Kodak Selenium Toner

[pipefish]

Hi guys,

I bought a bottle recently from Ruby.
What are your preferred method of toning your prints? (e.g. concentration, timing, etc). Is it preferable to tone after you've let the prints dry and do you wash the prints after toning?

Also, what safety precautions do you take with it? I understand that the stuff is potent. How do you dispose of it?

Just for info, I use Ilford and AGFA fibre papers and prefer to slightly underexpose the prints.

Alan

 

[canturn]

I always tone the prints right after washing them to remove fixer, as fixer will cause staining (a painful and earlier way to know that your prints are not thoroughly washed). Well, what dilution factor? It really depends on the effect you want. For archival purpose, 1+15 for about 10 min , should give a slight bluish tint to it.

You won't die from inhaling, but selenium dust in the air due to spillage can be a hazard. The noxious smell is actually ammonia, but still can be nasty...

Safety precautions, hmm...let's see.
1. Don't drink it (dur)
2. wear gloves (I wear those disposable surgical ones), wouldn't advise you to do any toning if you've got like cuts on your hands or fingers....
3. Have a separate set of trays, funnel and tongs PURELY for selenium toning. Stuffs like developers and fixers do not go well with selenium, unfortunately.
4. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation. I do it along the corridor outside my house and tray is covered with a cardboard, which is disposed after each session.
5. DO NOT SPILL. Always have plastic sheets or newspaper under the tray, in case of spillage. Spilled selenium left to dry forms selenium dust, which can be inhaled.
6. Wash your hands thoroughly to ensure that not a single trace is present.

If you washed your prints properly and keep the selenium free from contamination, your selenium can last for a long time, almost forever as you can re-use it many many times. Selenium should never be poured into the sink or toilet bowl (actually, none of the photographic chemicals should be), those exhausted /contaminated ones should be disposed carefully and labeled as "poison".

Heard that there's a method of diluting the stock selenium solution with Hypo-clearing agent and you can skip the step of washing the print prior to toning. Only diff is that you need to fix the print twice - normal fixing and sequently with fresh batch of fixer. The prob is that you cannot store the working solution after use and would have to dispose them properly.

I'm still relatively new to selenium toning, so still experimenting with it. Warm-tone fibre-based paper would give the most noticeable colour change compared to the neutral tone paper.

 

[pipefish]

Thanks mate.

Just wondering, how do you dispose of your chemicals?
After you label them as poison, then where do you dump them?

Alan

 

[canturn]

Try calling town council, I think they should be able to do that... It's our responsibility to ensure that such stuffs do not go into places like rivers (though my unit is just 20 metres away from a river, hehe).

Have yet to dispose any cos of so far only clean prints have gone through them. Btw, in order for the selenium to bite in, you'll need to pre soak the dried FB prints for about 10 minutes in water b4 toning..that's if you want to tone an existing print.

 

[photo-file]

Been toying the idea to tone my last 6 months of FB prints with Selenium for long archival.

Just called Ruby (the best hope in Singapore) and they are out-of-stock. No idea they are bringing in anymore.

Hoping to get lucky again after finding Rodinal.

thanks.

 

[foxtwo]

is there a need to purposely print prints darker before toning? sepia toning lightens the blacks, would the same apply for selenium?

 

[pipefish]

is there a need to purposely print prints darker before toning? sepia toning lightens the blacks, would the same apply for selenium?

My selenium toned prints turn much darker after their 'bath'. But I am using a very strong 1:4 dilution on bromide paper (forte and agfa warmtones) to get a purple colour shift. When I use KRST at 1:10 on Ilford Multigrade, the shadow areas darken and cool slightly only.

KRST tones the shadows first and moves on to the highlights so take out your prints once you have obtained the desired effect. If you're observant, you can get a nice split-tone effect!

 

[pipefish]

Been toying the idea to tone my last 6 months of FB prints with Selenium for long archival.

Just called Ruby (the best hope in Singapore) and they are out-of-stock. No idea they are bringing in anymore.

Hoping to get lucky again after finding Rodinal.

thanks.

I have some KRST with me. If you want, I can give you enough to make 1L of a 1:10 solution. Properly refreshed, 1L of KRST should allow you to tone 30-40 8x10 prints.

 

[photo-file]

I have some KRST with me. If you want, I can give you enough to make 1L of a 1:10 solution. Properly refreshed, 1L of KRST should allow you to tone 30-40 8x10 prints.

Hi pipefish, thanks for your kind offer.
Will pm u if I decided to tone the prints.

thanks.