Hi all,
I have been happily working with Ilford materials for years, but I recently bought a new package of Ilford MGRC Deluxe Glossy that has been giving me problems. Since I was not used to seeing this, I first thought about errors on my side, but I am now pretty sure this must be some kind of coating issue. I first noticed this on one of my recently posted images. E.g. see here:
Notice that about 1/4 of the bottom, there is a faint line of tiny "white" spots visible, almost the entire length of the print. They are about 0.1-0.3mm in size, spaced (less than) one to a few millimeters max apart.
In fact, when looking through a 10x loupe, see one of the images below, it becomes clear these spots aren't in fact entirely white, but light grey with still visible grains, as if the second high contrast coating layer of the multigrade paper had these defects, but not the low contrast one. My first line of thought was a scratch (before looking through a loupe). But a scratch on the negative's emulsion should result in black, not white spots. Inspecting the negative on a light table using a loupe, also doesn't reveal an obvious issue, the negative looks fine without any spots, whether dark or light. And as for a scratch of the paper's emulsion through careless handling by me: there appears to be no visible scratch to the glossy surface when I bend the paper in strong light. Of course, with the emulsion of the paper being scratched, I would also expect the dots to be more or less completely white, instead of greyish. I have seen a few more prints with this type of "scratch" while using the same package, while other prints appear to be fine.
I also had a clear issue with one other print, see below, where there appears a large (about 0.5cm diameter) bright white "hole" in the print. Looking at an angle to strong light, there appears to be a clear "ridge" in the emulsion causing a tiny shadow to the right of the hole, as if an air bubble prevented the coating from sticking to the paper at that point. A second print of the same negative on a new sheet of paper was fine.
As to my processing:
- I always agitate the prints every 15-20 seconds during a 4 minutes development time, so failed development caused by (part of) a print floating dry on top of the developer, is essentially excluded.
- The very rare cases where I have multiple prints in the developer tray, I always put them back-to-back (front-to-front) to prevent the RC prints from sticking to each other.
Anyone else had issues with possibly the same batch of paper, see the attached label? And am I right these are most likely attributable to a coating issue at the Ilford plant? Again, I cannot remember having seen such issue before while working with Ilford paper. I guess I could contact Ilford, but before doing that, it would be nice to have some confirmation of my analysis of the potential problem, as I have not seen such clear issues before even though having worked with Ilford papers for years.
I have been happily working with Ilford materials for years, but I recently bought a new package of Ilford MGRC Deluxe Glossy that has been giving me problems. Since I was not used to seeing this, I first thought about errors on my side, but I am now pretty sure this must be some kind of coating issue. I first noticed this on one of my recently posted images. E.g. see here:
On the way to "Red Line" demonstration in the Hague
Mother and daughter in the train on the way to the second "Red Line" demonstration that brought together about 150k people in the Hague
Notice that about 1/4 of the bottom, there is a faint line of tiny "white" spots visible, almost the entire length of the print. They are about 0.1-0.3mm in size, spaced (less than) one to a few millimeters max apart.
In fact, when looking through a 10x loupe, see one of the images below, it becomes clear these spots aren't in fact entirely white, but light grey with still visible grains, as if the second high contrast coating layer of the multigrade paper had these defects, but not the low contrast one. My first line of thought was a scratch (before looking through a loupe). But a scratch on the negative's emulsion should result in black, not white spots. Inspecting the negative on a light table using a loupe, also doesn't reveal an obvious issue, the negative looks fine without any spots, whether dark or light. And as for a scratch of the paper's emulsion through careless handling by me: there appears to be no visible scratch to the glossy surface when I bend the paper in strong light. Of course, with the emulsion of the paper being scratched, I would also expect the dots to be more or less completely white, instead of greyish. I have seen a few more prints with this type of "scratch" while using the same package, while other prints appear to be fine.
I also had a clear issue with one other print, see below, where there appears a large (about 0.5cm diameter) bright white "hole" in the print. Looking at an angle to strong light, there appears to be a clear "ridge" in the emulsion causing a tiny shadow to the right of the hole, as if an air bubble prevented the coating from sticking to the paper at that point. A second print of the same negative on a new sheet of paper was fine.
As to my processing:
- I always agitate the prints every 15-20 seconds during a 4 minutes development time, so failed development caused by (part of) a print floating dry on top of the developer, is essentially excluded.
- The very rare cases where I have multiple prints in the developer tray, I always put them back-to-back (front-to-front) to prevent the RC prints from sticking to each other.
Anyone else had issues with possibly the same batch of paper, see the attached label? And am I right these are most likely attributable to a coating issue at the Ilford plant? Again, I cannot remember having seen such issue before while working with Ilford paper. I guess I could contact Ilford, but before doing that, it would be nice to have some confirmation of my analysis of the potential problem, as I have not seen such clear issues before even though having worked with Ilford papers for years.