Advices on toning

holggger said:

Thank you for this explanation! I will try a higher concentration of toner next time. This stuff smells horrible even from meters away…
Do you ever tone prints after you let them dry? Considering your workflow, that might look like giving the prints two fixes, then washing (without toning inbetween), then drying. Say you decide you want to tone some of these prints later, following your logic am I correct to assume you would just soak them in water and then put them in the toner (and then wash them)?

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No problem drying prints and toning them later, just soak in water first as you correctly assumed.

I always fix, wash and dry my prints and then select the ones I want to tone after they have dried. Many get discarded at this stage. The "keepers" then go to the toning session, which, for me, consists of a water soak, fix 2 (the prints are already fixed to "commercial" standards; this second fix moves them to "optimum permanence"), then directly to the toner, then to the hypo-clear and then wash. I don't rinse between any of these steps, but do drain well. The hypo-clear has reduced capacity without a rinse, but I make my own cheaply from sodium sulfite and bisulfite and don't mind trading capacity for convenience.

As for the odor of selenium toner: if you replenish your toner like I do, the smell will go away for the most part and revive only a bit right after replenishing.

Best,

Doremus

Doremus Scudder said:

As for the odor of selenium toner: if you replenish your toner like I do, the smell will go away for the most part and revive only a bit right after replenishing.

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Now that's some good news!
Thanks for the clarification and explaining how everything works!