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Old 28th April 2009, 03:17 PM
darkroomTed darkroomTed is offline
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Default Drying-down of Ilford Fibre-based papers

Hi Les,
Have you ever encountered drying-down problems with Ilford FB glossy paper? I'm sure that my prints are significantly darker the next morning after my darkroom work the previous evening. I dry the prints by hanging for maybe 20 minutes on clothes pegs in the darkroom, then a quick flash on my fibre-paper dryer (face down) for maybe 15 secs, then overnight in an Ademco dry-mounting press sandwiched between blotting paper. They emerge nice and flat but I'm sure darker.

I'm usually printing using a filter of between 2 1/2 and 5 as I like my images really black and grainy - Brandt-style.

If there is a drying-down issue, is there an easy way to solve it - other than the obvious... print a bit lighter!

Hope you can help.

Thanks,
Ted
 
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Old 28th April 2009, 10:40 PM
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Les McLean Les McLean is offline
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Hi Ted, Drydown of fibre papers is a reality, the simple explanation is that the fibre paper base shrinks during drying and as a result the print becomes darker. The drydown factor differs from paper to paper but is likely to be between 8% and 12%. I test the fibre papers I use about once every year just to make sure that changes by the manufacturers have not changed the characteristics of the paper. I have an article on my website explaining how to test for drydown, here is the link to it http://www.lesmcleanphotography.com/...ull&article=28

Follow the instructions on how to carry out the test and your drydown problems will be solved.
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Old 29th April 2009, 07:57 AM
darkroomTed darkroomTed is offline
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Thanks Les.
You're a star!
Ted
 
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