Had an hour or two spare this evening after a digital job at MMU. Steph was working till 7 so I popped to the studio for a quick visit.
I’ve got some old packs of photo paper in a plan chest so thought I’d do some quick contact prints from the Temperance whole plate negs.
Now I know some purtists will argue a wet plate neg has to be intensified and printed as an albumen print etc. Thats all well and good but with modern papers a bright ambrotype will do the trick just as well.
Firstly Ilford Ilfobrom Galerie FB Grade 2…
Then Ilford Ilfobrom Galerie FB Grade 3…
And finally I dug out some Fomatone MG Matt Warmtone…
I really like the look of these, no idea why I haven’t contact printed plates previously. I know some wet platers contact print their standard ambrotypes on high grade paper before they black the reverse, but with these papers a standard plate was way too flat, understandably as it just a very thin neg with little density.
The warmtone Foma paper also has a similar colour to a Potassium Cyanide fixed plate.
Theres no enlarger at the studio at the moment, the UV banks and overhead flourescent tube would be way too bright, so I took the cover off one of the small safelights and just used the bulb inside for between 1 – 4 seconds at arms length from the paper. Not very precise but it did the job… I might have to take the 5×4 enlarger into the studio….maybe.