A day's work in the darkroom...

Marco B said:

I am personally really pleased with the results I get from the dual bath bleach/redevelop toners, although obviously the extra bath and required washing stage is a significant burden, compensated by the odorlesness.

What is it you feel the polysulphide toners add?

With the bleach/redevelop toners I never felt the need to print darker, but this may be personal preference.

Click to expand...

Marco we are still talking about bleach/redevelop sepia toning. It’s just the toning bath is made with sodium sulfide instead of thio/sodium hydroxide. The result is not variable as it is with thio but I’ve heard many say, Cliveh included, that the results produced are superior. The archivability should be the same as thio (atleast that is my understanding.)

Polysulfide toners, also known as brown toners (Viradon R.I.P) are direct toners and produce fantastic results too, but the subject of another thread. I should add that polysulfide toners can be used indirect as well.

brian steinberger said:

The result is not variable as it is with thio but I’ve heard many say, Cliveh included, that the results produced are superior.

Click to expand...

The question, though, is after having heard this being said many, many times, whether anyone can make these claims more specific. Or, preferably, show an example. Personally, I suspect that those who claim superior performance of the polysulfide approach have not done a comparison that's truly effective. If they have done first-hand comparisons, they may not have dialed in the thiourea toner to produce the same kind of deep, chocolate brown hues as polysulfide does. This requires a high NaOH:thiourea ratio; if that ratio is balanced more towards the thiourea side, the end result will be more yellow and I can very well see how this would lead people to (erroneously) conclude that polysulfide can do something that thiourea can't.

Dried and flattened print. As you can see, since I sprayed sparse droplets on the tape and only gently fixed it to the glass, I could simply tear the tape from the glass nearly intact and cleanly. This also saves quite a bit of cleaning work afterwards, since much less tape remains need to be removed from the glass.

koraks said:

The tape glues to the glass and the print through a thin layer of gum Arabic. You wet that so it becomes sticky.

I also often dry & flatten prints this way. It works well. The only real drawbacks are the space required and the fact that you have to sacrifice a margin of the paper. The tape cannot be removed afterwards.

Click to expand...

Thanks to both of you for the explanation. Sounds like it's similar to the paper tape I use for mounting and linen tape for hinging. Artist's tape is new to me, however!

Ben 4 said:

Thanks to both of you for the explanation. Sounds like it's similar to the paper tape I use for mounting and linen tape for hinging. Artist's tape is new to me, however!

Click to expand...

Well, I've called it "artist's tape", because I don't know the English name for this kind of tape, and I buy it at an artist's shop... Koraks can likely give the official name for this kind of tape.

Yes, it's a simple paper based tape.

Marco B said:

Koraks can likely give the official name for this kind of tape.

Click to expand...

I've seen it referred to as "gummed tape", "watercolor tape" or a combination of those terms.

It is also remarkably similar to butcher's tape.
In fact, if you are using it for a temporary purpose like drying prints, butcher's tape would probably be a good alternative.
Artist's tape usually implies that it is appropriate in long term applications, where there are archival concerns.

Hi everyone - shout out! Can we have more threads that start like this. Your pictures of just completed work.

Ongoing work, will undergo toning another day.