i am interested in anyone's experience with selenium toning Forte Polywarmtone VC semi-matte. the documentation that comes with the paper says that polywarmtone responds better with higher dilutions of selenium toner....they suggest i think 1:20.

in the past i have used the older (5-8 years ago) agfa portriga rapid with selenium dilutions of 1:3 to achieve a split tone in just a minute or two.

also have used agfa insignia with selenium dilutions of 1:5-1:7 to also achieve a split tone very quickly.

i'm interested in a achieving a similar sort of split with the forte paper...but skeptical of such a high dilution of 1:20. so i'm wondering what other people have used.

so far, i like this forte paper a lot. a really beautiful full range of tones and i love the museum weight.

thanks.

-- James Luckett (james@consumptive.org), April 29, 2001

Answers

You are quite right it does have a beautiful tonal range. However my own experiences with this paper in Selenium have not been quite as enjoyable. It tones to a bright red colour very quickly (in less than 3 minutes). I too used selenium at 1:20 and 22 degrees C. The split tone is very marked with the shadows strongly taking the selenium and the highlights being hardly affected at all. Personnally toning this paper in Selenium is not to my taste, but then again I can hardly call myself the arbiter of taste. By the way it takes Gold toner easily as well giving a cold blue image.

-- Adrian Twiss (avtwiss@ukonline.co.uk), April 30, 2001.

Check photo.net (Moderated Forum--use search function if it's been archived) for responses to my own question about how to tone Forte Polywarmtone without getting a ghastly pink.

-- MR (reynard75@hotmail.com), April 30, 2001.

I use 1:45 when selenium toning either Polygrade V or Polywarm. This allows a more controlable/repeatable toning time of about 3 minutes. The Polywarm gives a nice slightly redish brown town to the mids with great clean blacks and very pure white paper base -- highlight tone. The Polygrade is pure neutral. The Polywarm has a green tone which the selenium eliminates (the Polygrade has a very slight green tint but not as strong as the Polywarm). With Selenium they are perfect. Great papers.

Guy

-- Guy Washburn (rgw@mediaone.net), May 02, 2001.

Polywarm has a green tone when developed in what?

I hate to sound like an anti-toneite but the results you described from toning sound very similar to what I've seen using various deveopers...reddish brown tone, etc, and I've been able to eliminate the green (or the red) using different developers. Since 1:40 toning provides little image protection to speak of, whats the point of going the extra step?

I'm not trying to sound ignorant, I freely admit I *am* ignorant. I only do B&W occasionally and havent done much selenium toning because a) its a PIA (extra work), especially considering 2) at the dilutions I'd use it doesnt improve the life of the print much if at all, and 3) most of the time I dont want red tones in a B&W print, and the other tones are often controllable in other ways. perhaps as I gain more experience and knowledge I will see the folly of my way of thinking

-- Wayne (wsteffen@skypoint.com), May 02, 2001.

Forte Polygrade Neutral Tone FB tones with better results in Selenium than the Warmtone. I consider this Neutral Tone paper to be one of the finest in the world.

-- Ted Davis (palmawest@mediaone.net), May 02, 2001.

Polywarm does do better with a lesser dilution in my experience as well. 1:20 is quite nice for my tastes; I prefer to develop in a "non- warmtone" developer and then use a weak selenium toner. I personally love this combination for a "slightly warm" tonality.

-- Eamonn Aiken (aikene@bc.edu), May 13, 2001.

Wayne,

I get a green tone with Forte Polywarmtone Plus in D-72. It is better in Formulary 130 but still slightly green. I am going to try some Zonal-pro hq warmtone developer to see what that does but have not yet had the time.

Guy

-- Guy Washburn (rgw@mediaone.net), May 17, 2001.

I think the warmtone developer will make it really green. Thats what happened with Neutol WA.

-- Wayne (wsteffen@skypoint.com), May 20, 2001.