SamuliSchielke
Whilst working with Fomabrom, I’ve noticed that the gradient difference between the ‘Hard’ and ‘Normal’ grades is huge; furthermore, Fomabrom Normal is significantly softer than Fomaspeed Normal, whereas the gradient is pretty much identical for the ‘Hard’ grade. Is this always the case? Or has someone at Foma accidentally packed in the ‘Special’ grade? Who knows?
Samuli Schielke
MirkoBoeddecker
Samuli,
There are no fixed values for the density of the papers. All one can say with any certainty is that ‘normal’ density is softer than ‘hard’ density, and so on.
Fomabrom and Fomaspeed are completely different papers, made on different bases with different emulsions. Consequently, they also behave differently.
Furthermore, whether you perceive a paper as softer is down to your subjective perception. Fomabrom, for example, can reproduce more grey tones than Fomaspeed and also offers better differentiation in the highlights. You may well ‘perceive’ this as softer.
Last but not least: it may be that the developer substances stored in Fomaspeed result in a different gradation reproduction in the image. Did you perhaps use a soft-acting, highly diluted or older developer?
All of this (and more) can influence why one paper produces a different result to another.
But ultimately, it is what it is, and you would now need to control the gradients using developer combinations or, if necessary, diffuse pre-exposure, so that the final result of your image meets your expectations. Whatever the starting point was is relatively insignificant. You always have to adjust!
Best regards,
Mirko
