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Spotone 4, 5, 6? Any info?

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Dave Gustafson

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Apr 24, 2021
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Location
Madison, WI
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Hello! I'm back into silver gelatin printing and have at least 25 year old almost full bottles of spotone #4, #5, and #6. I can't find any info on these online. Does anyone have info on these guys?

I found the instruction sheet for #'s 0-3 online. But nothing for these 3. I'm guessing the number relates to a certain tone?

Thanks for any help!


IMG_3433_2.jpg
 
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They are a part of a multi-bottle kit of print (and sometimes negative) retouching fluids.
Each bottle is designed to closely match a particular tone of grey somewhere between white and black.
You use them with a very fine spotting brush to disguise the results of dust being on the negative when prints are made from it.
An incomplete set is really only useful if you can find someone who has a full set but is running low on these particular fluids.
 
I would be interested in seeing a photo of the labels with their descriptions on them. I have never heard of these higher numbers before. I use to use three drops of #3 and a drop of S to match my selenium toned Portriga Rapid.
 
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Yes as Matt said. I have the same but full set. You can blend them as well. I have some white porcelain dishes that I have placed drops of each and blend when needed
 
Ok, now I feel really dumb. After reading Vaughn's suggestion of actually reading the labels!! All the info is there. I'm blaming the fact that without very strong reading glasses those lables just look like a blur!! Here are the pics for future reference.
IMG_3435.jpg
IMG_3436.jpg
IMG_3437.jpg
 
Although, I am curious what they mean by "Average Group" for #6? 4 is neutral and 5 is warm.
 
Make yourself a blotter piece or test print to play with..youll figure it out by doing it
Average well it means in the middle..no??
 
Thank you very much for the new images!

It has been awhile since I have spotted Portriga Rapid, but I mentioned I used S (for sepia?) Spotone. I found my bottle of #2 Spotone that I might have added to the #3. It was the #1-#2-#3 Spotone sets that I remember from the 70s/80s. I had a bottle of O Spotone (olive-greenish, I believe), but did not need it.

Nice to have around. While I do not print with silver gelatin papers these days, I have too many old unspotted selenium-toned 16x20 prints...who knows might be worth spotting one or two someday. And very carefully I use it on platinum prints on very small minor spots.
 
Dave, I have a number of bottles of Spot tone. The colour you need will vary according to the paper and developer you use. I use a piece of white tile and put a drop or two on it. then wet my brush & test the tone either on a scrap of similar paper or on the border of the print (which will be cut off). After a lot of use, my tile has a number of different shades of black/brown on it so i just wet my brush and choose the closest.
 
Having trouble with posting the resized scans.
There is the lower half to come yet plus DYENE instructions.
 
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You will need those reading glasses anyways to do the spotting - so the small text on the labels isn't as much a disadvantage as you might think!
 
DYENE NEGATIVE RETOUCHING INSTRUCTIONS.


DYENE RE sized.jpg
 
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Sorry about the images. I had to re-size everything to less than 2MB.

The Spotone sheet is larger than my document scanner so it had to be done in two separate scans.

I got there in the end though.
 
Thanks Bob UK.... in all the years of using Spotone I had never seen those instructions.
 
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Those look like exceptionally old bottles. Mixing charts would be useless for print retouching purposes. Print color varies not according to not only brand and developer, but type and amount of toning. Exact background image color can even vary within the same print, especially if it's split-toned. Mixing by eye is the only thing that makes sense, or ever will. And work under a good balanced light source.

Every kind of b&w print I do only needs three kinds of Spotone. Mostly Neutral Black, then often some Selenium Brown. Olivetone is less often used, and only in tiny amounts - I find it necessary for certain MGWT applications, for instance, or in the old days, Portriga.

I don't know of any papers today which go cold enough to warrant Spotone Blue-black.

Retouching negatives is a very different subject. Red Creosin dye has long been used to hold back portions of negative. I have a little bottle of the Kodak powder that will last me the rest of my life. Photographer's Formulary now offers something similar. It can be diluted way down, and then be gradually built up to produce the exact amount of light blockage you need.

Very few modern film have a decent retouching surface. But you can always register a sheet of frosted mylar to your original neg, and use the dye or smudge pencil on that instead.
 
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Hello! I'm back into silver gelatin printing and have at least 25 year old almost full bottles of spotone #4, #5, and #6. I can't find any info on these online. Does anyone have info on these guys?

I found the instruction sheet for #'s 0-3 online. But nothing for these 3. I'm guessing the number relates to a certain tone?

Thanks for any help!


View attachment 394296

I have never seen white lids, or the numbers 4, 5 and 6.

Have plenty of 1, 2, 3, O, S and B. All have black lids.

Maybe this set was a newer offering?
 
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