Book Description
Synopsis
Describes both entry-level and advanced toning techniques for the creative photographer and printer. Each theme is expanded to include instructions and formulae for home-made toners.
Book Description
This sizeable book has over 200 pages containing over 365 images and about 140,000 words and describes both entry-level and advanced toning techniques for the creative photographer and printer. A chapter is devoted to each toner, allowing readers to enter at the level appropriate to their experience and to then develop their skills as far as they want too. In the author’s words, ‘This is a book to grow into rather than grow out of’.
Using a system of First Steps, Second Steps and Further Steps, the normal use of simple ‘off-the-shelf’ toning kits is explained and then developed further by exploring the more advanced and less familiar techniques for which they may be employed.
Each theme is then expanded to include instructions and formulae for home-made toners that both save money and further expand the reader’s creative options.
Processes and techniques described include the use of all the common and less common toners both singly and in combination, multi toner kits, selective toning, archival and negative toning, simple and advanced uses of bleaches and developers, dyes and the use of less conventional materials such as tea and coffee.
Sections on print finishing and useful printing controls for toning are also included. Toned vs. untoned step wedges show the effect of each toner on highlight and shadow density and on contrast with different papers, in order to allow compensation at the printing stage for perfectly toned prints.
An invaluable reference, toners characteristics tables, colour/toner 'search' charts, frequently asked questions, formulary and DIY section is included.
280 mm x 240 mm
Stiff softback with flaps
ISBN 1 902538 23 4 (original); 978 1 902538 23 (2010)
First published in Great Britain by Argentum, an imprint of Aurum Press Ltd, London.
Text & images (except where otherwise specified) copyright 2002 by Tim Rudman.
Published in America by Amphoto.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
From the Author
There is no doubt in my mind that toning can often contribute enormously to the effectiveness of a monochrome print. It can’t make success out of failure of course but it can make some successful images very much stronger. It can certainly affect the way in which an image engages the viewer and the atmosphere it creates. Ideally this is pre-visualised at the taking stage, but sometimes inspiration comes later.
For some, colour - or even a warm tone - is an anathema in a monochrome image. There is no absolute right or wrong about this of course, only our personal prejudices – which we sometimes choose to label right or wrong.
In any case, and whatever our preference is in this matter, toning is still always a vital part of fine print making, be it for the introduction of subtle or even gaudy colour, to neutralise the slight colour casts inherent in some papers, to enhance Dmax and make the print gleam with an inner light, or to make our prints archival in this increasingly polluted world. We all need to tone our silver-based prints for one reason or another – and often our negatives too.
Given the importance of toning it may seem surprising that there exists so little in the way of reasonably comprehensive books on the subject, in a form that is at the same time well illustrated, easily understood and not too dry. (It is also surprising how many inaccurate old wives tales still survive and remain in regular practice.)
In fact, toning is such a large subject with so many ramifications that it is extremely difficult to cover every aspect of it comprehensively in a single book without it being either too complex and frightening for some, or too simplistic for others. A totally comprehensive book would run into more than one volume and would find too small a market to make it affordable.
I have tried to bridge this gap by concentrating on the main toners of today and some less common but still accessible ones that have much to offer and are easy to use. Also by structuring each toner chapter on three levels, so that readers can enter each one at their own level and move up to slightly more complex techniques as they become more confident and proficient. I hope to show that what is often perceived as a daunting and difficult process can frequently be quite easy and great fun.
Tim Rudman
About the Author
Dr. Tim Rudman is well known as an accomplished award-winning photographer and authority on darkroom techniques as well as a regular writer and lecturer. He has conducted workshops on printing and toning techniques in Britain, Ireland, Spain, Australia, Canada and USA.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of The Royal Photographic Society in Great Britain, where he sits on the Society’s Fellowship Distinctions Board. He is a past Chairman of the Distinctions Panel for Photographic Printing and a past long serving member of the Visual Art Distinction Panel.
Tim is a member of the Arena group and a member and past Chairman of The London Salon of Photography. He was awarded an Associateship by the India International Photographic Council, for services to photography, and holds the distinction of Excellence of the Federation International de l’Art Photographique. Tim’s work has been widely exhibited in over 25 countries, receiving numerous international awards and is held in several permanent and private collections around the world.
As well as publishing several hundred articles on photography and printing in Europe, America and Australia Tim has published four photographic books. The first, ‘The Photographer’s Master Printing Course’, was an instant best seller and has been regularly reprinted. This was followed by ‘The Master Photographer’s Lith Printing Course’, which was widely acclaimed and remains the only instructional book on this beautiful process. Its companion book ‘the World of Lith Printing’ is the only published international collection of lith print artist’s work along with insights into their motivations and techniques. ‘The (Master) Photographer’s Toning Book’ is the most in-depth book on the subject currently in print.
