Gold Toned Vandyke

[sanking]

For those interested in printing with the iron processes I have a new article at http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/GTV/gtv.html

People have been making gold toned vandykes and kallitypes for a long time but my article describes specific working procedures designed to optimize Dmax (or refletive shadow density) and to tone to completion in order to replace as much of the silver image as possible with gold metal. If worked correctly this printing method should give prints that are comprised to a very high percentage of gold metal, giving them high image permanence.

Sandy King

[Philippe Grunchec]

Sandy, congratulations, your article is really excellent!
Do you think it would be possible to use Tetenal Goldtoner for that purpose? Should it be diluted? Thanks in advance for your answer!

[evan clarke]

Nice article, Thanks, Sandy...Evan Clarke

[sanking]

Sandy, congratulations, your article is really excellent!
Do you think it would be possible to use Tetenal Goldtoner for that purpose? Should it be diluted? Thanks in advance for your answer!

Hi Philippe,

Thanks for your generous comment.

I believe it should be possible to substitute Tetenal for the formula I proposed, and/or other gold toners, though you might have to use a different dilution than the one used for silver gelatin printing. The main issue is that when you tone to completion the image should be bluish/black, not purplish/black as you see in many gold toned vandykes.

Sandy

[cjbroadbent]

Sandy, A big thank-you for the clear and detailed description of the process. I've been following your posts, here and elsewhere, for a few years and have re-learned good practice from them.

[Joe Smigiel]

Sandy,

I have been toning VDBs in Clerc's thiourea-gold formula for awhile now and I really prefer the bluish hue the gold imarts. However, I usually tone to get a split-tone in the color between the reddish VDB and the purple-blue of the gold. You mention somewhere that toning fully to blue rather than purple-blue converts about 90% of the silver to gold and that is much preferred from an archival standpoint.

Can you relate any figures on just partially toning with gold? Does the gold coat some of the silver rather than replacing it and what would you assume the life expectancy of such a split-toned print to be?

Thanks again for the article.

Joe

[Mark Sampson]

Sandy, thanks for a great article; it's well-written and researched. This printing process is one I'd consider if I ever go back to 8x10.

[sanking]

Sandy,

Can you relate any figures on just partially toning with gold? Does the gold coat some of the silver rather than replacing it and what would you assume the life expectancy of such a split-toned print to be?

Thanks again for the article.

Joe

Joe,

I can not give any specific figures regarding the replacement of silver with gold with partially toned prints but from my perspective it seems pretty certain that unless all of the image is very bluish/black (and not purplish black which indicates that toning has not been to completion) then those areas of the print that are not bluish-black contain a fair amount of silver.

One could test this in practice by placing a print in a reducing bath and noting how much image density is lost after five or ten minutes. A print that is comprised mostly of gold metal should lose very little density. On the other hand, silver will be easily bleached.

Sandy

[Philippe Grunchec]

Why not tone the shadows with selenium and the highlights with gold, as "we" do with regular prints?

[D. Bryant]

Why not tone the shadows with selenium and the highlights with gold, as "we" do with regular prints?

Here is the short answer. Selenium toners don't play nice with VDBs. The most common selenium toners use ammonium thiosulfate which will quickly degrade a VDB image, such as Kodak Rapid Selenium toner.

KRS can be used but only if extremely diluted which greatly diminishes the toning ability. Experimentation is the key if you wish to use these.

Also for maximum image permanace gold toners are superior to selenium toners.