This next one of our ILFORD Photo 'How to' darkroom guides is a very simple video showing how easy it is to add additional warmth and depth in your darkroom prints by using our Selenium toner. Rachel shows you the very simple steps involved using one of her previously printed black and white darkroom photos. Thank you again to Rachel or agreeing to help us with the series. We really hope you enjoy watching them and we'd love to hear if you try Selenium toning after watching this video.
Great video! Best process is to pour chemicals into water, not the other way around; this helps eliminate splashing of concentrated toner if a mishap occurs.
ILFORD makes me happy!! As a student I learnt photography and spent many happy hours in the darkroom experimenting with predominantly IlFORD products. Still have some of my old film cameras and watching these videos is setting off an itch to dig everything out of the attic. TFS!!
Thanks for watching Taylor. We love how enthusiastic Rachel is about sharing her love of printing and teaching others so she was the perfect choice for this series of darkroom 'How to' videos. have you seen the earlier video on Dodging 7 Burning? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-b-keDPtVnGA.html
That was super! Thanks so much! I've been using ILFORD materials since I was 14 in 1972! I started developing film and photos in my parents' laundry room. Studied photo in art college and never looked back. I'm really interested in reintroducing film back into my practice.
Very useful video, thanks for this series. Usually when I am looking for tutorials for classic analoque processes, 98% of results are tutorials how to fake it in Photoshop :D
Hi Rachel, Superb video workshop, as always. A great source for beginners and people like me who are returning to film dev and print after many years of "Digital Only" photography. Btw, would love to know where to get myself a set of those lovely stainless steel dev trays :-) Thanks
The Ilford Warmtone tones much more readily as a direct toner than any other Ilford paper. Standard Multigrade shoes much less color change, and indirect toning with bleach first will give a much more pronounced effect. Direct toning also helps with max density in dark tones, more so than when bleaching and re-developing in the toner.
Are you glad you watched it now ? :) It is a really simple process in it's basic form as Rachel has shown here, and can dramatically change the look of your black and white darkroom prints. There are some great tips for selenium toning on our website www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file/586/product/671/
ILFORD Photo I will try it but I need the toner first :) I don’t like the real warm look. I print with the Glossy fiber and love love it. Hopefully it won’t get to warm looking I only shoot landscapes. And viewed Michael Kenna’s work in a Seattle gallery and his toning was gorgeous and what I want.
Thank you this is super interesting and makes me want to experiment with toning. For future videos I would suggest you record Rachel's voice better (using a dedicated mic?). That would make it easier to understand.
Thanks for the constructive feedback Gael and glad to hear it inspired you. When we shot this we hadn't realised just how echo-ey the room was and with the Coronavirus outbreak, we were unable to get back into the darkroom. The great team @tomfoolery have put some tweaks in place so the rest of the videos in this set should have clearer sound.
I've just ordered some toner and am very much looking forward to testing it. I hope it works with non warm tone paper too? I'll get some of that in the future, but it's quite a lot more money than "regular" paper.
good video, but Rachel did not mention somethig I noticed, that those trays are SILVER, NOT the red/black/gray ones used for sheet negative processing!!- good tip, to stop you mixing up, the print/post processing stages, ie putting the "RAW" paper into the selinum, NOT as you should, the dev/stop/fix trays!!!
What a nice video ! A question, for a french fellow: the paper RC warmtone was in Ilford warmtone developer at the beginning or not ? Long life to Ilford !
The prints had been developed previously in standard Multigrade developer and then were just put back into water at 24 degrees to soak prior to toning.
Hi Frederic! The Ilford Warmtone RC paper I made the two prints on (the reference one, and the one I go on to tone), were both originally developed in standard Ilford Multigrade paper developer (i.e. you don't need to use a special / different paper developer in order to tone your print afterwards). Hope that helps!
0:34 what I see there is more detail in the hair and less max density. But when you toned it I didn't see that difference. Can't see that 0:34 occurring from dry down of your demo either. Do you agree there is a difference? I'm experimenting with in camera Harman positive paper and even very underexposed do have a surprising amount of detail in them when back lit. So if the toner has the results at 0:34 that might bring up the shadow detail on an 'average exposure' print. But if it goes the way of the demo it won't. I don't have a darkroom to preflash so looking at alternatives. I have a tiny space with just enough room for three small trays and safelight. Maybe I should be looking to something that has a bleach step and develop the density by eye?
I would love to see selenium toned prints with the new RC Multigrade V. It is said in its datasheet that it provides better results with toning than the fourth gen RC paper. Could you please show us some examples ?
Thanks for the feedback Tanguy. We do have some toned prints of the new MGRCDL paper in the office, i will try to get them shared once the site re-opens.
Hi I was able to try it with a different brand of Selenium toner though (Rollei), markably more responsive than MG IV (RC). 1:19 5 minutes. I followed up with bleach and sulphur toner (Moersch MT3) which worked nicely. Have not been able to try out a lot… see here: instagram.com/p/B8tH16qozOO/ (iphone picture, color of course is off (less greenish) R.
@@Ilfordphoto I'm about to order the new MGRC and a bottle of selenium, I would love to have guidelines & examples to know what I can expect with different times and dilutions. Thank you for keeping it up with new products :)
@@tanguylejedi7357 I unfortunately can't send you any of this info as I can't access it at the moment. have a look at these pdfs from our website which may be helpful MultiGrade RC www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file/1954/product/1701/ Selenium toning tips www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file/586/product/671/
Wow this is amazing! I need a darkroom to start experimenting 😉 I would like to ask you something regarding Ilford rapid fixer I am a brand new into film and developing. What does it mean 1+4 ratio? If I need to prepare 1000 ml of fixer, how many ml of rapid fixer concentrate I need to dilute in water? 200 ml? Sorry but this thing is overwhelming! Thanks for sharing this video
Hi Juan, glad to hear you're excited to get in the darkroom. It's so much fun and very addictive. You may want to checkout some of our earlier videos in the how to playlist as well ru-vid.com/group/PLarwq93oldzSmUWGGghh71uTyonfODd27 such as processing our first film and making a basic contact print. These may help to answer any additional questions.
It's always a pleasure to watch your videos which always are very well done. That will sounds a bit ridiculous but where did you get your metal developing trays ? I like them very much and wish to buy a set.
Thanks much! I have never toned...partly because I understood that especially selenium toner was pretty toxic stuff. Is the modern toner better? Thanks!
Yes. It is pretty stinky and you need to take precautions as Rachel does when using it but as long as you are careful (as with any chemistry) there shouldn't be any issues. Tech sheet and further info are available here www.ilfordphoto.com/1143207
Hi Kayhan. You can tone after fixing and before washing. If you are using our Selenium Toner then this can form part of the archival sequence for FB prints www.ilfordphoto.com/ilford-optimum-permanance-wash-sequence-fb-papers/#:~:text=The%20ILFORD%20PHOTO%20Archival%20Sequence,permanence%20for%20all%20commercial%20needs.
I need to practice a bit more. At my initial attempt I see very little difference between the two prints even after 6 minutes in the selenium bath. Maybe its temperature is too low?
@@Ilfordphoto Ha Ha !! As they used to say in The Army " Get some IN !! " ( I bet YOU MISSED National Service BUT they got ME and I signed on for 3 years to get a good trade -- did Pathology in the RAMC and used the X-ray Dept Darkrooms to develop and print in Germany with AGFA materials -- Sorry ILFORD)
Dear Rachel, You're talking so fast. I am German and have difficulties to understand everything. I'm only sure, that tray 2 was the selenium toner. Please be so kind and answer me what liquids are in trays 1 and three? Thank you. Greetings from Hamburg
Hi Manfred. The two other trays both contain plain water. The first one at 24 degrees to pre soak and slightly warm the print, the third one at 20 degrees stops the toning
Hi Manfred, yes, I'm afraid I do speak quite quickly. Too enthusiastic! The other two trays are water, just as Ian has mentioned (thanks Ian!). Hope you get chance to try it out. Remember, you can also play/pause the video and there are subtitles too if that helps.
Hi Manfred. I can see that Rachel has replied below. Just in case you need it, there are also CC subtitles available, although these are only in English at the moment.
HI , I CAN HEAR YOU TALKING BUT SOMEONE HAS MUSIC PLAYING NEAR YOU AND IT IS VERY DISTRACTING AND ANNOYING AND MAKES IT VERY DISTURBING LISTENING, PITY, THANK YOU ,, I AM NOT ENGLISH I LEARNED ENGLISH TRAVELLING AND I AM NOT THE ONLY FORIGNER THAT WOULD LIKE TO LISTEN TO YOUR ADVICE WITHOUT THAT MUSIC NOISE ,, THANK YOU ,,,
