Monday, September 7, 2015

Video: Toning The "Dad Stare - Hand" Print

Here is another very short and rather boring vid of me toning the 16x20 "Dad Stare-Hand" print. I toned around 9 16x20 prints in a 1/20 Selenium to water mixture. Before the toning, I bleached the print, gave it a 2nd fixer bath followed by hypo clear bath and wash in an archival washer for 1-2 hours. After toning the prints are given a final rinse in a washing tray.

The Ultrafine Silver Eagle paper starts turning a weird orange/red at about the 1 minute toning mark so I cut back to 45 seconds. I gave the Ilford Cooltone FB prints a full 2 minutes of toning with vigorous agitation. The Ilford paper has much deeper blacks that are magnified in the toning process. Silver Eagle paper has more of a bluish black tonality which I do not really like as much. It is a different look so I guess it is sometimes useful to have that in your darkroom arsenal.

In this video I am working on one of the Ilford Cooltone prints. My darkroom exhaust fan located above the wash area is on full speed to suck out the selenium vapors and suck in clean air from outside. Selenium is carcinogenic so it is important to handle it carefully, wear gloves, work outside or in a well ventilated area and clean up well afterwards.