Kodak Brown Toning

 

Agfa MCP 310 RC - Toning with Kodak Brown Toner/ Selenium Binyuan Chen , Feb 04, 2006; 11:49 a.m. I have a few questions about toning. First, can RC paper be toned with Kodak Brown Toner or selenium toner? I use Agfa 310 RC paper. Does anybody have experience with toning this paper? Second, whar dilutions do I use for toning RC papers? I thought the Agfa 310 RC is neutral tone paper. Are there any benefits of toning it? Any color shifts at all? I heard warmtone RC paper tones well but neutral or coldtone paper does not have much color shifts. BTW, archival longevity is not what I'm looking for this toning experiement. Thank you. Responses Frank Schifano , Feb 05, 2006; 12:01 a.m. Can't say anything about Kodak Brown Toner with this paper, though I'd be surprised if you saw no color change. Selenium will provide a little more contrast, perhaps about 1/2 paper grade worth which under the right circumstances will serve to separate some of the shadow details a little more cleanly. Color change will be very slight and might not even be noticeable under some viewing conditions. Doug Smiley [Subscriber] , Feb 05, 2006; 11:42 a.m. Agfa MCP 310 RC paper responds nicely to selenium toning. I use Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner diluted one part toner to 15 parts water (1:15), and tone the Agfa paper from 3 to 5 minutes. This will deepen and enhance the blacks nicely, and also effect an attractive (to me) subtle purplish color. The Agfa RC paper will tone in Kodak brown toner, but will take at least twice as long as in the selenium toner to bring about a color change. It should tone a nice cool subtle brown color. I haven't used this combo in awhile, but I used the dilution recommended by Kodak and printed on the bottle of brown toner. Before using either toner the print should be immersed in water for a minute or so. Also, both toners should be used with good ventilation. The Kodak brown toner has a noxious sulfur smell, while the selenium has a strong ammonia odor. Binyuan Chen , Feb 05, 2006; 10:56 p.m. Thank you for your response. Can I dry the prints after washing and tone them later outdoor? I don't think I can tone them in my temporary darkroom in the bathroom. If I dry the prints first, do I moisture the prints for a few minutes before I tone them in daylight outdoor? Any difference between doing this and toning the prints right after fixing (when the prints are wet)? Doug Smiley [Subscriber] , Feb 06, 2006; 08:21 a.m. Yes, you can tone the prints after they have dried, but immerse them in water before putting them in the toning solution. Toning out of doors sounds like a good idea. An overcast day, or someplace in the shade would probably be better than bright direct sun. You might want to keep an untoned print handy for reference-makes it easier to see the degree of color change as the toning progresses. Whichever toner you use should be mixed with distilled water, rather than tapwater. Good luck, and have fun. Doug Smiley [Subscriber] , Feb 06, 2006; 08:27 a.m. Whether the prints are toned while still wet from processing, or dried and toned days or weeks later should not make a difference. Doug Smiley [Subscriber] , Feb 06, 2006; 10:02 a.m. Binyuan, the times I gave in my first post for a color change to take place were for typical room temperatures of 68-72 degrees F. Any colder than that will result in longer toning times. (And warmer temps call for shorter times). If it's too cold you wont get any toning effect no matter how long you leave the paper in the toner. Pablo Coronel , Feb 07, 2006; 12:58 p.m. Yes, AGFA MCP tones great with brown toner (Viradon) and Selenium. Selenium will give you a nice purple tone and brown toner dark chocolatey tones. Follow the instructions of the bottle regarding dilutions, and rememeber that selenium toner gives more change when more concentrated and brown toner shows more change when more diluted. Also you can tone dry prints no problem, just put them in water for a minute or 2 before you put them in the toner. Previously I have used Kodak’s Brown Toner on Ilford’s Multigrade Warmtone FB paper. I was happy with the results. I was curious to see what color that I could achieve on Ilford Multigrade IV FB paper. I mixed up a new batch and proceeded to follow the directions exactly. After 30 minutes there was no color change. I could tell that a chemical reaction was taking place because the normal precipitate formed. I never achieved much color change with selenium toner on this paper, but I expected more from a sulfite toner. Does anyone have an explaination? - Answers Joe, I use both papers (WT and IV) and two toners: Selenium and sulphide (not sulphiTe, a misprint, I guess). I don't know what is Kodak Brown toner, I mix the sulphide toner myself: usual bleach bath with Potassium ferricianide and potassium bromide and toning bath with Sodium/Potassium sulphides. I guess it is called "Sepia toner" in brand-name version. My experience is the following. WT paper (semi matte FB, pearl RC). ---------------------------------- In Selenium the black changes to brown (dark gingery). Maximum blacks therefore become visually less dark. In my Sepia light tones become yellow, dark gray tones -- warm (yellowish) brown. VERY black remain almost black (but it is improbable that you have such deep tones on the print). How pleasant it is -- it depends; I feel it is ok for some portraits. IV paper (matte FB, pearl RC) ---------------------------- In Selenium there is almost no change in color (it is just a property of the emulsion, no other explanation); long toning in strong solution causes finally very slight violet cast ("cool purple"). There is noticeable intensification in shadows. In my Sepia the black changes to sepia. Again the maximum blacks appears slightly lighter due to the color, but this lightening is not so pronounces as with WT. Only IV in Selenium darkens the shadows. All other combinations produce essentially lighter print (in the IV+sepia combo the lightening is slight), hence I recommend to use toner while you find the proper exposure (test strips) if you plan in advance that the image is to be toned. October 30, 2001. Joe, is it possible you changed fixer brand/type between your previously sucessful toning to the failed result? If a hardening fixer is used it will pretty much eliminate the effects of toning. You probably already know this, but it could explain the outcome. -- October 30, 2001. Joe, in my experience MG IV FB and RC do not tone well. Certainly not as well as the warmtone paper. I have been toning my Ilford MG prints for years with Kodak's Poly Toner. I got just the slight amount of toning I liked. After many years, I finally ran out of my original toner. Bought a new one, and it won't tone. My assumption is that Kodak changed the formulation [it does not small as bad as it used to]. chris In your case, I think it is just the difference between warmtone and regular paper.

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