Re: Old Paper

Sil Horwitz (silh@iag.net)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 12:34:59 -0400

At 11:24 AM 1998/04/14 -0400, Jim wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>Quick question: I have two boxes of an old paper called Labaphot
>Agrando. I did a couple of test runs with it and as I expected it is a
>little fogged from aging. Now what i need to know is what is the
>chemical that will allow me to cut some of this back....to bring some
>contrast back into the paper.

As has been recommended in previous messages, benzotriazole is normally
considered the chemical of choice to minimize fog. It works, but it will
also tend to make the image tones cooler. If this is a warmtoned paper, you
might want to consider large amounts of bromide (potassium bromide, sodium
bromide - makes no difference) which will reduce the fog (not as
efficiently as the benzo) but will also warm the paper tone. It's cheap -
try it. Make up a 10% solution of bromide, and add 30 ml (1 ounce) per
liter (quart) of working developer. If this is insufficient to affect the
fog base, add more. It will slow up development, and seemingly will add
contrast, but that's not necessarily so as longer development will add the
the image strength and reduce the contrast. The fun IS experimenting!

Sil Horwitz, FPSA
Technical Editor, PSA Journal
silh@iag.net
Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/