Resin Coated papers do not respond well to selenium toning leaving a purple hue. Even though the selenium does get rid of the base colour of the paper, a rather awful grey-green. Fibre base muiltigrade tone much better giving nice greys and blacks then grading into browns if left in selenium. I do like selenium because of its ease of use but the purple colouration can look too cool for many scenes. My question......... Does anyone know of a formula which will work on variable contrast resin coated papers (Agfa, Ilford and Kodak) that will give a nice deep blacks and greys and whites, so as to get rid of the base paper colour???

Cheers David Strachan

-- David Strachan (strachan@cww.octec.org.au), April 07, 2000

Answers

Hi,

Based on a post I did on this forum earlier "Chrome toning" I did some research:

Getting rich blacks on RC paper is possible when doing Chromium toning.

It works as follows: Get a negatieve density intensifier based on potassiumbichromate. I use Amaloco C20 for that.

Expose for 10% shorter as you normally do, and use 1/2 grade less since the contrast intensifier changes grade.

First you bleach the picture with the product, then you redevelop the print.

This should give the effect you want. hope this helps, Marc.

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), April 07, 2000.

Why would anyone want to waste toner on a test paper anyway? You only use toners on real paper. james

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), April 08, 2000.

Have you tried Ilford Warmtone RC paper? I've had good success with a few different toners, Brown, Sepia and selenium.

-- Paul Swenson (paulphoto@humboldt1.com), April 08, 2000.

Emaks paper is responds very well in Selenium toner. You get the same results with the RC paper as the fibre based paper. You get very rich blacks with Emaks!

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), April 08, 2000.

Get off the RC papers - Go Fiber.

-- jim megargee (mvjim@interport.net), April 08, 2000.

I recommend reading Eddie Ephraums books "GRADIENT LIGHT" [The art and craft of using variable contrast paper] & also his "TECHNIQUES FOR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY."

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), April 09, 2000.

There is a new formulation of selenium toner by a Dutch company named AMALOCO, the toner being called AMALOCO T-50, for which the company claims that it also enhances the D_max of RC papers. Test by a photo magazine seem to support this claim.

However, your post seems to imply that all RC papers have the same base tone, which is not what I have observed. Maybe you can try different brands of paper and find one you like.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), April 10, 2000.

I have found that the Ilford Multigrade papers (both normal and warm) don't change color appreciably in selenium toner unless it is mixed at a very high concentration. I have been getting good results at 1:4 (most other papers I tone at 1:15). The normal Ilford Multigrade retains its very neutral image color, even after toning, but the blacks are considerably enhanced.

-- (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), April 10, 2000.

Er, I have no problem with Agfa Multicontrast Premium and Kodak Selenium toner...

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), July 26, 2000.

Ilford RC papers will take some toning by either toning for about 15 minutes in 20:1 Kodak or using a 4:1 dilution. Ilford MG IV FB also tones nicely in the 4:1 dilution in about 5 minutes.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), August 01, 2000.