b&w glossy papers

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My favorite paper is ilford multigrade matte and i have been using it for years.i want to try using some glossy papers and do not know where to start.Any opinions or reviews out there?

-- Tibor L. Mezey (tiborville@hotmail.com), September 26, 2000

Answers

The only way to a real gloss finish, without buying glazing apparatus and all the messing about it entails, is to use Resin Coated (RC) paper.
Kentmere Photographic make some of the best RC and Fibre based papers I've ever used.
Ilford make RC gloss finish paper as well, and Agfa's stuff was quite good last time I used it. Oh! and not forgetting Oriental Seagull.
I think a little known company called 'Kodak' make glossy paper as well.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 26, 2000.

I mostly use Luminos photo papers. Their Flexicon RC Glossy is an excellent variable-contrast paper.

The glossy surface is pretty nice, though nothing like what we used to get off our giant gas-fired Pako drier with fiber paper and Pakosol solution years ago... (but that was a huge amount of effort and I don't really miss it!)

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), September 26, 2000.


If you like Ilford's matte papers, why not try their glossy ones as a start?

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), September 27, 2000.

I use Ilford fiber base MG IV. I dry it on a heated print drier with the photo side up, against the canvas. This gives a finish between glossy and matte. (This is not an original idea of mine, I saw it one of Ansel Adams's books.)

-- Don Karon (kc6d@arrl.net), September 28, 2000.

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