Toning Ilford RC warmtone in Viradon - Tips anyone?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : B&W Photo - Printing & Finishing : One Thread

This is a shot in the dark, but I thought I'd check and see if anyone has any experience getting consistent controllable results with RC warmtone in Viradon. I'm attempting to tone the prints for a slight color change, a subtle brown shift. I've diluted the toner 1:100 to eliminate too short times. I'm stopping the toned print in Sodium sulfite for one minute, then washing the print in running water for up to five minutes. I'm not sure if it's my imagination but it seems the prints are changing color as they dry. The wet print looks fine, the fully dried print sometimes looks too brown.

Any advice from anyone with experience with this toner is appreciated. Thanks much. --Paul

-- Paul Swenson (paulphoto@humboldt1.com), November 22, 2001

Answers

All I can say is that I experienced the same as you. I never managed to reproduce with Viradon (though extremly simple to use) prints that are not toned to completion. I think to get a variable toning mixture, as IIRC is commercialized by Tetenal.

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), November 23, 2001.

Earlier this year I had to do a project for work, where I made about 75 prints off the same neg on that paper and brown toned them in Viradon...I was going for a full tone, at 1:25 (it took about 3 small bottles of concentrate) but my experience was consistently brown....I used a weak permawash solution to stop it, and changed this often..... it took me about a day and a half to do this (with a processor as well), but all the prints were the same tone when dry....for more subtle changes, I've done some pretty extensive ring around tests with other toners like Polytoner and selenium at various dilutions....I'd say to maybe try selenium or a stronger dilution of polytoner for a subtle brown....One other thing, you can "cool" off the tone of an RC print by using a heat dryer as well....if you don't have one, try a hair dryer.

-- DK Thompson (kthompson@moh.dcr.state.nc.us), November 26, 2001.

I too did some tests with Ilford MG IV warmtone in Viradon at 1:100 and 25 degrees C. These were then given 3 mins in a 10% sodium sulphite solution. Here are the results

a) 45 Seconds - hardly any colour shift with a just perceptable shift to a plum colour in the darkest tones. Mid tones and hightlights are totally unaffected.

b) 90 Seconds - still a subtle brown (nowhere near a sepia) in the darkest tones and just a hint of colour change in the mid tones. Highlights still totally unaffected.

c) 3 minutes - dark plummy brown in the shadows with a marked colour shift (milk chocolate colour) in the midtones. Hightlights still unaffected.

All the above were developed in Agfa Neutol NE for 2 minutes at 20 degrees. Stop bath was Ilford Ilfostop for 30 seconds and fix was Hypam (1:9) for 2 minutes.

I found diluting to 1:100 gave me a lot more control over the 1:50 dilution. It did not do much to reduce the smell though. I have stopped using Viradon because the smell permeates through the house even with all the windows open and have gone onto a two bath thiocarbamide toner.

Adrian

-- Adrian Twiss (avtwiss@ukonline.co.uk), November 28, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ