Gold Chloride in UK for Salt Prints - also selenium?

I spent a happy time this weekend making some salt prints. It was far more successful than previous attempts.


Next time I'd like to tone them. Most accounts talk about using gold chloride but a quick look around here in the UK doesn't turn up a supplier other than extremely expensive analytical chemistry. OK so the clue is in the name! It is going to be expensive but do people actually use gold toner and if so where do they get it?

I have some Ilford selenium toner and may give that a go next time. I'd use a very dilute solution. Why isn't selenium mentioned as a toner for salt prints? Is it useable?

Any other suggestions for affordable toners?

Those salts look wonderful.

Don't know about neat gold chloride but Silverprint in your neck of the woods carries premixed gold toners, as I can see.

Regarding conventional selenium toners like the KRST, my experience has been that the toner also bleaches the print, bringing the Dmax down. The change in tone/color towards more neutral is also subdued. Presumably the bleaching is due to the presence of ammonium thiosulfate in KRST. I just received a version of selenium toner made by Wolfgang Moersch called MT16 (from The Photo Shop in Ireland, unfortunately no one in the US carries it) that does not contain the thiosulfate which he has formulated specifically for salt/VDB/Kallitype and the like to overcome the bleaching problem. I have not yet tried it so I can't give a first-hand report. He has a lot of examples on his website.

If you want to get exotic but easy/cheap where the results were actually better than selenium for my salt prints, try this:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...out-black-salt-makes-a-terrific-toner.148338/

I don't think any of these though will be as good as the gold toner in terms of color change and Dmax boost, not to mention the increased longevity.

Nice website and blog, by the way.


:Niranjan.

Thank's Niranjan. I'm tempted to try some black salt.

@RogerHyam Have you checked Silverprint? They have a fairly affordable gold toning kit for sale if you do not want to buy one of the big bottles.

TheYoungPretender said:

@RogerHyam Have you checked Silverprint? They have a fairly affordable gold toning kit for sale if you do not want to buy one of the big bottles.

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Now why didn't I see that before!! I searched Silverprint for "gold" and didn't see it. Lazy eyes or search gods not with me. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll investigate.

RogerHyam said:

Thank's Niranjan. I'm tempted to try some black salt.

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Would be interested in how that works out. Please do share the experience.

:Niranjan.

RogerHyam said:

It is going to be expensive but do people actually use gold toner and if so where do they get it?

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Yes, I use gold toner on salt prints. It's the best toner I've tried. Selenium just doesn't give anything comparable to gold.
Last time I stocked up on gold chloride I just got some off ebay. I managed to find a seller that didn't charge a fortune, but it'll always be expensive stuff.
Pre-mixed gold toner concentrate for photography can reduce the initial investment, but obviously on a per-gram of gold basis, buying your own gold chloride is generally cheaper. But a single gram goes a very long way indeed, so even just a single gram may be a bit much to start out with especially if you don't need to tone all that many prints. A gram of gold chloride typically keeps me busy for 2-3 years.