Black and White Photography

Selenium Toner


Selenium toner is a liquid, one-bath toner that generally produces a mildly cool,
purplish color, with rich shadow tones, depending on how you use it. It is generally
packaged as a liquid, one-bath toner. When placed in the toning bath,
the print changes color. With selenium toner, the eventual color depends on
how much you dilute the solution and how long you soak the print. Many
photographers use a more diluted selenium toner to promote increased print
longevity, with only slight or indistinguishable color change—subtle darkening
of the shadows and increased contrast.
As a starting dilution, mix 2 oz of concentrated selenium toner with 32 oz (or 1
liter) of a working solution of fresh fixer remover. Be sure to use fresh fixer remover
or contaminants from previous fixing may react with the toner and cause
staining. With experience and experimentation, you may find other dilutions
that work for you. More concentrated solutions should produce stronger colors
than more dilute solutions.
There are many ways to use selenium toner. Following is a suggested method:
1. Set up three trays, one each of fresh fixer remover, selenium toner diluted
in fresh fixer remover, and water.
2. Place an untoned duplicate print from the same negative in the water tray
for comparison purposes. This step is optional, but it can be especially
helpful when judging the color effects of subtle toners, such as selenium. 

3. Presoak the print to be toned in the first tray of fixer remover for 2–3
minutes to help prevent print staining. Print staining is a common problem
with selenium and many other types of toner.
4. Remove the print from the fixer remover and place it face down in the
toner/fixer remover solution. Rock the tray briefly and turn the print over
so you can see color changes. Compare results with the duplicate print soaking
in the water tray. You can vary the toning time from as little as 2 minutes
to 30 minutes or longer, depending on the degree of color change you
desire.
5. Remove the print from the toner/fixer remover tray.
6. Wash and dry it as you would an untoned print.
To tone several prints at once, place prints one at a time in each solution, and
shuffle them constantly from the bottom to the top of the pile. It will be easier
to shuffle if you first place pairs of prints back to back to each other after all
the prints are wet.