Bleaching?

[Wontgetschooledagain]

What is the best/easiest way to bleach prints for the purpose of toning? :confused:

 

[PVia]

A ferricyanide/KBr bath...it usually comes with sepia and other toner kits.

 

[tim rudman]

What is the best/easiest way to bleach prints for the purpose of toning? :confused:

What sort of toning? You don't need bleach for all toners.
Tim

 

[Andy K]

Try a Fotospeed toning kit. They are inexpensive and come with everything you need, bleach, toner and toner additive. I use their ST20 kit for sepia toning.

You mix the bleach solution (I usually mix 500ml) and use it in a tray. I put the pre-soaked (in water) print in the bleach solution until the level of bleaching I want is reached, then rinse in running water for a few minutes to remove all traces of the bleach, then put the print into a tray containing the toning solution. Then the print is washed again for a few minutes and hung to dry. It is a very easy procedure.
See my gallery for a couple of recent examples using one of these kits.

 

[Wontgetschooledagain]

yeah we have some toner that dosn't need bleach, but we also have some sepia toner and some Flemish toner that do.

i wanted to try the flemish toner so i need to bleach ...

 

[tim rudman]

yeah we have some toner that dosn't need bleach, but we also have some sepia toner and some Flemish toner that do.

i wanted to try the flemish toner so i need to bleach ...

OK, so you will need a bleach made of Potassium Ferricyanide and Potassium Bromide - or a sepia kit bleach, as stated above.
There are many references for making this bleach and quite a few slightly different formulae, the differences are not too important as a practical rule. One can be found here
http://www.jackspcs.com/flempt.htm
I'm sure you can find others too.
tim

 

[Dave Miller]

Just a thought but could this toner be mixed using either Kodak or Ilford selenium liquid, or are there other chemicals in those that would interfere with the process?

 

[Ole]

Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner contains thiosulfate, so I would hesitate to use it on a bleached print. I don't know what Ilfords toner contains; so I would hesitate to use that, too, on bleached prints.

Since this is APUG, I expect that someone somewhere will try it within a week, and give us a full report in this thread.

 

[drpsilver]

15 April 2008

Ole:

I actually tried this procedure about two weeks ago with some interesting results. I used the b;each portion of Kodak's sepia toner and Kodak's selenium toner at (1:10). I did not bleach the print completely, but only to the extent that I wanted to lighten the print. When I placed the print in the Se toner, after washing throughly, not much of the image reappeared. The interesting thing was that the image tone changed from gray to red/brown. I also found that the print was difficult to wash. I admit that I was not "super careful" washing these prints because they were all scrap and experimental.

Overall I would agree with you that because of the thiosulfate in Se toner any image that is bleached away is gone never to come back.

There are lots of possible combinations to investigate if one wants to do so. I think the most fruitful would be using a very dilute solution of bleach in order to control image disappearence a little better.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[dancqu]

Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner contains thiosulfate,
so I would hesitate to use it on a bleached print.
I don't know what Ilfords toner contains; so
I would hesitate to use that, too, on
bleached prints.

Since this is APUG, I expect that someone
somewhere will try it within a week, and give
us a full report in this thread.

Selenium toners can be compounded without the
thiosulfate. IIRC elemental selenium is dissolved in
a solution of sodium sulfite. Also, IIRC, the thiosulfate
in KRST is a safety measure. With acidification a solution
of selenium can produce hydrogen selenide; a deadly
gas. The thiosulfate works to absorb the gas.

I've a bottle of sodium selenite, the selenium source
in KRST. A very HAZMAT chemical. P. Formulary
won't carry the stuff. One of these days I'll
give it a try. Dan

 

[gainer]

I've been meaning to try a ferricyanide-KBr bleach followed by a shampoo in Selsun Blue to see what would happen, but I misplaced the Round Toit one of my daughters gave me.