HCA to Prevent Fixer Fingerprints?

[Dan Rainer]

I have small home darkroom where I print on RC paper. I use Ansco 130 then a running water stop and two baths of TF4 alkaline fixer. My space is cramped but I do my utmost to avoid cross-contamination. I wear gloves when agitating fixer and keep all chemistry as separate as possible. However, try as I might, by the end of a long printing session I start to build up fixer residue on my fingers and end up transferring it onto the paper while pulling it from the paper safe. This results in gross brown marks on the edges of my prints.

As I don't use FB paper, I don't have hypo clearing agent in the darkroom, but while thinking about my dilemma I considered making some as a hand-wash between rounds of printing. I reasoned that this would neutralize any fixer building up on my finger tips. I could just have it in a 5x7 tray next to my print washer. Is this feasible/advised?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Why on earth would you be getting fixer on your fingers if you are using plastic gloves? Don't you rinse your gloves in running water between critical steps? Or are you touching contaminated surfaces not routinely cleaned? HCA isn't going to cure lapses in basic practice.

 

[djdister]

You should be using 3 sets of tongs for transferring prints between trays. And never dip any of the tongs into more than one tray. Plastic, metal or bamboo tongs are easy to find.

 

[Dan Rainer]

Why on earth would you be getting fixer on your fingers if you are using plastic gloves? Don't you rinse your gloves in running water between critical steps? Or are you touching contaminated surfaces not routinely cleaned? HCA isn't going to cure lapses in basic practice.

I have to put the gloves on and take them off, the contamination might be happening there. I clean my surface between printing sessions, but chemical residue inevitably builds up over the course of a session. I take great efforts to avoid contamination, and this has worked up to a point. Was just wondering if there was an easy way to ensure no fix builds up on skin over time.

You should be using 3 sets of tongs for transferring prints between trays.

I have three stainless steel tongs, each dedicated to its respective chemistry.

 

[djdister]

I have to put the gloves on and take them off, the contamination might be happening there. I clean my surface between printing sessions, but chemical residue inevitably builds up over the course of a session. I take great efforts to avoid contamination, and this has worked up to a point. Was just wondering if there was an easy way to ensure no fix builds up on skin over time.


I have three stainless steel tongs, each dedicated to its respective chemistry.

So how do you get fixer on your fingers?

 

[Dan Rainer]

So how do you get fixer on your fingers?

I'm not sure, but it probably has something to do with the nature of my space. I'm working off of a plastic shelving unit in a shower. While each shelf has slats for excess chemistry to sluice through, it often builds up over the course of print session. Contamination could happen while putting on or removing my gloves, it could be accumulated fixer near the lip of the print washer, it could be from trace amounts on the GraLab timer hand. I've been unable to identify the source of the contamination, but it only seems to show after a dozen or so prints. This to me suggests a gradual accumulation over time.

I was just try to see if there was a simple chemical solution to the problem.

 

[MattKing]

I put one nitrile glove on one hand, and I don't take it off.
The gloved hand is the only one that handles anything wet, and I rinse it frequently.
The other hand only touches dry things - and never the tongs.

 

[cliveh]

I would advise that you don't wear gloves at all, that way you can feel if your fingers are wet and rinse and dry them before touching a print.

 

[MattKing]

In my experience, gloved fingers are far easier to keep free of fixer residue - through rinsing - than un-gloved fingers.
Nitrile doesn't absorb much fixer, skin loves to absorb fixer.

 

[Milpool]

Your alkaline fixer can also potentially become a weak monobath with throughput. So it could be that on your hands, or developer or water with developer in it. Rinse and dry your hands before touching paper is really all you can do. I’d use an acid stop and neutral / weakly acidic fixer especially in a small space but that’s a whole other argument.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Are you making huge prints? That is the only reason to ever use your hands. If you are doing 8x10s then just use tongs. Don't put your hands in the chemistry, ever.

Post a picture of your "gross brown spots" so we can see them. You could just be carrying over developer where your fingers are holding the paper.

 

[cliveh]

In my experience, gloved fingers are far easier to keep free of fixer residue - through rinsing - than un-gloved fingers.
Nitrile doesn't absorb much fixer, skin loves to absorb fixer.

But you can't feel through gloves.

 

[reddesert]

I have small home darkroom where I print on RC paper. I use Ansco 130 then a running water stop and two baths of TF4 alkaline fixer. My space is cramped but I do my utmost to avoid cross-contamination. I wear gloves when agitating fixer and keep all chemistry as separate as possible. However, try as I might, by the end of a long printing session I start to build up fixer residue on my fingers and end up transferring it onto the paper while pulling it from the paper safe. This results in gross brown marks on the edges of my prints.

As I don't use FB paper, I don't have hypo clearing agent in the darkroom, but while thinking about my dilemma I considered making some as a hand-wash between rounds of printing. I reasoned that this would neutralize any fixer building up on my finger tips. I could just have it in a 5x7 tray next to my print washer. Is this feasible/advised?

Like everyone else says, I think you should be using tongs to the extent that fixer never gets on your hands. I also am a little unclear on "agitating fixer" and wonder if that's part of the issue. RC paper especially, doesn't need particularly painstaking agitation or vigorous sloshing. I haven't printed in a wet darkroom in a while, to be honest, but all I ever did to "agitate" in developer or fixer was push the paper a little with the tongs, or nudge the tray so the liquid moved back and forth. You could maybe pick the paper up with tongs halfway through and put it back in the tray. That would mix everything up far more than necessary.

 

[MattKing]

But you can't feel through gloves.

But I can - and anyways, that is what two dexterous handed photographers use their dry hand for - the fiddly stuff.

 

[George Collier]

I used my bare hands and never tongs. Except for 11x14 or larger, I would use the right hand (no gloves either - I go for simplicity) to carry prints through trays, Ethyl LPD, plain water stop (not running - no need), and 2 TF4 or TF5 fixer trays, like the OP. The left hand never gets wet (unless larger prints) and does most of the paper handling. The right gets a good running water rinse ( under the tap) and towel dry after each print tray cycle. If the right ever touches paper, it's not the emulsion, maybe the edge. When I was 10, and learning printing from a Japanese man, I saw the telltale white/yellow finger prints, and asked him what they were. He told me, and said, "you are being sloppy, not good for a photographer." I never had them again. I can't imagine using gloves and ever knowing for sure if they were dry.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I don't recommend bare fingers at all. Fixer adheres much more stubbornly to skin than nitrile gloves. You need SOAP and water for skin, whereas the glove will rinse off with plain water. Then there are potential health or allergy issues with certain developers. I can't ever remember getting a fingerprint fixer issue on any of my prints of any size, over all these decades! Just think of stray fixer as a contagion to everything you touch with affected fingers or clothing - dooknobs, enlarger controls, faucets.

John Wesley Powell might have been one-armed (just like my Great Grandfather after the Civil War), when he led a boat expedition down the Colorado River for the first time. But at least he had the good sense to enlist a two-armed photographer (Timothy O Sullivan). I don't get this sport of one arm tied behind your back fencing in the dark, against a liquid opponent.

Surgeons certainly have to have a sensitive touch wearing surgical gloves; why can't photographers when wearing the same thing?

 

[koraks]

making some as a hand-wash between rounds of printing. I reasoned that this would neutralize any fixer building up on my finger tips.

Hypo-clearing agent is sulfite and this in reality does not break down fixer. For this you could use a hypo eliminator, but you'll likely end up making matters a not worse it you don't address the root cause of the problem: the chemistry sticking to your fingers

In reality, the problem is very easy to avoid. A quick rinse of your (gloved) hands after taking a print from the fixer bath, followed by drying with a towel or forced air is perfectly sufficient. Alternatively, you could use print tongs to manipulate prints in the trays so your hands don't get contaminated in the first place.

Address the cause instead of applying a bandaid.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

First, brown stains on a print likely don't come from fixer. Fixer would fix away unexposed halides and result in white areas in otherwise exposed areas. My fixer does not turn brown on anything, at any time. I imagine you are getting something else on your prints unless the fixer stains the print in the developer.

Second. I can print for hours and never, ever get my hands in the fixer tray. I don't wear gloves when printing, but that is really beside the point. One can use tongs and only handle prints after they are in the water-rinse tray. Then, before making the next print, wash and dry your hands. Really, it's not rocket science. I don't even use soap, just a thorough rinse in warm water and a clean towel. Even when I do get fixer on my hands, hand washing does the job just fine.

FWIW, I've never had fingerprints on any prints from carried-over anything. I'm always a bit surprised when people do. The only time I've had a fingerprint problem was developing negatives with nitrile gloves. One of the gloves developed a pinhole I didn't notice. Since I shuffle sheet film in trays by hand, fixer leaked in and transferred to one future negative. That is the one and only fingerprint I have had in over 40 years.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that it should be easy to avoid fingerprints with simple, basic cleanliness and good practice.

Doremus

 

[DREW WILEY]

Some sheets films of EU derivation had (or still have) exceptionally sharp corners capable of puncturing gloves and leading to leakage. So extra care might be needed in those cases.

Tongs are only good for quite small prints.

That still leaves the question of whether you want to risk skin contact to developers containing metol ("poison oak in a jar"), or other distinctly unhealthy ingredients like amidol, or pyro as a film developer. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Dan Rainer]

I put one nitrile glove on one hand, and I don't take it off.
The gloved hand is the only one that handles anything wet, and I rinse it frequently.
The other hand only touches dry things - and never the tongs.

Do you keep the glove on while you work on the dry side? I doubt I could operate my paper safe/easel/enlarger and dodge+burn with one clean hand.

Your alkaline fixer can also potentially become a weak monobath with throughput. So it could be that on your hands, or developer or water with developer in it. Rinse and dry your hands before touching paper is really all you can do. I’d use an acid stop and neutral / weakly acidic fixer especially in a small space but that’s a whole other argument.

I'm curious if you have another thread/source that makes that argument. I've been under the belief that alkaline fixer has lots of advantages with very few disadvantages, but I'd be interested to see a counterpoint.

Are you making huge prints? That is the only reason to ever use your hands. If you are doing 8x10s then just use tongs. Don't put your hands in the chemistry, ever.

Post a picture of your "gross brown spots" so we can see them. You could just be carrying over developer where your fingers are holding the paper.

I'm making 8x10s. I use tongs for transferring, and a gloved hand for agitation. I'll see if I can find an example of a brown spot to post later. Most of the affected prints were destroyed, trimmed to the useable portion, or are too subtle to analyze.

Like everyone else says, I think you should be using tongs to the extent that fixer never gets on your hands. I also am a little unclear on "agitating fixer" and wonder if that's part of the issue. RC paper especially, doesn't need particularly painstaking agitation or vigorous sloshing. I haven't printed in a wet darkroom in a while, to be honest, but all I ever did to "agitate" in developer or fixer was push the paper a little with the tongs, or nudge the tray so the liquid moved back and forth. You could maybe pick the paper up with tongs halfway through and put it back in the tray. That would mix everything up far more than necessary.

I was taught to agitate by lifting a corner of the tray ever second or two, alternating between a sort of diagonal lift and a perpendicular lift. I agitate both developer and fixer this way, but fixer less so—especially after switching to the two-bath approach.


Thanks for all the helpful responses. To clarify, this issue happens infrequently and has become less frequent as I've made efforts to tidy my workflow and to better avoid cross-contamination. It usually occurs towards the end of a long session, when I'm getting tired and my focus is waning. I'll keep working on cleanliness and attention to detail.

 

[tezzasmall]

Thanks for all the helpful responses. To clarify, this issue happens infrequently and has become less frequent as I've made efforts to tidy my workflow and to better avoid cross-contamination. It usually occurs towards the end of a long session, when I'm getting tired and my focus is waning. I'll keep working on cleanliness and attention to detail.

'I'll keep working on cleanliness and attention to detail.'
I think you should also look at maybe slightly shorter sessions, for as you say, errors occur when you are tired at the end of a long session. It'll be hard to do this, I know, as I have also gone on too long, and then made silly mistakes when my concentration wanes with time. Then I have to redo the images a second time, on another session, when I'm more refreshed. So nothing is gained by going on when not at your best. It's just a matter of knowing when to finish a session and clean up.

Terry S
UK