Graindrop #10 - Make it Archival

Selenium Toning Silver Gelatin Prints Made from 4x5 Negatives

I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable printing in the darkroom. I’m moving around with a lot more confidence, I’m wasting a lot less paper, and I’ve gotten pretty good at adjusting exposure off of my test strips fairly quickly. Since I don’t operate well on sustained confidence levels, I decided it was time to introduce selenium toning to my fiber based prints. I spent a lot of time learning about how selenium toning increases Dmax (maximum density/deepest black), how the conversion from silver to silver selenide increases the archival properties of silver gelatin prints, and various potential tonal shifts that can occur during the process. If you made it through that sentence and you’re still reading, you’re a real hero and I thank you.

Here are the scans of the negatives I’ll be working with:

Very Basic Negative Scans

Before I share the prints, I think it makes more sense to go a bit into what I actually did.

Left to right: Acrylic sheet, rear windshield wiper (yep,) and trays of water, hypo clear, selenium rapid toner, water with soaking prints (out of frame, fan and open garage door for ventilation)

I went with a 1:9 ratio of selenium toner and agitated for 3 minutes for this first go. When I first start on something that impacts the look of a photograph, I want to flavor-blast it. Think sliding a slider in Lightroom WAY too far, then gradually bringing it back to tasteful levels. I didn’t ruin a dish towel to not see some tonal shifts.

The start of the production line, selenium on the left, water on the right

In a few of these shots with the water tray of untoned prints next to the selenium tray, you can really see some difference. On this 11x14 print it felt incredibly clear what was happening, and I really love it.

After about 2 and a half minutes of toning on the left, untoned on the right

Darks too dark

About here is where I begin realizing that if I’m going to print with the intention of selenium toning, I need to dial back the contrast and up the exposure a bit on my prints straight off the enlarger. I definitely ended up losing some shadow detail on these prints, which can work for some things (I’m thinking some studio work) but for landscapes this is now something I need to keep in mind and print accordingly.

They look so pretty before they curl up like dead bugs

After the prints went through their appropriate wash in the shower for a while, they dried overnight, curled up, and were ready for the dry press to flatten them back out.

Dry mount press set around 180-190 degrees

After about a minute in the dry press I end up with some beautifully flat and finished archival prints sandwiched between acid-free mat board, two apple boxes and a sandbag.

So here’s the before and afters with a small caveat. The before images were scans of the prints. They’re fine-ish. When I went to scan the toned prints, I was incredibly unhappy with the accuracy of the image vs the print. I’m not sure why this was more apparent toned vs untoned, but it was. I’m a studio photographer so I went to my safe space: I set up two diffused umbrellas and did a top-down e-comm style shoot. I used an X-Rite color checker and and created a custom color profile so the “toned print” image should be pretty dialed.

Another note: You’ll see two versions of the cliff/wave shot. The images toward the end were printed on some new-to-me expired Ilfobron paper that I’d never heard of, let alone used. I like it…wish they still made it. Untoned followed by toned:

First you'll see the untoned version followed by the selenium toned version

I can’t imagine I’ll ever pass on selenium toning. It’s just what I want a silver gelatin print to look like, archival qualities aside. If you’re printing and haven’t given this process a go, I can’t recommend it enough. In fact, I just printed and toned some studio shots today and I’ve never seen darker, richer blacks in any print, at least that I’ve made. It’s just so beautifully silver gelatin to me. Eventually I’d like to go through the process on Some really nice cotton rag paper, or some studio shots on this really neat cool tone paper, but it all costs money. Maybe once I sell a print I’ll reinvest into one of those options.

Thanks for taking the time to check out the selenium toning process and for supporting what I do here. I’d love to hear what you think of the results!