How to warm prints w/o toning?

[john_p]

I just shot some portraits of some young kids for a customer. She

expressed interest in having the prints "different" in some way. She

suggested a warming or toning, perhaps sepia. I'm fairly new to B&W

printing and found that sepia is not practical since I need to make

50 prints and the toning process if fairly time consuming. I shot the

pictures on FP4 and I tried printing on Ilford Warmtone RC developed

in AGFA Neutol WA. I'm pretty happy with the results but there's

always room for improvement. Suggestions? Also, if the pictures were

not shot with a soft focus filter/lens is there a way to soften them

in the darkroom? Thanks!

 

<p>

 

-John

 

<p>

 

-John

[lightcraftsman]

Softening prints in the darkroom is easy. All it takes it a piece of pantyhose and a rubber band to fasten

it over the enlarger lens. Focus the image on the easel, carefully put the pantyhose over the lens and

print away.

 

<p>

 

Warming the prints is more difficult without toning them. The warmtone paper is a good start, but other

than toning the prints afterward I'm not sure how you could add warmth. I use Kodak selenium toner

diluted 5:1 for getting a sepia toned look without the time of sepia toner. If your prints are small you can

tone three to four prints at a time in an 11x14 tray. You could also try a 16x20 tray and cut down the

total time you spend toning. Maybe someone else can come up with a better idea, but using selenium

toner you should be able to get through 50 prints in a couple of hours.

[christian_leue]

I have found that Kodak's standard glacial acetic acid stop bath, if

used in one-and-a-half to double concentration can tone Ilford

Multigrade RC papers a noticable yellow-beige colour in about a minute.

I've found this to be a fairly nice tone, and have used it as a

practical alternative to sepia, although it will not replicate a sepia

tone. The colour is closer to the warmtone papers. Perhaps this will

help.

[scott_eaton]

Man, talking about this makes me want to go out and grab a box of

Agfa Portiga Rapid. Stellar warmtone paper - maybe among the best

that ever was.

 

<p>

 

I've got a neater trick. Print the black and white negs on color

paper and make them any color you want! An example:

http://www.mindspring.com/~wseaton/big6th.htm

 

<p>

 

//scott

[msitaraman]

Do you already have all the negs for the project? If not you could use

T400CN and have a pro lab print it with a slight brown/sepia cast.

Quite subtle if they use Fuji paper. It can be made to print neutral

grey too.

[s_p]

I would second //scott's reccomendation of Agfa Portriga in

Neutol. Portiga also used to have a matte surface fibre based

print that had a very warm softened look to it that may fit

your need; I have not used it in years and do not know if it

is still availible. I think it was called PRN 118.<p>

I have also used Edwal LPD developer with the Ilford MGFB

papers with good results. LPD is one of those paper

developers with which you can vary the mix to control color.

[s_p]

Oh; I almost forgot. If you must have the (ick!) soft focus

effect, you can use the Portriga Matte paper mentioned above (not

really soft focus, but softer than the glossy Portriga since the

surface is pebbled), try a photo matte spray (sprays on the

surface of your photo -- also hides fingerprints or bad spotting

job).<p>

More softness, if you must (ick!) can be had by holding wrinkled

saran wrap (or the nylon mentioned by D Spohn above) under the

lens. I once made a soft focus picture for a girlfriend (really

--- she insisted) by stretching wrinkled cellophane over a

cardboard frame. I cut a hole in the center of the cellophane so

the center of the image would be sharp and held it under the

enlarger lens during exposure. As an added bonus, I used a

circular dodging tool to dodge out the center while I burned in

the edges of the picture, also while using my cellophane. The

print was sharp and clear at the center, dark and blurry around

the edges. I selenium toned the result. She loved it and hung it

on her wall. I thought it looked like I had a filter that was

dirty around the edges and a serious hood vignetting problem. We

broke up, she moved away and I was relieved not to have to look

at that picture anymore.

[mel_brown1]

Stefan's notes on soft-focus methods remind me of a simple technique

I've used several times. Ironically, the last time I remember using it

was on an informal window-light portrait of an ex-girlfriend! She had

very nice, pleasantly smooth skin, but even the soft light cutting

across her 30-something cheek made her skin look a bit harsher than

reality. So I diffused it. "Blasphemy," some of you purists may

exclaim. Ok, but would you like to see photos of your ear hair

published? Don't have any ear hair? Unless you're a girl, just wait...

 

<p>

 

Printing an 8x10, I started with an 11x14 piece of thin plate glass

propped up a few inches over the easel with two stacks of books,

bricks or whatever (cheaper window glass would serve just as well.)

Also, to eliminate contrast-quashing reflections down onto the paper,

it's not a bad idea to drape black cloth or paper over the easel-side

areas of those supports. For the same reason, it would be good to tilt

the glass 10 degrees or so from horizontal. Not doing so, it seems,

could reflect some portion of the light back up into the lens, adding

an unpredictably random amount of flare. Just a thought, not

necessarily a valid one....

 

<p>

 

Then with the enlarger turned on, er, "illuminated," dab petroleum

jelly VERY lightly onto the glass, above areas of the image needing

diffusion or softening. Though I haven't tried this next for this

purpose, I suspect that water-soluble K-Y jelly, a personal lubricant,

would work as well, and would make for a much easier clean-up job.

 

<p>

 

In use, expose the paper as usual, moving the glass around a bit to

blend the edges of the effect, just as you would move a dodging tool.

Your first and only mistake will be to employ too much diffusion.

Correct that with either or both of these methods: use a lot less

gooey stuff on the glass, or pull the glass completely out of the

light path after only some 20-60% of the exposure time. I particularly

like the second method because, properly time-proportioned, it closely

emulates the unique, simultaneous, sharp-but-not-harsh effect of a

soft-focus lens. And it allows localized diffusion. You can feather

out cheeks, chins and under-eye wrinkles while leaving the pupils and

lashes razor-sharp (very similar to the pin-, needle- and laser-sharp

criteria recently discussed here).

 

<p>

 

Your friends and relatives will totally marvel at your talent. Try it;

if you like it, e-mail me large sums of cash money. [:-)

 

<p>

 

Mel Brown

[steve_vancosin]

The trouble with all these diffusion under the enlarger lens methods is that the result will show the dark areas diffusing into the lighter areas - exactly opposite of "real" soft focus. I suppose that if you weren't able to do it in camera, the next best thing would be Photoshop.

[tony_doucet]

I have had good results imitating sepia toning by printing B&W negs on

colour paper. It took a bit of testing to nail the filter pack but

once I did it became an "assembly line" process to crank out as many

sepia toned prints as I wanted without any time required for a toning

step. As for softening in the darkroom, I'm not a big fan of

diffusion methods for printing - I much prefer softening in camera.

But I have had OK results with panty hose material stretched in an

embroidery hoop for part of the total exposure time. Like the filter

pack, it takes a bit of testing to nail down the effect that you want.

[twmeyer]

here's a few cautions....

 

<p>

 

LPD developer dilutions are designed to change the contrast of the

print as well as the color.

 

<p>

 

sprays are NOT archival and will cause problems.

 

<p>

 

color printing is the easiest way to imitate toning, but it's not the

same, it's just different. and you can make a black and white neg ANY

color you want, it's great fun but if you use a lab get ready to do

some serious convincing. they may not be willing to experiment at

their cost, so expect pay for the perfect color and keep the color

correction formula you like for the next time.

[erin_c.]

Hey, anyone who's done the color printing in place of sepia toning go into specifics on how to do this? Do you need a color enlarger?

 

I have old color paper and chemistry, I'd like to try it if possible.

 

Thanks.

 

E.

[ole_tjugen]

Not ann answer to Erin...

 

Have you thought about warmtone developers? "The Darkroom Cookbook" has a long list of recipes for these. I've only tried one, but that made even "coldtone" MGIV RC warm. Since I have no warmtone paper at the moment, I haven't tried that. But I imagine you could get a quite convincing sepia with the right developer.

Neutol WA is not all that warm...

 

BTW, you could alwaus try toning your prints (yes, I know you mentioned your reason for not toning) in cold tea. This colours the paper base, not so much the image itself.