Some of our clients: The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City contacted us in October 2006 to enquire about Silvergrain chemicals. The school was looking to improve its environmental standards to the highest possible level. After a successful trial run, Cooper Union switched its main print chemistry line to Silvergrain in Spring 2007. [Cooper Union web site] Baer-Simon Photography in Denver is a well-known portrait photography business producing fine art prints for its clients. Jeremy Baer-Simon contacted us in September 2006 when one of his darkroom workers became sick due to inhalation of chemical fumes. Jeremy replaced his existing chemistry with Silvergrain and no longer has any health & safety issues. [Baer-Simon web site] Davis Black & White is a custom b&w photo lab located in Austin, TX. Iris Davis began working with Silvergrain Tektol in the Summer of 2006 after testing its performance and discovering how well it worked for her fine art prints. [Davis Black & White web site] Georgia Department of Transport, Office of Environment/Location uses Silvergrain chemistry in its Aerial lab and rates the products as "A+" San Francisco Art Institute tried Silvergrain and commented: "We have just completed the tests of the Silvergrain chemistry against our current [brand name removed] chemistry. The results leave no question that the Silvergrain is far superior in terms of tonality as well as toxicity." SFAI switched to Silvergrain in 2007. [SFAI web site] Press & Media:
Unity College: Can Traditional Chemical-based Photography Be Sustainable (January 2008)
American PHOTO: Thirteen Ways to be a Greener Photographer (Sept/Oct 2007)
Silvershotz International Journal of Fine Art Photography (Volume 4, Edition 4): Silvergrain Darkroom Chemistry Test (p. 12-16) Customer feedback:
I wanted a safer, more environmentally-friendly darkroom print developer. I rate Silvergrain 100% Five Gold Stars. Excellent print quality and tonality, low to non-existent odors, no stains when spilled, easy to clean up and overall excellent. I plan on never going back to conventional developers. Silvergrain is a blessing to those who desire a safer environment and still want excellent print quality. Please do more to promote and advertise Silvergrain! If more darkroom photographers knew about Silvergrain's qualities and safety (human and environment), I believe they would buy more of it. Place an ad in the photo magazines such as Black and White. Also, you might try to strongly promote Silvergrain to schools, colleges and universities; with the environmental issues, chemical safety and ease of disposal, schools etc. might prefer to use Silvergrain instead of the usual, highly toxic developers. Also, regardless of the digital dominance in the photo market, there are still many many photographers who desire and use their traditional darkrooms. Silvergrain is a blessing to those who desire a safer environment and still want excellent print quality. If you promote and advertise Silvergrain more, I am very hopeful and believe strongly that you will get more sales. You guys are heroes for selling it!
I like the "mid-tone sparkle". It performed more beautifully than [rival product name deleted] - is that about what you would expect? I am very happy for the lack of Metol.
I've decided that I like the Tektol developer so much I'm going to go ahead a switch over to it for my exhibition printing. Your standard developer gave me equally high quality images as Ilford (Harmon) warmtone developer, so I'm pretty happy with it.
I was also looking for a print developer to replace Agfa Neutol Plus - an ascorbic acid developer without hydroquinone. It's an environmentally sensitive product. I would rate the developer [Tektol] as better than most of the commercially available print developers I've used. It keeps well and produces a good print. I believe Ryuji Suzuki is one of the more enlightened and pragmatic contributers to conventional photography and want to support his efforts. I especially like his DS-12 negative developer and believe it's one of the better formulas to come along in a long time.
I use Silvergrain Clearwash Aid, because it is like Kodak HCA, but in liquid form and easy to mix. My experience has been very good and would rate the products highly.
I am printing on Oriental Warmtone II. The chemicals used in the gang room at school will not produce a warmtone print and are extremely toxic. The Silvergrain produces a warm tone and according to our lab tech is far less toxic to the enviroment. The printing experience was great. Development times have been significantly reduced. Exposure time has also been reduced and the tones are more even than with the old chemicals. I am placing an order for more chemicals this weekend so that I can complete the current portfolio and begin all over again.
We have found that by using a dual development method (Tektol Neutral & Dektol) we have a tremendous amount of tonal control. In some instances, prints are manipulated (contrast) by adjusting development time only, and leaving the filter pack unchanged. Our older Super Chromega D5 enlarger requires us to adjust exposure times when altering the filter pack, unlike some of the newer, cold light source enlargers... Lastly, toning has become an important part of our archival printing program and we look forward to seeing what benefits the Tektol developers will offer. Product experience: A+ so far...will order as long as they're available
Agfa, my former favorite, went bankrupt and left me starting from square one. I took the opportunity to explore a bit and settled on some Silvergrain products as a good way forward. I've been very pleased with the developers and anticipate adding some of the other chemistry to my darkroom this spring. In these seemingly "End Days" of silver it's good to see (and support!) smaller companies step up and provide what, to my mind, is a more personal, niche-style service. May you stay in business forever :-)
Compared to the chemicals that I used to use, very good.
I was attracted to the product because of its low toxicity. I am introducing my children to the darkroom and I want everything to be as safe as it possibly can be. Although I have only used the products a couple of times since receiving them, I am very impressed with the tonal qualities of the Tektol developer when mixed at recommended strength. I am looking forward to experimenting with different dilutions.
My local (large) retailed stopped carrying Kodak Polymax-T, and Silvergrain came available at about the same time. Since I dislike dealing with powders I figured I'd give it a try. The reduced toxicity and wash times are a plus as I'm on a septic system. I am fully satisfied with the products. Your customer support is superb. I had an apparent problem with a bottle of paper developer [note: this was a one-off issue and a replacement was sent] and was truly impressed with your concern and responsiveness. This is another reason why I'll stick with Silvergrain. Now, if you can only develop a product that will give me more time to pursue my photographic interests....
I've been using the Tektol developer for the last week or so and like it a lot. I print quite a bit on Ilford warmtone fiber paper and find that it is giving me a good warm tone without the greenish cast you can get with some other developers. I've also used it with the Ilford multigrade fiber and I'm very happy with that as well. It has a very long tray life. One day I printed for three or four hours and then covered my developer tray (by floating another tray inside it), and used the developer for TWO MORE DAYS. Granted, I wasn't running a lot of prints through, but it seemed to be working just fine on the third day. I also like the control I get with the Tektol. I tend to develop the cold tone Ilford for 2 minutes and the warmtone for 3 minutes, but I like being able to leave a print in for 4 minutes if I need to and still see image development.
Discussion Links:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33742 [archive]
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