tea toning overdone, need restoration tip

[barry shields]

Karen printed large images then toned some with tea and it looks too strong. What reverses the tone and leaves her an archival print?

[David R Munson]

I'm not sure if this would work, but it couldn't help - have you tried washing it for a while?

[MattO]

"I'm not sure if this would work, but it couldn't help "

Hmmm, I wonder why he should even try it?

[Armin Seeholzer]

Hi

But it back in water with a bit of wash aid should help quite well! But at the end always just water! Good luck!

[Roger Scott]

Hi Barry,

As previously mentioned I'd try a good wash/soak with wash-aid first and hope that'd do the trick. Failing that perhaps someone who's encountered the problem can offer more experienced advice but I'll offer you some extreme suggestions in the hope that they may be useful - if only so afterwards you can be thankful that you didn't use them. :-) If a simple wash doesn't work it might be worth trying something like Kodak HE-1 which is a Hypo Eliminator that contains dilute Hydrogen Peroxide and Ammonia, followed by a good wash. This may help to bleach out the tea. Note that there has been some debate about how HE-1 affects archival stability as apart from the use of peroxide it converts all the thiosulfates in the paper to sulfates which are then completely removed during washing. I would certainly recommend you try it on a small test print first as it's not worth persuing if it doesn't work. Although I'm not sure it's applicable someone might be able to tell you if you can bleach tea toned prints with reducer. It works for untoned prints but I'm not sure what'll happen if they're toned. Unfortunately with this method you need to fix the print as you progress which often leads to overfixing and the need to use HE-1 to get rid of the hypo afterwards. From a print perspective I've only heard of it being used to bleach small areas which have been missed during dodging and is more to do with having too much silver on the print than overdoing the toning.

Good luck.

[Stan. Laurenson-Batten]

Hello Barry. This is just my cup of tea! To reduce the tone, use plain water with adrop of wetting agent. It may take an overnight dunk but it will work! If the tea bag tone is not to your likeing, then try a different brand of tea. It is amazing just how many tones of brown and red you can get from a bag of simple tea leaves. I find that 'Yorkshire tea Bags by Taylor of Harrowgate' give me the most pleasing results. Good Stewing. Stan.

[Chad Jarvis]

As a last resort I would try Farmer's Reducer (potassium ferricyanate). Try adding 10ml of a 1% solution to 1 liter of water. Soak until you reach the desired effect, but keep a watchful eye for overbleaching. You'll need to refix and wash after treatment.

[Deniz]

I prefer coffee toning.. kinda wakes my prints up.. :)

[David R Munson]

"I'm not sure if this would work, but it couldn't help "

Hmmm, I wonder why he should even try it?

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You know what I mean! :P