIV RC pearl - has just gone out of production (of course!) so I need to test some of the others available to see which will give me comparable results. Jarrah helped me out and we tested an alternative brand (Arista VC and also a couple of older papers which I’d tested in my darkroom earlier and discovered to be slightly fogged. I don’t really like the idea of using fogged or expired papers as it’s bringing in a variable that I can’t control or rely on in my work, but I thought it would be interesting to see what they did.
The Arista was fairly equal to my usual Ilford, so that was a relief. It may need slight testing and tweaking but there were no major problems with it. I do want to test Foma and Kentmere though and compare those as well. I’m assuming the Arista and Foma will be about the same as I think they may even be roughly the same product, but I think Kentmere may be the wild horse of the bunch.
One of the fogged papers was Ilford Portfolio RC, and that proved not to be a great success. That one may just go for lumens. The other fogged paper was Ilford MGIV glossy and I was really impressed. The image I chose of Jarrah was actually one of the fogged glossy paper ones! I didn’t have to preflash it, which I normally do to help tame contrast a little and boost ISO, as the fog did that for me. It gave some interesting artifacts too. My one thought is that as it’s a big box, the paper may not be as fogged further in, but I won’t know until I shoot. Variables! I don’t like them!
Jarrah, from the series Portraits of a Pandemic, 2021. 8x10 paper negative.
