First RV4 Prints with extreme yellow colour cast & border

[Smethills]

I have a Kaiser VPM 7005 enlarger. After successfully printing B&W for some time decided to try colour. I am using brand new Bellini RA4 kit and Fujicolor Crystal Archive 8*10 Glossy paper. Negative film is 500T, my initial setting were 45Y 25M 0C. From the test strip there was an obvious severe yellow colour cast, strangely the unexposed borders were also bright yellow. Even turning the yellow filter up to 100Y (full size print attached) has not fully removed colorcast and borders remain quite yellow.
Has anyone experienced this? Given that the unexposed borders are turning bright yellow my suspicion is that there is a problem with this batch of paper?

 

[koraks]

How old is the paper you're using and where did it come from? I'm asking because Fuji paper goes yellow as it goes off. It generally takes several years for it to reach the point of being as yellow as in your photos. I'd expect your paper to be >10 years old and/or stored under adverse conditions (high temperature).

Note also that you have to ensure that any and all sources of blue light in your darkroom need to be eliminated.

 

[Smethills]

The paper is brand new from Firstcall. Darkroom has no obvious blue light.

 

[koraks]

Okay, thanks for confirming (and also, welcome to Photrio!)

You could try the following tests:
* Process a test strip without exposing it under the enlarger. Handle it the exact same way as you'd do otherwise (take from pack, put in easel etc.), just skip the actual exposure and instead just leave it on the easel for the approximate amount of time of the hypothetical exposure.
* Process a test sheet by taking it from the pack and putting it straight into the developing bath/tank.
Both of these sheets should come out pure white after processing, washing & drying. If they come out yellow, compare them and try to figure out if one sheet is more yellow than the other (the first may be more yellow).

If both sheets come out yellow, there's a fogging problem. It can still be in your darkroom, it can be of chemical nature or pre-existing fog on the paper.

If there's a difference in the intensity of the fog, with the second sheet being less affected than the first, the fogging is occurring in your darkroom and likely the result of a stray indicator LED etc. somewhere. In this case, you could do some more tests with strips left out for various amounts of time in darkroom conditions to verify that the duration of the exposure to these conditions does in fact affect fog.

If both sheets come out yellow and there's no difference in the intensity, then the fog will either be pre-existing on the paper, or it will be chemically induced. The latter is possible, but I'm struggling to think of a likely scenario since contamination and mixing errors generally do not result in a solid yellow fog, but other hues instead.

If both sheets come out pure white, the likely cause is stray light from the enlarger. However, I find this somewhat unlikely as this typically involves red fog, not yellow. The possible exception is an additive enlarger with a light leak only on the blue channel.

 

[pentaxuser]

The paper is brand new from Firstcall. Darkroom has no obvious blue light.

A bit of a head scratcher then? Here's what may be a very long shot Is it somehow possible that when you exposed the paper the borders were exposed to the enlarger light which still had the same filtration as was used when exposing, Such light might be stray light from the enlarger from neg carrier for ínstance. Have a look for any stray light and then whether the sheet as you take it from the box might pass close to that stray filtered light

Unless the borders were exposed somehow I cannot work out how new paper should have anything other than white borders

Try another small piece of paper extracted from your box in total darkness and then processed as you would an exposed paper

If it is white then some light of some kind is getting onto the full sheet including borders when withdrawing the sheet from the box and exposing it to light from the enlarger

Do as koraks suggests. His post made it to the replies as I was typing mine

pentaxuser

 

[Smethills]

Okay, thanks for confirming (and also, welcome to Photrio!)

You could try the following tests:
* Process a test strip without exposing it under the enlarger. Handle it the exact same way as you'd do otherwise (take from pack, put in easel etc.), just skip the actual exposure and instead just leave it on the easel for the approximate amount of time of the hypothetical exposure.
* Process a test sheet by taking it from the pack and putting it straight into the developing bath/tank.
Both of these sheets should come out pure white after processing, washing & drying. If they come out yellow, compare them and try to figure out if one sheet is more yellow than the other (the first may be more yellow).

If both sheets come out yellow, there's a fogging problem. It can still be in your darkroom, it can be of chemical nature or pre-existing fog on the paper.

If there's a difference in the intensity of the fog, with the second sheet being less affected than the first, the fogging is occurring in your darkroom and likely the result of a stray indicator LED etc. somewhere. In this case, you could do some more tests with strips left out for various amounts of time in darkroom conditions to verify that the duration of the exposure to these conditions does in fact affect fog.

If both sheets come out yellow and there's no difference in the intensity, then the fog will either be pre-existing on the paper, or it will be chemically induced. The latter is possible, but I'm struggling to think of a likely scenario since contamination and mixing errors generally do not result in a solid yellow fog, but other hues instead.

If both sheets come out pure white, the likely cause is stray light from the enlarger. However, I find this somewhat unlikely as this typically involves red fog, not yellow. The possible exception is an additive enlarger with a light leak only on the blue channel.

Good advice. I will give it a try.

 

[Smethills]

A bit of a head scratcher then? Here's what may be a very long shot Is it somehow possible that when you exposed the paper the borders were exposed to the enlarger light which still had the same filtration as was used when exposing, Such light might be stray light from the enlarger from neg carrier for ínstance. Have a look for any stray light and then whether the sheet as you take it from the box might pass close to that stray filtered light

Unless the borders were exposed somehow I cannot work out how new paper should have anything other than white borders

Try another small piece of paper extracted from your box in total darkness and then processed as you would an exposed paper

If it is white then some light of some kind is getting onto the full sheet including borders when withdrawing the sheet from the box and exposing it to light from the enlarger

Do as koraks suggests. His post made it to the replies as I was typing mine

pentaxuser

Will do. Thank you!

 

[Smethills]

Good advice. I will give it a try.

So I did as you suggested. Suare paper is following my normal darkroom process without actually exposing the paper. The strip was cut from fresh paper in the box and straight into the tank.
Results are conclusive - I have a blue light problem! There are quite a few LED's in my darkroom (also our utility room / electrical fuse / switching). I thought I had masked them all with electrical tape but clearly blue light is still getting through strongly :-(
Many thanks for your help - will need to think about how to fix this...

 

[Samu]

I had once a roll of DP II delivered by a reputable dealer here in Lithuania, but the paper was defective. It produced a slight orange cast on every inch of the paper. I don't know if the paper was expired, stored improperly (which I doubt for a big company catering mostly to labs and other professionals), or was it a production defect. I got just a new roll when I tolt them about it. They don't print expiry dates on the rolls any more.

Light can do quite a lot. It can be a problem even with older darkroom equipment meant for EP-2 era papers, such as color sensors (if they are still working, most are not). Reason being that the modern papers are much faster, and the dim lights the old equipment often has, can very well expose modern RA-4 papers. I have pme small radiator in my darkroom, which I don't always remember to switch off. and it has a small red LED which has ruined some films, and numerous sheets of color paper by going on without warning.