Adox VarioClassic in Viradon: my print is blue?

[timeUnit]

Hi!

Last week I toned a 10x12 print on Adox VarioClassic G in Agfa Viradon. To my surprise, the print seems a bit blue. My only explanation is that the highlights got a yellow cast from the toning, and the mid/shadows did not, therefore I'm interpreting the yellow as white, and the "neutral" as blue?

Have I been sniffing too much fixer, or what?

PS. the print looks really nice, and I'd like to recreate this effect sometime.

 

[Petzi]

The toner should only affect the silver, i.e. not the highlights, which are composed by lack of silver. :confused:

 

[Ole]

I the ADOX paper is Varycon, as I rather suspect, it does have a strange tendency to get yellow highlights and blue shadows in Viradon.

 

[Petzi]

I the ADOX paper is Varycon, as I rather suspect, it does have a strange tendency to get yellow highlights and blue shadows in Viradon.

That would mean the toner is absorbed by the paper, right?

 

[Ole]

Not - necessarily "absorbed". But possibly "influenced by".

I've seen that effect and variously cursed it and loved it throughout the 20 or so years that I've been using Varycon.

Even odder was Emaks - maybe only one batch - which got greenish highlights and quite red shadows in Old Viradon. Absolutely ghastly on the wrong subject...

 

[Mark Layne]

I have also noticed this "blue midtones' effect with tea toned prints. It may or may not be optical illusion.
Wolfgang Moersch produces a similar strange effect with Agfa MCC in Tim Rudman's World of Lith Printing.
Mark

 

[timeUnit]

I do have some silver in my highlights, and the paper base doesn't seem yellow, so I guess the viradon got attached to the ligher parts on the image, more than the shadows.

Ole,
I have no hard data on this but as I remember Varycon it is a warm tone paper, which Adox VarioClassic is not, therefore I don't think they are the same. By hearsay I've come to understand that Adox VarioClassic MIGHT be an old Dupont recipe: Varilour or Varigram. I don't have any info to substantiate this.

Thanks for your input in this matter!