Brown Cast On Borders Of Print - Help Please

What am I doing wrong here? Most of my darkroom time is spent

producing contact prints. There is a portrait project that I am

working on that requires enlarging. For some reason the prints I

am pulling out of the fixer have a brown cast around the white

borders.<p> The prints (Ilford Warm Tone Fiber) go straight from

the Dektol to a rinse. After a 30 second rinse they are sent to the

fresh fixer. I am not using a stop bath. Is this the problem? I do

remember this problem many years ago while producing the

same style of prints. I am dying here. Any thoughts?

Bruce,

 

It *may* be that the lack of an acid stop bath is your culprit. But maybe not. Stop bath only stops the action of the developer. Fix stops the silver emulsion from sensitivity to light. So don't turn the lights on after the stop bath. Only after the fix. How old is your paper? Even frozen and sealed papers get muddy and slow over time. But then I have some 20 year old papers that are still fine. Go figure.

 

Next, check your safe lights. Under safe light conditions place a coin on a sheet of your paper and leave in place for five minutes. Develop using your normal procedure. If you see the slightest white circle after it's fixed, then you've found it.

 

Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

-S.

Update- I think that I may have at least found part of the problem.

After I posted this question I went back and tried a few more

prints. This time I washed and dried my hands to the bone. I then

printed three prints of the same image. Once they were finished

in the developer I placed them all in the rinse tray. After a two

minute wash and five minutes in the fix, there were no brown

stains. Is it possible that the brown stains are residue from the

fixer? I would love to know why this is happening so that I can

avoid in now and in the future.

Fog from a safelight shows up first as a degradation of the highlights then, if it's really bad, the paper gets a grayish look. Since you're seeing a brownish cast rather than gray I wouldn't think it's a safelight problem.

 

I'd suggest that you get some stop bath and see if the problem goes away. Using water as a stop bath for prints isn't a good idea. First, you have to constantly change the water, every one or two prints, otherwise you end up with a highly diluted developer rather than a stop bath. Second, stop bath prepares the prints for the fix and greatly extends the life of the fix as compared with prints that have come from a water stop bath. Real stop baths are inexpensive, last forever, and if the smell bothers you there are odorless stop baths on the market (I use the Clayton odorless bath, Sprint also makes one that actually smells like vanilla extract).

I have had the same problem , and although i couldn't find the

source , i suspect that a depleted fixer could do that , especially

in a warm tone paper .

I have had these happen to me when I contaminate the fixer with developer. Ugly brown uneven stains around the image.

 

I dont know if this is your problem but using fresh fixer and washing the print very good might solve your problem.

Assumed that IS exahausted or contaminated fixer , why do the

stains appear only in the edges of the image ?

Or are tones in the image hiding the stains in the image area?

Could it be that the white areas are the only ones affected

because that is where the fixer works harder , and it requires full

strength ?

I dont know Dominico, in my case what I saw was a sort of brown uneven stain that bled from the image, perhaps because it was on the white border is more noticeable than on the image. Your theory sounds reasonable but I dont know. I do know that once I mixed fresh fixer the problem went away.

Underfixed MG WT (RC) prints out in a beautiful, blue tone. So it can't have been that ;)

I've traced my brown stains to the Kostner stainless steel tongs, but for the life of me I don't know how it occurs, nor what to do about it since it is so inconsistant. Sometimes I think that putting them through the dishwasher every time that I do dishes may stop it for a while.

Stop bath preserves the acidity, and thus the life, of the fixer. I'd supect that developer carryover has killed the fixer, and agree with Domenico about why the edges are staining first.

If the stains are found at the corners where you are picking them up with the tongs then it sounds like chemical contamination to me. If you are using the rubber tip bamboo tongs they absorb the chemicals. You can see that by the discoloration over time. It could then leak back out when they get wet. You should label each tong, developer, stop bath, fixer. Don't mix them during developing. If you do, then rinse it well before grabbing the next print. Keep a good supply of them on hand or switch to stainless steel and keep them clean. Wash them separately after cleaning. Also, keep your hands clean to avoid contamination of the paper before exposure. Hope this helps with your problem.

Bruce, what amount of agitation are you giving the prints in the fixer before you turn on the lights? I try to agitate continuously for the first minute and then every 30 seconds give the tray a couple of good rocks for a couple of minutes prior to turning on the light.

This, along with fresh active fixer, elimininates the brown staining.

Fixer. That was the culprit. I mixed a new batch for this evening's

print session and the white borders were white. I am not sure

why the last few batches of fixer had this problem. I mixed the fix

a week prior to my printing session. The fix is stored in the

standard brown Kodak type gallon containers. As long as I know

where the problem is coming from I am happy. Thanks to all for

the help. That is why I enjoy this format. No matter how good you

are or how much experience you have, there is always a problem

around the corner. I feel fortunate to have such help as close as

the keyboard. Thanks again.

-Bruce