I set out to apply some of the
sepia toning work I did to a good print rather than the test prints I was experimenting with.
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Original Print Gradient Birch
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I started with Wood Walton Gradient Birch. It has some very subtle layers of tones. When I originally printed it I had a lighter and a darker version. I decided to use the darker exposure as most of the time if bleaching is used the image loses some of the original exposure.
I made 3 prints in this fashion with this exposure with 3 minutes Eco 4812 development, stop, and fix. I then washed for 5 minutes, hypo clear for 5 minutes and wash again for 5 minutes. A fourth print I doubled the exposure. This one was part of a my plan to try the
sunlight toning I developed in a previous post. I speculated these would benefit from extra exposure due to the deep bleaching.
So I settled on the following set of prints to try.
1) Simple Sepia: Normal exposure. Tone Sepia only nudge it warmer at 2:00 minutes in 1+100 Sepia MT4 toner then wash and Hypo clear
This is a normal sepia toning meant to warm the print slightly.
2) Complex Sepia/split tone: Normal exposure. Selenium 1+3 30 seconds. Bleach 3 minutes. Sepia 1+100 30 seconds. Eco 4812 3 minutes. An attempt at getting split tones.
2) Sunlight toning Double exposure bleach completely as possible 20:00 minutes. Re-expose in daylight. Fix.
3) Sunlight toning. Normal exposure. Bleach 10:00 minutes. Re-expose in daylight. Re-develop.
Sepia Toning Results
The first result is from a slight sepia toning. As I have said before I am not fond of really warm tones as a matter of personal taste. I have found though that a slight warming looks better than the default neutral/cool tone this paper and developer give.
With this in mind I went with a 2 minute sepia tone in a 1+100 dilution of MT4. I then washed for 2 minutes and used hypo clear for 5 minutes and another water wash at 5 minutes. I present the toned image on the left below along with the untoned version on the right. The toning is not obvious unless one looks at the neutral version beside it.
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| Sepia 1+100 2 minutes (left) vs original (right) |
The second toning print was the same source exposure but an attempt at getting split tone by using selenium along with the sepia and using some bleaching. I selenium toned in a 1+3 dilution for 30 seconds, followed by 3 minutes potassium ferricyanide bleach, then sepia MT4 1+100 for 30 seconds and finally re-develop in my normal print developer Eco 4812. I did my normal washing process between each step.
The result was that it seems over-bleached as much of the detail in the tree bark is lost. Also despite the washing the dried print had a strong yellow stain throughout the paper as seen below.
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| Selenium 1+3 30 seconds bleach 3 minutes sepia 1+100 30 seconds Eco 4812 3 minutes |
I washed this print again for a few hours and the result is much better. Though the fine details in the bark were lost in the bleach and sepia toning. I suspect they are there but lost in the lighter sepia tones.
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| Re-washed version of above |
Here all three side-by-side.
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Simple Sepia, Original, Complex split tone (left to right)
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Sun Toning Results
Sun toning I came up with while working with bleaching and sepia toning. I reasoned that like lumen prints I could take bleached prints that had ben re-halated using potassium ferrocyanide and when exposed to the UV from the sun the latent image would reform.
I made one print at the normal exposure and a second with double the exposure. I bleached the first for 10 minutes in potassium ferrocyanide 1+9 solution. The second I bleached for 20 minutes. My objective was to bleach away as much of the image as possible. Below are some simple photos over time. The image comes up rapidly as the first image had already been in the sun before my camera was ready. The second image in ten minutes later and the third is about ten minutes after that. I placed then in order below to show the progression.
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Sun exposure progression double exposure on right.
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Next I have scans at the end of the day of each image.
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| Gradient Birch f11 #00 45 sec #5 64 sec 10 min bleach + sun |
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| Gradient Birch f8 #00 45 sec #5 64 sec 20 min bleach + sun |
The results at this stage are about what I expected. I had hoped to get a deeper range of tone and color but bleaching always results in an orange to pink hue with heavy bleaching of blacks becoming mottled. It tends to look like lith prints.
As can be seen the sunlight did bring out the bleached portions nicely. It has an almost solarized look to it. The contrast is much flatter. The question is what next.
I had planned to redevelop in Eco 4812 my normal print developer one of the prints. Previously this showed it would deepen the blacks but leave at least some highlights untouched.
The other choice is to fix and wash the print. Any remaining unexposed silver will be removed and the bromide ions will be washed away. The image should be only slightly changed by this. This should make the image permanent.
I will take the first (lighter) image and develop with Eco 4812 as it is light already. The darker image I will fix with rapid fixer and wash.
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| Gradient Birch f11 #00 45 sec #5 64 sec 10 min bleach + sun re-developed Eco 4812 |
Re-developing restores most of the blacks and removes the mottling from the deep bleach. The contrast is brought back as well. The print retains some of the warm tones in the highlights.
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| Gradient Birch f8 #00 45 sec #5 64 sec 20 min bleach + sun fixed |
This print has lightened not unexpectedly. Lumen prints when fixed also lighten considerably as some of the visible silver is dissolved away. This final print looks a lot like a lith print. This could be useful as the process seems more controllable.
Conclusion
I prefer the simple (light) sepia toning as it takes the edge off the image coldness without getting into browns and lower contrast. The re-developed sun toned print has a good split of tones and is more effective than the intentional split tone print. Here are all the results together with the original image in the center for reference.
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| Sun with re-develop, simple sepia, original, complex sepia, sun with fix (left to right) |
Further Thoughts
Something that occurred to me as I write this post is I should think about selenium toning at this point. I could revisit the test print I made in the previous post and try selenium toning those strips to see if I should risk a full print. I have placed this results towards the end of the
Sunlight toning post. The results show the re-developed image goes from gray towards brown with others mostly unaffected.
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