Printing problem, not black but brown!!

[morkolv]

During my last stop at the photostore, I decided to give contact printing a try... So I included a pack of Ilford MGIV Glossy RC paper and the very cheap jessops film/paper developer, so far so good.

So after reading up on the process for contact printing 4x5 in my jobo expert drum I started off with high expectations...

BUT all the prints have so far turned out very muddy & brown... The details of the print are however present, but the scale is totaly off. Exposure times from 2 sec to 3 min from a 15 w bulb are all the same, unexposed but darkroom (i.e. safelight exposed) prints are nice & white.

The process and chemicals used are:
- Pre-rinse 30 sec
- Develop 1,5 min Jessops Photochem Econodev diluted to 1+12
- Stop 30 sec Tetenal Indicet stop diluted 1:19
- Fix 1min Agfa Agefix diluted to RC 1:9
- 2 min rinse (4x0.5 liter water)

Several development times has been tried, increasing the time make the whole print darker.

Could the fix be bleaching the print ?? Or should I try another developer ? In order to chech the development process, could i just rinse and open the tank ??

Best regards
Morten

 

[Ian Grant]

cheap jessops film/paper developer, so far so good.

the process for contact printing 4x5 in my jobo expert drum
BUT all the prints have so far turned out very muddy & brown...

The process and chemicals used are:
- Pre-rinse 30 sec
- Develop 1,5 min Jessops Photochem Econodev diluted to 1+12

I think your making a huge mistake using a Pre-rinse for B&W RC paper and getting very underdeveloped results as a consequence.

B&W RC papers need to draw in the fresh developer into the emulsion layer as they are designed to be processed quite quickly. Your exposing under safelight conditions so you can tray process.

By using a pre rinse the developer will take far longer to diffuse into the emulsion and its only got 90 seconds. Normally when a pre-rinse is used for films the overall dev times are considerably longer & with colour prints at much higher temperatures and so the pre-washes effect is less critical to the oberall development.

The Jessops dev is not likely to be the the problem.

 

[morkolv]

Thanks guy's!!

Dropping the pre-rinse really helped!! and WOW there are some details in those prints!!

The developer - fix test did take longer than expected, unsure on how to deal with that... It did turn black after a longer time (20 sec?) but did not clear (go to white ?)

The pre-rinse is as described by the folks at jobo for rotary processing, could I keep it and increase the developing times ?? I will leave it out for a while and investigate if I see stripes or signs of un-even development, as I assume that the purpose of pre-rinse is to prevent this ?

Thanks again!

Best regards

 

[Ian Grant]

The pre-rinse is as described by the folks at jobo for rotary processing, could I keep it and increase the developing times ?? I will leave it out for a while and investigate if I see stripes or signs of un-even development, as I assume that the purpose of pre-rinse is to prevent this ?

Still can't understand why your using the Jobo for such small bits of B&W paper, you have a safelght so far easier in a dish.

If you keep using the Jobo leave out the pre-rinse it'll cause more problems than its worth.

Ian

 

[morkolv]

The jobo was more a matter of convenience (and lack of darkroom practice the dishes/trays (old iceboxes) will be tested tomorrow. I assume that this will give me more control during the process. The jobo however will take 5 sheets and are there already.

Best

 

[Ian Grant]

For convenience read far far quicker, you can dev a print in the time it would take to load it in the tank and you can also reuse the shemicals.

Any old clean plastic container or dish will do if its approx the right dimensions and you don't plan to eat out of it later

Oh keep the dev etc as close to 20C as possible.

 

[Nick Zentena]

For convenience read far far quicker, you can dev a print in the time it would take to load it in the tank and you can also reuse the shemicals.

The Jobo print tanks are very quick to load. I can load them in the dark [no safelight] in not much more time then it takes to slip a print into a tray. You can also reuse the chemicals easily enough. Even if you couldn't they use so little chemicals that I don't see one shot with a print tank being an issue. 2 11x14s need only 100ml of chemicals. 2 8x10s 60ml or so.

The big issue with print tanks is they need to be washed and dried between uses.

For B&W I much prefer trays but if somebody needs to use drums they aren't that hard to work with. They also make things like temp control much easier.