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B/W Print turns green

kerrpanda

Member
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Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
59
Format
35mm
Help! I've had a B/W print (Agfa RC in Agfa Multicontrast developer, not selenium toned) for several years. Recently I had it matted (did not specify "archival mat) and framed under glass. It has been hanging in fluorescent lighting for about 6 months and it has turned a sickly green color. I removed the mat and the print under the mat is NOT green, just the exposed print area. Does anyone know what would cause this? I have had many prints undergo same circumstances and were fine. I am clueless!
Thanks for your help!
Cynthia
 
Can only be due to poor fixing. Usually due to a high silver content in the fixer leaving silver halides in the emulsion. It's rarely happens with RC papers, but I guess it can.

Ian
 
Cynthia, I am by no means an expert, but if the part that is hidden by the overmat is ok I would think that it must be the light. Again, just a guess
regards
Erik
 
Erik L said:
Cynthia, I am by no means an expert, but if the part that is hidden by the overmat is ok I would think that it must be the light. Again, just a guess
regards
Erik
Click to expand...
Yes the light acting on a very low level of silver halide left in the emulsion.

Some papers initially go green if you expose them to light without developing them.

Ian
 
Cynthia,

I doubt your print was envious of the other prints, but you never know ;-)
 
Ian Grant said:
Can only be due to poor fixing. Usually due to a high silver content in the fixer leaving silver halides in the emulsion. It's rarely happens with RC papers, but I guess it can.

Ian
Click to expand...

Ian,

I'm curious. Have you seen this often with fiber prints? The reason I ask is because I've been doing photo restoration for a number of years now, and never was presented with a photo that turned green. I usually get photos that are fairly old, some turned various shades of yellow-brown. Many are small older snapshot types that I crop and enlarge.

I wonder what would happen if they were fixed further and then toned even though the damage is done. Not that I would dare do anything to originals.

Paul
 
Ian is right...it was probably not sufficiently fixed. Try leaving out an unfixed sheet of different papers under a light for a day or two and you'll see a color change very quickly...perhaps in as little as a few hours. I've used papers that turn reddish purple, blue and greenish.
 
This discussion causes me to think just what is going to happen, if anything, when we no longer have incandescent light bulbs. I will miss their warm tones and coseying up with a book next to them.

Now that a law has been passed doing away with incandescent bulbs in a few years, I just wonder what's in store. There will EVENTUALLY no longer be any condenser enlargers.

Steve
 
panastasia said:
I'm curious. Have you seen this often with fiber prints? The reason I ask is because I've been doing photo restoration for a number of years now, and never was presented with a photo that turned green.
Paul
Click to expand...

Paul, I've only seen the green stain once, and that was with fibre based Forte Polywarmtone. Once these fixer stains appear re-fixing doesn't remove them, but it almost certainly prevents the problem getting worse.

Ian
 
poor fixing

Wow! Thanks for all the responses. I guess at that time in my printing history I wasn't aware that fixer would exhaust after x amount of prints. (In the class I took the whole class fixed for 3 hours and it never seemed an issue). But I am happy all of your responses were a concensus (except for the "envy" one and I would like to THINK that my prints would never have reason to be envious, wouldn't we all...).
I am heading to the darkroom today and I will be paying special attention to "fixing".
Appreciate the input,
Cynthia
 
spb854 said:
This discussion causes me to think just what is going to happen, if anything, when we no longer have incandescent light bulbs. I will miss their warm tones and coseying up with a book next to them.
Click to expand...

Hey, but you can get warm fluorescent bulbs, too. We have them in our reading lamps and less warm ones as main lighting. I don't miss incandescent lamps at all - I can buy almost any colour temperature I want here.

Antje
 
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