SELENIUM TONING

Everyone has their personal way of doing most anything.   I have sorted through what works for me and it may not be the only way to do things, but it is the way I have refined and standardized my working habits.  (I hate the term ‘workflow’ sounds way too digital for me.)  What I have tried to do is explain how I work in the darkroom.  You can use my methods as a starting point and determine what works best for you.

Selenium toning of finished prints is a given for what we do.  Every print is toned in selenium, for permanence, a slight shift in print color, and to enhance tonal range.  We have used numerous dilutions of toner and what works for one paper and developer combination, may not work for another.  When it comes to the dilution and time, you have to experiment.

Here is how we selenium tone prints.  Not sure exactly where all of this came from.  Some from Ansel Adams, others from Fred Picker.  Never the less, here is our standard procedure.

Prints are developed, stopped in acid stop, then fixed in an acid sodium thiosulfate fixer for four (4:00) minutes.  The finished prints are rinsed in running water for five (5:00) minutes or so, then transferred to an archival washer.   The washer is used as a holding bath during a printing session that may last all day.

Once printing is finished, each print is evaluated and may receive further processing by some selective bleaching.  After bleaching, the prints are washed again in running water and again end up in the archival washer for storage.

At this point it is time to start toning.  We use three trays when selenium toning.  The first contains plain hypo (Hypo), the second selenium toner at some predetermined dilution (Toner), and the third tray is hypo clearing agent (HCA).

Prints are removed two at a time and placed, back to back, in the Hypo tray for about four (4:00) minutes.   This is your second fix.  The Hypo is an alkaline fix and is necessary to prevent stains, since any acid in the toning solution will result in undesirable stain.  If you use an acid first fix as we do, be sure to wash well before placing into the Hypo.  You do not want to carry any acid into the alkaline Hypo.

After the plain Hypo, prints are drained and transferred to the Toner tray.  Start the timer. . . Toning times vary.  We adjust the Toner dilution to yield a Toning time between two (2:00) to about four (4:00) minutes.   The Toner tray requires continuous agitation by tipping front to back and side to side.  As soon as the prints are in the Toner tray, two more prints from the washer are added to the Hypo tray.  The prints in the Hypo tray are used as a reference to judge the amount of change that is happening in the Toner tray.

When the prints in the Toner tray have reached the desired tone, they are drained and moved to the HCA tray.  The prints in the Hypo are moved to the Toner and two new prints are added to the Hypo.  When the HCA tray gets its second set of prints, the set that has been in the longest are rinsed in running water, then moved back to the washer.

This is a daisy chain process that continues until all of the prints have been process and are back in the washer.  The idea is to fix the prints for about four (4:00) minutes in the Hypo. . . Tone for two to four (2:00-4:00) minutes. . . then about four (4:00) minutes in the HCA.  These times may vary, and is not that critical.  You need to second fix, in Hypo, for no less than three (3:00) minutes and HCA for the same amount of time.

Once all of the prints are back in the washer, wash as usual. For us, our tested time is about one hour.  Be sure to test your washer for optimum wash time.  You will find the mixtures we use posted in the FORMULAS page here on this BLOG.

This is a whole lot more complicated to explain than to actually do.  It is a rhythm you pick up as you work through the prints and is really quick and easy.  One word of caution; once you begin to selenium tone your prints, you will never be satisfied if you don’t.

JB