FSA, i.e. thiorea dioxide, toning of negatives

[Peter De Smidt]

Has anyone had any experience with FSA toning of prints or negatives?
According to Dr. Rudman, "When FSA toner redevelops the halides that
have been regenerated in the bleaching stage, it does so to a
different form, producing so-coalled 'colloidal' silver, consisteing
of very small particles of different sizes and shapes." [The
Photographer's Toning Book, p94] Dr. Rudman only talks about FSA
print toning in his book, but I'm more interested in negative toning.
In particular, I'm interested in what the toning would due to fairly
course grained film. Namely, will it make the grain smaller? Will it
give an interesting look? Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Mike Wilde]

Just selenium

I have selenium toned negs that iI reversal processed in a B&W slide experiment, and it worked very well to increase the Dmax of the resulting slide.

An interseting idea - to reverse the granilarity, but is this not a lot to do rather thanjust shooting the subject with a fine grained film to stary with. if you have a visuion for the print when you took the phot, then granularity should be part of that.

I do understand where you are at if you are trying to do this for 35mm. There have been times when I have been 400asa in one body, 100 asa in another body, and been mid roll with both, only to wish that it was pan f in one of them.

 

[Peter De Smidt]

Hi Mark,

I agree. If fine grain is the goal, it easier to use a slow film or larger format, asuming that you have them handy, and assuming that you have the right lenses for them. That said, the toning might give a very different look which might be good for some subjects. It might also be a way to intensify the negative. This might give interesting results with HIE or TMZ. IN any case, I've never heard of anyone doing this, and trying something new is fun. I'll probably give it a go soon on some old negatives.