RE: darkrooms & water


Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Tue, 01 Jun 1999 22:02:18 -0400 (EDT)


On Tue, 1 Jun 1999, Hal Faulkner wrote:

> A word of caution here. An earlier "thread " concerned optical
> brighteners. The optical brighteners in some papers wash out with long
> wet times. That is why one manufacturer of premium papers developed
> the so called archival system of strong fast fix followed by reduced
> wash times. It turned out that their paper was getting yellowish
> highlights after long wet times. Thus,

I know some folks have claimed to the contrary, but it is my understanding
that *all* optical brighteners fade in time.

> the overnight soak MAY cause you to end up with less than optimal image
> quality. But the concept is valid, a series of five minute rinses (constant
> agitation, -- by hand?) with complete change of water will use MUCH less
> water and give a more thorough wash than running water without the agitation
> and cosntant separation of prints.

If I have to stand and constant agitate for more than one minute, as far
as I'm concerned they can all just rot. Makes what should be joy into a
terrible ordeal, or rather an ordeal of endurance. For what it's worth,
David Vestal's advice was that prints vertical in a print washer are fine
just in their own separate slots, fixer slides down, air bubbles slide up,
giving actually some "agitation."

I speak here of silver gelatin prints -- washing hand-coated is a whole
other deal, easier to wash, also, since not on hardened gelatin... not to
mention that in washing GUM you can practically do no wrong. Which is to
say if you don't SEE dichromate (look at the back of the print & compare
to the paper unprinted) you can relax.

One other point -- recent advice is not to wash TOO perfectly, remember?
A certain amount of residual fixer sulfides the silver, actually
protecting it. Reminds me of my Swiss pediatrician -- I told him that my
American pediatrician had advised night braces for the kid's feet, to turn
them straight instead of pointing east & west. Oh you Americans, he said,
one year you want to point them out, the next year you'll want to point
them in.

When I first began photography it was essential to get every last bit of
the hypo OUT, with hypo eliminator and endurance washes. Whatever your
religion of choice, HT-2 (that's Kodak's Hypo Test formula) is very easily
made, and keeps well -- worked fine after a year or more. I suggest
everyone should make some up (everyone in "alt" has silver nitrate on the
shelf, no?), and see what's happening instead of guessing. It's also a
great class demo.

Judy



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