gold toning...HELP

looking for answers...toning Ilford Warm Tone Glossy Paper with a non hardening fix. Doing both selenium then gold and some in gold only. The gold toner (photographers formulary)...seems to be exhausting early. Prints are sometimes in for 20-25 minutes with little to no change. We are keeping the tray in a warm water bath...heating the toner in a water bath before we begin. Mixing the gold toner according to box directions.

Are we missing anything? How often do you add concentrated gold to the mix?

thanks to anyone willing to chime in.

What gold toner are you using?

photographer's formulary
nelson gold

Hello there, Lori. Yes, the toner appears to exhaust quickly and heating the toner will speed things up. Best to have a print in the toner while increasing temp, in order to see how much effect.

Additionally, different warm toned papers will gobble toner (selenium and gold) at wildly different rates. I would consider Ilford MGWT to be on the slow (and less dramatic) side of the spectrum.

In any event, the natural urge is to add more AuCl, or heat the tray. Heat the tray first. And don't tag your toner as DOA and pitch it. More responsive papers may come into your possession in the future.

Hi there Lori, as Rich says different stocks will react there own way. It all depends on the amount of silver in the emulsion and the chloro-bromide mix. I have found Ilford stock has little effect, so the toner is probably fine. If your looking for a real rich cool tone Foma warmtone will do the trick. It is very progressive and will tone from 3 minutes till 15 mins for complete colour shift. But also try other warmtone stocks, of course. Good luck

I have never used Forulary gold toner, only Tetenal and a home brew. Fomatone takes to gold very readily. My experience with Ilford MGWT is that it can take up to 15 minutes to cool down rather than shift colour.

Nelson is very specific: don't compare it with other brews, except, in some ways, with selenium!

What temperature is your water bath, Nelson's tends to tone slowly at lower temperatures. Taking 10 - 15 minutes even at temperatures over 110F.

we have used this toner often, and it takes time even when warm.

the temperature is kept around 120 degrees, and times will vary depending on the exposure and paper type.
i don't remember how long they take but it is not quick.

Lori V said:

looking for answers...toning Ilford Warm Tone Glossy Paper with a non hardening fix. Doing both selenium then gold and some in gold only. The gold toner (photographers formulary)...seems to be exhausting early. Prints are sometimes in for 20-25 minutes with little to no change. We are keeping the tray in a warm water bath...heating the toner in a water bath before we begin. Mixing the gold toner according to box directions.

Are we missing anything? How often do you add concentrated gold to the mix?

thanks to anyone willing to chime in.

Click to expand...

Is this fibre based or resin coated paper you're using ?
Fibre usually tones more readily than resin and I've had quite a good bluish colour in ILF WT FB, although this was with Tetenal gold toner.

You say that you're also doing gold over selenium ? Its very important to wash thoroughly after the selenium and before the gold or else the selenium will contaminate the gold Also a good idea to hypo clear after selenium as it contains thoisulphate. I've found that Ilford warmtone doesn't give a very good selenium/gold split effect anyway. Graded papers are probably better for this or else the more traditional chlorobromide papers of which there aren't many still available, poss Fomatone or Forte.

Bill