> The other night I tried the recently mentioned cyanotype-like toner on
>some silver
> prints (polycontrast RCIII) and produced a very nice blue-gray color.
>Does anyone
> know if this is archival (both the color and to the print)?
>Interestingly, the blue
> tone can be removed with a solution of sodium bicarbonate recovering the
>original
> black and white image but with a slightly warmer apperance.
Paul-iron toning is NOT an archival toning process. Neither is copper
toning, or toning with a mordant/dye type bath. The archival toning
processes are in order of effectiveness; sulfide toning (includes direct
sulfide toning such as Kodak Brown Toner or Hypo Alum Sepia toners, and
indirect bleach and redevelop toners like Kodak Sepia Toner), selenium
toning (a form of sulfide toning) and perhaps gold toning on par with
selenium.
However, the last mentioned gold toning will produce nice blue tones,
if you use it with a warm tone paper such as Ektalure, or Forte Fortezo or
Forte Polywarmtone. The Fortezo toned in gold seems to produce a nice slate
blue color in the midtones, and a strong blue in the readable shadows. Best
of all, you get a blue tone combined with archival protection.
Maxim M. Muir
See the "Maximum Monochrome" homepage at:
http://www.nfinity.com/~mdmuir/