How do i get my prints to look old fasioned? You know, with a brown tint.

-- Jamie Moodenbaugh (moody@olynet.com), October 24, 1999

Answers

Sepia toning. See threads in this forum on this topic.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), October 25, 1999.

There's something called Fotospeed Antique Dye which makes the whites turn "yellow" in the way that really old photographs can look, according to the company that distributes Fotospeed in my country. I haven't tried it yet... but that would certainly make the print look old-fashioned. I suppose you could combine it with brown toner or sepia toner.

-- Peter Olsson (peter.olsson@lulebo.se), October 26, 1999.

A couple of other ways are tea/coffee staining. Pat

-- pat j. krentz (krentz@cci-29palms.com), October 26, 1999.

There are quite a few ways:

1) Use a so-called "Antique" paper such as that produced by Tetenal. I think Kentmere also offers something like that.

2) Sepia-tone your prints. Toning only affects the silver image, the whites remain white. Therefore, this looks particularly "antique" when applied to a warm tone paper, or when combined with tea staining.

3) Tea staining makes the whites of the print turn yellowish-brown, depending on the kind of tea. It leaves the blacks unchanged. Also, tea staining has archival benefits because it tans the gelatin.

I have read in a book that a truly old-looking photo results when you under-expose the print and sepia-tone it. (To stress this: Do not under-expose the negative, but the print!) I would add tea staining to this, as explained above.

In the olden days, films were mostly orthochromatic. You might therefore also want to use ortho films developed in Beutler developer.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), October 26, 1999.

Also in the old days portraitts were done on glass plates, developed in Pyro, and contact printed on platinium, albumen, and silver rich papers, albumen papers had a depth to them that I have never seen matched by any modern paper, Bergger has a paper called silver Supreme which should come close. If you want the lips of your female subjects to show a little better of even their complexions use some blue lipstick and light blue rouge (with orthochromatic film). Pat

-- pat j. krentz (krentz@cci-29palms.com), October 30, 1999.

Also in the old days portraitts were done on glass plates, developed in Pyro, and contact printed on platinium, albumen, and silver rich papers, albumen papers had a depth to them that I have never seen matched by any modern paper, Bergger has a paper called silver Supreme which should come close. If you want the lips of your female subjects to show a little better of even their complexions use some blue lipstick and light blue rouge (with orthochromatic film). Good Luck, Pat

-- pat j. krentz (krentz@cci-29palms.com), October 30, 1999.