Ilford Multigrade IV FB Black and White Paper

Ilford Multigrade IV FB Black and White Paper 

DESCRIPTION

This fibre base paper is the ideal paper for skilled printers to give full expression to their talent. Creative printers will revel in the luxury of being able to use more than one contrast grade in a single print and in the way in which MULTIGRADE IV FB Fiber paper responds to toning, retouching and colouring techniques.

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-5 of 5  
[Dec 01, 2002]
stantom
Intermediate

Strength:

Matt good for high key portraits, where soft just recorded highlights are needed. Glossy not really working for me with my chems, enlarger, dev technique. Others may get great results from theirs, such are the variables in printing...At least it is cheap.

Weakness:

Lots. As above. Flat or harsh, no 'just right'. Dull finish on gloss when air dried (in complete contrast to Oriental seagull or Forte Polywarmtone). Curls heavily. No glow, dull, lifeless with most negs

(Glossy) Not satisfactoy in the main. The paper does not seem to produce anything like creamy smooth tonality, rather a harsh brittle look when contrast is high and muddiness when low. It seems tough to get right. The odd neg meshes perfectly, but for me, this is the 'odd' one, not the norm (for me with my darkroom config). I have used Ilford MG dev and Agfa neutol, with similar probs. I thought it was me (and still might be), but found probs do not occur with Agfa Multi RC and FB as well as whole host of others. Blacks appear weak and do not really retain detail unless 'grey'. Sometimes good for some low contrast negs which need their tonal scale stretching a little. (matt) I hated this initially, until I tried some high key portaits, which were excellent. This was not a fluke, as this has been replicated with several other negs and different boxes of paper. This finish does seem to exude an inner diffuse glow with careful printing, assuming you dont need a good black that is (because you will not get one - rather a featureless flat dark grey. I will use this again for this 'niche', but not for anything else. I do however love MG W/T, but that is another story...

Customer Service

Not used for paper. I sent them some 5x4 FP4 which appeared to have a damaged emulsion from manufacture (deep areas of emulsion damage- Which appeared to run from sheet to sheet in the same direction and place, like something had skipped and scored as the roll of film passed thru a machine). Outer emulsion layer not affected and only visible after processing)- not due to my processing!!!! They did not bother to reply...

Similar Products Used:

Agfa MC, Ilford W/T (much, much better), Forte PWT, Orietal Seagul VC FB...

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
3
[Nov 05, 2001]
Smallman
Expert

Strength:

Crisp bright high tones. Reproduces ice and snow nicely.

Weakness:

Muddy dark tones, lacking detail. Surface is somewhat stippled in texture. This may aggravate the problem with the dark tones. May be reluctant to accept some toners.

A reasonable printing material for most applications. Neutral colour emulsion.

Customer Service

Good from Ilford Australia.

Similar Products Used:

Agfa , Kodak FB papers.

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
3
[Mar 06, 2001]
Aleksi Moriarty
Intermediate

Strength:

As usual for Ilford products, they are consistent and reliable. The paper has good tonal range, and good contrast. Easily available. For better or worse, it has become the standard against which others are compared.

Weakness:

To my eye it lacks a truly rich black, and it sometimes seems a bit fussy when trying to get just the right contrast range.

A good reliable paper, the one to start with.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

Luminos; Forte; Agfa; Oriental

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Mar 25, 2001]
Eamonn Aiken
Intermediate

Strength:

Pleasant, slightly warm tonality with a neutral base. Very versatile paper, most everything looks good on it.

Weakness:

Needs to be toned in selenium to get a really good "pop" from it while keeping a rich tonality.

The "do-all" paper. You really can't go wrong with it as a general use printing paper- with Galerie being slowly phased out I expect I'll be using much more of this paper in the future- I love Oriental Seagull as well, but it is so starkly neutral it looks cold and Forte is a touch too warm now and again... enter Ilford multigrade.

Similar Products Used:

Oriental Graded, Ilford Galerie, Forte Polywarmtone (in standard chemistry)

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jun 27, 2001]
Andrew Davies
Professional

Strength:

As neutral as you can get with the right development.

Weakness:

Can be visually uninteresting due to its neutrality. Very, very stubborn to tone.

An unimpressive paper.

Similar Products Used:

Ilford Galerie, Kodak Polymax FA, Agfa MCC, Oriental, Kentmere.

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
1
Showing 1-5 of 5  

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