Gradation settings and speed adjusted

22-11-2014-13:48

Because of the many inquiries about the status of the Polywarmtone Resurrection Project we would like to post the up to date status.
The image in the back is original Forte Polywarmtone coated 2007 and the stripe covering it is our version. Both images were printed, developed and scanned together. So you can see how close we are. Our sample is a bit higher in contrast but this is the target because the original is by now 7 years old.
The devil is in the details with photographic emulsions. What we publish might look like a small step ahead compared to earlier releases but there was a lot of work involved to get there.
The main difference is now that we can´t only get an image to look similar- it now also prints with identical settings (contrast/exposure) over a wider choices of gradations.

Multigrade is back!

16-04-2014-15:57

Polywarmtone_Gradationstest_hart_web Kopie

Finally we have a good gradation range again but filter values are out of range (you would need to set totally different values than with other papers to achieve the soft or hard grade).
You can see the PW new filtered to hard and soft- The regular grades are missing so the images are not very pretty.

Also you can see that the soft grade goes into fog because of the safelight.

Apart from this we need to keep rehearsing how to coat. The coating is not homogenous (upper part of the image) but considering that these are our first steps in in- house-multilayer coating they are also not entirely bad.

In the next weeks we need to adjust the filter values for the gradation (NOT trivial!) and keep rehearsing how to coat multilayers.

If no new obstacles occur we can have the paper go to the big coater after this. On the big coater rehearsed hands will plug the pipes.

We want to add that the long time this project is taking is also due to the fact that we have to learn everything for the first time.
If we are to make the next paper or a film things will go much faster from now on.

Gradation/tonal curve optimizing/multigrade

11-07-2013-22:31

Thousands of samples later, we are slowly approaching our goal. The image tone is so close to the old PW that we have difficulties seeing the difference again which we thought we had seen yesterday. The contrast curve and multigrade range need to be touched up a bit more. The upper row shows our comparison prints on MCC. The difference in image tone can be seen on the computer screen already.
Developed in ADOTOL WA
We will continue after the summer break.