| Fortunately, there is getting to be more and more choices for quality black and white printing paper. There are 2 basic types of paper used in black and white printing, Resin Coated also know as RC and fiber base papers. RC papers are the easiest to use, they require very little wash time and can go from being printed, processed and washed in as little as 10 minutes. The down-side of RC papers is that there ability to last for many years is still in question. Fiber base papers on the other hand are believed to have the ability to last for hundreds of years but to make this possible a more elaborate processing sequence is needed and considerable more wash time than that of RC paper.
Controlling contrast is the other consideration for printing papers to which there are 2 types. Graded papers have a contrast grade which are built into the paper and are numbered from 1 to 5. 1 is the lowest contrast and 5 is the highest contrast. Graded papers may be the best choice for quality but it is also necessary to have all the various contrasts on hand to be able to handle a variety of printing situations, meaning 5 different boxes of 8x10 paper and 5 different boxes of 11x14 paper, etc. Another concern for using graded paper is that to get a paper contrast that falls between 2 grades it is usually necessary to use more than one developer. By using a low contrast developer and a normal developer it is possible to make a higher contrast paper lower in contrast. An example would be that it would be possible to make a grade 3 paper have the characteristics of a grade 2½ paper by using 2 developers. The other choice for controlling contrast in black and white paper is to use a multi-contrast paper. These papers are capable of producing grades 1 thru 5 all on the same paper by controlling the color of light during exposure. This color adjustment can be done by changing the color of light at the light source or to use filters that are designed for use with multi-contrast papers. It is also possible to get intermediate paper contrasts by controlling the color of the light so 2 developers are not usually needed. The obvious advantage is that you will only need 1 box of paper for each different size that you print. Multi-contrast papers have become very popular in recent years as their quality has improved. The negative aspects of these papers is that you must have very good control over the color of light from your enlarger. For me, I could not make the variable contrast papers work the way that I wanted using a cold light head which I had used for years with graded paper. I have since switched to a dichroic head and have very precise control over paper contrast. Another problem with multi-contrast papers is that they are much more sensitive to your safelight. Making sure that your safelight is safe has always been a good idea with graded papers but it is absolutely vital with multi-contrast papers. For a beginner, I would recommend using a multi-contrast RC paper. I would get a set of contrast filters and learn what is possible. This may not be the best approach to learning to make high quality prints but it is the most popular at this time and if you are careful the beautiful prints will follow. |
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