14 DAY TRIAL // Renowned worldwide for their black and white film, papers and chemicals, UK-based company Ilford Photo announced in a recent press release the availability of two new Multigrade Baryta Fibre Base variable contrast papers: an improved Multigrade FB paper and a new Cooltone FB paper.
The new papers are part of the Ilford Multigrade FB Classic pack and come with two available surfaces, Glossy and Matt, which offers improved maximum density, shorter exposure times and sharper images.
The new Multigrade FB Classic was further improved over the product it replaces and developed to better respond to traditional toning techniques.
The addition of the new Multigrade FB Cooltone enhances the current Ilford Multigrade FB range, giving it a cool image color with distinct mid-tones and crisp whites.
These two new products come to complement the existing Multigrade FB Warmtone paper regarded by most printers as the best choice for luxurious prints do to its warm blacks and creamy white tones.
With the addition of these new fiber base papers, the new Multigrade FB manages to deliver for the first time ever a complete range of print tones previously unavailable to photographers and printers.
While testing the new Multigrade FB Classic and Cooltone papers, renowned photographer Alan Ross said that “Both papers have a similar contrast range to the MGIV FB and exhibit a greater clarity or crispness of image.Both papers will take a richer tone in selenium than MGIV FB - a real boon.”
“The toning test was impressive - at 1:23 even a print immersed for 1 minute showed a noticeable change in image color, but my favorite is in the 4' range. A color I could never get with MGIV FB.” he then added.
Alan Ross was also personally selected by Ansel Adams to print his Yosemite Special Edition negatives while working as his photographic assistant.