For those of you still working in the darkroom...

bulldurham · Jan 31, 2022

I ran across some notes I made while taking a class in "old" processes with Al Weber and David Vestal. It is a means by which you can get very good results from expired paper.

The additives you would be interested in are bromide and carbonate. Potassium Bromide will clear the whites. (reduce fog). Sodium carbonate will set the blacks. Use either or both. Expect increased exposure times. Mix both to 10% solutions. To a working tray of print developer, mq type (Dektol), say 3 liters total, add a couple of tablespoons of additive. Adjust as you print. Additional bromide used to be common. It was packaged under the title, BB solution. For further help, refer to 'Lootens On Photographic Enlarging and Print Control'. With old paper, the bromide may be enough. A big advantage of working like this is the fact that old paper is aged, and very stable, whereas fresh paper is green and not mature.

terri · Jan 31, 2022

I love reading stuff like this. Thanks for sharing these notes. It's not hard to find these items, actually. I've not yet been in a situation where I've needed to use the Potassium Bromide, for instance, but I have darkroom books, and especially books by Tim Rudman, who outlines other examples where a little bit of this or that can make a big difference in your printing.

So - cool!!! Thanks again for posting this. :icon_thumleft:

webestang64 · Jan 31, 2022

bulldurham said:
A big advantage of working like this is the fact that old paper is aged, and very stable, whereas fresh paper is green and not mature.

Interesting.....never heard of that. Oh well, I'm anal and use nothing but fresh "new born" paper. I wonder if it is meant to be like film. Film really should be shot and processed the month it "expires". During that month it has reached it's "mature" stage and is at its optimal performance.

bulldurham · Jan 31, 2022

webestang64 said:
Interesting.....never heard of that. Oh well, I'm anal and use nothing but fresh "new born" paper. I wonder if it is meant to be like film. Film really should be shot and processed the month it "expires". During that month it has reached it's "mature" stage and is at its optimal performance.

When I was in college, I was shooting 35mm Tri-X that came in 500 foot rolls as it was designed to be shot in Mitchell 35mm Movie Cameras...at the time I was there, the film was 12-15 years old, left over from the Korean War and it worked just fine. Kept in a cool, dry or refrigerated storage unit, film has an amazing life span as does paper.