Purposely causing stain on paper

I have a weird thought....

I was playing around with a new paper/developer combination yesterday (this part isn't that important). Paper was the Ilford FB WT and the developer was Ilford WT.

I took a test exposure, developed, stopped, and fixed briefly. Washed even more briefly (basically dunked in paper, swished it around) then toned in brown toner. As expected, toning was uneven and margin had clear case of staining. But I liked how it looked.

What would happen then if I purposely under fix, severely under wash, then tone to cause unevenness and staining. Then, follow it up with proper fix and washing?

Would I get to keep this rather pleasant appearance and (this part is important) staining and degradation doesn't continue after the proper fixing and washing?

The look I'm after is that of old time photograph with stains and degradations - just like one might find in an antique stores.

Instead of underfixing, you might try normal processing (with a bit of fixer smearing before development to create the effect of poor handling 40 years ago) and then soak the paper in tea to give the base that lovely ivory-tan look. If you really want to pass the result off as an old picture, use fine sandpaper to round off the corners slightly, use a steel paper clip to attach it to a piece of plain paper, and store the assembly in the vegetable compartment of your refrigerator for a few weeks. The combination of fading, yellowing, "handling wear" and rust stains on the back will mark it as a genuine antique.

As an exercise, I did this to some modern prints from old negatives for the 40th reunion of my high school graduating class. Got away with it, too

You mean "tea" as the kind you drink?? Or is this a name for some special blend of darkroom wizardly?

By the way, I'm not trying to trick anyone with this. I just like the look....

With very non standard processes, you need to just go ahead and try it. That's the only way you'll know what happens.

"Tea" is too generic. Which tea? Assam will probably make the print too dark even if brewed only 2.5 minutes. You can try with some 3" Ceylon or, if you want some more strength, some low-altitude Darjeeling. Keemun would be the right choice if you want that golden sparkle. For a very subtle effect, I can advice some Pai-Mu-Tan, the stuff is going to become expensive but you don't need to watch times carefully as the brewage is going to remain blond for even long infusion times.

Avoid temptation of adding lemon or milk to brighten the bath because, besides the blasphemy, it might compromise long-term preservation of the print. By the same token you should avoid Earl Grey*

* Decent Earl Grey contains bergamot oil. Indecent Earl Grey, such as Twining's, contains stuff that is supposed to perfume like bergamot if your sense of smell if severely impaired

Or, if you live in Panama, you could use green tea for that living-algae look

I used Red Rose; not only did it make the prints look very authentic, but also my son likes the little ceramic figurines that come in the boxes.

I don't think that anyone will ever exhaust the possibilities of even the simplest of photographic technologies

I think this would work.

but as usual I will defer to Ian and Ralph.

tkamiya said:

You mean "tea" as the kind you drink?? Or is this a name for some special blend of darkroom wizardly?

By the way, I'm not trying to trick anyone with this. I just like the look....

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Bob,

What do you think of my original proposal as to doing incomplete work to cause the stain, then do it right to let the "bad stuff" clear out? *Should* work, don't you think??

Well, I'm going to piggyback on this to ask a question I've been wanting to ask. What is the usual culprit if you're seeing small, isolated, black stains, scattered and without pattern, in the margins of your prints?

Ok not understanding you now.

If you make a stained print due to improper workflow, THEN fix and wash normally I think you would end with a stained print that will not go further bad, but stay permanent.
much like if you fix ,,, then bleach the print, you still have to refix , hypoclear, tone and wash as normal to make your bleach permanent.
If you do not refix then you will have issues.
I hope this clears up a muddy problem.

tkamiya said:

Bob,

What do you think of my original proposal as to doing incomplete work to cause the stain, then do it right to let the "bad stuff" clear out? *Should* work, don't you think??

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Jeff
If the trays you are using have a stain that you can pick up by running your finger in them*wear gloves* then you may be picking up some black scum.
If you do have clean trays then , I would consider the fix is exhausted, and you will immediately see this when you sepia tone.
If your fix is good and trays clean then you may be using old paper and its shite.
If its fresh paper all of the above are aok then I am at a loss as to what would be the problem in your white rebates.
One other thing what are you holding the prints down with, I assume opaque blades of the ease, if not is it random light hitting the rebate area.

jglass said:

Well, I'm going to piggyback on this to ask a question I've been wanting to ask. What is the usual culprit if you're seeing small, isolated, black stains, scattered and without pattern, in the margins of your prints?

Click to expand...

Bob Carnie said:

I think you would end with a stained print that will not go further bad, but stay permanent.
I hope this clears up a muddy problem.

Click to expand...

You do understand me. Yes, thank you.