What papers are good for contact printing, besides Azo?

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Are any papers besides Azo especially well suited for contact printing? Very slow papers, even ones that are exposed by the sun, would be fine.

-- William Marderness (wmarderness@hotmail.com), March 11, 2000

Answers

While not as slow and not a contact printing paper, try Bergger papers. They look very good in direct comparison with Azo. Nice tone and good detail and they are predictable in various toners as well.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), March 11, 2000.

i ve never tried but POP paper is supposed to be really good.

-- josh (devil_music@usa.net), March 12, 2000.

I just tried some grade 2 Bergger NB. Its surface is only *very* slightly more glossy than that of Azo (and much less so than typical FB glossy papers), thereby avoiding the Newton's rings that I've suffered in the past, even on this humid day during the southwest monsoon. Tone in Ilford Universal Paper Developer was neutral without a need for toning, and I liked the scale with both TMY and HP-5+ 8x10 negatives. Sharpness was as high as other graded papers, and visibly greater than all FB multigrade papers I've printed the same negatives on. This first Bergger test was done with an enlarger light source, but I plan to experiment further using a 15 watt bulb in a Lowel reflector with accessory diffuser attached, clamped to a shelf over the contact print frame. Stand by for that combo's exposure info in a few days.

-- Sal Santamaura (bc_hill@qwestinternet.net), July 04, 2001.

I've done alot of printing over the past 10 years on POP. I get the paper from Chicago Albumen Works. Not in Chicago and not Albumen, but great stuff none the less. I tone in gold as per the formula recomended by CAW. It's great to go out print on a sunny day, but when I need to make a steady number of prints for a show I use a black light printing box that I built. very simple and cheap. POP as a long tonal scale and unique color, maybe you would like it.

-- Erik Gould (egould@risd.edu), July 05, 2001.

Don't know what I was thinking; it's a Smith Victor reflector + diffuser. Even with a 15 watt bulb, the Bergger NB develops completely black after a 2 second exposure. I still like this paper, but one should probably only consider it for contacting using an enlarger as a light source.

-- Sal Santamaura (bc_hill@qwestinternet.net), July 05, 2001.


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