Rollei vintage rc paper - selenium without visible effect?

[chris77]

hello there!

anybody has experienced this?
20 min - nothing (maybe slightly darker blacks)
30 min - no change of hue
60 min - same same...

rollei selenium toner, brandnew bottle.
1:20 in warm water (at least 23°C in the beginning, later about 20°C)

shouldnt there be a change of hue even if the paper is not reacting well?
its not fiber, but i still expected a little something..

nice day!
chris

 

[MattKing]

I get very little change of tone with Ilford RC paper and more concentrated KRST.

Using the same KRST, I get more change of tone with Oriental Seagull RC paper.

It may be just the nature of the paper, or it may be the concentration of the toner.

 

[chris77]

I get very little change of tone with Ilford RC paper and more concentrated KRST.

Using the same KRST, I get more change of tone with Oriental Seagull RC paper.

It may be just the nature of the paper, or it may be the concentration of the toner.

yeah. i figure its the paper..
the deep blacks have increased a bit though, and the prints got a bit cooled down by the toning.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Hello Chris

As far as I know, Rollei papers are rebranded Foma, so your paper probably is Fomaspeed Variant paper. Back in 2009, I tried some Fomaspeed Variant 312 and I recall toning it in both selenium and sepia. This paper responded quite nicely in both toners, far better than the meh effect Ilford RC papers produced. I think I toned in selenium (KRST) 1+19 and got a nice chocolate brown tone. What might make a difference and you haven't told us is the developer you used. Back then I had some Agfa Neutol WA, a warm tone print developer.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Different papers tone differently in selenium and some not at all. I had a batch of Cachet paper (rebranded something) some years ago that would just not change tone, even with a very strong selenium toning solution and long times (overnight!). Great paper except for that it was way to blue for my tastes; I ended up giving it away after a couple of prints.

Anyway, you might try a stronger dilution (1+9 or even 1+4). Mix up a very small amount and dab it on a test strip or scrap print and see if there's a change. If so, you may just need to mix stronger.

FWIW, I keep a couple of gallons of working selenium toner on hand in different dilutions. I've come to learn which papers need the "strong" and which the "weak" solution.

Best,

Doremus

 

[chris77]

thanks for your replies.

i used rollei neutral developer rpn.
gonna try some strips with stronger solutions and report back..