Selenium Toning of Black and White Negatives to Increase Contrast

In this video, I describe the procedure I use to tone black and white negatives in selenium to increase contrast.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• film proessing
• developing film
• selenium
• selenium toning
• expanded development
• Tom Johnston
• Tom Johnston Photography
• darkroom
• film development
• analog photography
• large format photography
• zone system
• zoneIII
• apug

[Malibucompany]

Question-- At what temperature are you processing at that gives you 6 minutes in selenium for a 1 zone expansion?

[ZoneIII]

@Malibucompany Thanks for the question! Although temperature is not critical when toning, I tone at my standard 68 degrees Fahrenheit. It just so happens that my darkroom is almost always 68 degrees so I don't bother to use the precise control that I would use when developing film. Thanks!

[kentuckyburbon1777]

Question from a newbie, is there a different look that you can achive adding contrast this way, as apposed to using filters or toning the print? I'm new to darkroom printing and i've just recently started toning fiber, thank you, i'm going to experiment with this!

[kentuckyburbon1777]

@kentuckyburbon1777 thanks! I think i understand your response. I was looking through an old Kodak book about "making negatives" and they talk about a rule-of-thumb of being able to read a newspaper through a negative and judging highlight density as wether you can read the bold print, supposedly in some cases you want denser highlights etc.

[ZoneIII]

@kentuckyburbon1777 I have heard that old rule of thumb about being able to read a newspaper through a negative too but I have never actually tested it. But, just based on experience, I am pretty sure that an ideal negative will have denser highlight densities than that rule-of-thumb suggests. I may take an ideal negative and test it out. If I can explain things more clearly, just email me or send a message to me and I will be happy to respond. The character limit here limits things.

[ZoneIII]

@kentuckyburbon1777 Just in case you haven't checked your YouTube inbox, I sent you a more detailed explanation of selenium toning. There is no character limit in the messages like there is here.

[ZoneIII]

@ZoneIII The primary purpose for toning a print is to achieve archival processing so the print will last longer. But selenium toning can also produce anything from subtle to profound visual differences as well. Selenium toning of negatives is not really necessary but it does give you additional control and it will presumably protect the negative as it does with print. It will make no difference in print color, though. It's really just a tool to increase negative contrast for "flat" negatives.

[ZoneIII]

@kentuckyburbon1777 It's not so much that the look of the print is different but toning the negative increases the contrast of the negative so that it's closer to your ideal starting point for printing. However, you can also increase the contrast of the print using contrast filters when printing. Print toning is different; it can actually add color and richness to the print as well as increasing the contrast to some extent depending on the paper, toner dilution, and toning time.

[ZoneIII]

@blankets1453 I use just plain tap water for pre-soaking. In case you might have wondered if I used distilled water, the only time I use distilled water to for mix my developers (both b&w and color) for consistencyy and also for my final rinse of the ifilm - with a couple drops of Photo-Flo added.. For everything else, I just use plain tap water. Thanks!

[blankets1453]

What do you use for pre-soaking? thanks.