Cool tone print developers vs other processes
 

In article ,
Lew wrote:
Just getting back from Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand at the Met. I'm
completely blown away by the difference between the wonderful deep
tones of the gum over platinum prints vs the gs prints, including the
ones made by Steiglitz himself. There's such a visible difference
between the washed out greys of the gs and the velvety blacks of the
other processes!

I would be somewhat concerned if any process produced a result in which
there were no visible difference between washed out greys and velvety
blacks. ;-)

I assume what you mean is that the darkest black was darker in some of
the alternative-process prints you saw than in the gelatin-silver ones.
One thing worth considering is that the maximum density of gelatin-silver
enlarging paper, by the year 2000, was about twice what it may have been
when those prints were made. That may not account for the entire
difference you are seeing, but it probably accounts for some of it.

--
Thor Lancelot Simon

"We cannot usually in social life pursue a single value or a single moral
aim, untroubled by the need to compromise with others." - H.L.A. Hart