Prints scratching easily

cmealy · Mar 7, 2012

Hello there! I am currently in the process of getting my school's darkroom back up and running. Just did a few test prints today and while washing i noticed I had scratched a few pretty badly. So I took it out and sure enough I could scratch A LOT of the print right off the paper. Now, I am 100% new to the chemical part of darkroom use so I'm going to assume it's a problem with my mixing. Would this be a safe assumption or could it be something else that went wrong?

ann · Mar 7, 2012

Well RC papers are easily scratched but it isn't common; usually if using a squeeze.

How warm are the chemicals and the wash water? How strong was the stop bath? It takes some serious chemistry to have the emulsion move right off the paper.