Organic toning

[Asha]

I’ve had a request to make a print for someone but with a slight sepia tone added.

Now I don’t have any toner , however I do have tea bags!

A completely new darkroom process for me though I understand that organic materials such as tea, coffee or even red wine can be used although they give nothing more than a staining of the photograph and as such offer no archival benefits.

Is there anything I should know before I have a play?

Probably a dumb question , but is there a way to maintain the borders of the photograph white whilst toning the image or am I expecting the impossible?

 

[StephenM]

Never tried it (I just don't like toned prints) so I can't comment on the efficacy of tea when not applued internally. Is it possible to exercise care, a brush and artists' masking tape to maintain a white border?

Or, less pure in some ways, a digital print with toning applied. I know you don't have an Epson printer, but it's simple with the Epson printer driver to apply tones.

 

[Asha]

Never tried it (I just don't like toned prints)

Fat lot of good you are to me then !

Is it possible to exercise care, a brush and artists' masking tape to maintain a white border?

No idea, I could try it.

a digital print with toning applied.

I get the impression that the guy wishes for a ‘traditional’, artisanal wet print and tbh I’d prefer to produce that over an inkjet print if possible.

 

[ancient_mariner]

For consistency the border should also be toned along with the rest of the paper (would be weird for a wet print otherwise).

There used to be some eastern European papers that printed very warm (still have some prints somewhere but gave the paper away with my enlarger 20 years ago) and you might be able to find something still, possibly. I also used to mix up chemicals for a warm brown print, possibly thiourea, but that was more than 30 years ago.

There's also these pages:

Toning Black and White Prints With Organic Materials

Introduction: Even in this digital age we are fortunate to have a wide variety of product choices from classic toners, such as sepia and selenium, to the less toxic, creative use of coffee and food…

mcuerdenucbcphoto.wordpress.com

Toning-back-to-basics - Firstcall Photographic Ltd

Toning-back-to-basics - Welcome to the Firstcall Photographic Ltd website built by Iconography Ltd

www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk

Lomography - How to Use Colovir Toners and Dyes on Black & White Prints and Negatives

Colorvir is a multifaceted toning/dyeing process which can be used on all types of B&W negative and darkroom-produced B&W Print. The colorvir process creates wild colours and special effects, and thus, is an experimenters dream. It can be hard to get hold of the chemicals now, but if you can...

www.lomography.com

Tetenal Sepia Toner 2.5L

Tetenal Sepia Toner is a classic black and white sepia print toner. It is suitable to use with any black and white photographic paper. It produces brown image tones. This will vary depending on the paper and grade used when printing. Soft images tend to give warmer tones, whereas contrasty ones...

parallaxphotographic.coop

 

[StephenM]

That's interesting re the borders. I'd always assumed that the older processes that gave coloured prints had pure whites where there was no tone at all, and that toning somehow reproduced that effect, so that specular highlights and borders would be white.

When I first started, you could get papers with a cream base, and chlorobromide papers were always "warmer" (i.e. brownish) than bromide. I presume tea stains would reproduce that, although I also assume that the back of the print would also be brown.

Do toners colour the reverse of the paper?

I preferred white bromide...

 

[FujiLove]

Tea works really well. I'd suggest a strong teabag in 500ml of water and leave it to brew for 15 minutes. Let the tea cool, then try a few small strips of waste prints at different times to see how much toning you'd like. It's a while since I did any of this, but I think I tried 10 seconds, 20 seconds etc. up to a couple of minutes.

 

[ancient_mariner]

That's interesting re the borders. I'd always assumed that the older processes that gave coloured prints had pure whites where there was no tone at all, and that toning somehow reproduced that effect, so that specular highlights and borders would be white.

When I first started, you could get papers with a cream base, and chlorobromide papers were always "warmer" (i.e. brownish) than bromide. I presume tea stains would reproduce that, although I also assume that the back of the print would also be brown.

Do toners colour the reverse of the paper?

I preferred white bromide...

From memory if it's a true paper then yes, a little, but something like multigrade, no.