selenium toner

timk · Feb 6, 2010

hi all,

Just visited Vanbar today (Melbourne), apparently they are no longer stocking Selenium Toner :confused: this is despite what the website says.

Does anyone know anywhere else in Melbourne (or elsewhere in Australia) that would stock it (preferable Fotospeed however any brand is ok, I guess beggars can't be choosers)

I exhausted the current batch I had and the prints requiring toning are gradually building up...:rolleyes:

Tim K

SMBooth · Feb 6, 2010

Try FotoRiesel
http://www.fotoriesel.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=150&sort=20a&page=3

largeformat pat · Feb 7, 2010

Ring Les Porter
02 49 5858 40 tell him Pat sent you. He had stock recently and his service is great.
Pat

timk · Feb 7, 2010

thanks Shane & Pat for the suggestions,

I'm also looking into mixing up my own... however I'm going to have the same problem (obtaining the chemicals)...

Mark Fisher · Feb 7, 2010

Most sources recommend against mixing up your own because selenium powder is very fine and very toxic....and selenium toner is easy and cheap to get.

RalphLambrecht · Feb 7, 2010

timk said:
thanks Shane & Pat for the suggestions,

I'm also looking into mixing up my own... however I'm going to have the same problem (obtaining the chemicals)...

Don't!... for the reasons Mark mentioned. Also, consider direct sulfide toning instead. Sulfide offer more archival protection than selenium and is just as easy to apply.

timk · Feb 7, 2010

hmmm, i'm aware of the precautions necessary for mixing up selenium toner and I can get hold of appropriate safety equipment (ie. mask, goggles, apron, gloves etc), so I don't really see the issue as long as I do it in an appropriate environment with the correct safety equipment.

I have some Viradon New, but the smell puts me off using it a bit. Also it tends to reduce contrast rather than increase contrast and I haven't really gotten the hang of using it yet. It looks a bit like Sepia in my opinion. I've always used selenium both for colour shift and archival protection.

w9cae · Feb 18, 2010

Tim I bought a bottle of Viradon today. Hopefully you can give me some pointers as doing a Google has not provided much. And the box & leaflet are useless like most AGFA packaging.

Just did a search around APUG seems the more diluted mix is darker & gives more toning than a strong mix. Some of the posts were talking of 1:100 mix. So for a liter 100ml Viradon & 1000ml water or 1ml Viradon & 1000ml water ?

Google is my friend 1:100 is 10ml & 1 litre of water.

timk · Feb 18, 2010

hey Scott, I can lend you the tim rudman book that talks about viradon new and other polysulphite toners.

Viradon new is great, but it's been a while since I've used it. You have to use a stop bath and be careful avoid getting drops of water on the print when moving it from the toner to the stopbath (this happened to me and I got a streak across the print where a water droplet had run).

You vary the amount of time in the toner, and you can also vary the dilution.

suggest you do your toning outside, you'll understand what I mean when you use it for the first time.

w9cae · Feb 18, 2010

Cheers Tim ok you need to use STOP well back to Vanbar as I havn't bought any been using a water wash instead of STOP for prints & film.

"suggest you do your toning outside" I noticed that & my darkroom is the bathroom by day. That would surely put an end to that real quick. I do have neighbor thats a pain so I will set up shop close to there side of the fence.

RalphLambrecht · Feb 18, 2010

w9cae said:
..."suggest you do your toning outside" I noticed that & my darkroom is the bathroom by day. That would surely put an end to that real quick. I do have neighbor thats a pain so I will set up shop close to there side of the fence.

A sheet of glass on top of the tray does help a lot too.

RalphLambrecht · Feb 18, 2010

w9cae said:
Tim I bought a bottle of Viradon today. Hopefully you can give me some pointers as doing a Google has not provided much. And the box & leaflet are useless like most AGFA packaging.

Just did a search around APUG seems the more diluted mix is darker & gives more toning than a strong mix. Some of the posts were talking of 1:100 mix. So for a liter 100ml Viradon & 1000ml water or 1ml Viradon & 1000ml water ?

Google is my friend 1:100 is 10ml & 1 litre of water.

1+100 seems pretty weak. I use Viradon (new) 1+49. Agfa recommends 1+24. Brown Toner has this peculiar effect of apparently toning stronger in weaker solutions.

w9cae · Feb 27, 2010

Tim well I dont know who you were talking too @ Vanbar ? But they do have Selenium toner, I saw it on the shelf.

timk · Feb 27, 2010

ha! bastards.... the carlton store didn't have any when i checked a couple of weeks ago and the told me they were no longer stocking it, and I also called the nth melbourne store a week alter and they didn't have any either (same story about them not stocking it)...

well maybe they have read this post and decided to keep stocking it! in any case, Alec bought me some from Freestyle so I'm set for a while!!

selenium toner

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