Dark lines on color print

[hsvdg]

Hi,

I am doing RA-4 developing (using the Bellini kit). Recently, my prints come out with dark lines at random places. They look like the result of some liquid (because of the shape), but I cannot quite understand what exactly causes them. I attached a picture as an example. On the image, you actually see two different prints (and lines are different).

I am using processing drums for development. I ensured that they were nicely rinsed beforehand and dry before I put the paper in.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[koraks]

This is likely due to uneven wetting in the first few seconds of development. Try processing a few prints in trays; I bet the problem will be gone then.

Perhaps in drums a pre-wash might help, and otherwise it's a matter of honing your process/technique and use a little more developer so there's a generous amount of flooding of the paper at the very first stage of development.

It's great that you're doing RA4 at home; keep at it You'll iron out the kinks for sure and then you'll have loads of fun with this!

 

[brbo]

Yes, pre-wash for drum processing is basically mandatory.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Do you have a cat or a dog?

 

[brbo]

Do you have a cat or a dog?

What's that got to do with the Hasselblads?!

 

[koraks]

Sirius is probably thinking along the lines of stray hairs causing this. It's not that, though.

 

[hsvdg]

Thank you for your response. I can confirm two cats in the houshold...but I do not think the lines are cat hair. Perhaps a bit more of background is useful. This is my first time color (I have done BW before). I am using Bellini RA4. The first 10 images or so came out without the lines. I then started to pre-wash (to warm up the drum), then the lines started. So, I thought the pre-wash is the problem, so I stopped pre-washing...lines stayed.

I thought, perhaps the blix or developer is exhausted. I have not done so many pictures, but I probably did it the wrong way. I diluted the entire 5 litres and then poured the developed/blix back into the big bottle after usage. I wonder whether this was, perhaps, the wrong approach? That said, I do not understand why an exhausted blix/dev would cause such lines.

 

[koraks]

I do not understand why an exhausted blix/dev would cause such lines.

Neither do I.

Just to check, but the lines don't happen to be in the negatives, do they?

 

[hsvdg]

I checked that. You can also see this on the picture. It shows two different prints of the same negative. The line is different in both.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Sometimes a few drips of cross-contamination occur between steps due to residual chem clinging to the inside of the drum, its entry rim, or behind the print in there. That's why I always add a generous plain water rinse between the stop bath step and the blix step, just in case. I also use a relatively weak stop bath - maybe only 1/4% glacial acetic acid, always used one-shot of course. I never recycle or replenish anything related to drum usage. I can't imagine doing RA4 processing without a pre-rinse, prior to the developer. And I wash the final print within the drum especially well, with multiple water changes. But I have zero experience with Bellini products.

 

[koraks]

Cross contamination is a possibility, but blix contam of RA4 developer in small to modest amounts nearly always gives greenish/cyan artefacts, very specifically.