Gold-ish Tone

arigram · Jul 20, 2006

Any ideas how to get a gold-ish tone like any those two sample pics?
What kind of paper, developer or toner would work?

Jerevan · Jul 20, 2006

I am definitely no expert on this! But the first one (on the left) I think I would make with Ilford Matt FB Varmtone, and a light sepia toning. Second one (right) seems colder in tonality and I would use the Ilford Matt FB and a slight gold tone, but I am not sure - maybe it would look too cold and blue?

Other than that, the first one reminds me a bit of albumen prints, and maybe Kentmere POP would do that better. Just some off-hand thoughts.

Mark Layne · Jul 20, 2006

arigram said:
Any ideas how to get a gold-ish tone like any those two sample pics?
What kind of paper, developer or toner would work?

Dem looks like lith prints to me
Mark

photomc · Jul 20, 2006

arigram said:
Any ideas how to get a gold-ish tone like any those two sample pics?
What kind of paper, developer or toner would work?

Greetings Ari, really hate to send you to another link...but look here on Unblinkingeye there is some info about toning VDB with gold toner that has a look much like you show in your attachments. Scroll down, almost to the bottom and there is an image with books that seem to have gold lettering on them.

BTW, I like the look also...

psvensson · Jul 20, 2006

The first one looks like copper toner - hard to get that reddish tone from anythng else. The second could be selenium plus partial thiocarbamide toner, but the yellow tone is unusually strong.

Jim Chinn · Jul 20, 2006

The first one looks like it could be replicated with a copper toner as mentioned above. The second (at least on my monitor) looks more like something you would get experimenting with a warm tone paper or maybe sepia and bleach.

Looking at the examples I am assuming from the subject matter that the prints the images come from are fairly old ( early 20s for the first and maybe 30s or 40s for the second?). Some of the color could be due to aging and poor processing but the uniformity in the examples leadds me to think toning.

Just out of curiosity, do you know the approximate year in which the photographs were made?

Bob Carnie · Jul 20, 2006

hi there

I would try a warm tone paper . Ilford wt, or forte wt

A medium bleach then sepia tone.
photospeed gold toner watch for the tone to come up.
Selenium toner 1:3 , watch for the tone to come up that you like

wash between each step. make a variety of prints so that you can change the times in each step. pencil the back of the print and make notes.

Ole · Jul 20, 2006

To me, the second one looks like a partially gold toned POP print. The first one could be POP too, even less toned or entirely untoned.

No developer - just wash, fix and optional gold tone. Or wash, tone and fix...

arigram · Jul 20, 2006

Thank you all guys for your suggestions.
There is definately a lot of things to try.
I will start with some of my paper (Ilford Warmtone, Forte Polywarmtone, Agfa Multicontrast), try it in warm tone developers (Agfa Neutol WA and Tetenal warm, unfortunately I don't have Ilford's) and try some toning (I have Kodak's sepia and Selenium and Fotospeed's copper). I have no gold toner and POP is far too adventurous for me at the moment.

Only the second photo appears to be old, 30s or 40s like you mentioned. The first one was found on the portfolio of a modern model so its recent. I am not sure if they used real chemicals or the look was immitated digitally. Both were discovered in my daily hunt for photographs on the net so there is no photographic information really.

How about Gregory Colbert's exhibition of Ashes and Snow? His pinkish gold tones look like selenium to me and maybe split with copper?

Allen Friday · Jul 20, 2006

The first one looks like a partially gold toned POP print. I have been doing some prints on Chicago Albumen Works POP, and the tones are similar. I have attached a partially toned print that I did day before yesterday. This print was toned for 12 minutes in a weak gold toner. The scan looks more pink than the actual print, which has a combination eggplant/orange hue.

Allen

rrankin · Jul 20, 2006

I agree with Allen - the first one looks like POP to me. The second has some pinks in it (on my monitor at least) that suggest to me that it could be a lith print.

Cheers, Richard

Ole · Jul 20, 2006

arigram said:
... The first one was found on the portfolio of a modern model so its recent. I am not sure if they used real chemicals or the look was immitated digitally. ...

There's also some evidence of a skewed plane of sharpness, still with a very shallow DoF that might indicate an 8x10" camera. The effect is too subtle to be convincingly faked, if my experience is anything to go by.

A photographer who uses fast lenses and skewed standards on 8x10" is a good candidate for POP and gold toning...

George Papantoniou · Jul 21, 2006

I would add to all the above the possibility of simply Thiocarbamide (thiourea) toner with a WT paper... The thiocarbamide toner can be used in different dilutions with different results, ranging from brownish to yellowish (goldish someone could say) warm tones...

tim rudman · Jul 21, 2006

The reality is that there are so many ways for getting brown and red/brown tones that, especially with a digitally copied image viewed on different monitors, guessing which process was used is something of a lottery.
The first looks like POP or copper toning. Copper can give anything in the range from cold brown to warm brown, orange, bright pink and many in-between. Gold after sepia or polysulphide can give from subtle warming up to strong reds or salmon colours. Partial gold on sepia gives many in-between hues too.
The second looks like simple sepia, which can also produce a huge range of colours, depending on the paper, the toner mix and also on the bleach - and whether duotoned with seleniium for example. It could be a lith print though - these can give colours like this and although they can be graphic they can also be very gentle and subtle - or a mixture of the two, which is why it is such an expressive printing technique. I would guess it is sepia (eg thiourea) though, but wouldn't put money on it!.
There are other brown and red/brown techniques too, so take your choice!
Tim

Gold-ish Tone

arigram

Jerevan

Mark Layne

photomc

psvensson

Jim Chinn

Bob Carnie

Ole

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arigram

Allen Friday

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rrankin

Ole

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George Papantoniou

tim rudman

Gold-ish Tone

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