Suggestions for split toning?

[Colin Corneau]

I'm about to get started for the first time on toning prints. In my case, Ilford Warmtone VC FB prints for an exhibition.

Any suggestions on a good combination? I'm inclined to simply selenium tone them for a subtle tone shift and archival permanence, but I've been reading a bit on the topic and many people sepia/selenium tone as well.

It feels strange being a newbie after all the money and obsession I've burned through so far on analog, but I humbly thank you all the same!

 

[snallan]

Hi Colin, you might find with the Ilford Warmtone that the difference between straight selenium toning, and toning with sepia/selenium will be quite subtle.

I have found that selenium toning can give nice, rich brown tones on the MG WT. Split toning with sepia and finishing off with selenium can yield subtle duotones in shades of brown. With a bit of luck Tim Rudman might comment on this thread, as he has a great deal of experience in this area.

 

[Colin Corneau]

Thanks Steve!

Complicating matters -- possibly -- is that I used regular Kodak hardening type fixer on these prints. Or does that not matter much for toning prints?

 

[snallan]

It would be preferable to use a non-hardening fixer if you are intending to tone the prints. Hardening can slow the process down, and in his book on toning techniques, Tim Rudman does mention that hardening can affect the results of toning with selenium.

That's not to say you cannot tone using a hardened emulsion, but it might be worth getting hold of a non-hardening fixer, to compare the results using both. BTW use fresh fixer for each printing session when producing prints for toning, that will reduce the chance of getting staining when toning.

 

[richard littlewood]

With this paper I like first a dip in selenium, something like 1+60, well observed till the darks go a very rich warm 'black', then wash, then bleached and into a 'sepia' mix that gives the print a yellow/orange highs. I'm careful not to bleach too long, otherwise the print loses the difference between highs and mids, and looks overall sepia toned. Always best to run a scrap print through the process before the good prints, especially to guage the speed of the bleach, and the toner colour.

 

[Marco B]

Hi Colin, you might find with the Ilford Warmtone that the difference between straight selenium toning, and toning with sepia/selenium will be quite subtle.

Not in my experience, at least if you tone to completion. A toned to completion selenium toned print will be distinctly purple with Ilford Warmtone papers, while sepia toning will likely be more brown / orange, and combined sepia selenium with sepia going first, may be distinctly reddish if the selenium toning is done to completion. Of course if you would do the selenium toning first, it will be more like you describe, but I find selenium toning sometimes just acting to fast and the duo toning better controllable with the sepia toning going first.

Personally, I would also recommend doing the (partial) sepia toning before the selenium toning because it will reduce the effect of the change in contrast associated with selenium toning (unless of course your prints are in need of the strong contrast boost selenium toner can give with Ilford Warmtone papers - personally however, I do not like it that much, as there is a big chance of blocked shadows if you do not account for the contrast boost properly).

I also recommend a short (1min) dip in a citric acid bath after toning (make it up just like your stop bath - but don't use the developer polluted stop bath!). It will prevent calcareous stains as I have often seen happening with sepia toners based on a two bath bleach / thiourea system. This is caused by the high pH of the thiourea bath.

 

[tim rudman]

Lots of good points being made here Colin.

Split sepia toning will work (via bleach) top down, tonally, i.e. it starts with the highlights and then midtones leaving shadows to last. You can stop the bleach where you want and tone only part of the tonal range, giving a colour contrast between light and dark tones.

The bleach will always reach down a bit further than you can see, so the sepia colour will usually extend further down the tones than you might have thought when watching the bleach. Pull from the bleach a touch on the early side. You can always take it on a bit by re bleaching (care - it will appear to go faster) but you can never take it back.

Warm tone papers bleach faster than colder tone papers. You may need to dilute the bleach more (quite a bit) to get control and reproducibility with them.

Make sure that you wash (and if FB, use hypo clear) all fixer out well before bleaching, or you will lose tones irrevocably.

Tone fully in sepia toner bath, don't snatch. It will only tones what you have bleached.

If you selenium tone as well, ST works bottom up - the opposite to sepia. This is helpful.

If you ST MGWT paper the dark tones will soon shift into brown as has been pointed out. this gives you brown at both ends, which gives the shadows depth but diminishes the obvious 2 colour effect as the 2 colours are now browns, albeit different browns.

If you tone many WT papers in ST, there is a point where the blacks cool off a bit before warming up to brown. You may need quite dilute ST for this (papers vary). This is nice for duo-toning with sepia. You can run a set of test pieces processed to max black and ST for 1,2,4,8,mins etc to see when this happens, BUT if you use this time guide on a print that has been split sepia toned the blacks will shift to brown much quicker! So be aware.

If you choose to ST first and then sepia, remember that ST has fixer in it which you must get out before bleaching! As has been pointed out, it is harder to see how far the ST has gone, which is why it can be easier to do sepia first. But if you use sepia just to highlights this shouldn't be a problem as they take a while to convert in ST.

A good point was made about a dilute post-toning stop bath, to get rid of the scummy deposit, especially in hard water areas.

A hardener in the fix is rarely needed these days as papers are mostly robust. It can interfere with toning. You could use a de-hardening bath.
Water 750.00ml
Sodium carbonate, monohydrated 30.00g
Water to make 1000.00ml
Soak prints for 10 minutes

Best wishes
Tim