News

First announced earlier this year, ILFORD HARMAN selenium toner will be available this November 2006 availability, along with a new leaflet 'Selenium Toner Tips' in English, French, German or Spanish.

This high quality formula has numerous advantages in addition to emphasizing the versatile tonal range of black-and-white prints, and is extremely straightforward to apply.

Regarded as probably the most sophisticated of toners, selenium is subtler than other types, yielding rich blacks via its enhancement of maximum density (Dmax) while changing the overall image tone. Its use on fiber-based silver paper produces prints with delicate browns in the highlights.

ILFORD HARMAN selenium toner is supplied as a ready prepared liquid, so there are no particular toxic concerns. The toner absorbs any olive hue present, and pushes shadows towards a purplish black finish.

Multigrade Warmtone papers are very responsive to selenium toners: using higher dilutions (eg: 1+10, 1+20) gives a slight cooling of the image tone and a shift in hue towards red. Used at lower dilutions (eg: 1+3, 1+5) a purplish brown can be achieved. Colder papers react less rapidly, but they still benefit from the highly effective deepening of the maximum black caused by selenium toning and its expansion of the entire tonal range.

The reaction of selenium on the silver halide (AgX) of the print hardens the adherence of the image to the paper. This improves the chemical stability of the print, as well as its permanence and archival properties while also defining its appearance.

Further details can be found on the ILFORD Photo website www.ilfordphoto.com.