Gold toning POP Exposure question

I tone POP with KRST and have it pretty down. I expose the hell out of the paper, fix, and tone.

I know I gold tone the paper before fixing but will I still need to expose the hell out of the paper? The stuff is not cheap so i would like a heads up on the learning curve.

I fix in pure sodium Thiosulphate and that bleaches. Will the bleaching still happen After the toning?

Gold toning will help prevent most, but not all, bleaching in the fixer so you should be able to get away with much less exposure than when toning with KRST. If your negative has about the correct exposure range for POP, expose until the shadows just start to "bronze" and that should be close to the correct exposure when gold-toning.

Whether Hell is bronzed or not, dunno.

The amount of bleaching will also depend on things like toner formula and exhaustion, fixer concentration, duration the solutions contact the emulsion, etc.

Joe

In my (limited) experience the end result seems to be the same whether toning before or after fixing. Full toning takes a very long time though, and it seems easier to get an even tone by toning before fixing. Or maybe it's just my toner getting old.