Toning Oriental FBVC

[Photoe]

I've just tried the current Oriental FB VC -- both neutral and warm tone. So far I'm quite pleased. Any experience out there toning these papers?

 

[yardkat]

Hi Photoe,
I just tried these papers for the first time as well, so I'm not experienced with toning them beyond the one batch I toned, but what I found was that the neutral looks really nice in sepia, but I didn't notice a huge shift in color in selenium toner. However, the image that I toned sepia and then toned selenium shows a little purpley tinge. I like it. I used KRST 1:20 because that's what they had mixed up in the public lab that I print in, but I suspect that you could get more color shift using a different dilution. But the sepia looks really nice, warms is up without looking totally fakey. Really nice, I thought. The warm tone takes selenium really nicely, again I used the KSRT 1:20, and probably only left it for about 5 minutes or so. Also, not a super in-your-face color shift, but nice, added some contrast. The warm tone got really orangey-red in sepia, and I didn't care for it as much. But again, pretty unscientific, only tried it once results.
The one problem I did note with the warm tone is that I got yellowish staining on the edges of the paper that seemed to go away after toning. It's actually not quite as noticeable as I first thought, but still kind of annoying. I am going to try another batch of the paper to see if the yellowing was a once off thing or not; I just ordered a bunch of both Oriental neutral and WT, which I was hoping was going to be delivered today so that I can print tomorrow (my only day that I can get to the lab) but apparently The Day After Thanksgiving is a UPS holiday, soooo, no paper. Oh well, hope the UPS workers are having a great day.
Anyway, have fun with the toning!
Julie

 

[Photoe]

Thanks. I usually use elenium at around 1:10 so perhaps I will see more effect. I don't care for that "orangey" sepia look either. So I use thiocarbamide toning which has a bit more control

 

[George Collier]

Seagull cold toned graded was my paper for close to 20 years, because I liked the "eggplant" color it took on when toned in Selenium diluted 1:16, with a half a teaspoon of Kodalk to ensure a basic solution. It took about 8 minutes for a noticable shift. When I went to VC papers, the Seagull (fiber also) was on of the first ones I tried. The shift was barely noticeable with the same conditions. I actually got a technical rep on the phone from Seagull, and he confirmed that it would not color shift as well as the graded. I never tried a stronger solution, and I eventually wound up with Forte for numerous reasons. I'll be out of it soon, so I have to decide where to go next, maybe Ilford MG.

 

[Andrew Moxom]

I've been using some Oriental VC WT paper and find that Kodak selnium toner gives me better results than Kentmere Selenium toner. Not sure why as I thought they were supposed very compatible with each other, and I thought Kentmere was modeled after the kodak product.

Kentmere does not change the WT paper color that much. It does increase conrast and adds some additional punch, but I do prefer the look of Kodak selenim with this paper. It is much warmer, and produces some brilliant color splits.

 

[aldevo]

As I understand it, the new Oriental FC VB (white package w/ Black circle) is very different vs. the older Oriental FC VB (Blue and white packaging).

The older formulation was, by reputation, the most responsive to Selenium of any VC paper emulsion (Forte Polygrade not excepted). I have used the older paper, but never toned it.

There's a lot of speculation about whether the re-re-introduced Oriental New Seagull VC FB paper is really an Oriental emulsion at all, actually, or a re-branding job of Ilford MG IV or some other product. I do not have experience with any Oriental paper manufactured in the past three years and cannot comment.