hi, i was just wondering if anybody had any useful information on selenium/sepia split-toning. i am interested in using both toners, but am not sure how long to leave the print in the selenium, and subsequently the sepia. i will be using FB paper, so it should take nicely. anyhow...any information that you can pass along, would be greatly appreciate it.

thanks, levin

-- Levin Haegele (lhaegele@hotmail.com), November 04, 1999

Answers

I usually prefer the result the other way round, i.e. sepia first. How much sepia bleach and tone, or selenium tone, is very much up to how you like the image, there is no 'correct' answer. I often like very dilute bleach, for about 1 minute (to just slightly bleach the highlights), then sepia bleach for about 1 minute (the time isn't critical), then selenium, about 1 minute (again, not critical). This means the print has sepia highlights and selenium shadows.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), November 04, 1999.

Alan, Do you rinse between bleach/toner baths? Do you tone after development/fixing - i.e. in the same session?

Also, are there any examples of your results on your page? I'd really like to see someone's successful examples!

Levin, Olivia Parker used to do this very successfully with Azo and just Selenium, getting a split-tone effect, neutral blacks and highlights with sepia toned mid-tones. You can read about it in Jim Stone's book - can't recall the title at the moment. She developed the print in Selectol and toned after fixing, not allowing the print to dry after fixing and rinsing. She also thought the temperature of the developer affected the outcome. I have an article in an out of print magazine which describes achieving the same affect in more detail if you'd like me to photocopy and fax/mail it to you.

I would certainly like to hear of your results as this process has intrigued me for a while. I have not been able to produce consistent affects though.

-- Sean yates (Yatescats@yahoo.com), November 04, 1999.

Yes, I wash between everything. Dev, fix, wash as usual. Sepia bleach, wash, sepia tone, wash, selenium tone, wash. I often selectively sepia tone the image, i.e. only certain areas.

No, I haven't put any examples on-line, partly because they are larger than my flat-bed scanner, so I would have to re-photograph them with slide film.

A new book is around, "Beyond Monochrome", by Tony Worobiec and Ray Spence, with some lovely examples.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), November 05, 1999.

I found the information on split toning in "The Photographer's Master Printing Course" by Tim Rudman useful.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), November 05, 1999.

Sean, here is an example of a sepia/selenium split toning. The technique I used was the one described by Alan Gibson, but with a 10 minutes selenium (1+19). Is it successful? You decide. http://geres.adm.uminho.pt/~ricardo/marvao.jpg

-- Ricardo Janeiro (ricardo@ci.uminho.pt), November 05, 1999.

I have tried Olivia Parker's method, using Azo, with zero success. If anyone comes up with a sure-fire method, I would love to have them write it up as an article for publication on my site.

Sometimes, with certain papers, if you put them in brown toner for a very short time and remove them before they are completely toned, they will split. Unfortunately, it is not consistent.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), November 05, 1999.

Thanks very much for all of your input. i'll be curious to see how it goes when i try it this week.

thanks, again....levin

-- Levin Haegele (lhaegele@hotmail.com), November 06, 1999.

I love Ricardo's picture, although it doesn't really show the full split-toning effect.

Remember that both toners try to convert the silver to something else (silver suplphide or silver selenide). If you fully tone with one toner, there is no silver for the other toner to convert. (OK, that is very simplistic, sometimes the second toner will have a slight effect, but it is usually very subtle.)

If you do the sepia first, try with a very gentle bleach, so gentle that you can hardly see any bleaching. Then there should be plenty of silver left for the selenium toner to work on.

The reason I wash between each stage is to prevent contamination of the baths, which make the whole thing more predictable. However, the three solutions can be used together, at the cost of reduced control.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), November 06, 1999.

Alan, I don't fully tone my prints in the sepia toner. As you described in your post, I bleach the print for 30 secconds to 1 minute, wash the print well and tone it in the sepia toner for a minute or so. At this time I have a print with the warm black shadows and light brown highlights. If the print is bleached for longer, lets say 2 or more minutes, the shadows and midtones will turn brown. This is not what I am looking for. Again I wash the print well and tone it in seleniun 1+19 for 10 minutes. After 4 minutes in seleniun you can start to notice that the highlights will start to get a very beautiful pinkish cast. If you keep a second sepia toned print in a tray with water, you can easily see the changes the selenium is making in the first print. Good luck with your toning.

-- Ricardo Janeiro (ricardo@ci.uminho.pt), November 08, 1999.

Ricardo

It may be that my monitor isn't too hot. I can't really see the split. Then again it may be that the image is too contrasty to show the subtler effect Parker got.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), November 11, 1999.