Dry fiber prints then wash

[henk@apug]

After fixing I leave my fiber prints in a tray with water until my darkroom session is over.
Then I selenium tone them, then they go in the washaid and from there in the
print washer.

I am very curious to know if the steps selenium toning/washaid/printwasher can be
done after the prints have completely dried (say a week later)

Thanks

 

[Bob Carnie]

Yes- I prefer to do it the day of printing only for handling less times , but absolutely no problem toning at a latter date.

 

[tkamiya]

Um.... a couple of things....

If you pool your fixer laden prints in tray with small amount of water, let them dry, then try to wash, it will take forever for fixer that dried up inside the paper to clear. So, don't let the paper dry before it's fully washed.

Plus, if you are going to tone fixed, washed, and dried paper, you'll have to soak in water again before toning. Otherwise, toning may be uneven.

 

[Vaughn]

I would save up prints from a month or more of printing and do my selenium toning all at one time. A complete wash (with wash aid) after the initial processing (I did not know which prints I was going to tone or not tone until they were dry, so I wanted all to have a complete wash.) I would tone a couple of each image, so I would have perhaps 12 or so 16x20 prints to tone. I kept everything as constant as I could, developer, time in the fixer (two trays, half the normal hardener), a good wash, so that my toning (color) was repeatable (Portriga Rapid quickly went to a reddish tone which I wanted to stop just short of -- getting a rich brown instead).

So toning all at once helped me to keep prints of an on-going project to have the same color tone.

 

[E76]

Do not let the prints dry without first fully washing them. If you do not fixer stains will develop and you will not be able to remove them.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I should add I hypo clear and wash the prints each and every session, I do not keep them in a tray of water after the fix unwashed.I should have read the question or first post better.

Yes- I prefer to do it the day of printing only for handling less times , but absolutely no problem toning at a latter date.

 

[seadrive]

Many people fix, wash and dry all their prints, then (at a later time) tone only the "keepers", the ones that are actually worthy of archival processing (I'm still waiting for my first ).

So... toning a week from now is fine. Washing a week from now... not so fine.

 

[henk@apug]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[jayvo86]

Here's side question that kind of parallels the ops.

If I retouch my print, is it permanent or can it be washed out?

I.E. Retouch and then tone.

 

[Bob Carnie]

spot tone will wash out.

Here's side question that kind of parallels the ops.

If I retouch my print, is it permanent or can it be washed out?

I.E. Retouch and then tone.

 

[Vaughn]

And if it did not wash out, the Spotone (or other retouching material) would no longer be the same color as the print...as the retouching material would not 'tone'.

 

[X. Phot.]

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/g23/g23.pdf

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/page.asp?n=135