Yellow/Brown stains on BW prints

Marian Sell · Oct 4, 2014

hi darkroom buddies,

i didn't work in a darkroom in more than 5 years, now finally i installed a darkroom in my apartment and i'm back!

so i did a few test prints on "Ilford Multigrade IV RC Portfolio Black & White Paper Pearl", and i have stains on a few of them - see image below, i'm talking about the stains in unexposed/white areas.

there's probably an easy solution to this phenomenon, did i develop/stop/fix/water it too long?

thanks for your help guys, have a great weekend

KenC · Oct 4, 2014

How old is the paper? It almost looks like a little light got into the package and fogged the paper, mostly around the edges. Insufficient washing could cause staining, but it would have to be really a lot less than recommended. I doubt you would make that mistake. I only saw this a couple of times when I set up a darkroom without running water and just soaked the prints in a basin and changed the water once. Even then it wasn't this bad.

Marian Sell · Oct 4, 2014

KenC said:
How old is the paper? It almost looks like a little light got into the package and fogged the paper, mostly around the edges. Insufficient washing could cause staining, but it would have to be really a lot less than recommended. I doubt you would make that mistake. I only saw this a couple of times when I set up a darkroom without running water and just soaked the prints in a basin and changed the water once. Even then it wasn't this bad.

hi, the paper is actually brand new, same for the chemicals. i believe that it's not a light leak, because the stains really have a warm tone to it, whilst the print is neutral.

i have these stains on 5 out of 8 prints. as i said, i'm still setting up and i did those prints to find potential problems - as i did!

Alexr25 · Oct 4, 2014

That looks to me like the fixing time was to short or possibly the fixer was exhausted.

vintagesnaps · Oct 4, 2014

Are you talking about the gray almost cloud-like splotches around the outer edges of the paper? I've had something somewhat similar when using a shared darkroom at a university and the tongs for the developer ended up in another tray and I got marks around the edges (and had to empty and rinse all the tongs and after that started taking along my own to use! lol).

So I wondered if it has to do with the developer possibly somehow having gotten onto equipment or into other trays.

Marian Sell · Oct 4, 2014

all the liquids and papers are brand new, i just got all those from B&H last week..

yes i'm talking about the cloudy parts around the edges. the fact that most of it happens around the edges, seems to show that some liquid finds it's way into the paper, from the sides. does that make sense?

i might have been to generous with the stopping bath, some might have stayed in there for a minute. besides this i did develop about 1.5-2minutes, fix about 2 minutes and water for about 10 minutes.

timor · Oct 5, 2014

At first glance it looks under fixed, however, when the stains showed up ?

Marian Sell · Oct 5, 2014

timor said:
At first glance it looks under fixed, however, when the stains showed up ?

i think the stains showed up during watering and got more intense whilst drying.

Alexr25 · Oct 5, 2014

That definitely sounds like a fixing problem. What fixer are you using?
If its a rapid fixer (ammonium thiosulfate based) then a 2 minute fix should be enough but if its a standard sodium thiosulfate based fixer then 2 minutes is way too short a time.

vintagesnaps · Oct 5, 2014

Sounds like that's it, if it isn't fixed long enough I wonder during the rinse if water soaked into the paper.

Marian Sell · Oct 5, 2014

Alexr25 said:
That definitely sounds like a fixing problem. What fixer are you using?
If its a rapid fixer (ammonium thiosulfate based) then a 2 minute fix should be enough but if its a standard sodium thiosulfate based fixer then 2 minutes is way too short a time.

vintagesnaps said:
Sounds like that's it, if it isn't fixed long enough I wonder during the rinse if water soaked into the paper.

thanks guys, i will try to fix longer next time, although i was pretty generous. the fixer is a rapid fixer….!

timor · Oct 6, 2014

Marian Sell said:
thanks guys, i will try to fix longer next time, although i was pretty generous. the fixer is a rapid fixer….!

Well, the whole thing is strange a bit as the other explanation would be: "bad batch of paper".
Keep this prints for some time and check time to time if it is changing color.

gsgary · Oct 7, 2014

vintagesnaps said:
Are you talking about the gray almost cloud-like splotches around the outer edges of the paper? I've had something somewhat similar when using a shared darkroom at a university and the tongs for the developer ended up in another tray and I got marks around the edges (and had to empty and rinse all the tongs and after that started taking along my own to use! lol).

So I wondered if it has to do with the developer possibly somehow having gotten onto equipment or into other trays.

That wouldn't cause it because because you are going to get some developer in the stop and some stop in the fix, just don;t get stop in your dev

PhotoTurtle · Oct 12, 2014

were your fingers completely dry when you were handling the paper? I'm just wondering because I know that for me if my fingers are at all damp I get stains on the paper from where the paper was handled that don't show up until its developed and dried.

zach_original · Oct 15, 2014

I've had stains similar to those after not fixing my print for long enough or not washing after fixing, so I think you've found your problem. PhotoTurtle also brought up a good point about handling the paper whilst in the development process.