How do you transport wet prints?

[David Brown]

How do folks who use school and/or community darkrooms handle taking wet prints home? This is assuming there is not time to let the prints dry before you remove them from the facility.

[Chrisvclick]

Hand drier near the sink, bout a minute per print keep em moving though.,,

[Paulographic]

Hair dryer, I use one to speed up RC print drying.
On a hot day I once laid RC prints out in the car for a while when not at home after an accident with a pint of beer showing them off. Washed in the gents and patted dry with clean tea towels from the bar first. I use catering glass cloths to pat dry all my prints anyway before laying out to dry. Used exclusively for photography not dishes.

[JOReynolds]

Originally Posted by David Brown

How do folks who use school and/or community darkrooms handle taking wet prints home? This is assuming there is not time to let the prints dry before you remove them from the facility.

You didn't say if you were using RC or fibre paper. I had this problem when teaching because we only had a drying rack, so most students had to wait until the next session to view their work dry. The alternative was the only time I allowed the students to use a film squeegee. RC paper dries within a few minutes when squeegeed.

[photomi7ch]

When I was a student we had a choice of print dryers.

[Nabhar]

Originally Posted by David Brown

How do folks who use school and/or community darkrooms handle taking wet prints home? This is assuming there is not time to let the prints dry before you remove them from the facility.

I used to have this dilemma at the communal darkroom I used. The main issue was keeping the prints flat in carraige. My idea was to find some kind of non-absorbant separation medium (I thought of grease-proof paper, but wasn't sure if that was appropriate)for the prints, and then stack the part-dried prints between two sheets of hardboard, and bind with elastic bands.
However, I never followed this idea through as, being only 20 minutes from home, I just put the prints in a plastic bag and took care not to bend them. Once home, I re-immersed them in water and then taped them to a sheet of glass to dry flat overnight.

p.s. There is an article on this site that describes this drying technique that I employed for my Fibre-based papers. It's cheap, works really well and greatly reduces any dry-down contrast issues. - win win !!

JP

[Martin Aislabie]

Have you tried taking your own developing tray with a cling film cover.

Transport the prints wet, seal them in the tray with the cling film to stop them drying out too much en route and then dry them at home at your leisure.

If evaporation was too great you could carry a bottle of water to help keep everything wet.

Leave them to soak for a good while before pealing them apart at home - drying emulsion has a great affinity to the back of the next print.

I'm not sure this method would cope with the heat of mid summer Texas daytime temperatures but it works OK throughout the year in the more temperate UK climate.

Martin

[M Stewart]

Having only recently joined, I'm coming in late on this thread.
Back in the 1950s I used my school's communal darkroom, and the school had kindly provided drying sheets (cotton gauze or similar material) mounted on a frame hung from the ceiling, and on which we could partially air dry our prints before taking them home. Sadly, no one thought to wash the sheets or to impress on the dimmer boys that a thorough washing was essential before placing print (paper not RC, in the 1950s) on the "air dryer". Sadly all of my early enlargements done in that darkroom stained very quickly. I'm pleased to say that later ones still exist in good condition, complete with pithy comments... I think I carried them home wet, and thoroughly washed them at home before letting them dry.

[B&W Neil]

I have never had to do this but if I had to I would remove as much water are possible with with a cheap chamois leather (imitation ones OK - I use them with my Bromoils) and place them in a blotting paper book, or between sheets of blotting paper with a front and back of stiff card. Buy your blotting paper from a photographic supplier or an art shop. They then should be easy to take home by more or less any transport means.

Neil.