hello,

i had asked this question over at APUG and i am not getting too much feeed back. i think it may be because of the holiday......everyone is home and not "on the clock" doing their photo stuff. so maybe you all can help:

i have been printing VDB for several months now and all is going fairly well. i am enjoying the process very much. i am participating in an ULF print exchange and have been doing 11x14s.

today was the first time i tried toning the VDB. I toned after fixing. i learned a few things. 1ST 1:20 is too strong for VDB. so i ruined the test print pretty fast as you already can guess. so i read the directions. i diluted it to 1:250 (about 4ml per 1000ml) and it reduced much slower.

so how long do i have to tone to get the archival qualities of selenium? the prints are not fully dried but i like the original brown better than the selenium brown. the selenium seems a bit more red. just a hint but the darker brown was more to my liking. so can i get the brown i want and still have a more archival print?

i also toned some regular silver prints in 1:20. i found that it took a very long time to get a color change from my ilford warmtone RC paper. should i be using a higher dilution to get the desired color?

i also used some agfa fiber paper. i did not leave it in for very long....maybe 4-6 min. again, no noticeable color change. the same question again, how long do i need to tone to get the archival qualities?

i have read that the selenium will last a long time. how long? how do i figure about the replenishing bit? if i am using my 1:20 bottle and the times start running long how do i determine how much more selenium to add to keep it about 1:20? am i going to get sludge? just filter it right?

i am sure i have more questions. as always. tanks for the help. i will try and shoot a digital picture of two of the prints tomorrow after they are dried to show the color differences...until then thanks.

okay one more. if i am fixing my VDB for 3-4 min does this make it archival? can i skip the selenium? i am able to fix for this long and still get the look i am after. so i was thinking maybe this was good enough. thoughts?

eddie