Can you reconcile your suggestion as to the possible cause might be with what the OP says in happening? It would appear that when looking for a cause for a problem you look at "what has changed or when has it changed" and this can often be successful. The OP is convinced that as soon as it hits the fixer the effect of loss of contrast is instant.Could your safelight be the cause? Have you done a safelight test?
I don't. Make a lumen print or a particularly colorful lith print and watch it happen as it hits the fixer. Takes a few seconds for the smaller grains to fix away.This is what I find puzzling.
I had a look at the OP's thread on homebrew developers and I cannot see where he makes any reference to his negatives being anything other than normal negatives I cannot see any reference to Lumen or lith prints. In which post does he refer to other than normal negatives or lumen or lith?I don't. Make a lumen print or a particularly colorful lith print and watch it happen as it hits the fixer. Takes a few seconds for the smaller grains to fix away.
He's using paper negatives developed in a DIY and inherently compromised developer. By means of contrast control, he controls development time. This can (but does not necessarily have to) result in silver images that share characteristics with lith and lumen prints: extremely small silver grains, which are susceptible to chemical and environmental attack (and they're very nicely colorful, of course!). So it's not literally lith or lumen, but it's fundamentally similar, with the same susceptibility to drastic changes in density during fixing.I had a look at the OP's thread on homebrew developers and I cannot see where he makes any reference to his negatives being anything other than normal negatives I cannot see any reference to Lumen or lith prints. In which post does he refer to other than normal negatives or lumen or lith?
My explanation refers to any kind of very weak silver image with an inherently tiny grain size in the single digit micrometer scale. There are several processes that involve such types of images, whether intentional or sometimes also accidental. As far as I'm concerned, this is clearly a case of the latter.Does you explanation apply to other than normal developers and normal negatives.
All Rapid fixers will start to dissolve and bleach the image if you over fix, it's a property of the Ammonium Thiosulphate. It happens more with Warmtone papers particularly where you use increased exposure and decreased development to increase warmth. You're effectively doing the same with your paper negatives.
I think this is the case.Papers before fixation are still laden with unexposed and undeveloped silver halides, which veil the image making it look darker. With some papers, this is really noticeable. Just look at how opaque a piece of unexposed film is; papers have a similar emulsion coating them, which makes the developed image look different and darker.
Then, when the paper hits the fixer, these halides get converted rather quickly to invisible soluble compounds. The print lightens noticeably in the fixer. Maybe this is what you are seeing? If your blacks are getting noticeably lighter right away in the fix, I think this is the culprit, not bleaching.
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