Selenium toning prints + printing lighter

[reellis67]

I agree with Bob - this treatment produces a nice sense of depth in the print that I haven't been able to get otherwise.

- Randy

[dancqu]

Nelson's, BTW, will make increase contrast by
darkening the blacks, but will have an increasing
bleaching affect on the midtones and highlights
based on time in the toner. Go figure.

OK. I've got it figured. Nelson's is a hypo-alum
toner minus the alum. So it's a hypo toner. The
little silver added is typical of hypo-alum toners.
As with hypo-alum toners it's inclusion is to
retard the bleaching effect.

The gold acts as a catalyst. Bath temperatures
run 15 to 20 degrees below those of hypo-alum.
So, no alum needed. The minute amount of gold
present, directly and indirectly, alters the color.
In essence Nelson's is a sulfide toner. As such
there should be no doubt as to the archival
quality of your prints.

Your's is off-the-shelf or Home-Brew?
No matter the amount of silver added at
start or the amount leached into the solution,
bleaching may need to be lived with. Have you
tried it at room temperature? Although slow, one
hour, it is reported to work. Dan

[MurrayMinchin]

I've seen that people sometimes selenium tone prints days and even weeks after making them and that makes me wonder how they know what the final print will look like?

Good point. I find that toning can have a huge impact, and it's often hard to predict exactly what will happen when toning at a later time.

I went for an all alkaline process where I can go; developer, water stop, first fix (in my case TF-3), second fix (TF-3 again), and then straight into the selenium toner. A finished wet print in around 7 or 8 minutes. It's so convenient I even selenium tone test strips when I'm getting close to making big decisions.

Murray