Proper Print Fix Time to Inspect?

craigclu · Apr 24, 2005

What are your habits for a time delay after a print is in the fixer before turning your room or viewing light on? I was doing some high volume printing this weekend, using Ilford RC MG paper and was giving it about 10 seconds before an inspection of results and moving to the next exposure. Over the years, I had left a much longer time before viewing but after working with a friend on a large project and seeing his habit of rather rapid room light to inspect, I've become less cautious when doing bigger projects. I don't feel that I'm seeing any fogging but I also haven't done any in-depth testing. I normally delay much longer when I'm at a more normal pace but I'm curious about others' habits.

photobackpacker · Apr 24, 2005

Technically speaking, you have arrested development once you processed the print in the stop bath and so you could turn on the whites then. Even so, I allow 1 minute in the fixer before bringing up the whites.

joeyk49 · Apr 24, 2005

Craig:

I have no idea what is technically correct. But I generally wait about 10 to 30 seconds before turning on the light. I'm usually focusing the next print, so its generallly longer than that...I'm definitly LOW volume, so I take my time.

The question that comes to mind is, Once development has been stopped, can't you turn on the light then??? If not why? Because I don't have a lot of knowledge of the chemistry involved, I'm at a loss here...

Joe

Daniel Lawton · Apr 24, 2005

Using RC paper and rapid fixer I usually flip the lights on after 15-20 seconds and haven't had any problems. With Fiber I usually give it about 30 seconds to be safe. I haven't scientifically tested this method but to my eye there are no problems.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Apr 24, 2005

joeyk49 said:
Craig:

The question that comes to mind is, Once development has been stopped, can't you turn on the light then??? If not why? Because I don't have a lot of knowledge of the chemistry involved, I'm at a loss here...

Joe

Technically speaking, once the stop bath has taken effect, the reaction between the developers and the silver compounds of paper has been neutralized, so your image will not get darker. The reason why we need fixer is to wash away the crystals that were not exposed to sufficient light to participate in the latent image. These crystals had no reactions with the developers (because they did not react with light in the first place), but if you leave a non-fixed, badly rinsed picture in normal light, it may get fogged eventually, as those leftover salts will react with light and traces of chemistery left on the paper. Fixing is a way to ensure that your paper will not react anymore; stop is just for neutralizing the developer solution.

geraldatwork · Apr 24, 2005

I use one of those small magna lights in the darkroom. I acid stop for around 20 seconds and after about 10 seconds in the rapid fix I'll shine the flashlight on the print to see how it looks.

MurrayMinchin · Apr 24, 2005

It'll be interesting to see how many different answers this one generates.

For work prints with Ilford MG IV FB, I water stop, then TF-3 in a first bath for 30s, drain 10s, then a 2nd TF-3 for 40s, drain for 10s, then KRST 1:10 for 30s...then the lights get turned on. Weird eh? Things evolved this way in order to slow down, and have time to think, I think.

For Fine Prints I'll probably start going for 1 minute in each before the selenium toner.

Murray

Bruce Osgood · Apr 24, 2005

My routine and rational is:

Stop Bath is needed to arrest development at the point you consider the development done. This stopping will take :30 seconds or so to be on the safe side. Any light will affect the un-fixed print.

I rinse the Stopped print only to avoid carry over into the Fix. I Fix all papers in KRF without "B" for 2 minutes in Fix 1, rinse, 2 minutes in Fix 2 and rinse again prior to HCA in order not to carry over fixer in the Hypo. No white lights yet, still a possibility an affect can be made on a fixed image (This may be superstition).

Only after a few minutes in a hypo clean do I turn on the overhead light. I decide then whether to go directly to the trash bin or continue hypo, wash 20 minutes, Selenium, wash another 30 minutes, then go on to the drying.

I think the steps from developer thru stop are image producing steps while fixing, cleaning, washing, toning, washing and drying are image permanence steps that may be avoided when making test strips that will have a life expediency of no more than 15 minutes.

Woolliscroft · Apr 25, 2005

I take however long it takes to rock the fixer tray 3 or 4 times and then get to the light switch, probably about 15 seconds.

David.

Maine-iac · Apr 25, 2005

craigclu said:
What are your habits for a time delay after a print is in the fixer before turning your room or viewing light on? I was doing some high volume printing this weekend, using Ilford RC MG paper and was giving it about 10 seconds before an inspection of results and moving to the next exposure. Over the years, I had left a much longer time before viewing but after working with a friend on a large project and seeing his habit of rather rapid room light to inspect, I've become less cautious when doing bigger projects. I don't feel that I'm seeing any fogging but I also haven't done any in-depth testing. I normally delay much longer when I'm at a more normal pace but I'm curious about others' habits.

I always use a plain water stop bath, but even so, I've never noticed any difference between prints where I've turned the light on 15 seconds after putting them in the fixer (for me, rapid fixer) and when I've waited longer. Perhaps if your fixer is close to exhaustion it might make sense to wait a bit longer, but I've never had any fogging.

Larry

TPPhotog · Apr 25, 2005

When I went on a college course they said 1 minute. However now I rock the tray 4-5 times which is about 10-15 seconds for me as well and never seen any difference. Darkroom time is too precious to waste waiting to see if the print is nailed.

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