mooseontheloose
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To make a long story short I inadvertantly overexposed a lot of (the same) prints (people taking part in Round 14 of the postcard exchange - please avert your eyes!
), probably a quarter stop, which made everything too 'sombre' (as the French say). I needed to lighten the entire print so I thought I would finally taking the bleaching plunge, mixed up some potassium ferricyanide (the only raw chemical I have) to make up a 10% stock solution, which I then further diluted to 1% for a working solution.
I put the prints in (one at a time) for 10 seconds before dumping them straight into the fix (forgot to wash before fixing, so I got a Farmer's effect, but no matter, the prints are exactly how I want them). Gave them a good wash, then dried them (this is RC paper). However, I noticed that there's a slight yellowing discoloration where white (clouds) meet black (sky), but not anywhere else -- that is, none of the other light tones display this yellowing. This bothered me so I rewashed, refixed, rewashed, and dried them again, but it's still the same. In the original print this is a light grey tone, now it's yellow. Overall it's not too distracting, but I'd like to know why this happened -- is it a result of my technique, or of the use of straight ferri (without redevelopment or toning), or something else. Also, other than esthetics, would it be damaging to the print? Is it worth it trying to tone the prints in something else (gold, selenium) to get rid of the yellow?
rachelle
), probably a quarter stop, which made everything too 'sombre' (as the French say). I needed to lighten the entire print so I thought I would finally taking the bleaching plunge, mixed up some potassium ferricyanide (the only raw chemical I have) to make up a 10% stock solution, which I then further diluted to 1% for a working solution.I put the prints in (one at a time) for 10 seconds before dumping them straight into the fix (forgot to wash before fixing, so I got a Farmer's effect, but no matter, the prints are exactly how I want them). Gave them a good wash, then dried them (this is RC paper). However, I noticed that there's a slight yellowing discoloration where white (clouds) meet black (sky), but not anywhere else -- that is, none of the other light tones display this yellowing. This bothered me so I rewashed, refixed, rewashed, and dried them again, but it's still the same. In the original print this is a light grey tone, now it's yellow. Overall it's not too distracting, but I'd like to know why this happened -- is it a result of my technique, or of the use of straight ferri (without redevelopment or toning), or something else. Also, other than esthetics, would it be damaging to the print? Is it worth it trying to tone the prints in something else (gold, selenium) to get rid of the yellow?
rachelle
That was the last of my (new) postcard stock -- I think I may have to reprint on the older paper we have in the community darkroom for me to be happy. I'm not a great printer by any means, but I want what goes out to be the best I can do.