Bleach and Tone

[Thomas Bertilsson]

So today I have printed, bleached, and toned about two handfuls of prints.

Papers used: Ilford MGWT, Forte Polygrade V, Fotokemika Varycon, and Fotokemika Emaks G2.
Developer: Ilford Multigrade
Bleach: Potassium Ferricyanide
Toner: Kodak Sepia II and Selenium

Interesting fact. Forte tones very mildly, needs a lot of bleach time in a strong bleach, like 1+5 solution for about 2 minutes. Gets a pretty nice glow in the highlights with Sepia, but selenium on top adds little.
Ilford Warmtone is crazy stuff. Tones like a world champ with sepia if a mild bleach is used, about 1+10-15 and two minutes in the toner. Looks great. Add some strong selenium toner on top of it, and the highlights really start to glow, as if they were radioactive or something. Stunning!
Fotokemika Emaks: The most beautiful honey golden highlights I've ever seen with sepia. Weak bleach and tone for about 45 seconds. Stunning!
Fotokemika Varycon: One word: Subtle. If you want any WOW out of this paper you gotta really work it, but after you work it, you are rewarded. It needs a lot of everything. Needs a lot of contrast in the neg, needs strong bleach, needs lots of toner to get any glow in the highlights, and needs to really be cooked in the selenium to get anywhere, but oh boy when you've got it nailed, this paper is really beautiful!

Now for my question. After all of this experimentation I'd like to understand what difference different types of bleach does to the toning. I only know of pot ferri, and I get it from the Kodak sepia toner packages.

I know this answer: Read Tim Rudman's book. Well, I am not allowed to spend any money on photography any time soon, so I could use some advice...

Thanks,

- Thomas

[dancqu]

Originally Posted by Thomas Bertilsson

Now for my question. After all of this experimentation I'd like
to understand what difference different types of bleach does
to the toning. I only know of pot ferri, and I get it from the
Kodak sepia toner packages. - Thomas

Your question concerns only the ferricyanide and not the
bromide? Ferricyanide is THE bleach. The bromide is optional.
Togeather the mentioned Kodak product is a bleach and
rehalogenate + sodium sulfide redeveloper.

AFAIK the halide is not essential. I may be corrected. Dan

[Ian Grant]

The halide used in the bleach can make a big difference. If you use Sodium Chloride or Iodide you get a different colour on toning. Chloride produces much greater warmth compared to Bromide. Iodide only gives a slight colour variation compared to bromide.

Also a Dichromate /HCl bleach can be interesting too, but remember this may have a slight intensifying effect as well. Split toning using IT-8 which is a Dichromate/HCl bleach followed by a Pyrocatechin re-developer could be very interesting. This gives quite a density boost due to the combination the chrome intensification and the staining from the Pyrocatechin. The formula is in the DCB 3rd Edition.

Ian

[jim appleyard]

Perhaps Rudman's book is at your local library??? It is worth buying however.

Put it on your X-Mas list. Surely Santa visits your house!

[Mark Layne]

Originally Posted by jim appleyard

Perhaps Rudman's book is at your local library??? It is worth buying however.

Put it on your X-Mas list. Surely Santa visits your house!

Reindeer are afraid to go to Scandinavia.
Varicon seems to be a continuation of the DuPont Varilour formula and you may notice a tendency for silver to migrate to the surface and create a silver sheen, particularly when playing around with secondary treatments such as toners.
Mark

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Dan, from what I can remember being mentioned, toners react differently to different bleaches.
Ian, I am sorry, but much of your language I cannot understand. Too much technical terms for my feeble brain I'm afraid... Sodium Chloride or Iodide instead of what? Or are those actually the bleaches?
Jim - already checked that but thanks for the suggestion. Still on square 1.
Mark - Interesting observation - I never thought Scandinavia was on the Canadian border.... I really like the Varycon paper, but am unsure of the sheen you're mentioning. I fail to observe it while comparing toned / untoned prints. Will the migrated silver present any adverse effect to the print archivally wise?

Thanks guys. I guess what I really need is this:

1. Bleach recipes
2. What effect do the different bleaches have to various toners

Ian touched on both already, but since I get my pot ferri from the Sepia toner Kodak sells - it goes to prove that I don't mix things myself, I don't even have a scale. But I will. And there are several things about bleaches that I need to understand that are on a very rudimentary level.

- Thomas

[Ian Grant]

Have a look on Unblinkingeye there's quite a bit of information there.

Buy Steve Anchell's new 3rd Edition of "THe Darkroom Cookbook" it's due out any time now, that will give you plenty of Formulae and explain the chemicals.

Ian

[Bob F.]

To clarify for those who have not read Tim's book ( ). The "bleach" is more properly called a "rehalogenizing bleach" as it actually consists of two components: pot-ferri and a halogen: most commonly potassium bromide. When you bleach a print for toning you are actually rehalogenizing: turning the elemental silver in the image in to a silver halide (in this case, silver bromide).

The "classic" bleach is potassium ferricyanide (10g) + potassium bromide (5g-10g) in 1 litre of water. Multiply the chemicals by ten to make a 1 litre stock solution that you mix with water to use. The amounts are not critical: teaspoon measures are fine. If the bleach is too slow, add more of each and if too fast, dilute with more water.

By changing the halogen as suggested above to potassium chloride, potassium iodide or a mixture, you get different results. As Ian writes, using a different bleaching agent than pot-ferri may also give different effects.

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thanks, Bob! That's really helpful advice! I'm going to buy a scale after I offload all the cameras I don't need... And Tim's book.

- Thomas

[snallan]

Hi Thomas,

Following on to the advice above, here are a couple of examples of different bleaches. They will vary markedly with type of paper and development used, but these will give you an idea of the effects achievable. I have used a thiocarbamide sepia toner, made up to produce a light brown sepia (unfortunately I don't have any sulphide sepias available at the moment).

The first shows the effect in a ferri/bromide bleach (the normal type supplied in kits), the second after bleaching with a ferri/chloride bleach, and the third, in a completely different, cupric sulphate bleach.

Notice how much richer the browns are with the chloride, and cupric sulphate bleaches, and how with this paper the chloride bleach is quite cool. This is using Ilford MGIV FB paper