Does anybody have any experience with Photo Formulary's copper toner? Good or bad? It sounds like, from their description, it can produce a wide range of colors. Is it real fussy or unpredictable? It also sounds like it's quite fast, which can be a mixed blessing. Can it be slowed down by diluting? What are the time ranges for which colors?

Thanks!

-- Andy B. (buckwiet@yahoo.com), January 10, 2002

Answers

I didn't think much of it. This was a while ago. I believe I was toning Oriental Seagull. I just didn't like the color I was getting. I doubt this had anything to do w/ the quality of Formulary's product but rather with the nature of copper toning and how it works w/ that particular paper. With conventional silver papers, including Oriental, I've never really been able to improve on selenium. Works great w/ Azo, tell you that.... I've recently taken up platinum and palladium printing, by the way, and find that the brown tone of a pure palladium print (putting aside paper texture, tonal range, etc.) is pretty much what I was always trying to get w/ silver paper and whatever toner. -jeff buckels (albuquerque)

-- Jeff Buckels (jeffbuck@swcp.com), January 10, 2002.

I'v e only used it a little bit but it seems to work quite well and is fairly predictable. I get anything from a lightish reddening to deep reddish brown if left long enough. Most people don't really get into toning that produces that much color shift but I find its fun to experiment with and some otherwise dud images seem to come to with a color change. Have fun

-- Ronald J LaMarsh (ronald.lamarsh@med.ge.com), January 14, 2002.