Several sources around the web reports that the Harman Gloss Fb Al has a very cold base color. ever since I purchased my first pack I’ve been a bit puzzled by this. Compared to the other semigloss papers I’ve used, which counts to Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl, Epson Premium Luster, Epson Premium Semigloss and Ilford Gallery Smooth Pearl, the Harman paper is the warmest of them. Please note that I am not talking about the Harman paper labeled as warm tone. Compared to matt paper the story is different. Photorag is much warmer, so is Someret Enhanced Velvet and Olmec Fine Art, but Moab Entrada Bright White is whiter.

Today I bought a pack of Harman 17×25 inch paper in my local store. Just as a side note, by local store I mean the main photo outlet in Oslo, which is also the biggest on printing and high end equipment in Norway, Fotovideo.no. Anyway, the salesman wondered what I thought about the paper, and we started to discuss the different properties. At some point he asked what I felt about the base color, and wouldn’t you know, He was also puzzled about what people meant when they said it was too cold. He immediately went to the back room and got a stack of sample prints, and it was obvious for everyone to see that the Harman paper is not very cold. I would say it is just a tad bit on the warm side of neutral.

For those of you who don’t have access to a good store that sell pro equipment, it is really fun to visit one. Fotovideo is a combined store that sell everything digital from the cheapest digicams to the biggest dslr. I don’t think the sell the biggest medium format backs, but they do sell the biggest Epson and Canon printers. They have a Cannon iPF8000 and a Epson 7880 on display along with a bunch of smaller model. The best part of visiting this kind of store is talking to the staff. Some of them are very knowledgable, and if you come when it’s not too busy they are more than willing to have a chat about this and that related to photo.