The Toner Thread

[Stephen Frizza]

I am hoping this thread can be filled with toner recipes. If you make a toner from scratch please provide the formula for the toner and the toning procedure here.

 

[Ian Grant]

My favourite is Ilford IT-8


IT-8 Ilford Pyrocatechin Toner
For Olive Black tones.
Stock A
Potassium Bichromate 50 g
Water to 1 litre

Stock B
Hydrochloric Acid (conc) 100ml
Water to 1 litre

Expose and process your print as normal and wash well.
Make up bleach from: 2 parts A and 10 parts B with 40 parts water, bleach the print then wash until all the yellow from the bichromate has been removed from the highlights then redevelop in the following Developer.

Developer
Pyrocatechin 1.75 g
Sodium Carbonate (anhyd) 5 g
Water to 1 litre

Temperature is not critical, it should take 1½ to 2 mins at 20°C, this developer will oxide very quickly and should be discarded when it turns a bluish green.
Wash the print and dry.

While originally fomulated for Ilford Plastika paper I first used this about 30 years ago with Iford Multigrade paper and it does produce lovely warm olive tones.

Print - Forte Polywarmtone FB, Developed in ID-78, right half toned in IT-8

This was posted in the Chems section but seems to have been lost.

Ian

 

[Stephen Frizza]

thanks for this Ian this is brilliant I hope others post such amazing things!

 

[brian steinberger]

The only toner I mix from scratch is Thiocarbamide sepia toner because it's easy and so much cheaper than buying kits.

To make a working solution:

Bleach:
Water 500ml
Potassium Ferricyanide 2g
Potassium Bromide 2g
Add water to make 1000ml

Bleach until desired silver content is bleached away (30 seconds - a few minutes usually)

Wash print for 5 minutes (fiber based paper)

Toner:
Water 500ml
Thiocarbamide 10g
Sodium Hydroxide 3-10g
Water to make 1000ml

Tone for 1 minute

Note: Most formulas like this call for 10g of pot ferry and 5g of pot bromide in 1 liter of working strength bleach. This is fine if you're bleaching to completion or have 'pre-sulfided' the print. But for most of my sepia toning I don't bleach to completion, therefor you can get away with much less pot ferry and pot bromide in the bleach and also save money.

In the toner the sodium hydroxide level determines not only final print color, but also how much highlight density will be re-developed. Less SH will re-develop less highlight detail and be more yellow in color. More SH will re-develop more highlight detail and be more brownish reddish in color. As always, different papers will respond differently.

 

[fschifano]

Ian, it looks like that toner formula give a considerable contrast boost. Very nice looking color shift. Now, where to get concentrated hydrochloric acid without raising too many eyebrows...

 

[Ian Grant]

It is Frank.

After all the bleach is an intensifier on it's own and then you get additional staining from the Pyrocatechin. I could never under stand why Rudman left these toners a & Dye toners out of his books.

There were once papers that gave this image colour but the chemicals were withdrawn deemed unacceptable over the years, the final withdrawal of Cadmium was the end of many really great paper

Ian

 

[fschifano]

Yes, the loss of cadmium bearing papers was a loss. Some of the old papers were very nice, and there was a far greater variety to choose from. But there's no sense crying over it. The materials we have now are good, and in some ways better that what once was. We adapt and move on. But thanks for posting that toner formula. I must give it a try. Looks like just the thing for warm portraiture. I think it would look really nice on a matte or semi-matte paper.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I've always been a big fan of direct toning (no bleach), and that's why I like a straight polysulfide toner.

 

[Ian Grant]

There's Toning and "Toning" the use of Direct toning with no bleach and Indirect toning with a bleach first.

You need ro be aware of all possibilities, and how to control them.

Ian

 

[An Le-qun]

On a lark a couple of years ago, I bought some Foma Indigo Toner. I wanted to see what it would do (besides compromise archival quality), and did not really like the results.

However...

After seeing how aggressive the toner was on RC prints even at several times higher than recommended dilution, I decided to mess around on the last print. I dunked it, now thoroughly dark blue, in vinegar (white, "neat," right from the grocery store) and then added some baking soda.

While it was lots of fun to watch the foam that resulted, the toning effect was even better--midtones took on an interesting pink cast, with complete departure of the blue. I didn't measure anything, so I am not sure if I could duplicate the experiment very well.

I'm a musician, not a chemist. Can anyone explain what happened?

 

[RalphLambrecht]

There's Toning and "Toning" the use of Direct toning with no bleach and Indirect toning with a bleach first.

You need ro be aware of all possibilities, and how to control them.

Ian

Quite right. I am aware and found my preference in direct toning, because a light warming in combination with improved archival qualities is all I'm after with toning. You already mentioned Tim Rudman's book, which shows plenty of other uses and good examples of direct and indirect toning; some archival, some not.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Quite right. I am aware and found my preference in direct toning, because a light warming in combination with improved archival qualities is all I'm after with toning. You already mentioned Tim Rudman's book, which shows plenty of other uses and good examples of direct and indirect toning; some archival, some not.

Ralph,

After making various test prints on and off over the last few months, I have come to realise that initial print developer may still influence print colour and tonality after selenium toning, although the difference may not be equivalent to the difference between developers (with the same paper) prior to toning.

Tom

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Tom

I don't doubt that for a second.
Final print color is influenced by the surface structure of the silver grain and how it reflects light, which in turn, is influenced by the emulsion and developer that created the silver grain and the toner that modified it.

 

[Ian Grant]

Other missing variables are development time and exposure, and also development temperature.

Ian

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Other missing variables are development time and exposure, and also development temperature.

Ian

Correct, whatever alters grain shape, size or surface structure will effect print color.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Correct, whatever alters grain shape, size or surface structure will effect print color.

- although I've found very warmtone developers, i.e. ID-78 diluted 1+7, are most effective prior to gold toning if the results required lean strongly towards the blue-black.

Tom

 

[dancqu]

Also Known as ----

Now, where to get concentrated hydrochloric acid without
raising too many eyebrows...

The concentrate is not needed. Working strength is much
more dilute. Shop for Muriatic acid at a local hardware
outlet. I do not know it's exact strength but believe
it will need further dilution. Dan

 

[Ian Grant]

Here in Turkey HCl is sold in all the supermarketsm and stores for cleaning lime-scale, just checking it's 25% so Part B would need 400ml made up to a litre with water.

It's sold as Brick cleaner as well in the UK in building suppliers.

Ian

 

[nworth]

Ian, it looks like that toner formula give a considerable contrast boost. Very nice looking color shift. Now, where to get concentrated hydrochloric acid without raising too many eyebrows...

Muriatic acid is available in many hardware stores. It is used for cleaning concrete. It is approximately half strength hydrocholric acid, so use 200 ml. I haven't tried it, so this may or may not work.

 

[nworth]

There are about as many toning formulas as there are photographers. Most darkroom types explore several to the published formulas and then tweak them a bit to their own satisfaction. It's well to remember that a given toner will act quite differently on different papers.

I don't use it often, but I find that hypo-alum toner is very nice sometimes. There are lots of formulas, but this is representative:

Kodak T-1a hypo-alum toner for sepia tones on warm tone papers
Particularly suited for slow chlorobromide and chloride papers.

Solution A
Cold water 2800 ml
Sodium thiosulfate 48 g

Solution B
Water (70C) 640 ml
Potassium alum 120 g

Solution C
Cold water 64 ml
Silver nitrate 4 g
Sodium chloride 4 g

Add solution B to solution A, then add solution C (including all precipitate). Dilute the resulting solution to make 4 l.
Tone prints 12 to 15 minutes at 49C.
Note: Freshly mixed toner has a marked reducing action. Tone some waste prints to season the bath before production use.

Although not archival, copper toners are quite versatile, giving a great variety of brown to reddish brown tones depending on exposure, paper, and toning time. Once again, there are a lot of different formulas, but this is typical:

Dassonville T-5 copper toner for deep brown to red chalk tones

Solution A
Copper sulfate 6.5 g
Potassium chloride 24.8 g
WTM 1 l

Solution B
Potassium ferricyanide 5.5 g
Potassium citrate (neutral) 24.8 g

WTM 1 l

Mix equal parts of Solution A and Solution B.
Note: If pinkish tones show in highlights, add more potassium citrate.
Note: For maximum permanence, tone prints as deeply as possible then treat in a weak hypo bath and thoroughly wash and dry.
Note: Prints that appear weak after toning can be strengthened by immersing in a fresh bath composed of:

Copper sulfate 48 g
Potassium bromide 24 g
Acetic acid (28%) 50 ml
WTM 1 l

Wash prints for 1/2 hour after treatment.

 

[Marco B]

My favourite is Ilford IT-8


IT-8 Ilford Pyrocatechin Toner
For Olive Black tones.
Stock A
Potassium Bichromate 50 g
Water to 1 litre

Stock B
Hydrochloric Acid (conc) 100ml
Water to 1 litre

Expose and process your print as normal and wash well.
Make up bleach from: 2 parts A and 10 parts B with 40 parts water, bleach the print then wash until all the yellow from the bichromate has been removed from the highlights then redevelop in the following Developer.

Developer
Pyrocatechin 1.75 g
Sodium Carbonate (anhyd) 5 g
Water to 1 litre

Temperature is not critical, it should take 1½ to 2 mins at 20°C, this developer will oxide very quickly and should be discarded when it turns a bluish green.
Wash the print and dry.

While originally fomulated for Ilford Plastika paper I first used this about 30 years ago with Iford Multigrade paper and it does produce lovely warm olive tones.

Print - Forte Polywarmtone FB, Developed in ID-78, right half toned in IT-8

This was posted in the Chems section but seems to have been lost.

Ian

Ian, just a question to clear up my mind. Isn't this actually so much a "toner", as a "warmtone re-developer" :confused:

Looking at your formulation, I have the distinct impression, that the silver is not so much converted to another substance (like Ag2S with sepia toning, or the substance formed with seleniumtoning), but simply "re-developed" to give a warmer nice olive tone after the bleaching step.

Am I right here? Just to get it clear... as it also implies this is not an archival toner (not that you claimed that at all!).

The results are nice though!

Marco

 

[Ian Grant]

Marco, yes you are right, but it's still classed as a toner. The toning is the Chromium and Pyrocatechin stains.

Ian

 

[Marco B]

Marco, yes you are right, but it's still classed as a toner. The toning is the Chromium and Pyrocatechin stains.

Ian

Still a little bit confused, with "Chromium and Pyrocatechin stains", do you mean these substances *remain* in the final print? Please note, I have never before used a dichromate based bleach, nor done staining development, I need to look up the chemistry of that once.

My first impression was that these substances were just intermediate, helping to oxidize and break down he silver (dichromate bleach), so that it can be redeveloped / reduced back to silver by the Pyrocatechin, but that these substances would not be part of the final image, and that the color was merely an effect of the re-arranged or re-formed smaller silver particles.

 

[cp16]

pale home-brew toner?

Does anybody have a home-brew recipe for pale toners? Im printing on black surfaces with a liquid emulsion so I usualy expose it from a positive in the enlarger and then tone the resulting black on black image either gold or a pale sepia

 

[Ian Grant]

Still a little bit confused, with "Chromium and Pyrocatechin stains", do you mean these substances *remain* in the final print? Please note, I have never before used a dichromate based bleach, nor done staining development, I need to look up the chemistry of that once.

My first impression was that these substances were just intermediate, helping to oxidize and break down he silver (dichromate bleach), so that it can be redeveloped / reduced back to silver by the Pyrocatechin, but that these substances would not be part of the final image, and that the color was merely an effect of the re-arranged or re-formed smaller silver particles.

I missed this one before Marco

The dichromate does add a stain to the gelatin which is proportional to the silver bleached, this is used in Chromium Intensifiers, the process can be repeated to build up that stain. Then the Pyrocatechin stain is added as well.

So with the toner the two stains intensify the image but also give quite a unique olive brown image colour which is reminiscent of some of the pre WWII European papers

Ian