Gold Toner Part II: Color and Composition
I must admit I started this session with more enthusiasm than the results would suggest in the end. Still there are some good things to be gleaned from it.
I set out with a number of objectives. Of late, I have been enjoying lith printing and more recently exploring toning of the lith prints. I have by no means become an expert or even well practiced. Still there have been some pleasing results. I think that what is important to learn is that while toning can add a small range of colors it is not like painting or coloring. The process is chemical, and the process is dictated by those rules which are blind to form, subject, or intent. This makes it frustrating but also can lead serendipitously into wonderful images resplendent with subtle tones and invented detail. This session was no different.
As I said, I started out with a few modest objectives. First to try sepia and gold toning in combination. Second, some compositional exploration of a single subject. The subject is a lone oak tree in a farmer's field taken in spring near where I live. I was commuting to work on my bike one foggy morning and took the time to make several images. The early sprout of wheat in the field against the still barren form of the oak.
Fohar Raster Paper Versions
I would combine these in a series where I used some old Bulgarian paper from a company called Fohar I have about 100 sheets of the stuff in 5"x7" (13cm x 18xm) size. It liths fairly well. Ideal for experimenting. Most except where noted were exposed in the same way. The sky was about Ev 3.1@ ISO 100 so f5.6 32 seconds exposure and 32 second gradient burn up from the horizon.
I used Moersch EaysLith developer at 20ml Part A, 20ml Part B to 700ml of old brown (this had sea salt added as well from the previous session) and enough water to make 1 liter. This was heated in the microwave for 3 minutes which allows development to proceed between 1 and 3 minutes. Many of the borders on the developed prints were stained or fogged after development. I archivally washed them and found that immersion in potassium ferrocyanide (1+9 from concentrate) bleach cleared the borders in a couple of minutes. This slightly bleached back the highlights as well.
I started with a centered tree and the horizon sitting on the lower third.
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| Centered Bleached till white borders Selenium 1+3 foreground to horizon. Sepia 1+200 5 minutes Nelson Gold toner 5+ minutes |
This first print suffers from a lot of problems. First, when developing it was stuck to the back of another print and this was not discovered for some time. The result in the dark corners and edges where fresh developer was able to get it in. The print was still useful for testing. I dunked the print in selenium 1+3 toner up to the horizon and got a nice orange-brown color on the field. I then immersed it in sepia/sulfur (MT4) toner mixed at 1+200 dilution. This was toned for about 5 minutes or more basically until completion. I then toned in
The subsequent prints followed the same regimen without the selenium. These also had different compositions as well.
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| Left Third |
Here the sepia and gold mingle to give a green cast. This is a consistent theme on this paper. On some papers this combination is supposed to be red, but I have not seen this. The process seems to combine the yellow/brown of the sepia with blue of gold to get green. The composition is pleasing, however and shows how different an image can become with such a change. The centered version is really derived from the original square version that I will revisit at the end of this post. Another aspect of this image is the pale circle to the upper right of the tree. This is an accident of the Lith development but leads me to think about a useful manipulation of the image. That is to dodge a circle to imply a moon or sun is present in the fog.
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| Double Exposure |
Next is a double exposure to show two trees. The random nature of the lith makes it unclear if we are looking at the same tree. The extra exposure led to a darker image which hides some of the same green cast that is none-the-less present. Like the print above there are some unexplained areas where the sepia did not tone.
The next series is simpler.
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| Centered Selenium Toner 1+3 |
The selenium toner (1+3) alone as illustrated above gives a warm brown/orange tone. It is more effective than sepia in this regard.
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| Far Left Composition Gold Toner 64 second + 64 second burn above horizon. |
The gold toning made a slight increase in contrast and moved the tone to slightly blue/cold toned.
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| Centered No Gound Composition Gold Toner |
This was an experimental composition removing the field completely and emphasizing the sky and tree alone. It has the benefit of featuring a swirling sky from the inconsistent lit development.
Finally, some mixed tone versions.
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| Left Third Composition Selenium 1+3 foreground Gold toned sky |
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| Far Left Composition Sepia foreground Gold toned sky |
This paper was very resistant to sepia toning despite long soak times and fresh toner. This image above has the sepia on the field and the gold toning for the sky. I each of these the differentially toning is achieved by carefully soaking the portion of print you wish to be toned in the toning bath leaving the rest out of the bath.
Oriental Seagull Examples
These final three images are made on Oriental Segull G2 graded paper in a larger size of 8x8" (20x20cm). It exhibits very consistent lith development which usually results in a slightly warm taupe tone.
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| Untoned Lith Print |
This first image gives a look at an untoned Oriental Seagull lith print.
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| Gold Toned Lith Print |
Here is the effect of limited gold toning. I chose to snatch it when the tone was between the warmer and colder tones. Left in longer and the image would have gone colder before going to cold gray. The result is a subtle mottling on the sky of pinkish and bluer tones.
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| Sepia, Gold and Selenium Toned Print |
Finally, I present a print that was toned with sepia, then gold toned then selenium for the field in the foreground. Moreso than the Fohar print this mustardy green color becomes more pronounced.
Conclusions and Next Steps
I reviewed my notes on Fohar lith print and it seems I could achieve better contrast with shorter exposure times.
An earlier version of this print also reduced the exposure even further to the field and left it much brighter.
Fohar does not take to gold or sepia toning.
The gold toner by now has built up a heavy yellowish sludge which I had to decant off as it interfered with judging the color of the print.
I would like to experiment with 'dodging in' a moon/sub orb in the offset tree version.
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