> -----Original Message----- > From: Feroze Kistan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > Tue, 30 Apr 2002 19:19:32 +1000 > Anthony Farr wrote > > Look at your grandparents (or great grandparents)...... > > I know. My grandfather was the only wedding photographer in > this area at the > time. But he used to tint the prints with a weak solution > of tea. And then > he had little bookets of paper which he used to tint water > and used that to > dye the prints. Isn't the sepia tint a natural thing that > happens to old > photo's anyway? or has this been designed out of modern papers?
This is complicated. These days, you can get a "sepia" toned print by 1 - Bleaching and toning a print with a thiocarbamide or sulphide toner. (very archival) 2 - Printing C-41 B+W on color paper with the "correct" filtration. (not archival at all, and hit-or-miss to boot) 3 - Printing on a warm-toned paper. (not really sepia, just warm) In the old days, some of the processes we would think of as "alternative" had a brownish tone that look sepia-like to eyes used to cold prints. Very old photos that have turned brown have oxidized. The brown color you see is actually the same stuff as you'd see on tarnished silver. The bleach and redevelop process actually reproduces this effect, but does it evenly. Happily, it can't oxidize any further, so it's archival. B+W photos that have been fixed and washed properly should not turn brown for a very long time. RC prints can bronze, but this is a different process and is ugly. If you're interested in toning, do an Amazon search for Tim Rudman's book, it's the definitive tome on the subject as far as I know. tv
