Digital BW, The Print

Robert Morrison wrote, in part:

>... On EAM I would say that my general
>impression is that FS-N looks blue and Selenium
>Piezotones look ever so slightly eggplant.

There appears to be a substantial variance in the tones that are achieved by
toning silver prints with selenium -- the paper, strength of toner and time
in toner being the primary variables.  In recent years I have (or had) been
using Kodak Polymax Fine Art paper and toning in selenium 1:19 for 3
minutes.  This light toning was the usual practice, as far as I could tell,
for those who wanted better archival properties, a slight increase in Dmax,
and not a severe color change.  (Heavy selenium toning often results is a
rather magenta print.)

Using the X-Rite spectrophotometer to read a sample of a silver print that
was toned in selenium per this normal procedure, I get the following:

Dark black (not Dmax):   c=1.70, m=1.71, y=1.66, v (visual)=1.71

Shadow tone (about 75%): c=0.99, m=1.00, y=0.99, v=1.00

Midtone (about 50%):     c=0.59, m=0.60, y=0.59, v=0.60

Light tone (about 25%):  c=0.33, m=0.33, y=0.32, v=0.30

So, basically, the light tones are slightly cool, the midtones are neutral
with a slight magenta cast (the slight "eggplant" tone, I would assume), and
the deep shadows/near black tones are cool.

It would be interesting to see how the new PiezoTone selenium values look in
comparison to these.

For comparison, an FS-N test strip on EAM, with the Piezo driver gives:

100% black: c=1.59, m=1.60, y=1.61, v=1.59

75%:        c=1.00, m=1.00, y=0.98, v=1.00

50%:        c=0.66, m=0.65, y=0.63, v=0.66

25%:        c=0.32, m=0.32, y=0.31, v=0.32

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com