Split toning, on toning, dual toning...

AntiLynd

Hello, In the gallery on the Moersch website, alongside many other lovely images, there’s this one: http://www.moersch-photochemie.de/bilder.p...ectsepia&bild=7 . Even though I’m not at all into cars, I find this image incredibly sexy. I think this is down to the, shall we say, colourfulness of the image: to me (my eyes, my screen...) it looks as though the tone in the shadows and mid-tones is quite bluish, gradually shifting towards a yellowish hue as it moves towards the highlights. It has a character all of its own, somehow. Without, however, being too obtrusive, as is the case, in my opinion, with some other colour-adjusted images. In short: I like it. And since I’ve applied that pedagogically valuable learning method of picking apart finished products I like, figuring out how they were made, and then ruthlessly copying, imitating, even exploiting the technique so that I eventually master it myself and can thus play around with it as I please, putting it to use for my own base purposes, :P ("inductive approach", if I’m remembering my introductory didactics lecture correctly) ...so my question now is: how did you do it? There’s already some mention of light bleaching and gold toning – I’m not entirely clueless – and I’ve also heard something, albeit vaguely, about split tones, Anton tones and double tones, but so far I haven’t been able to find any information online about these techniques that has really satisfied me. So if anyone has any useful links on this topic, or even wants to share a few tips and experiences of their own here: go ahead... Many thanks, Best regards, Nils.

cfb_de

Hi Nils, It actually says right there how to do it. Everything else is a matter of trying things out for yourself. ‘Learning’, so to speak, and practising. But: Despite all the educational fuss: If you just give Wolfgang a ring and ask him... He’ll definitely tell you how to do it or put you in touch with the photographer. Life is simpler than university :-) Franz

skahde

If I remember my introductory lecture on didactics correctly... my question would be: how did he do that?

Recipes, instructions, technical basics and examples: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0817...9028611-0757060 Best regards Stefan

Gast

You could also have a read through the big Moersch guide. Unfortunately, it’s not available as a book, but only on the page you mentioned under ‘Instructions’. For those who aren’t ‘completely clueless’, he does offer workshops if need be :P Best regards Martin

Gast

Recipes, instructions, technical basics and examples: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0817...9028611-0757060

Right, those bound things made of paper with loads of letters in them... I’ll have to get hold of one :P

AntiLynd

Sorry, I wasn't logged in... Thanks anyway for the tip. I'll have a look – maybe I'll give Moersch Polychrome a go. It looks quite promising... Best regards, Nils.

FrankJBeckmann

Hi Nils, Why not just give him a call? He won’t bite – quite the opposite, in fact; he’s very friendly and helpful. And his products really are worth recommending. The phone number is on the website too.

Gast

Hi Nils, Why bother Wolfgang Moersch with this question? As I am the photographer and printer of the image in question, I’m happy to provide the information. First of all, though, thank you for the compliment – I’m glad you like the picture. The observation regarding the blue tone is correct. Of course, I can’t say how yellow the highlights appear on your monitor – in the print, however, it is extremely subtle. So how was the image created? 1. Standard development in Moersch Meritol on Sepia Select FB. 2. A fairly long gold toning by eye – unlike gold-toned lith prints, the toning turns out very subtle, at least with this paper/developer combination. 3. After the gold toning, it was bleached again so that only the highlights were affected. 4. A quick final fixing and then rinsing as usual. That’s it. Ultimately, I have to say that when it comes to toning, I usually take a very experimental and playful approach – i.e. based on what I see and my gut feeling. I also like to try things out that you won’t find in any manual. And I really enjoy using chemicals that are long past their normal shelf life. That sometimes yields the most interesting results. However, these are then hardly reproducible. So unfortunately, I can’t tell you any more than that – whether the developer or toner was already quite old and worn out. But I hope it helps at least a little. BTW: another good book on toning: Worobiec/Spence: Monochrom Regards ...pAtrik www.grauwerk.de