In an earlier post, I discussed the history of sepia toning and its use in the early days of photography. Before I started sepia toning my gelatin silver prints, I used one of two different toners that enhanced tonal quality and archival (longevity) properties of black and white prints.
Most of the time, I immerse my prints in the toner for approximately three minutes. One of these toners is gold and subtly cools the image’s tone. The longer you keep the print in the toner, the more noticeable a color shift becomes in the print. After five minutes, the midtones seem more like a steel blue-gray than gray. The color shift is more evident when you place a gold-toned print beside one that has not been toned.
When it comes to black-and-white prints, the changes can be pretty subtle. This is why I always make a note of the toner I use on the back of the print. In the following example, the image on the left was toned in a gold toning solution. The differences are subtle, but if you observe closely, you can ascertain a slightly cooler tone in that image.
When it comes to gelatin silver lumen prints, the effect of gold toning is remarkable. Within a few seconds of immersing a lumen print in a gold toning solution, the colors of the print undergo a dramatic change.
The print on the left was toned in a selenium solution, which slightly warmed the colors in the print. In contrast, the image on the right, which had similar colors before I immersed it in the gold solution, changed drastically. As you can see, gold toning a lumen print significantly alters the mood of the print.
If you paid more attention in chemistry class than I did, you might be interested to know that to make the gold toning solution, you combine Ammonium Thiocyanate crystals with a Gold Chloride solution and water. Tongs are a definite must when handling the gold solution, and gloves and good ventilation are also advisable.
I invite you to visit my studio to see the differences in person.