toning

toning is a technique carried out on black and white prints to change there colour. many early prints were sepia toned, which is a light shade of brown.

How we did it?

firstly we had three trays, first one filled with water for soaking prints, the second one filled with bleach for bleaching out the black of the prints, then the third tray filled with the coloured toner.

you leave the print to soak in the first tray for 1 minute to allow the bleach and toner to have a better effect on it.

then you put the print in the bleach leave it in for a recomended 2 minutes. if the print happens to be really dark you can leave it in longer until you you think it looks good tone, so most of the black had dulled and it looks lighter.

lastly you wash the bleach of so as not to get it in the toner then leave it in the toner for as long as you like. taking it out when you think its been toned enough and the colour its just right. if you leave it in too long it will become too darkl and you may not be able to see it properly.


i really like this technique, it brings a normal black and white print to life. it can make it look old which adds a certain effect which i think looks really really good. i think that the longer you leave you print in the bleach then the greater the effect will be. so what i did with my prints was leave it in the bleach for a while, maybe 4 or 5 minutes then only put it in the toner for about 10 seconds or a bit longer so it has a truly old look about it.