Got black spots on a print? Read on...

[keithwms]

This is a spot-dodging technique. If you have clear areas on your neg (e.g. defects in the emulsion and such), these can lead to black spots on your print that are difficult to retouch.

It's much easier to retouch a white spot on a print, so... I've been experimenting with an idea which I am sure others have done before but I haven't seen it described, so here goes....

What I did was buy some water soluble / washable childrens' coloured pens. Crayola brand is what I got, just a pack of sharp pens with which you can spot-dodge the print before exposing it.

What you do is put a red filter over your enlarger bulb and, using the negative image cast down on the paper as a reference, you make little spots over the white areas. Then you print normally. When you immerse your paper in the developer, you agitate vigorously for a few sec and 99.44% of the washable ink will disappear. I have verified that it leaves easily even from matte fiber-based paper.

So then... after development / stop / fix, dry, you will have lovely little white spots where you would have had nasty black ones. The white spots are easy to retouch- they can simply be filled in with a graphite pencil or spotted with solution.

I had tried various other methods such as making a dupe neg and retouching that, spot bleaching, etc. I tell you: this technique is very easy and the possibilities are endless.

Note: this spot-dodging could also be done with a light graphite pencil, but then you need to erase it, and with some papers that might pull up fiber. Plus I can't get pencil marks at all on RC papers. The washable ink method seems to work well on all papers that I've tried.

That's it, just a little tip. I hope that it is useful to somebody...

 

[photomem]

Thats actually a pretty good idea. I have those same black spots on a print that I dearly love. And my kids have those markers.. so I might be raiding their Rainy Day Craft box.

 

[snay1345]

Interesting technique. Thanks.

 

[El Gringo]

What a great idea, hopefully this means I can print a few of my LF negs that had spots instead of reshooting them.

 

[Perry Way]

awesome! thanks Keith for this great idea. I have quite a number of 4x5's with this problem, and that to me are quite important. I have made a few prints anyway and I'm having a hard time etching out the dark spots. GRRRRRR! I bought this box of Fortepan 400, the last on the planet supposedly, and about half the sheets have emulsion wierdities. Oh but I sure do love the tone of this film and the Bergger too which I am now all out of, forever. Now irreplaceable. Anyway, with your tip I might be able to make much better prints.

 

[ricksplace]

Great idea.

 

[36cm2]

Posted wirelessly..

Agreed, very cool.

 

[Steve Roberts]

An excellent idea. I have a neg of a river running under a viaduct and bang in the middle is a mooring buoy which appears as a small, round, black blob and is very distracting. People have told me that it would be easy to get rid of it in something called Photoshop but apparently you need one of Charles Babbage's difference engines for that. Next time I'm printing I'll give your technique a try.
Thanks,
Steve

 

[kauffman v36]

might seem like a stupid question, but which color of the pens did you use? black, grey, etc?

 

[keithwms]

Glad this is helpful! Note that you can also put transparency film over the paper, if you are nervous-handed or having trouble seeing well under the red filter Actually that might be a god idea if you are doing a number of prints with a lot of spots and want some reproducibility and speed...

might seem like a stupid question, but which color of the pens did you use? black, grey, etc?

Not a stupid question at all! I have been using grey. I don't know if that is optimal, it's a good thing to test.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I use an iodine bleach formula, called R-14a& R-14b if I recall, from a mid 70's kodak book, 'bigger and better enlarging' or something like that.

I put a dropper drop or two of each stock solutions in a small cup, and stir with a toothpick when I see black spots to deal with. I also make a mental note to vaccuum the film holders better next time and move their zip locks to the 'reuse for lunch sandwiches' pile.

I pull the offending print from the initial wash, and squeegee on the back against a piece of glass/ferrotype plate etc to remove most standing water.

With the print horizontal, I touch the tip of toothpick wetted and shaken to remove any unwantd droplets to the black spot. They dissappear in a short time.

I then toss the print back into the wash tray/rack to finish washing.

Sorry, Im posting this at work so the formula is not at hand.

PM if you want me to dig it up.

The on print during enlarging exposure method under discussion here is a neat technique as well.

 

[MattKing]

A dark red pen might work really well, and would definitely be worth trying.

 

[Shangheye]

Bloody genius...and I actually don't think pencils work that often where the mark is clear rebate, because often the mark comes through even if faint.

Damn it Keith...where was this post there weeks ago when I has bleaching and spotting the print from hell!!

K

 

[lloyd]

Why not photo opaque on the neg? Only need to do this once! The old product was Kodak Crocein Scarlet; Winsor and Newton still sell a Photo Opaque.

 

[keithwms]

Why not photo opaque on the neg? Only need to do this once! The old product was Kodak Crocein Scarlet; Winsor and Newton still sell a Photo Opaque.

Because it is a lot harder to touch up a neg than to touch up a print. You can have tiny pinholes on the neg that, when enlarged, become big black spots on the print.

 

[KWhitmore]

Great idea, thanks!

 

[Shangheye]

OK..resurrecting this for some advice. Tried this on the weekend and no question, red washable pen is the best choice of colour. However, working on Ilford MG Warmtone FB Glossy paper, the colour did not totally wash out...there was a slight trace of red left.

Keith, Did you have the same issue? Were you using RC (in principle I don't mind repeating this with RC and using that as the basis of printing this particular image (thinking as I write here). If it was FB you were using, can you give me an idea of the make...it seemed that somewhow the mark from the pen made it below the gelatin layer, since no end of rubbing would remove it.

Rgds, K

 

[keithwms]

Glad you're trying it, Kal!

I was using fiber matte paper. Ilford mgiv and some others.

One little trick, if the ink has too much flow then you could put tissue paper over the spot and daub that, so that less ink goes down.

Mine did wash out as far as I coudl judge, but... I can imagine that something vibrant like red might be more visible even in small quantities. I was using a grey pen that approximated the neighboring tones in the final print.

Another thing: I think you want to get the ink on, do the exposure, and get it into water as quickly as possible and agitate vigorously. The longer the ink sits on the paper, the harder it'll be to wash out. I have done things like use an inkjet for direct masking and the trick is to not let the ink dry completely.

A final thought (which I may have mentioned before) is that you could just lay transparency or vellum over the print and do your touchups on that... so then nothing goes on the print itself. This'd have the advantage of being a reusable spot mask. Plus, if you wanted, you could divide the exposure so that part of it is with the mask and part without, for better blending.

If all else fails and you really need/want to use an ink that doesn't come off easily, how about very briefly running the print through bleach?

 

[Shangheye]

Thanks Keith...possibly the issue is how long it is on for. This is a nightmare neg and it has a 96 sec exposure. I like the idea of the transparency...will give it another go. K

 

[Perry Way]

This is a nightmare neg

Don't know how you managed to get nightmares to appear on your negatives but anyway....

 

[Shangheye]

Don't know how you managed to get nightmares to appear on your negatives but anyway....

.....I must have been sleeping while taking the light reading ;-)

 

[lloyd]

"Because it is a lot harder to touch up a neg than to touch up a print. You can have tiny pinholes on the neg that, when enlarged, become big black spots on the print."

But the neg then only has to be done once! and the resultant 'big black spots' become white spots which can be spotted much more easily (this is the point!)--if you can spot a white area on a print, why is it so much harder to do the same on a neg? The opaque can be removed if necessary.

 

[keithwms]

Options are good to have.