Health Hazard Disclaimer Most toners are dangerous materials. Many toners soak in through your skin or are inhaled through the mouth and nose. Wear rubber gloves and a mask (or respirator) when working with any toner. Most toners have a cumulative effect. The effects may not be noticeable at first, but with exposure to the chemicals over time they take their toll. Consistency is the Key to Duplicating Your Results Any time you wish to achieve the same results more than once with a toner it is important to write down all the variables. Toners, much like developers, react to time, temperature, and dilution variations. It is very important to document how you mixed the toner (including your water source and temperature) as well as keep good notes on your toning procedures to be able to repeat the results. Always time bleaches and redevelopments. Remember to keep notes on how many prints you processed in particular batch of toner, the more exhausted the toner the slower it tones and the milder color changes become. My observations are included with the text, but do not take my word for what happens. The more you look at the prints the better you will understand what is happening with the paper, developer and toner combinations. The fact is that everyone who looks at the prints comes up with different observations. I may see something you do not and you will probably see something that I have not seen. Please take the time to carefully look through the notebook and make notes (mental and written) on what you see. This exercise takes a lot of time, money and effort to complete, but it has gives printers a better understanding of photographic printing materials. There are combinations that I will never use, on the other hand, there are combinations that I plan to use in the near future. I suggest every printer keep a notebook similar to this one utilizing his/her preferred printing materials and toners. The results may surprise you. This will become a great reference notebook. Remember, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Selenium Toner Selenium is a quick and easy toner to use. It is a three tray process. The first tray is for Hypo Clearing Agent (HCA) or a like product (Perma Wash, Orbit Bath, Fixer Remover, etc.). The second tray for the Selenium Toner mixture and the third tray a running water holding bath. Add a little Sodium Thiosulfate into the first tray (Kodak Fixer is a good source) with the Hypo Clearing Agent and soak your prints for a few minutes. If you are using Sprint Fixer Remover 1:9 there is no need to add Sodium Thiosulfate to the Fixer Remover, Sprint has done something magical to their Fixer Remover so that it does not need this enhancement. In the second tray prepare the toning solution by mixing any brand of Rapid Selenium Toner with working strength Hypo Clearing Agent or the like product you have on hand, in our case it will be Sprint Fixer Remover. Most dilutions of Selenium Toners are mixed by adding 75ml of Selenium to 925ml of Hypo Clearing Agent, 150ml of Selenium to 850ml of Hypo Clearing Agent or 250ml of Selenium to 750 of Hypo Clearing Agent. Choose the dilution you wish to work with and mix the proper solution.
Soak the prints in the modified hypo clearing agent with sodium thiosulfate added or a 1: 9 working strength dilution of Sprint Fixer Remover for a few minutes. Place them back to back in the Selenium solution mixed with working strength hypo clearing agent. Gently agitate them for the desired time by flipping them over and watching them for tone changes. After the time has expired or the tone change has taken place, gently place them in the running water holding bath. Selenium will continue to work toning the print after it has been placed in the holding bath, but with the water running it is generally kept to a minimum. If the water is not running it will continue to change the tone of the print. Selenium is a red toner. This is very noticeable in chloride or chlorobromide papers such as Kodak s AZO paper, Forte Polygrade Warm tone paper, Cachet Mid-Grade Warm tone paper, Agfa Multicontrast Classic, Ilford Multigrade Warm tone, Oriental Warmtone, Luminos Charcoal, Bergger Warm tone, etc. where it literally either turns the image a reddish color or split-tones the paper by enhancing the blacks (making them darker) and causing a strange reddish-pink or purplish color to appear in various areas of the print usually affecting the middle gray tones and gray shadow areas first. In my tests Forte went almost completely red after 15 minutes in a 150cc per liter dilution. While some very interesting split-toning occurred in the middle grays and shadows of the Forte paper at 10 minutes in the 150cc per liter dilution. Five minutes in a 150cc per liter solution simply gave the image an effective contrast boost. The Agfa paper was just beginning to splittone after 15 minutes in the 150cc per liter dilution, but the only noticeable changes were in the deep middle gray tones. The Ilford and Kodak Bromide papers slightly increased in contrast, but there were no tone changes for either the 150cc per liter dilution or 75cc per liter dilution. Also of notable interest were the developers that toned more and less. The GAF 120 and GAF 130 developers turned the least and provided split-toned prints at 10 and 15 minute intervals on the Forte paper (150 cc dilution per liter) while Sprint Quicksilver and Agfa 108 toned very well in all areas, but had the most interesting split-tones at the 10 minute interval at 150cc dilution per liter on the Forte paper. The 75cc per liter dilution only added a slight contrast boost at 5 minute and 10 minute times to all the papers. However, at the 15 minute time increment some interesting split-tones started to develop in the Forte paper with Agfa 108 and Sprint Quicksilver developers. Both GAF 120 and GAF 130 were still adding contrast and deeper blacks, but there was no noticeable split-toning occurring. ** Note: Selenium toner is a red toner. It may take a while to appear, but given the proper dilution for strength and a long enough toning time most papers that have any chlorobromide in them will eventually assume a light pink or red cast. The red cast is a feature of split-toning where the chlorobromide turns one color (usually a red or pink) and the bromide turns another color (usually a deeper black). The split tones occur most often in midtones or gray areas of the print.
Poly-Toner Poly-Toner is a three tray process very similar to Selenium. The first tray is fresh water, the second tray is the Poly-Toner mixture made with Poly-Toner and tap water, the third tray a running water holding bath. Soaking prints is necessary to prevent uneven toning and toner staining in the prints. Give the prints a good five or ten minute soak in fresh water before going into the toner. If the prints have not been washed free of residual fixer residue and been soaked in water prior to toning then it is very likely your prints will either stain or tone unevenly. Poly-toner is a potent toner. It starts toning the print as soon as it is placed in the toner and continues toning the print even when it is being washed. Be careful not to overtone the image, especially when you place it in the holding bath. Make sure you have running water in the holding bath to prevent undesired toning. Poly-toner gave the Agfa Multicontrast Classic paper a reddish-brown tone, the Forte Polygrade Warm tone paper a reddish-yellow brown tone, the Ilford and Kodak papers to a reddish-gray, nearly purple color. The 1:50 dilution changed the original image more than the 1:24 dilution. The image is more red at the 1:50 dilution. The longer the poly-toner worked on the print the more contrast was built. Time was also a factor on image tone. The longer the image was in the toner the redder the image seemed to become. The chlorobromide papers, Agfa and Forte, shifted the most. Forte has a radical shift with noticeable differences of yellow at 1:50 dilution and red at 1:24 dilution. ** Note: Poly-Toner is a combination of Selenium Toner and Brown Toner. The more dilute the toner the more of a brown cast it will assume. The stronger the toner the more selenium will have an effect. Although it is only tested in two fairly dilute solutions Poly-Toner is frequently used in the 1:4 dilution. The 1:24 dilution provides the most split-toning and that is why I chose to demonstrate it. Brown Toner Brown Toner is a three tray process very similar to Selenium and Poly-Toner. The first tray is water, the second tray is the Brown Toner mixture made with Brown Toner and tap water, the third tray a running water holding bath. Soaking prints in water is necessary to prevent uneven toning and toner staining in the prints. Give the prints a good five or ten minute soak in the water before going into the toner. If the prints have not been washed free of residual fixer residue or have been soaked in hypo clearing agent instead of clean water prior to toning then it is very likely your prints will either stain or tone unevenly. Brown Toner is a potent toner. It starts toning the print as soon as it is placed in the toner and continues toning the print even when it is being washed. Be careful not to over tone the image, especially when you place it in the holding bath. Make sure you have running water in the holding bath to prevent undesired toning. Kodak Brown toner recommended dilution is 1:31 with clean water. Agfa Viradon toner is also a good brown toner that produces excellent results. Agfa Viradon recommended dilution is 1:50 with fresh water.
Sepia Toner Sepia Toning is a five tray process. The first tray is a water bath, the second the sepia bleach (Part A), the third a running water bath to wash the bleach off the print, the fourth the sepia redeveloper (Part B) and the fifth tray a running water holding bath for the toned prints. Soak the prints in the water bath for a few minutes. Use this time to think about what you want to accomplish with the sepia toning process. The longer the print stays in the bleach the more toning will take place in the redeveloper. Photographers rarely use a complete bleach when they sepia tone. Many times a 15 to 20 second bleach is used, then the image washed and redeveloped. You may want to have a few extra prints handy to experiment with the bleach times to get the desired effect. Bleach the prints for the appropriate amount of time. Place the bleached print(s) in the running water bath until the print has been washed clear of all the bleach. Redevelop the image. The redevelopment process usually happens in a matter of 20 to 30 seconds, but leave it in the redeveloper for two minutes to prevent mottling or uneven redevelopment. It is impossible to leave it in the redeveloper too long, it cannot redevelop more than the original image before it was bleached. Once the maximum redevelopment has occurred place the print in the running water holding bath before taking it to the archival washer for a 30 minute wash. There are several brands of Sepia Toner on the market. Kodak has the least expensive sepia toner in two versions Kodak Sepia Toner and Kodak Sepia II toner, either one is good for this exercise. I highly recommend FotoSpeed Sepia Toner because it is odorless, but the drawback is that it costs more. I was very pleased with the one-quarter and half-bleaches. The image did not turn as drastically as when fully bleached. It avoided the chronic chocolate caramel color. Chlorobromide papers lean toward a yellowish-brown tone that I do not care for. I much preferred the Agfa paper in the reverse sepia where the tones were browner. Forte stayed the brownish-yellow throughout the entire sepia spectrum. It needs to be noted that Forte images printed on the Warm tone paper fade out very quickly in the bleach. Be careful not to over bleach images on Forte Warm tone paper, the image may not come back in the redeveloper. Reverse Sepia Reverse sepia is the exact opposite of regular sepia toning. Tone the print in sepia redeveloper (part B) for three minutes first. Then wash the print well in a separate wash tray. After having toned the print and washing it, begin the standard sepia toning process. Bleach the print out as far as you want it to go in Part A (remember that it will not completely fade away because it has already been toned). Wash the print well in a separate wash bath. No yellow bleach spots or streaks can be present or the print will stain. Place the washed print back in the the sepia redevelopment toner (Part B) for one minute and watch it change color. The color change will not be nearly as much as the normal sepia process. Reverse sepia produces a cooler tone than normal process sepia. Three minutes in the first redeveloper is the time I set for myself. You may wish to experiment with the time to find what works best for your purposes or paper-developer combination.
Other Toners Gold Toner is a direct toner that is hardly noticeable at first, but leans toward a steely blue in the solid black areas. It is one of the most permanent toners for protecting prints, but it is very expensive. Copper Toner is a direct toner that creates a hot pink reaction with silver halide. The mineral copper mixture is green or bluish-green in nature. Berg Toners are bleach and redevelopment toners. Most of them are not permanent, they are mordant toners or dyes that tend to color the silver in the print instead of protecting it and adding to its permanence. FotoSpeed Toners are a favorite because they come in easy to mix liquid form and do not smell as badly as other manufacturer s toners. I highly recommend odorless FotoSpeed Sepia toner. Most FotoSpeed toners are bleach and redevelopment toners. Agfa offers several toners, the most popular being their Selenium toner and Viradon (Brown). I highly recommend Agfa Viradon toner as an alternative to Kodak Brown toner. Follow directions for the particular toner you have chosen to use. Please note that most prints need to be thoroughly washed in a running fresh water bath before toning to soften the emulsion and prepare the prints for toning. Blue toner, all Berg toner and most FotoSpeed toners need to be used with a fresh water bath before toning. If you use a Hypo Clearing Agent or Fixer Remover bath before toning in these toners then you will most likely have stains or uneven toning patterns on your prints.