Lichtbildner
Hello,
I’ve got what might be a silly question, but why do you actually have three different fixed-grade baryta papers produced in 1–2 gradients and various sizes, rather than just one, but a proper range from 10x15 to 50x60 in 3–4 gradients? If that were the case, you could use the material as standard paper; as it is, you’re practically forced to switch to multigrade paper, even if, like me, you don’t want to.
Regards,
Lichtbildner
MirkoBoeddecker
That’s not a silly question at all; in fact, it’s one of the most frequently asked questions here in the shop.
The answer isn’t exactly straightforward, as it isn’t immediately obvious.
I’ll give it a go.
Regardless of which standard-grade paper we’re talking about, there’s always roughly 75% demand for the standard grade, 20% for the hard grade, and 5% for all other gradients.
If you factor in that a run of less than 8,000 square metres is completely uneconomical, you quickly reach the point where it is economically impossible to produce runs of gradients other than normal and hard.
The last two runs with a soft gradient were, for example, a total economic disaster for Foma, with such heavy losses that there was talk at one point of discontinuing the entire baryta paper range.
This situation was averted with great difficulty and is now off the table for the long term.
New baryta papers (albeit multi-gradation, of course) have even been created (partly in response to our years of insistence).
For users of fixed gradients, there are two groups:
1) Fine art printers with large-format negatives (from 8x10" size upwards) exposed perfectly using the zone system
2) Experienced users who have always worked with fixed gradients or who prefer yellow-green DUKA light.
Group 1 always requires only ‘special-normal’ and uses the paper for quality reasons, as a perfect negative printed on a fixed gradient can still achieve a touch more dynamic range. Furthermore, this group never actually prints below 13x18 cm.
This group is growing and consuming an increasing amount of the gradients we offer.
Group 2 sometimes also requires other gradients for ‘poor’ (too high density or too low density) negatives.
With these negatives, however, the hard paper no longer offers any advantages. The only remaining benefit is the ability to work under yellow-green light without having to change one’s working method.
However, this group is gradually shrinking due to age and is consuming less and less paper.
So if I were to make a forecast for the future, this situation is unfortunately unlikely to change.
As Fomabrom and Fomabrom Variant produce almost identical image tones/results, my advice is to work with Fomabrom Hard or Normal as standard (under normal conditions and in bright light), and for the few special cases where these two gradients are insufficient, to use the Multigrade as well and switch to red light for a short time.
As for the sizes mentioned, we have most of them in stock, and very small sizes can also be ordered separately.
I hope this explanation is helpful.
Best regards,
Mirko
Wolf_XL
...I’ve had good results with the third option – I only use the multigrade paper for the few negatives that can’t be printed using fixed gradations... That way, I can handle all the ‘special cases’ with just a single extra pack of paper...
