Why Silver Halide Emulsion Paper? What is Gelatin Silver Paper?
Through personal experience, I find the quality of black and white prints produced with the traditional wet lab liquid chemistry consisting of developer, stop bath, fix and washing superior to prints made on inkjet printers. This does not mean that quality prints are not possible on inkjet printers, and for color prints, they are the way to go, but black and white prints made using traditional chemistry cannot be matched.Â
While I learned photography and darkroom craft before the digital age, I was required to go digital due to the advantages of being able to quickly share and distribute image files electronically. As I learned the practical applications of digital software, I felt there were advantages to the insight gained by having experience with processing prints from film negatives and quickly began applying film techniques such as Zone System exposure to digital photography.
While digital photography was always great for digital display, I found that producing a satisfactory physical print challenging. I had invested in fairly sophisticated wide format Epson printers, and while the results were good after making a few test proofs, the prints simply never came up to the standards of a print produced with wet chemistry. Due to the expense of high quality inks and maintenance issues with clogging nozzles, I eventually turned to outside sources for printing. I found that prints from labs using commercial grade inkjet printers costing thousands of dollars could produce very high quality prints at a cost not much higher than I was able to produce with my wide format printers.Â
In 2013, while checking prices on darkroom enlargers, I came upon an article on laser enlargers that could create a latent image from a digital file onto black and white gelatin silver emulsion paper which could then be processed using the exact processes that we used in the wet lab with film technology. This led me to labs that process prints this way from digital files which are sent to them through their websites. One such lab offered an introductory deal for evaluation of quality. When I received the finished prints, I was amazed at the quality, which could not be matched by any inkjet printer. From then on, I have never used any other printing method.Â
There are essentially two types of latent image, liquid chemistry papers used for laser enlarger prints:
- Ilford Resin Coated consisting of a paper layer between two layers of polyethylene with the silver halide emulsion applied to the top layer.
- Ilford Fiber Based with a heavier, fiber paper coated with barium sulphate under the silver halide emulsion.
Fiber based paper has been in use for over 150 years and many prints made from that era are still around, so it is proven, tried and tested for durability and longevity. It has been said that prints made from fiber based papers could hold up for over 500 years. The barium sulphate layer produces brighter whites and the silver halide emulsion being in closer proximity the the paper results in darker blacks than with resin coated prints. The initial cost of the paper combined with longer processing time makes fiber based prints considerably more expensive than resin coated papers, being about 3 times more costly. Fiber based papers take days to fully air dry and must be pressed in specially designed heated print presses and dry mounted to produce a flat print.Â
Resin coated papers are less expensive and simpler to process. They reproduce mid tones very well, dry quickly and need not be pressed or mounted. As for longevity, there is considerable debate as to how they compare with fiber based paper and it generally accepted that archival prints should be made with fiber based paper, but resin coated paper has only been around for about 50 years. There is no known method of determining how long any black and white, gelatin silver print will last. I have resin coated prints that are 35 years old and look as good as when they were first printed. According to Ilford, the manufacturer of all papers available here:
"At present, there is no industry standard for testing the longevity of black and white papers.
Although we believe that RC papers can be as permanent as fibre based. If long-term archival stability is your primary requirement, we recommend fibre base papers as the medium of choice." Â Â https://www.ilfordphoto.com/fa...
Prints made from either paper are available of any image shown on this website, but I currently only stock Resin Coated prints. If you need or prefer Fiber Based prints, go to the page for Custom Prints to get a quote.