can anyody tell me is this paper good or not. i dont know wich type it is, it just says FORTE on the package and number 13 silky somthing. and in witch of the following developers i can get the most of it

tetenal ilfospeed hc .....i think or agfa universal and if please the mixing ratio thanx

-- hamad sharif (hamadshairf@hotmail.com), October 19, 1999

Answers

Although I haven't tested Forte papers yet, I heard a lot of good words about them. There are in fact quite a number of papers, RC as well as FB. If the name is Fortezo, it must be one of the FB papers, either Fortezo FB which is said to be a double-weight (235 g/m^2) portrait paper with a silky surface (fits your description). The other Fortezo paper is Fortezo Museum FB which is particularly heavy (260 g/m^2). Noth are graded papers.

In addition there are quite a lot of other Forte Papers (Fortespeed, Forte Polywarmtone ...), but none named Fortezo acc. to my information.

I would think that any universal developer (such as Tetenal Eukobrom or Agfa Neutol) will produce good results.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), October 21, 1999.

Hamad, This is a double-weight, fiber-based graded warm tone paper made in Hungary. I use this paper (semi-matte surface) quite a bit for portraits. It tones very well in sepia, selenium, or both. Sepia toner alone gives a rich brown tone and selenium alone does wonders for olive skin tones. With sepia followed by selenium you'll get a really nice reddish-brown. I use Dektol 1:2 with this paper @ 68F. I haven't tried a warm tone developer with the Fortezo. Doesn't seem to need it. Good luck with whatever you choose to do with it, but, if you decide to discard it, send it to me and I'll make sure that it's disposed of properly.

-- Walter Massa (WFMassa@webtv.net), October 22, 1999.

No Hamad! Send it to me! Great paper for warm tone subjects. And it is fantastic with any warm tone developer. Split tones very well. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), October 23, 1999.

Hamad, I've used Fortezo Elegance warmtone FB, Forte Salon polywarmtone RC, Forte Salon polygrade RC and Fortezo semi-matte FB. The FB papers are all graded papers so unless you have consistent negatives you could run into a greater expense buying different grades to suit your needs. The RC polygrade is an extremely cold-toned paper with vivid blacks and whites and the warmtone RC is softer than the FB warmtone. Overall I wouldn't rate these papers any better than lets say an Ilford product. I did find that no matter how little you wash the RC papers they have an extreme tendency to curl. EVen the FB curls more than other brands. If your looking for a warmtone FB paper you just can't beat Ilford's, not only is the tonal range beautiful but the Multigrade aspect is so much easier and more economical to work with. P.S. I used Ilford's Multigrade paper developer with all the forte papers and found it to work just fine.

-- Debbie Hilaire (dhilaire@serix.com), October 25, 1999.