New to developing b&w prints

[Thomas78]

Hello,

a few weeks ago I managed to successfully develop my first b&w film.

Now I want to make my first prints.

What paper (multigrade or not?) and which developer should I take to start my work on b&w prints?

I already have (for the negativ film):

- Ilfotec DD-X
- Ilfostop
- Ilford rapid fixer
- Ilfotol

Thanks for your help!

 

[Roger Hicks]

Ilford MG and MG developer are hard to beat, unless you go for MG Warmtone. Start with RC: it's much quicker to wash and dry, so you'll learn faster from your mistakes. By all means mix up a different batch of the same fixer for prints, but don't use the same batch for both film and paper.

Cheers,

R.

 

[tlitody]

get the last PDF document "Making a B+W Print" from the following link and read it.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/page.asp?n=104

there are quite a few other pages and PDF's which are very useful for a beginner which you can link to from that page so have a good look around the Ilford site.

Most people use Multi Contrast paper these days.

Note that you can print to multi contrast paper without using any enlarger filters. The paper will a give a nominal (approx) Grade 2 without any filters. Starting with no filtration is a good idea because it will tell you if your negs are too soft, too hard or just about right in terms of film development.

Then if you need to change the print contrast you can use your enlarger filters. The usual aim is to get a negative which prints quite well on Grade 2 and then adjust to taste. Actual Grade numbers are pretty irrelevant on multigrade paper but everyone uses them as a rough guide to the filtration settings they use.