First(ish) Vandyke : wierd deposit

[buze]

I tried a few coating/exposure/negs with Vandyke and I reached a point where I'm very happy with the tonality and contrast, however my very last print (the favourite of the lot of course) has some sort of white deposit on some parts of it.. It /looks/ like a drying mark, but gives odd reflections. My other, previous prints don't show that at all...

This one used double coating, hair dryer for 4 minutes, and it's a 4x5 neg contact on an A6 piece of watercolor paper.
+ Exposure 1:50
+ 2 minutes in running water (Ph 6ish)
+ 2 minutes in 8g sodium thiosulfate + 400ml water
+ 2 minutes in 8g sodium sulfite + 400ml water
+ wash for 10 minutes...

Any idea what these traces (mostly to the right) are ? A solution getting exhausted (I did about 8 A6s)

 

[buze]

Ok. sorted out most of the problems:
+ Don't use the hairdryer
+ Air-dry for 10-15 minutes instead, in the dark
+ Single coat; no need for double coating. this solves the "deposit issue"
+ Lower the exposure even more, I'm down to one minute on a "normal" neg.

 

[Dana Sullivan]

That's classic solarization of a Vandyke image. The emulsion probably didn't penetrate the paper enough and dried on the surface when you hit it with the hair dryer. When you exposed the image, the silver particles actually "held hands" on the surface instead being trapped inside the cotton fibers. When you have enough of the particles bonding on the surface you get a whitish or silverish colored "stain" that reflects light just like a mirror.

 

[buze]

I plonked that "reject" first print in Selenium yesterday (I was toning other things, so it was a "strong" solution 1+9)

It toned beautifully, removed the stain, and turned it's color...

 

[Deniz]

Love the toned print! The detail is definitely increased!

 

[buze]

Yes it was a lucky shot ! My best consistent results are with single coats. I tried double coating again but the impact of the humidity level makes exposing consistently next to impossible. I think I will have to try to dry the paper completely instead of trying to expose it when there is still some moisture in...