Toning

Toners are a chemical dye of a specific colour and these include sepia, red, blue and green. Toners can alter the mood and atmosphere of an image. Sepia toners in particular can give an image a very old-fashioned feel.

When toners are applied to black and white images, they convert the silver that forms the range of tones through black to grey to white into tones of the particular dye being applied. Therefore if a blue toner is used, the black and grey tones than form a range of shades from deepest blue to white. The longer the duration that the print is left in the chemical then the stronger the colour.

The toning process follows on from the developing of a print. Hence an image must go through the developing, fixing and washing stages before a toner can be used. There are two ways to carry out toning:

·    The print is immersed in a single solution that allows the silver in the print to be replaced with a chemical dye of a different colour.
·    The print is initially immersed in a chemical that can bleach out some or all of the silver of the image and then the print is placed in the toner solution. This method achieves stronger, darker tones of the chemical dye.

All toning processes can be carried out in normal light.

Toners that have been used in class are:
·    Red – nickel type solution
·    Blue – iron metal toner solution

The following prints are a result of toners that were applied in class.