Toned: Halation & Darkroom

Toned does not apply a film look. It runs the photochemistry: your photo is exposed onto an emulsion, developed, printed through an enlarger onto photographic paper, and toned.

The negative is a real step, not a figure of speech. You can look at it, orange mask and all, and export it, before you make a print from it.

HOW IT WORKS
Every stage is a stage, in order, and each one takes its input from the one before it.
- Load a film. Every stock has its own characteristic curve, one per dye layer, which is why changing the exposure does not do the same thing on every stock.
- Expose it. Stops, not a brightness slider.
- Develop it. Push and pull move contrast, grain and shadow density the way development time does, and the app says what it did.
- Look at the negative. The orange integral dye mask on the color stocks, clear base on the black and white ones.
- Print it. Enlarger exposure, paper grade 0 to 5 in half steps, and the paper's own response curve and maximum black.
- Dodge and burn. Light held back or given, in stops, before the paper's curve. That is why burning a blown sky brings tone back instead of turning white into grey.
- Tone the print. Toners work by density, so they reach the shadows or the midtones first, the way the chemistry does.

WHY IT LOOKS LIKE THIS
- Halation happens where the emulsion was blown through to the antihalation layer, and it bleeds into the red-sensitive layer. On the tungsten motion picture stock, which has that layer stripped off, every bright light wears a red halo.
- Grain lives in the density. It is coarsest through the mid tones and thins out in the deep shadows and the blown highlights, because that is where the crystals are.
- The orange mask is not a color wash. It is base density, and the enlarger's color head cancels it at print time.
- Paper is not a filter. A glossy fiber base holds a deeper black than a matte, and the matte has no true black at all.

THE SHELF
- Thirteen film stocks: nine color negative, four black and white, from almost grainless to grain the size of the subject.
- Five papers: resin coated and fiber base, neutral, warmtone and matte.
- Four toners: selenium, sepia, gold and copper.
- Split-grade printing: a soft exposure at grade 0 for the highlights and a hard one at grade 5 for the blacks, timed separately.

LOOKING AT IT
- Hold the compare button to see the photograph you started with, at any point in the chain.
- Pinch to magnify the print. The grain is really there: it is re-rendered at print resolution rather than blown up from a preview, so what you inspect is what the file will hold.

THE FREE APP IS A WORKING DARKROOM
Three film stocks, two papers, a toner, three film formats, and every stage of the chain, running at full resolution on your own photograph. A frame built from free content exports as a print, a negative, a film strip, a contact sheet or a clip. Free prints up to 8x10 at 300 dpi and carries TONED in the film's own edge lettering, beside the stock name, where film already has writing. Never across your picture, and never in place of your own credit.

TONED PLUS, ONE-TIME PURCHASE
There is no subscription in Toned and there will not be one. One payment unlocks:
- All thirteen film stocks, all five papers, all four toners.
- Every film format from half frame to 4x5, and every print size to 16x20.
- Split-grade printing.
- Export at full size, with no mark.
- As many kept frames as you like.

Plus content is never hidden from you. Load any stock, print it on any paper, tone it, dodge and burn it, and watch the whole chain run on your own photograph at full resolution. The purchase is the door out, not the door in.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Photos stay on your device. Optional notifications use an installation ID, push token, preferences and notification interactions. No account or third-party tracking.

Toned edits photos from your library. It is not a camera.