inevitablove: toning experiment

in my photo two class, our first project is about toning. we were supposed to shoot and develop a roll or more of film and come up with about 6 - 8 images we liked and make about 5 or 6 copies of each. we were supposed to have these prints ready for a toning workshop that was held during our class time this past thursday.

of course, the workshop (the one specifically scheduled date other than the due date) was on rosh hashanh. i told him within the first or second class meeting that i was not going to be in class on this day because i was celebrating the jewish holiday. sadly he was not interested in changing the date of the workshop and pretty much told me that was two bad. (this was the first time in my 15+ years of education that i have run into an instructor that would not make some kind of accommodation for the jewish holiday) he gave me two options; i could buy my own toning stuff and mix the chemicals and tone my prints at home (this would cost me some out of pocket money in the already pricey class and he also gave a lecture about how its best just to be in class on the day of the workshop that most of the stuff you buy in the stores doesnt really work all that well) or i could give my prints to a friend in the class and have them dip them for me (at the time i didnt know anyone in the class, over the last week or so i have had people who over heard the conversation offer to do this for me but i am taking the class out of pure interest for photography and wanted to do the project on my own and gain the experience it offered)

i thus decided to buy the chemicals myself. of course none of the photography stores in the valley carried the chemicals for toning and everyone referred me to freestyle where i was avoiding going because i didnt want to/have time to drive out to hollywood. when my family and i went to san diego last weekend for a cousins bat mitzvah we stopped at freestyle where i bought my toning chemicals. i actually found a pretty good price for a test kit with three different tones. i bought it and later asked my professor if that was a good brand/kit and he said yes. when i open the box that stated on the front "full instructions and msds inside" i found no paper, only six bottles of toning solutions. i called freestyle to inform them and they said it was only and they would email me the link or the pdf. i got the email but they forgot to attach it. i navigated through the freestyle website to find the product i bought and then find the instruction sheet.

mission accomplished! i found it and the experimenting began...

this was a process i was definitely not prepared for. i dug up my dads old developing trays, found two of his i dont know how many. i washed them and was ready to begin, or so i thought... i now needed to find gloves, all i could find are these really annoying food service gloves that really didnt do much in the way of covering my hand but whatever. then i needed to find a beaker and remember how to convert measurements. no such luck finding a beaker, but i improvised and managed. for all but the sepia i just needed to use ratios. the copper was 1 to 4 so i poured the chemical in and then filled up that same bottle four times for the water part. (thanks dad for being quick on your feet and giving me this idea). the sepia measurements were a little more complicated. the first part was 1 to 9, that was fine. the second and third part were mixed together. the second was also 1 to 9. then added to the 1 to 9 solution of the second chemical was 15ml of the third part for every liter of the second solution. first i had to figure out how much of the second solution i had...one 50ml bottle of the chemical + 9 50mls of water, so 500ml which i soon learned was half a liter. so i concluded i needed 7.5 ml of the third part. now how was i going to measure that?... i found 30ml plastic cups that we use for wine, but that was still too big. my mom mentioned that it was the size of a medicine cup and medicine cups have measurements on it. i went searching for a medicine cup to find one that listed 1 tsp and 2 tsp. so she told me that 2 tsps was 10ml, 1 tsp was 5ml. so i filled up the medicine cup 1 to 1 and a half tsps of water and then poured it into my plastic cup. i made a marking where the water was at and used that to measure out my third chemical.

what a feat, but i did it. and i documented the experience with pictures on my phone.

i needed running water so i first needed to find a sink... my mom wouldnt let me use the bathroom, she seemed to think i was going to make a mess. my dad said i couldnt use the faucet thing on the driveway because i was working with chemicals so i was banished to the garage. i made him clear a space for me where i set up my "work station"

the instructions said i was supposed to work with wet prints, mine had already been dried (for days now) so i rewet them.

my mom was not pleased that i was using the bathroom sink for this...

copper toning:

i was a bit confused why part 1 and part 2 were yellow and blue.

i thought maybe the chemicals would have some sort of reaction other than the natural color mixing reaction of yellow and blue making green. i was wrong and skeptical.