Hi,

I've been reading Tim Rudman's book on lith printing and tried the "lith look-a-like" effects described. One involves partial bleaching in ferricyanide/bromide bleach, and then toning directly in selenium after washing. Some redevelopment does occur in selenium, and I get nice orangey-brown tones that resemble a lith print. However, after processing a single print the selenium solution starts to cloud, and after two it has developed into a nasty dark sludge which stains subsequent prints. Am i doing something wrong? This is expensive! I am being careful not to overfix and to give an adequate wash before bleaching and before selenium toning. I'm using multigrade IV RC and Kodak rapid selenium toner. The bleach is standard 10% ferri/bromide diluted 1+12 to slow it down a bit.

Any suggestions welcome - anyone else tried this?

Thanks

Guy

-- Guy Brown (g.brown@dcs.shef.ac.uk), May 26, 1999

Answers

The sludge formation is a by-product of the selenium toner reacting with the bleached image. The only thing you can do is mix fresh toner when the solution starts to cloud. You may need to do this for every print. I have done 16x20's and had to mix a new toner solution for each print.

-- steve (swines@egginc.com), May 26, 1999.

Guy: What I would suggest (and do) is re-wash the print for 1 minute, then re-fix, then wash for 1 minute. All before inserting in selenium. Then tone or 'finish' in selenium, then wash once again. This works very well, and the selenium lasts much longer.

Mike

-- Mike W. (mbworld@adan.kingston.net), May 30, 1999.