Are selenium or sepia toners effective on RC papers? I use Ilford IV paper and the main purpose for using the selenium toner is to enhance permanance. If effective, please recommend the optimal concentration for the selenium. Thank you

-- Harry Muntanion (hrm@bc.sympatico.ca), October 11, 1999

Answers

Selenium toner will work fine on RC papers. Ilford IV does not take the tone very well, so I would hit it hard for maximum effect, 1:3 dilution. Of course, the words "RC paper" and "permanence" are not really compatable.

http://www.ravenvision.com/rvapeter.htm

-- Peter Hughes (leonine@redshift.com), October 11, 1999.

I find that a moderate concentration of Kodak Rapid Selenium toner (1:10) neutralizes the green cast on Ilford IV RC prints (which is about all the "toning" effect I want anyway) and, according to Ctein's articles in Photo Techniques, should have permanance benefits. Although lots of people say that Ilford RC doesn't take to selenium toner, I've found that toning much longer gives a very distinct purple or eggplant tone, which I dislike. You should probably experiment and see whether you like these effects or not.

-- Chris Patti (cmpatti@aol.com), October 11, 1999.

Although I no longer use Ilford MG IV RC, I conducted a short experiment a while back when the question of the effect of toning on RC papers came up on this forum. I toned only one half of a print and found that there was a definite darkening of the blacks in an Ilford RC print when toned for 15 minutes in 20:1 Kodak Selenium Toner. I could not see any effect at the recommended 6 minutes. Other people indicated that other RC papers do take toning better.

If you are interested in permanance of your images, shun RC papers. If you want the best images, use FB papers. I've done side by side comparisons of the same negative on Ilford MG IV FB and RC and FB wins hands down.

A lot of people including myself have had RC prints start going bad in as little as 3-6 months. I cleaned out my attic this weekend and found some Kodak FB prints that were made in the 50's that looked OK despite the poor storage conditions!!

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), October 12, 1999.

my proofing papers are ilfobrome rc and kodabrome rc,,,and while the kodabrome tones nicely at the 10:1 to 20:1 mix,,,,the ilfobrome requires 4:1 for the same amount of tone which I'll describe loosely as light toning. My fiber papers...no i don't use ilford, tone to the same degree in much more dilute ratios 20:1 to 50:1. I don't selenium tone the rc for permanance....only as proofs.

-- trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), October 13, 1999.