I am thinking of doing some selective selenium intensificaiton of a negative. I am assuming that one would follow the same process after the use, as you would with the entire negative. Any one have any thoughts are experience with this technique?

-- Ann C lancy (clancya@mediaone.net), September 07, 2001

Answers

Ann: I have done it a couple of times, following some hints by John Sexton. I gave the negative a minute or so in some plain fixer, then washed briefly and applied the selenium toner (1:2 with distilled water) with a fine brush. After toning, I treated the negative with hypo clearing agent and washed as usual.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), September 08, 2001.

I have soaked a thin 35mm in selenium solution of 1-25 for about 3 minutes w/ results that I liked. It intensified the entire negative and the resulting print was much easier to print

-- Greg Klabouch (greg@epud.net), September 09, 2001.

Ann, I've used selective intensification with selenium toner as described with great results. I use either a spotting brush or cotton swab depending on the size of the area to be intensified. Care is needed not to intensify surrounding dense areas as this creats a halo around the intensified area. Sometimes I even work with a dry neg. I usually have a duplicate negative to intensify so if any damage occurs I at least have one left to either print as is or try again.

Since I now develop most of my work in pyro, I intensify in this manner much less. It seems that the selenium toner effectively removes some or all of the pyro stain from the negative thereby reducing or cancelling any intensifying effects. Has anyone else experienced this?

Regards, ;^D)

-- Doremus Scudder (ScudderLandreth@compuserve.com), September 11, 2001.

Doremus, if you put your negative back in an alkali you will get the stain back.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), September 11, 2001.

I've used selenium toner (general, not spot) to increase contrast in underdeveloped negatives. I also use a staining developer--catechol based--and while selenium does provide a very useful contrast increase, I've also seen a lot of the stain disappear. Thanks, Jorge, for the tip of rewashing it in an alkaline solution. I'm eager to try it.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), September 11, 2001.