Revisiting Wye Valley Forest: Part IV Making Small Improvements

I decided to try and make some small improvements based on my project print in the previous post in this series. I had a second lith print of the same type as before. The lith development proceeded slightly further on this one making it slightly darker. 

Source lith print

This one I applied selenium toner on the forest floor though this time with a swab of cotton rather than the riskier soaking. The 1+3 concentration means it does not take much or long for the toner to work. 

I then sepia toned the darker left and right sides about 3 minutes before giving an overall sepia tone for about a minute. The resulted in warmer tones on the sides and a neutral tone in the center. 

Selenium and sepia toned version

This sets the stage for iron toning. 

Added Iron Toner

Here is the iron toned version. The sepia toned sides still retain their warmth this time. Not too interesting. I am hoping ammonia fogging will spruce it up a bit. 

Ammonia fuming

This helped moderate the cyan/green in the center highlights which is an improvement. From this result I can choose a cooler image like this or revert to the warmed pre-iron toned image. 

I think the sepia on the sides is heavier and so perhaps does not take so much iron toning. Also, sepia toning the center portion this time kept more iron from being taken up there as well. This led to more separation of colors but also the blues were reduced as well. 

I can compare it with the original project print here... 

Original Project Print