faint red/brown stain on fiber paper
Lawrence Thompson
Occasionally I get a faint red or brown stain on the white portion of my
printing paper, I believe I see the stain after the fix with the lights on
leading me to think the fix is exhausted but I process so few prints in
fresh fix that maybe that's not the reason, any guess of what this is and
how to eliminate it ?.
here are the details
Ilford multigrade fibre, glossy
Ilford multigrade developer, develop for 2 minutes, (one liter per 20 11 x
14)
water stop bath, 30 seconds
Ilford paper fixer 1.5min (1:3) (one liter per eight 11 x 14)
Ilford Washaid (1:4) + krst (1:30) for 4 min
Ilford Washaid (1:4), 10 min
wash, 30 min
all soups are mixed 4 hours before use and nothing is reused from session to
session, all temps are approx 68 degrees
many thanks as always
Lee Carmichael
using tongs then I think they are not clean. Wash and dry your hands
between having your hands in the fix and then the developer. Could be wrong
but that is what I think.
Lee Carmichael
mailtocl...@home.com
"Lawrence Thompson" <ltho...@noos.fr> wrote in message
news:9ffjq6$aji$1...@neon.noos.net...
ZorziM
<ltho...@noos.fr> writes:
>Subject: faint red/brown stain on fiber paper
>From: "Lawrence Thompson" <ltho...@noos.fr>
>Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 11:21:32 -0400
>
>Folks,
>Occasionally I get a faint red or brown stain on the white portion of my
>printing paper, I believe I see the stain after the fix with the lights on
>leading me to think the fix is exhausted but I process so few prints in
>fresh fix that maybe that's not the reason, any guess of what this is and
>how to eliminate it ?.
>
>here are the details
>
>Ilford multigrade fibre, glossy
>Ilford multigrade developer, develop for 2 minutes, (one liter per 20 11 x
>14)
>water stop bath, 30 seconds
>Ilford paper fixer 1.5min (1:3) (one liter per eight 11 x 14)
>Ilford Washaid (1:4) + krst (1:30) for 4 min
>Ilford Washaid (1:4), 10 min
>wash, 30 min
>
Maybe the water stop bath is the culprit. Perhaps if you don't change
the water in the tray, the bath will slowly become so basic that you're
exhausting the fixer more rapidly as you lose acidity. WHy not try an acid
stop for a bit and see if the problem recurs?
Robert E. Smith
This appears to be contaminate connected. Fixing failure does not
usually represent itself in the manner you experienced. Without more
information it is hard to tell exactly what it might be. I noticed the
krst step. Is that where you encounter the stains? I have had similar
experience with Kodak "Elite" paper in that respect. Conditioning with
HCA prior to toning will solve this. Also sometimes selenium toner can
be inadvertantly transfered around where it shouldn't be. Be very
careful and wash often.
Sometimes chemicals in your tap water (or "filtered" water) such as
iron, can cause srains similar to those you observe. You won't see them
until the fixing step when the white lights are used. I do not consider
that the Ilford paper is at fault, but you might consider using an acid
fixer. I always have and have had no problems. I also rinse prints
prior to fixing to remove surface junk and keep it out of the fixer as
much as possible. Two fixing baths is also generally recommended,
regardless of Ilford's directions. The payoff is well worth the
hassle. Let us know how you progress?
Truly, dr bob.
Richard Knoppow
It could be a couple of things including something in the water. I
would first try using a stop bath. Since you are using an acid fixer
(although non hardening) a stop bath will prevent any chance of
staining from developer carried over into the fixing bath. Usually an
acid fixing bath has enough buffering capacity to prevent stain unless
a lot of developer is carried over into it.
I also recommend using two successive fixing baths to insure
complete fixing. The second bath remains pretty fresh.
A single fixing bath has a surprizingly small capacity for archival
fixing although it will continue to clear paper and film for much more
than this. The two bath system has four to ten times the capacity of a
single bath.
For occasional use, or for Ilford's rapid fixing procedure for
archival processing, a one-shot fixer is a good idea. You want to have
very efficient fixing and there isn't enough time for the two bath
system.
Very exhausted fixing baths can cause two kinds of staining which
are immediately visible. 1, stain from oxidized developer reaction
products. 2, stain from a deposit of colloidal silver (extremely
finely divided silver). This last is typically yellow and is pretty
evenly deposited. A fixer exhausted enough to deposit a stain of this
sort will usually be cloudy and foamy. BTW, there is usualy enough
silver in exhausted fixer to silver plate a clean copper coin.
Since you are seeing the stain right after fixing and before toning
(is that right?) the problem is not the toner. KRST _can_ cause
staining under some conditions. Mainly if the print is in very acid
condition when it goes in the toner its possible to get a deposit of
elemental Selenium on it. This is usually an overall yellowish stain.
Since the toner is pretty dilute and is in a sulfite wash aid the
chances of its causing a stain are virtually nil.
There are other kinds of stains which are caused by incomplete
fixing but they generally take hours or sometimes months to appear.
Its extremely unlikely that the developer is causing the stain
unless its been worked to death. It sounds like you make up the
working solution fresh each time so I doubt that's the cause.
It is possible for contaminants in the water to cause problems but
they would have to be there in fairly large amounts. If your water has
even a slight rotten-egg odor its a sign of lots of sulfides in it.
Probably not the cause but worth knowing about.
I remember France as having rather good tasting water, at least when
I was there some years ago.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, Ca.
dick...@ix.netcom.com