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Old 25th January 2017, 04:11 PM
TintinJulia TintinJulia is offline
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Default Problem with printing b/w

Hi everybody!
Sorry if I’m in the wrong section of the forum but this seemed correct to me
(I’m not very good at english and not very familiar with english photo terms yet so bare with me)

So, I’ve been having some trouble in the darkroom lately that I thought I might check with you guys to get new ideas. I’m not at all experienced in the dark room so i propably got some big gaps in my knowledge. Anyway.
From one month to another SOMETHING happened in the darkroom and now i can’t get proper prints! I include a real crappy mobile photo for you to at least get the idea The left one (which I'm happy with. IRL that is) and the right one which obviously is not very good…
What is going on in the faulty one?
I’ve used the exact same settings (but I’ve also tried others, and I’ve tried another enlarger but with pretty much the same result). I’ve exchanged the processing liquid (and tried two different brands) with the same dilution as normally. The light and temperature is like the’ve always been so no change there.
I thought i might have exposed the papers to light or perhaps they were old so i bought new ones but the result was the same.
The only thing i can think of that might be the problem is that the processing liquid is old. It might be. I can’t check right now. But it worked perfectly fine one month ago! Does it go from OK to unusable that quickly?
I’ve also tried with different negatives but the result is the same.

So do you have any ideas? Probably the liquid or have I missed something vital?
Been broke but will by some new liquid asap.
Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions!
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  #2  
Old 25th January 2017, 04:38 PM
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MartyNL MartyNL is offline
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If the developer is not diluted then it should still be good after one month in a sealed bottle.
However if you mean that the developer is diluted and one month old then it will probably be exhausted.
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Old 25th January 2017, 04:40 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TintinJulia View Post
The only thing i can think of that might be the problem is that the processing liquid is old. But it worked perfectly fine one month ago! Does it go from OK to unusable that quickly?
Hi Julia,

looking at the two pictures, two things spring to mind.

1. The right hand picture could be VERY under exposed, which has made it too light and not dark enough, as you do have some exposure on it.

2. Your developer should last over a month when IN THE BOTTLE but would only last about one or two days in the tray. But you say that you changed the liquid, so I presume that you mean that you have used FRESH developer from the bottle and diluted it (1+9 for most developers).

3. The only other things I can think of are: Was your diluted developer around room temperature at about 20C in the tray and did you give it the full amount of time recommended (usually 1 - 2 minutes)?

So, if the developer is fresh and at the right temperature, try doing a test print of various exposures to see if you can get a better exposure and print.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Terry S
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Old 25th January 2017, 04:44 PM
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MartyNL MartyNL is offline
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The paper does not looked fogged. And I agree with Terry, the print looks under-exposed.

Have you tried doing a new test-strip but with a wider aperture or longer times?
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Old 25th January 2017, 05:25 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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I agree with the above, the second print looks badly underexposed, try another test strip, also check if you used the correct Fstop on the lens, it is very easy to close the aperture ring too much, if you have opened it to check focus, I always give a final check for focus at the working aperture, maybe write down the number, so you can check just before exposure, The only other thing I can think of is that the paper is underdeveloped, maybe you somehow got the dilution/timing wrong,, or possibly you left the dev in the tray for a day or so in between the prints, I find with developer that it is always best to mix fresh for each printing session, you can re use stop or fixer, but best not to re use developer, it can go off very quickly, almost from one print to another, one is fine the next the developer is off,
Richard
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Old 25th January 2017, 05:45 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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I will go with Richard I have never kept used developer ,its cheap and hard to tell when its on the turn always use fresh ..hope you can work it out..




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Old 25th January 2017, 05:55 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Sorry to hear of your problem. What is the paper developer called, is it your own developer and if so did you buy it as new developer and when was this?

I think that I noted in your introduction when you introduced yourself to us as a new member that you share a darkroom. If the developer was already there then there may be no way of knowing how old it was. Eventually developer in its original container( called stock developer which has not been diluted) will stop working properly, if it is quite old but instead of not printing anything it still appears to develop the print but the print looks grey and under-exposed with no contrast.

A test will be to try the developer again but this time do several prints with increasing grades and develop for, say, twice the normal time. If you do not see big changes in the prints then I'd buy fresh developer.

If you can be sure nothing has changed since you made good prints then exhausted developer might be the cause

Mike
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Old 25th January 2017, 06:35 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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You might try and find a local darkroom worker to help you, it's steep learning curve and expensive if you're not careful, so some help/guidance can be useful.

There are a few in Sweden, some post on APUG.

Ian
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Old 25th January 2017, 08:15 PM
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skellum skellum is offline
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Hi TintinJulia. From your post, it would seem you have already tried new developer AND new paper?
Devloper comes concentrated, and is diluted to 'working strength' with water. UNdiluted developer will keep for weeks/months in a sealed container. Once diluted it lasts a few hours, so at the end of a printing session dispose of it.
Here are a couple of tests:
First, mix some fresh developer and fixer. In darkness take a piece of UNexposed paper from the box and devlop, stop, fix. It should be a clean white- if grey, you have old, fogged paper.
Next, take a small piece of paper and expose it to lots of light- even turn on the room light (after closing the paper box!). Develop, stop fix. It should be inky black- if grey, your developer is bad.
So, if you have good paper and good developer, test the enlarger by making a test strip: Have the lens quite wide open with no negative in place. Also, no multigrade filters in place (the soft filters 00 and 0 reduce contrast and make the print 'greyer')
Turn on the enlarger, and cover the paper in steps-
after 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 8, 16, 32 and 64 seconds.
Develop, stop, fix- you should have a strip of paper with one end very light and the other black. Inbetween should be darkening greys. If you can't get a proper black, you're enlarger bulb might be failing.
It's a little bit of work, but it will tell you about the paper, developer and enlarger bulb.
If you have time, give it a try and come back to the forum and tell us what happened.
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Old 26th January 2017, 08:17 AM
TintinJulia TintinJulia is offline
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Thanks so much for all your replies

From your replies I'm starting to think even more that the developer should have been exchanged looong ago. Like I wrote, i did mix new one from concentrate (9+1 dilution like i have earlier). But the concentrate itself I can't even really say when it was purchased, it is that long ago.

I did mess around with different apertures and exposure time. Just to see if anything happened I trippled the normal exposure time, but it still would not go any darker than in the bad photo I included.

Yeah, I should try to find a local person with some more expertise, the learning curve sure is steep. I'll check out the link, LostLabours.
(Or give me a shout if any of you are ever in Stockholm )

I'll try to buy some new developer and give it another go in the dark room next week so I'll keep you posted.
Thanks
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