I am confused by the "cool tone" and "warm tone" features of some of the phot paper I've seen at the local photography store. Some paper doesn't even specify what "tone" it is? If anyone could shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it.

-- Anthony Mullinax (awmullinax@yahoo.com), September 25, 2000

Answers

Anthony, This will get into developers also... 1st, warm toned papers are just that... a warm tone. These are nice for portraits but don't look all that great for a snow scene. Cool toned papers are just the opposite and have more blue or "cool" tones. These both can be further enhanced by the use of some developers... LPD comes to mind and is my favorite paper developer. Using this developer straight will give a paper more cool tone whereas using it diluted will give more warm tones... This in congunction with the appropriate paper will make your printing and end result much better. Also, bear in mind that some papers, warm tone papers, have more green tones and yellow tones. I think of all the warm tones, I like the new Ilfords. Hope this helps.

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), September 25, 2000.

The term "tone" is used, confusingly, to mean different things in B&W printing. When speaking of "warm" or "cool" tone paper, "tone" refers to the quality of color of the paper and emulsion. Although all these papers are black and white, they will have a slight tint, either warm (brownish) or cold (bluish). The differences are sometimes subtle, but very clear when you look at prints made on warm and cold tone papers next to one another. The overall tone of a paper depends on both the tone of the emulsion and the underlying paper base. Usually a warm tone paper will have both a warm emulsion and warm paper base (otherwise, the highlights, where you are seeing mainly the paper base, would have a different tone from the shadows, where you are seeing mainly emulsion). Tone can be influenced by toners (chemicals in which the print is immersed after developing and fixing) and choice of developer as well as by the type of paper used.

Photographers also use the word "tone" to refer to various levels of reflectance (areas of light or dark) in a print(e.g., "good separation of light and dark tones"). "Tone" can also be used as a verb, transitively to mean putting a print in toner ("I toned the print in selenium"), or intransitively, to mean altering color in toner ("RC paper does not tone well in selenium").

Where a paper does not specify a tone, it is generally neutral-to-cool toned, which is considered "normal." Papers intended to be warm toned generally say so.

-- Chris Patti (cmpatti@aol.com), September 25, 2000.

Right on Chris. Very good explanation. About the only paper I haven't yet tried is the new Ilford "cool tone" paper. Anyone tried it yet? James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), September 25, 2000.

Appearance having been explained, here is another issue:

The silver image in warm-tone papers consists of finer grains, that in cool tone papers of coarser grains. Finer grains are usually more easily toned, and more easily attacked by atmospheric and other pollutants. If you want a paper that responds strongly to toning, warm-tone variants are what you should look for.

Grain size is not fully determined by the emulsion designer, but also by the developer. There are developers that enhance the warm-tone effects, and others tend to cool down the image. Also, gold toning often makes warm-tone papers distinctly cool, sometimes even blueish. Otoh, selenium toner may turn cool papers warmer.

The warmth of the image also being influenced by brighteners in the paper base, some papers can become notably warmer as a consequence of prolonged washing, which means that the brightener is washed out.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), September 26, 2000.

Excellent responses, but no one has yet mentioned the type of silver halides in these paper emulsions. In the past, warm emulsions were predominantly silver chloride, which has finer grains, and cold emulsions were predominantly silver bromide, which has larger grains. I read some years ago that Agfa Brovira was the last of the pure bromide emulsions, and though I have no independent confirmation of that information Brovira had some very unique qualities. I have also read that all modern emulsions are chloro-bromide mixtures.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), September 26, 2000.