Toning highlights?

El Gringo · Apr 3, 2007

I have only just moved into the analogue printing realm but I have been shooting film for a while now (I was scanning the negs directly prior to obtaining my enlarger). I have a number of negatives, mostly woodland scenes, that I feel would benefit from having 'golden' highlights as opposed to neutral greys and whites. Is there a kind of toner out there with which I can use to attain this effect or would a warm tone paper be a better place to start?

Here is a link to one of my negative scans where I used photoshop to gain the toned highlights for reference.

Sparky · Apr 3, 2007

I've had good results doing just that with viradon in a super-dilute bath for about 10 seconds - then letting it sit in a water bath until JUST BEFORE it reaches what you want - then pop it into a hypo clear bath. It's a bit tricky to get it to 'split' at just the right point... but you'll figure it out, I'm sure. Try a stronger bath with some junk prints first - just to get a feel for what happens (VERY SLOWLY - might take 30 mins) in the water bath.

Magnus W · Apr 3, 2007

Have you considered lith-printing?
I have just started to experiment with lp'ing, and I find that you can achieve that golden, luminiscent highlights quite readily. At the same time you can have cold, gritty shadows. have a look at these two prints for example:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

-- MW

Leon · Apr 3, 2007

how about a bleach back and thiocarbamide tone (sometimes sold as a variable sepia toner). Only, instead of letting all the tones bleach away, only allow the highlights to go, then only these will be affected by the re-developer. Try diluting the bleach to at least double that listed so you get a slower action (and greater control).

good luck wiht it

catem · Apr 3, 2007

You could try copper toning if you don't have (archival) objections to it - Kentmere Art Classic was capable of achieving a tone very much like the one you show (unfortunately no more, so you'd have to experiment).

Another alternative is to split tone (highlights only) in sepia and follow up with a dip in gold to warm it up - the result can vary from yellow/gold/orange/reddish hues - which you can see as it's done in daylight of course, and take out the print when you like it.

So many choices! But so much of the final result depends on the paper and developer you choose aswell...

SuzanneR · Apr 3, 2007

Lots of good advice, but I would add... get yourself a copy of Tim Rudman's Toning Book. Great reference.

reellis67 · Apr 3, 2007

Suzanne's suggestion is spot on. From what I learned in that book, I would lightly bleach back the highlights, then sepia tone them, and follow up with gold toner, which, depending on the type of sepia toner used, should result in any number of really interesting colors.

- Randy

jim appleyard · Apr 3, 2007

SuzanneR said:
Lots of good advice, but I would add... get yourself a copy of Tim Rudman's Toning Book. Great reference.

I rec'd this book for x-mas, it's great! Lots of good info and fine photography to back it up.

El Gringo · Apr 3, 2007

Thanks for all of the suggestions, it looks like I'm going to have to invest in some sepia toner and start experimenting

SuzanneR said:
get yourself a copy of Tim Rudman's Toning Book. Great reference.

Thanks, I'll look it up. You can never have enough reference books.

brian steinberger · Apr 3, 2007

A short bleach and redevelopment in sepia is the best way to go I think. Although latley I've been using Nelsons Gold Toner and am happier with the results, beautiful pinkish golden highlights on Ilford MGIV. But sepia is much, much easier to use.

tim rudman · Apr 3, 2007

brian steinberger said:
A short bleach and redevelopment in sepia is the best way to go I think.

From what you say you want, I would agree: Short sepia bleach followed by variable odourless type sepia toner.
Warm tone papers bleach much faster than cold tone ones and in both cases affect the lightest tones first. The toner then only tones the bleached values.
So a brief bleach and full toning stage will result in only highlights being toned.
Diluting the bleach helps to control the time - for a warm tone paper try around 20% recommended strength (they vary) and time tests accurately, keep notes and all is reproduceable;-)
Using a variable odourless type sepia allows you to also choose the sort of brown you want.
A gold toner afterwards shifts the colour towards salmon, pink or red - but be careful, it is easy to overdo this if you are after a subtle effect. It looks more when dry!.
Tim

DrPablo · Apr 3, 2007

Rhys,
Lith printing is a great idea for that negative, though you might want to work on regular enlarging/printing first.

If you print on warmtone paper and tone with selenium you can get that color in the highlights sometimes (Forte polywarmtone can look that way). You might try a cooltone developer like Ilford/Harman Cooltone or Dektol, then tone with sepia -- that could give you blue shadows and yellow highlights. A split tone with Berg blue toner or gold toner and then a sepia tone could also give you yellow highlights and blue shadows.

Sparky · Apr 3, 2007

seriously though... try the VIRADON..! You won't even need to bleach..!

Sparky · Apr 4, 2007

Here's a test print I did with Viradon. Bad subject for it though -would be better with something with more contrast in the 'upper zones'...

Leon · Apr 4, 2007

Sparky said:
seriously though... try the VIRADON..! You won't even need to bleach..!

that's true sparky, but it will affect all the tonal range as it works, if El Gringo wants to ONLY affect the highlights, this wouldnt be so good

El Gringo · Apr 4, 2007

Thanks again for all of the suggestions, I think I would like to use a 2 step toner anyway as I think some of my prints might benefit from this kind of highlight toning. It seems that the bleaching step would make things a little more controllable.

I'll definitely look into lith printing but I think I'm going to stick to regular printing for the time being. I haven't even got half-way through my first box of 8x10 yet.

Sparky · Apr 4, 2007

Leon said:
that's true sparky, but it will affect all the tonal range as it works, if El Gringo wants to ONLY affect the highlights, this wouldnt be so good

No no... look at the earlier post. I told him how to do highlight-ONLY viradon toning...! Check out the pic I posted if you don't believe me.

Toning highlights?

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