Selenium for Adox 110 and Slavich Unibrom

[hansformat]

All

Ever since the demise of Forte Polygrade V I have been experimenting with different fiber papers to try and find one that has the cold tones I want.

I have tried Ilford MG IV with Edwal Ultra Black. Neutral tone that is slight olive cast. I toned in selenium various ways. 1:10 for 10 minutes goes slightly purple which I don't like. 1:20 for 10 minutes gets rid of the olive cast, and leaves it slightly cold.

I have printed some prints on the graded Slavich Unibrom cold tone paper and am ready to try selenium. What kind of dilution and toning time will slightly intensify the print without it going purple on me?

Similarly, I am about to try Adox 110 in Moersch SE6 cold/blue developer. What are people's experiences with selenium in terms of dilution and toning time.

Thanks for relaying any experiences you have had!

 

[jeroldharter]

Can't comment directly on your questions, but if you are looking for a cold tone paper have you tried Kentmere Fineprint VC FB? I recently compared Foma, Adox, Kentmere, Ilford papers and Kentmere was clearly the coldest toned paper of the bunch. That is especially so with selenium toning (1:20 at 2 minutes).

 

[hansformat]

OK this is interesting. I thought the Kentmere papers were now manufactured by Ilford and didn't have the same tones they used to. Is it still a cold tone bromide paper?

 

[Guillaume Zuili]

Slavich in Ansco 130 and Dektol. Selenium 1+10 under 1 minute. Cold and beautiful.
Adox 110 in Dektol. Selenium 1+10 same time. Different color from old Agfa.
Adox 110 in Lith. Selenium 1+10 goes to a beautiful beige.
Both Slavich and Agfa have beautiful split tones in Sepia and selenium (1+4).

G.

 

[naugastyle]

This caught my eye as these were the two papers I experimented with this weekend.

With the Slavich, I tried a split between brown and selenium this weekend and brown (done after se) had no effect whatsoever.

I was experimenting, so I allowed it to sit in selenium 1+9 for too long (about 7-8 minutes is what I find to be fairly normal for most of my purposes but I do pull earlier when necessary). Anyway, that was definitely a bit too purple, but I don't recall there being any effect as quick as 1 minute either. Will try again this weekend.

I also tried it in Dektol, Arista Cold Tone, and Zonal Pro WT (because even though this is supposed to be cold tone paper, I swear I've seen people refer to it as warm tone). Did not spot any difference, but I haven't checked again since the prints dried.

With the Adox 110, I used selenium 1+19. It went purplish at about 10 minutes--but in a nice way, not vividly like the Slavich, although it might have in stronger se. Was a subtler shift at about 3-4 minutes. Did beautifully with brown toner after selenium.

 

[hansformat]

Thanks to all who have responded. At Guillaume's suggestion I'll probably try Ansco 130 with the Slavich as an alternative to the developers I have been using.

For now, I'll contribute what I have learned so far. I haven't tried Adox 110 yet...will do in the next week or so. I have toned some Slavich in Selenium. Used a 1:20 dilution.
At 6 minutes you get purples. It may actually come at 5 minutes, but at 6 you have it for sure. I don't like purple.
At 4 minutes it may have a tinge of purple...i only did one test at this time and I consider it inconclusive - test strip I used was a bit dark.
At 3:15 to 3:30 the slight greenish cast is removed so the result is colder than untoned. Here's the trick though - in the water it looks MUCH less green than the untoned print for comparison, but once dry the differences are much more subtle (in 2 of 3 prints I can differentiate; in the other it really is difficult). I may try 3:45 to 4:00 to try and go a bit further but not far enough to get purple.

Slavich is an interesting paper. Very easy to print. Ilford MGIV is a terrific paper, but for some reason it is hard for me to use and get brilliance...I really have to watch the whites closely. With Slavich much less effort. However, I don't think Slavich is quite as cold as the cold papers of the past - more neutral to cold. When I compare selenium slavich vs. selenium MGIV i am not sure which is actually colder!

Looking forward to Adox 110 in the SE6.