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Bromide bleaching - holding tray oddness.

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M Carter

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I spent a few hours this weekend testing various papers for second pass lith printing - I used ferri/potassium bromide bleach. I was testing with cut up paper from 4x6-ish up to 8x10. This is something I've done before, but this time I used one session to make standard-dev prints, and a second session to bleach and re-develop. So I did bleaching as a bunch, vs. one at a time.

After the papers were washed to be free of any yellow, they were washed an additional 5 minutes or so (however long it took the next print to bleach, usually - 5-10 minutes), and transferred to a holding tray full of water.

I noticed when doing the lith printing that I was getting some very hard exposure demarcation, as if the prints had been made as test strips with black masks for various times.

When looking at the prints in the holding tray, I realized there were hard-lined density differences, visible in the remaining image. These areas were based on how other prints in the stack overlapped. As if prints up higher were blocking room lights from the prints?

The tray was almost directly under a 15 watt or so bare spiral flo bulb - so was the bulb somehow exposing the emulsion? (actually the areas that "stuck out" under a print were lighter, as if the light pushed the bleaching further). Or was this something about prints touching each other?

Should I be:

Protecting bleached prints from light before redeveloping?

Washing for a longer time after bleaching? (I haven't found a standard time - some of these were fiber and some RC).

Not let freshly bleached prints touch each other in a crowded holding tray?

Thanks for any help!
 

Photo Engineer

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Bleached prints contain Silver Bromide which must be re-exposed and re-developed. It takes quite a bit of light to do the job, or you use a chemical fogging agent. Either one might be playing a part in your scenario.

Just remember to keep them dark until ready, and then re-expose uniformly, front and back and then redevelop.

PE
 
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M Carter

M Carter

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Thanks, as usual, PE. Next time I do batches I'll extend my wash times and keep any holding trays in the dark.
 
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