selenium toner

I selenium toned some of my prints first time in my life today. The prints look much better than they were before toning. Changing paper grade/filter, paper's manufacturers, developers, exposure would not give me those beautiful blacks. Selenium did.
I read that selenium should change the color of the shadows. Apparently they should become brownish-red. For some reasons the blacks became deeper, but have not changed the color.
I used kodak rapid selenium toner diluted 1+15 for 13-15min.
Papers - Kodak polycontrast IV RC and Ilford Multigrade IV portfolio.
Did I do something wrong?
How to achieve reddish blacks/shadows?
Thank you!

Dear sbelyaev,

Both of those papers have a very subtle color change in selenium. Kentmere will turn a nice shade of plum if you leave it long enough. Bergger changes quite a bit as well.

Neal Wydra

You got the response I would have expected with these papers and that toner dilution. MGIV doesn't change color significantly for me, except to shift away from the olive green tint. Give MGWT or another warm tone paper a try, and/or a stronger dilution (1-4 or 1-9) and you might get what you are looking for.

sbelyaer,

I currently use Ilford MG IV RC Deluxe and have had very nice results with Kodak rapid selenium at 1:10 for 5-10 minutes of toning time and toner temperature 70-75 deg F. My results are most noticeable from zones II through VI, with the zones IV/V showing the most response to a slight "color" change, that I can only describe as a definite "cooling" effect when compared to an untoned print. The lower zones II/III, mostly just get slightly deeper as you observed on your prints. Below zone I, there is no change in color for this paper, at least at 1:10 anyway.

Chuck

Thank you very much. I don't use FB paper yet (it curls too much). Next time i'll try a lower dilution of the toner. I guess when Ilford brings to the market a FB paper that doesn't curl I'll try it with selenium.

sbelyaev said:

Thank you very much. I don't use FB paper yet (it curls too much). Next time i'll try a lower dilution of the toner. I guess when Ilford brings to the market a FB paper that doesn't curl I'll try it with selenium.

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