Toning with tea

[Daniel luu Van Lang]

Hi All, For quite a long time, I was looking for a brown toner that could provide the sa me tone as very olds albumen prints, unsuccessfully! Yesterday, I tried Tea...and it works great! The border is toned too, so the pri nt looks like an old one (FB paper, of course). Aesthetic is great, but what's about longevity? does the tea attack the image? a nybody has an experience? any feedback would be great!! Regards

[Arne Croell]

It should be pretty stable. I have done it, too, as long as twenty years ago, and the color is still there. Just think about how hard it is to remove tea stains from fabrics.... Tea actually is not a toner in the sense that it alters the color of the image-forming silver, like a sulfide toner does, but it is adiscoloration of the base (paper and gelatin coating). The black silver image is unaffected.

[joe freeman]

I do not have experiance using it like the other two posters, but according to professors that I had at the art institute of boston, they all said that it is not archival. But hey, who cares. Print it again in 25 years if it starts to look a little gloomy.

[Sandy Sorlien]

Sally Mann tones with tea. Coffee works, too, as I discovered when my brother spilled an extra-large cup of it all over a table where I had 30 of my 8x10 prints spread out. He managed to hit every print!

I've tried tea a few times. The best kind to use are the cheap, garden-variety black teas, as they have the most tannin.

[bob moulton]

At a workshop a few years ago Jay Dusard demonstrated tea toning using simple bags of instant tea (he joked that Tetley was the photographer's tea de jour!). Anyways, the process worked quite well. An added feature is that tea, unlike some toners, possesses few toxic and environmentally harmful ingredients. Try drinking Selenium toner sometime.

Asked whether or ot the process was archival Dusard or his co-teacher Michael Schultz pointed to oriental papers toned with tea that had lasted a few thousand years.

Seriously, the process is well worth an afternoon's experiment. Bob

[Daniel luu Van Lang]

Thank you for your contribution, as usual, this forum is very helpful for any concern one may have! Regards.

[Jonathan Brewer]

Is Black tea something that is marked on the package? Or is just marked tea? Is instant coffee going to work? or are we talking about percolating?

[John Kasaian]

FWIW, I've had spilled coffee take the little blue lines right off ordinary binder paper. It was pretty bad coffee though!

[Sandy Sorlien]

Jonathan,

I don't think it usually says black tea. Any cheapo regular tea is good - Tetley, Master Choice, Milford, Lipton. It doesn't work on RC paper. Couldn't tell ya about the coffee. Get in there and experiment!

Cheers,

[domenicco]

Try also some green tea , good one . fresly brewed, and tone your paper with it! Also try different dilutions , mix it with coffe, experiment, have fun , and remember that tea usually lowers the conrtrast of the image, so print accordingly. It is a great medium...

[Jonathan Brewer]

I will try this......Domenico did you get my j-peg safe and sound, if so, e-mail me.

[John Elder]

Tom Baril, photographer and master printer, formerly Mapplethorp's printer, tones his prints with tea. They are beautiful!

[Larry Cuffe]

This is not the only photographic use for tea. I have developed both paper and film with green tea used with a suitable base. For the film it was a very slow speed developer, say 30 mins and a 2-3 stop loss in speed, however this demonstrated that it was a true developer and not just activating a built in developer in the film. All the best

[oolongtea]

You must have heard the phrase "what's old becomes new again",While looking for a toner I stumbled upon tea and created my own home brew to my amazement it worked and to this day,they are still looking as good as day I printed and tea stained them.It really works.For more info about tea,tea uses,tea products please visit my site http://mytealogic.com/ :)

[Greg Lockrey]

This is not the only photographic use for tea. I have developed both paper and film with green tea used with a suitable base. For the film it was a very slow speed developer, say 30 mins and a 2-3 stop loss in speed, however this demonstrated that it was a true developer and not just activating a built in developer in the film. All the best

This very interesting. I was wondering if this tea toning was just merely staining the light part of the image and not really toning in that it replaces the silver in the dark areas. Sounds like you answered my question about this.

[CG]

...I have developed both paper and film with green tea used with a suitable base. For the film it was a very slow speed developer, say 30 mins and a 2-3 stop loss in speed, however this demonstrated that it was a true developer and not just activating a built in developer in the film....

Could you post your formula?

Thanks!

C

[Murray]

Yes, Oolong, I assumed I would go to your link and find a tea developer recipe, but it wasn't specific enough. I founds lots of product info, however.

Can you please direct to specific link, and I'll browse the other site content as I get a chance.

Thanks

[Murray]

Alot of 'ordinary' US tea boxes say something about Pekoe black and Pekoe orange, or Pekoe-cut blah-blah.

Years ago I was told Pekoe tea is expensive and the cheaper tea would call it "Pekoe-cut" apparently to look like Pekoe. Either it's not expensive anymore or it there isn't a truth in labeling problem anymore (or oversight).

[Jim MacKenzie]

Orange pekoe is a size of tea particle, not a type of tea, like many think. In fact, most so-called orange pekoe tea isn't orange pekoe.

Orange pekoe has decent-sized chunks of leaf. Flowery orange pekoe includes the immature leaf bud along with the tea leaves, which adds to the flavour.

Broken orange pekoe (BOP) has smaller particles and steeps faster, but loses its flavour in storage more rapidly.

Below this is fannings (usually used in bags) and dust (used in the cheapest bags).

CTC (crush-tear-curl) is a machine-processed tea that has particles about broken orange pekoe sized. Some teas are prepared this way instead of being sorted mechanically.

[Murray]

Thanks Jim. I gathered there was some economics of manufacturing at play.

I see the other poster with a green tea developer recipe has no contact info & is an infrequent poster, so I'll just have to be patient...or try something myself...

[oolongtea]

Toning with tea has been done for a long time, The only process I know of where tea works as a toner is cyanotypes, where I believe archival qualities might in fact be improved.Anyways innovative thinking by people that tea can be used somewhere else also.For more info about Tea & Tea products you all are welcome to my site http://www.mytealogic.com/

Thanks

[Ben Calwell]

I tried toning some old prints today in Lipton's tea -- three bags brewed in about 30 ounces of water.
The effect is not what I expected. In fact, I can barely tell they've been dunked in tea.
There's just a very, very, slight color change.
Is there a right or wrong way to tone with tea?

[Doug Howk]

Toning activity increases with temperature. I've toned for up to 25 mins in warm tea to get the effect I want. Tim Rudman's Toning Book has a chapter on tea.

[paulr]

Tea doesn't really tone prints, at least not in the ways that selenium, gold, and sulfur do. Tea acts as a stain on the paper base. It has no effect on the metal that makes up the image.

I've found tea toning useful in cases where the paper base was just too bright. A brief toning in tea could turn it into a natural white or warm cream color.

It's worked best for me on images that are already warm toned, either by virtue of the paper or of actual toning. Tea toning a cold-toned image gives really nasty looking results ... a blue-black image on a warm colored background.

[Richard M. Coda]

I don't know much about this topic, but one of my associates from Imageworks here in Phoenix (www.imageworks.org), Miguel Salhuana, has recently shown some tea stained cyanotypes... he seems to be the go to guy here in Phoenix. His website is under construction (re-design), but you can contact him through the site... he should have a wealth of info to share...
http://www.salhuana-studios.com/index.htm

[Ben Calwell]

Paulr, you're right. Of the old prints I submerged in tea, the warm tone prints took on the most color. My Azo prints didn't change very much at all.
I was underwhelmed by this darkroom adventure, but I did come away with an incredible urge for a cup of hot tea.

[oolongtea]

Hi guys
Tea not only can be used for drinking purposses but also for toning.You all probably have heard the phrase "what's old becomes new again". I got out the tea bags and created my own home brew. To my amazement it worked and to this day, the prints my customers purchased are still looking as good as day I printed and tea stained them. For more info check mytealogic.com

[NER]

Asked whether or ot the process was archival Dusard or his co-teacher Michael Schultz pointed to oriental papers toned with tea that had lasted a few thousand years.

That's amazing considering that the invention of photography wasn't announced until 1839.


N. Riley
http://normanrileyphotography.com/

[Murray]

Maybe I'm lazy, but I sure would like to know where the photo-info on tea is on Mr Oolong's website.

I REALLY don't want to express my impression it's just a sales pitch, but I haven't found anything related to tea toning or developing there yet.

If it's there, I apologize, but I would like a little help finding it please.

Thanks

Murray

[Jim Graves]

I heard someplace ... don't recall where now ... that toning with tea required the addition of vinegar ... sort of like dying Easter eggs. Anybody else heard that?