?Bronzing effect in silver gelatin prints

NHW · Oct 8, 2021

Hi. If I hold my prints at an angle in strong light, the deep blacks appear to separate or show a bluish hue - a bit like an inkjet print! I'm using Ilford RC VC paper and Ilford chemicals. I was wondering if this is normal or if anyone has any idea what might be causing it. I am using a red LED bulb rather than a specific safe light, so dont know if that might be the problem. Any advice gratefully received. You can see the effect in the feet of the woman in the image.

removed account4 · Oct 8, 2021

Hi NHW
First post! welcome to Photrio I hope you stick around..
Regarding the print. it is a bit of a riddle .. some people I think refer to that as
"silvering out" and it is caused by atmospheric contaminants because what I understand
it is an RC print .. I read that RC prints are specially vulnerable to this as the resin
( as in the plastic paper base the emulsion / image sits on ) "outgasses" meaning as it sits and ages
it releases some sort of fumes that when "trapped" behind a glass frame or maybe in a box or drawer? that doesn't
get plentiful air exchange(?) the fumes react with the printed image and cause this effect. Personally I *love* when this happens!
I wish I could do it on my own as a tool in my toolbox but as I said its a riddle.. In the end it is what it is ... and I'm not exactly sure if
what I wrote in this post is the definitive reason it happened ..
John

MattKing · Oct 8, 2021

I don't think that is silvering out.
I think you are seeing how the surface sheen manifests itself when you are viewing a print under certain types of light, at particular angles.
If you look at the print straight on, does it go away?
If you look at the print under different light, does it change or go away?
Do you have different paper surfaces available to you? If so, do you see the same thing with them?

NHW · Oct 8, 2021

MattKing said:
I don't think that is silvering out.
I think you are seeing how the surface sheen manifests itself when you are viewing a print under certain types of light, at particular angles.
If you look at the print straight on, does it go away?
If you look at the print under different light, does it change or go away?
Do you have different paper surfaces available to you? If so, do you see the same thing with them?

Thanks Guys for your helpful comments. Under normal viewing the effect is not seen. Its only under light (various sources) and when the print is angled to the light. Only have gloss paper so DK about other finishes. The paper and chemicals are all fresh. Maybe "it is what it is" I just wasn't expecting it. I develop for 1 min, stop 30 secs and fix 1 min. I wonder if these might be variables?

pentaxuser · Oct 8, 2021

NHW said:
. I develop for 1 min, stop 30 secs and fix 1 min. I wonder if these might be variables?

No, your dev and fixing process is fine

pentaxuser

AgX · Oct 8, 2021

jnantz said:
...what I understand
it is an RC print .. I read that RC prints are specially vulnerable to this as the resin
( as in the plastic paper base the emulsion / image sits on ) "outgasses" meaning as it sits and ages
it releases some sort of fumes that when "trapped" behind a glass frame or maybe in a box or drawer?

You mix up two processes:

-) the light induced deterioration of the PE layer and the emulsion due to the photocatalytic effect of the pigment
This has been tacled by the industry years ago.

-) the lack in PE paper of a sink (the fiber base) where diffusing ions my gather without harm.
(At least this is one theory.)

removed account4 · Oct 8, 2021

well whatever it is, I wish I could do it !

AgX · Oct 8, 2021

You mean provoking this artefact?

Yes, it got something. As stained glass.

removed account4 · Oct 8, 2021

AgX said:
You mean provoking this artefact?

Yes, it got something. As stained glass.

exactly ! I want to provoke the auto deterioration of my prints so they decompose or whatever it is they are doing
to get that weird effect .. it would be more fun than a rollercoaster ride at an amusement park!

grainyvision · Oct 8, 2021

I have this issue with pretty much every glossy RC paper with many different developers and processes. It's just how glossy RC tends to be. Matte and pearl finish RC papers do not give this effect and it's only visible at an angle

koraks · Oct 9, 2021

jnantz said:
I want to provoke the auto deterioration of my prints so they decompose or whatever it is they are doing
to get that weird effect

All I can say is I've got an album of MCP310 prints that nearly all have started to silver out / bronze. The cause seems to be the combination of insufficient fixing (I heavily overused the fixer) and very limited washing. I'd suggest using 500ml of fixer at 1+20 dilution or so, run a few prints through it to get it down to its knees and then start feeding through your actual prints. Stick with a 1 minute fixing time or so.
It'll be a balancing act between fixing insufficiently so that the bronzing occurs, but not so short that you end up with too much retained silver that will print out over time and create brown spots.
It takes a few months to a few years for the bronzing to take place; be patient.

Don_ih · Oct 9, 2021

I thought the bronzing was most often caused by exposure to paper with residual manufacturing chemicals in it (acid) and varying humidity levels. So, you see it in photos in albums and you see it in matted photos around the edges. I had a few sheets of 75-year-old kodabromide paper that were actually bronze coloured straight out of the box, where they had been between the black paper and pressed up against the cardboard of the box. I tossed them in fixer and the colour stayed. So, @jnantz, if you want the effect, just wait 50 years or so....

?Bronzing effect in silver gelatin prints

NHW

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