Blue cast on my prints? Ilford MG RC Satin...

clineco · Oct 9, 2014

I have a box of paper that is a couple years old, it has been stored in a cool dark place the entire time. I've been getting back into the darkroom and I am noticing that my prints are getting a blue cast to them (in the exposed areas, the paper is still white). I'm developing the paper in Dektol. I have checked my prints to other prints done with the same paper from the past and the old prints seem to be nice and neutral. I also did a print using the same batch of developer but this time using a glossy rc I had laying around and it seems fine. Am I doing something wrong? or is my paper going bad?

I appreciate any help.

Thanks!

MartinP · Oct 9, 2014

You might find that your fixer is leaving a lot of silver-emulsion in the prints.

If you bring an unexposed and unfixed sheet, or test-strip, in to the light you will see it darken to a purplish blue colour - could that be a similar colour (though darker in this test of course) to what you are seeing? If so, carefully assess the state of your fixer.

clineco · Oct 9, 2014

Thanks Martin - It's actually looking something like this:

Rick A · Oct 9, 2014

Hmm...how old is the Dektol? I notice there is no full blacks in the print and the contrast looks low. Could be the developer isn't active enough. Thats just a guess, I haven't used Dektol in years, but remember not being able to get enough contrast when it started to go bad, then the prints looking muddy when it really went bad. It could very well be paper age.

clineco · Oct 9, 2014

Thanks Rick. I should have mentioned...this isn't the exact print. I just mocked it up in psd as an example (the cast in my example is more exaggerated than the actual prints). as you had mentioned the blacks are kind of blue/purple, no true blacks. The dektol is new mixed it up a couple days ago.

Rick A · Oct 9, 2014

Dektol usually shows slightly warm tone, and on some papers will be slight olive shade. It's either the age of the paper or fixer issue.

drpsilver · Oct 9, 2014

09 Oct 2014

Clineco:

Might I suggest toning the print in selenium (1:10) for a time (>2 min). Look for two things: (1) the shadows should become more nuetral (or in an extreeme case maybe a little pink), and (2) look for staining in the highlights. If you do not see any stains then your fixer is doing its job.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Darwin

clineco · Oct 9, 2014

Rick: I'll mix up some new fix and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions.

Drpsilver - If all else fails, I'll give that a shot.

I'll report back. Thanks again!

clineco · Oct 12, 2014

Thank you very much for all of the replies. I had been given a dozen bags of old kodak fixer a while back, seems this may have been the issue. Mixed up a new bag and it works great. I'm going to dispose of the old stuff. Thanks again.

Blue cast on my prints? Ilford MG RC Satin...

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