Has anyone experience with or hints about toning Forte Polywarmtone paper? Following mfg. suggestions with selenium toner I get a warming effect but the tone is not as deep as I would like. When I immerse the print for a lengthier time the images reddens rather than darkens. Bob

-- Bob Moulton (bmoulton@icc.cc.il.us), April 27, 2000

Answers

Bob, the Forte Polygrade will give deeper tones in selenium than the Polywarmtone which is already a warm paper. The Polygrade (both FB and RC) are the best papers I've ever printed on. I stick with Polygrade and tone heavily if I want warm.

-- Ted Davis (teddavis@exactphoto.com), April 27, 2000.

Recently I found that using plain runnning water as stop bath gives me stronger selenium toning results.(as opposed to an acid stop bath). I use Forte Polygrade paper, tone at 75-80F for 5-10 minutes: 50ml RS toner in 3L water.

-- Hans Berkhout (berkhout@cadvision.com), April 27, 2000.

First there should be a couple of questions answered. What paper developer are you using? What is your dilution of selenium to water? How long are your leaving the paper in the toner? There are a range of tones available on the Forte Poly warm tone papers. The developer you use can really make a difference with these papers. I have tested these papers for years in class with different developers and different dilutions of selenium, what we have come up with is this. Really warm rich browns with a hint of reddish purple use the warm tone (Alta or Agfa)developer and selenium 1:10 for 5 minutes. Rich neutral tones with Dektol or Bromophen ( the bromophen seems a tad redder) selenium 1:10 for 5 minutes. Warm rich browns with creamier highlights use the BW165 and selenium 1:10 for five minutes. Two step fixing process. Soak the prints after fixing for at least 30 minutes, then wash for 5 minutes. Tone the prints, then final wash. We use the TF4 fixer from formulary. We use a very dilute acid stop. For warm tone the Forte is fabulous. You can get an even more varied tone when you decide to bleach an image. Many times I will print down an image, bleach it a bit and then tone. Or print it a bit dark and selectively bleach an area to add some local contrast then tone. Because the paper you are choosing is warm tone it will not get a great deal darker when you selenium tone it. If you are looking for very dark tones use a neutral or cold tone paper. Anybody get their hands on the new Ilford Cold tone yet>?

-- jacque staskon (jacque@cybertrials.com), May 01, 2000.