Tonings
In this page we report, commented also with images, the formulae of many tonings.
Follow this link or shift this page downward to see the index.
In the chapter "Articles" there are instead the monographic technical articles, like:
· Tonings: general rules: characteristics, treatments, techniques - by Angelo Valentini
· Multiple Toning - by Angelo Valentini
· The masters of tonings: Mario Stellatelli - by Angelo Valentini
TONINGS - formulary
sodium sulphide sepia toning
sulphurselenide brown-purplish toning
iron blue toning
red copper toning
thiourea sepia toning n.1
thiourea sepia toning n.2
sulphide sepia toning
cold tone sepia toning
2 baths blue toning
single bath red copper toning
single bath blue toning
tonings with lead bleach:
blue toning
green toning
emerald green toning
yellow toning
sepia toning
red copper toning
modus operandi
bronze print
pink print
yellow-sepia print
dark blue print
violet-blue print
green print
Alternative tonings formulae:
brown-sepia sulphuring toning
brown and red copper toning
blue iron toning
sanguine copper toning
Pyrochatechol olive-black toning
gold salt toning
aniline tonings
1- sulphide toning
(sepia hue)
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2- sulphoselenide toning
(Purplish brown)
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* the purity of sodium sulphide is very important: its title must be not less than 99%.
You may dilute the solution B, on demand, with an equal amount of water.
Example of local toning with sulphide, selenium and bichromate
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3- iron toning
(blue hue)
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conservation: the solution is stable for many months.
For use:
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The solution must be used immediately after its preparation: it lasts not more than 1 hour.
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4- copper toning
(red hues)
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use immediately after its preparation: it does not keep.
Baths 3 and 4 are used "as is", baths 1 and 2 are used in two steps. In fact, you need using first the bleach solution, applied by means of a brush over the zones you want till the almost complete destroy of the silver image. Wipe off with a blotting paper or paper handkerchieves, then wash for 2-3 minutes under running water, gently rubbing with your fingers. Wipe off again, then apply the sulphuring solution or, if needed, the sulphoselenide one. The sulphurating solution works only in the previously bleached zones. Wipe off and then wash again. If you applied too much bleach solution, going also over unwanted zones, before going on with the toning you can put right applying by brush a common paper developer. Wash and wipe off as usual. The same washing, after a wiping off, must be done at the end of the toning operations, when your copy is ready.
Formulae and article published on Progresso Fotografico n. 4 (April) 1985, pp. 54-59 (personally tested formulae)
Sepia toning
To obtain this toning, known by all because its classical brown hue which remembers us the old photographs of our grandparents, you need to put your prints in this bleach solution, remembering that this process works in two phases: 1 bleach, 2 toning.
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example of a sepia toned image
Remember that between bleach and toning there must be a short but intense washing to free the print from the yellow stain produced by the beach. The same also after the toning.
This bleach bath lasts indefinitively, and is used till it is able to bleach. Put the print in this bath until the image more or less disappears, then wash thoroughly and put the print in this solution:
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Example of a thiourea toning
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3rd sepia toning
Attention! This toning uses sodium sulphide: this chemical exhales a nasty rotten eggs smell, which may give irritation to the respiratory tract and veil your photographic materials. You are suggested to use this bath in open air.
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example of a sepia sulphide toning
This toning may be used pure or diluted, depending on the hues you need (warm/cold).
Cold sepia toning (AGFA Viradon brown toner)
This is a colt toning in a single bath; they sell a 125 ml package of concentrated product. For use it must be diluted 1:50 with water, the time for toning varies from 2 to 8-10 minutes.
Attention! This product contains sodium sulphide, which on contact with acid frees a toxic gas with a characteristic smell (rotten eggs); this may give irritations to the respiratory tract, and may damage the sensible material in your darkroom.
Blue toning (two baths)
This process, based on the formation of ferrous ferricyanide, can be made in two steps: the first bath bleaches the print, the second bath forms the colour.
Put the print in the bleach bath till the image almost totally disappears, then wash thoroughly till the yellow stain disappears. Tone in the second bath, wash and fix in a conventional fixing acid bath, accurately washing at the end. The blue hue can be enhanced in water lightly acidic by hydrochloric acid.
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Example of blue toning with ferric chloride and ammonia
Put the copy in this bath for a time variable between 2 and 10 minutes accordingly with the tone you want, keeping in mind that the process is accelerated with time. In this bath the image turns in a nice blue colour. Use lightly acidic water (1 cc of hydrochloric acid in 1000 cc of water) as last wash, rubbing the image with a cotton flock, in order to obtain pure whites and not blue stained.
In this toning you must avoid using metal pliers; use instead plastic or bamboo pliers.
Copper toning (single bath)
This toning gives hues ranging from a pale brown (bronze) to a bright red, like bright copper, depending on the time you leave the chemicals act on your print. For this toning the baths are combined in a single working solution.
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Prepare the working solution mixing equal parts of bleach and toning just before the use. The greenish solution must clear. Tone from 2 to 12 minutes depending on the desired tone and the temperature of the solution.
You will need slightly underexposed images, as this toning tends to lighten the image. A light image can be strenghthened in a copper solution so composed:
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This toner produces some silver ferricyanide, which must be eliminated by means of a sodium thiosulphate solution (100 g in 1000 cc of water). To clean the whites use a cotton flock wetted with 3% ammonia, gently rub over the part to be cleaned till the metallic reddish veil will disappear. Wash thoroughly and let it dry.
Blue toning (single bath)
The prints bust be a little lighter compared to what you expect after the toning. They must be thoroughly washed before the treatment. Before the use, mix together equal parts (1:1) of the abovementioned solutions, adjust the temperature to 20°C and finally begin to tone.
Leave the print in this solution till you will reach the desired hue, then wash it in a water with some commercial ammonia to clean it from the yellow stain of the toner. Return the print to the blue tone in a solution of hydrochloric acid. The toning solution does not keep well, the separate solutions instead last well enough if you use lightproof bottles.
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to clean the yellow stain:
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If after this bath the image turns lilac or weakens, the blue colour can be renewed in the following bath:
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Finally wash thoroughly the print in running water, then dry.
Tonings with lead bleach
We state in advance that, to obtain a good result, you need well developed prints, stopped in a common stop bath, then correctly fixed and washed. You need using the modern RC papers because the baryta ones easily absorb the chemicals, leading to unaesthetic and not easily removable spots.
Once you have a very good print (deep blacks, pure whites and many gray tones), put it in a bleach bath composed by:
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Leave the print in the bleach till the image will almost completely fade, wash thoroughly in running water till the yellow stain will be cleared, or alternatively in a solution composed by:
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This solution, slightly acidic, helps to remove the yellow stain produced by the ferricyanide speeding up the treatment. During the use this bath may turn yellow (the colour of the bleach) and it must be renewed if the yellow colour persists.
Here below are reported the colours you will be able to obtain by means of the ferricyanide/lead bleach. In place of the lead nitrate you may use also lead acetate, in the same amount by weight, omitting the acetic acid solution and taking care of using distilled water.
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By thys solution you will obtain a blue hue depending on the density of the B/W print, the type and brand of paper, the time of permanence in the toning bath and its temperature.
If after this bath the whites are blue veiled, they can be cleaned putting the print in a solution composed by:
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The ammoniacal bath eliminates the blue veil but also part of the blue tone, which can be restored acidifying the washing water with some hydrochloric acid in the following proportions:
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Abundant washing and drying to finish.
Example of iron toning with lead bleach
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Green toning
If we need a green toned print, we must put the already blue toned print in a solution composed by:
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To obtain light green hues you can rub the print with a cotton flock dipped in ammoni (see the formula above), or in a very diluted solution of sodium hydrate.
Emeral green toning
To obtain this nice colour after having toned green your image, it is enough to wash it to clean the yellow bichromate stain and to put it again in the blue toner, where slowly it will turn from green to bluish emerald green.
Yellow toning
By means of the same formula used to produce the green hue, going directly from the bleach to this solution. Pay attention not to exceed with the bleach, because the yellow toning has effect only if the B/W print has an high contrast, with pure blacks and whites.
Sepia toning
To obtain a sepia image, put the lead bleached print in the following solution:
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Wash thoroughly and dry to finish.
Red toning
To obtain a red image, put the led beached print in a solution made of:
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Note: to obtain a red image it is needed to shorten the time the print is in this solution or dilute 1+2 or 1+3 the bleach solution. It is necessary also to wash thoroughly the print to clean it from the yellow veil, because it may give a dirty print without details in the shadows.
To clean the whites you will need to use the cotton flock dipped in the 3% ammoniacal solution or in 1% sodium hydrate solution.
Modus operandi
Once you have learned the basic formulae for obtaining various hues, by means of some variations to the formulae or to the processes you can obtain many nuances; some tricks about the way to tone will give you satisfactory results.
As a basis you will ever use the lead (nitrate or acetate) bleach, or the ferricyanide/bromide bleach
To have a better control of the speed of the bleach or of the toning, you will need to dilute these solutions 1:1 or 1:2. Usually these dilutions give good results.
As for the toning errors, you will be able to restore the image by means of a lightly concentrated paper developer.
Remember that a sepia image (both from sulphide and thiourea), cannot be restored in B/W anyway.
Bronze hue print:
After bleaching and washing till the yellow veil has been cleared, tone with cupric chloride (red copper), wash some minutes, then develop again the print in an old developer. Wash again and bleach by means of the ferrocyanide/bromide bleach. Finally tone with sodium sulphide diluted 1:2.
The resulting colour will be a nice sepia with bronze reflexions. Wash thoroughly and dry to finish.
Pink print:
After the bleach in the ferrocyanide/bromide solution, wash and tone by means of the thiourea (sepia) bath. Then, after the washing, bleach again by means of the lead bleach and you will obtain a fleshy warm pink colour.
Yellow-sepia print:
Bleach by means of the lead bleach, wash till the total clearing of the yellov veil, then blue tone with the ferric chloride bath, was, then tone with bichromate (green toning).
After these operations, put the well-washed print in a sodium bicarbonate solution: you will see the print slowly turning from green to b/w-sepia. Develop the print in an old developer to obtain the yellow-sepia tone.
Deep blue print:
Lead bleach first, wash till the total clearing of the yellow veil, then tone by means of ferric chloride.
Attention: the longer the print is immersed in this solution, the more intense will be the colour.
Wash, then put the print in a 3 cc/litre ammonia solution, then wash again to finish.
Blue-violet print:
Lead bleach first, wash till the total clearing of the yellow veil, then tone by means of cupric chlorire (red copper), then wash and put the print in the ferric chloride (blue) toner. Leave the print in this solution till it will turn into a intense blue colour; wash in running water, then put the print in a 0.3% hydrochloric acid solution.
Wash the print; it will turn a fine blue-violet colour while drying.
To obtain the violet colour, instead of the hydrochloric acid solution use an alkaline solution af ammonia 0.3%, then wash and dry.
Green print:
By means of this process you will obtain various green hues, from emerald to greenish.
Lead bleach first, wash till the total clearing of the yellow veil, then blue tone by means of ferric chloride, wash again and put the print in the bichromate solution previously used to obtain the yellow: in this last bath your print will become green.
Wash, then put the print in an alkaline solution made of 0.3% ammonia solution. Here you will note a shift in the print colour.
To obtain a greenish colour it is enough to wash the print in water containing sodium hydrate (caustic soda) diluted 0.1%.
Alternative Toners
Formulae
Brown and sepia sulphuring toner:
It is made of two treatments: first the silver image is transformed in chloride or bromide, then by means of a sulphuring bath one obtains the image.
The bath is composed as follows:
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This bath lasts a long time without any special attention.
It quickly bleaches the bromide print images. After the bleach, wash till the total clearing of the yellow veil, then put the print in a freshly prepared 1% sodium sulphide solution, where the image will immediately turn brown.
This formula in two baths may give, instead of fine brown images, nasty yellowish-brown images. This may depend on the brand od the paper, the type of developer you have used, the quality of sodium sulphide, etc.
To obtain righ tones you need correctly exposed and developed images because the flat ones will give a yellowish colour whatever sulphuring agent you are using.
On a normal print, the brown tone will be the more brown the less you leave the print in the bleach.
Brown and red copper toning:
By means of the copper ferricyanide toning you will obtain brown and red colours shifting towards violet instead than yellow. These hues are among the more stable.
These are the more used formulae: prepare the three following solutions, mixing them only for use in their proportion.
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The first solution lasts indefinitively; the second may develop moulds with time; the third keeps well if stored in a dark bottle.
Put the bromide print in this bath and leave it in until it will acquire the desired colour. If you leave it a short time, you will have brown hues, while if you leave it a long time you will have more or less bright red hues.
After the toning make a rapid wash, then dry to finish.
To obtain a more intense print (this may be useful for saving flat prints) you can put the already toned print in a solution containing 10% copper sulphate, sodium chloride and hydrochloric acid.
Blue iron toning:
This toning does not work well with bromide papers. With the other papers you obtain in an easy and safe way the blue iron tone in a single bath or by means of this formula:
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When ready to use, add to the abovementioned solution 2 g of potassium ferricyanide and dissolve it well stirring the solution. This bath does not keep and must be discharged after its use.
You need to leave the print in the toning bath as short as possible, to avoid to stain the whites: it is ever preferable a partial toning instead of a full one.
Avoid also a long washing because the image might fade.
In any way you tone, there is ever some silver salt remaining (ferricyanide or chloride); this salt subdues the brightness of the colour and the image darkens under the light. Finally, this silver compound is the responsible of the metallic surface shown by the copper toned images with time and the exposition to the light. To eliminate this silver salt the prints must be fixed in a lightly acidic solution of thyosulphate, like the follolwing:
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After a few minutes of immersion in this bath, prints must be washed for 10 minutes (not more). In this way your images will be brighter and will last a long time.
Sanguina copper toning
You can obtain a nice sanguina hue by means of a copper treatment combined with the iron one. The prints must be perfectly fixed and washed carefully, in order to eliminate every trace of thyosulphate.
Prepare a solution of:
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Put the print in this image, where it completely bleaches. Wash in running water rubbing the surface with a cotton flock to eliminate the copper salts remaining over the surface, then put int in a solution made of:
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Then thoroughly wash the print. Put it in a 2% copper chloride solution, where it will turn into a fine sanguina-red colour. Wash thoroughly and dry to finish.
Pirocatechol olive-black toning
The colour of this toning is black-brown or warm-tone black.
This treatment needs normally developed prints, bleached in a acidic bichromate bath, then developed again in a pirocatechol bath.
Use the following baths:
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For use, mix 2 parts of A solution with 10 parts of B solution, and add 40 parts of water, This is the working solution for the bleach, which we will call C.
The prints bleaches very rapidly in this solution at 20°C. Then wash tem thoroughly till the yellow veil will be cleared.
Make the developing (toning) in this bath:
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The developing temperature is not very important; the time varies, depending on the contrast of the print, from 1 to 3 minutes.
The bath is rapidly oxydised by the air and it must be discharged when it becomes blue-greenish. After the development wash the print for about 15 minutes in running water, while fixing is not needed. Remember that a good washing after the bleach is important so that the developer can work well on the print.
To prepare the C bleach solution mix 40 ml of A solution + 260 ml of B solution + 700 ml of water, obtaining 1000 ml of ready-for-use solution.
Gold salts toning
Prepare the gold toning bath from the following solutions:
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This solution lasts indefinively in well cleaned dark bottles. A solution is used as mother solution for preparing the toning bath.
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Put the print in the B solution for about 10 minutes at 20°C. You will see only a imperceptible variation of the tone of the image. Wash about 10 minutes, then dry.
Aniline tonings
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The formulae above is useful for the tonings called also "Mordanting", a less complicated process than the inorganic tonings.
Attention: the mordanting toning enhances the contrast, so the prints to be toned by this process need to be less contrasty.
Angelo Valentini