Hi,
From what I can see these look like fixer stains but ofcourse this is hard to tell with these images.
Did you process every sheet individually in the trays or can it be that you have kept several sheets in the fixer/water at once?
During manufacturing there will get no water on the prints after drydown else they would glue together either on the roll or as a sheet.
But even if water got onto the sheets there should be no yellow stains arising from this. All emulsion is aquaous when coating and then dries. Rewetting it and drying it can lead to physical border effects around the wet spot but not to a colour change (at least as far as I know).
In this case you could see the wrinkles when you pull a sheet from the black bag.
If they don´t show on the paper prior to processing they originate most likely in the process.
Which "other problems" did you encounter with our papers?
I am a bit wondering about people posting threads like this in public forums rather than contacting the manufacturer.
Next to helping you as a customer we also need feedback. For the very unlikely event that in fact there is a manufacturing problem we need to be able to isolate batches and check on things.
Kind regards,
Mirko
I would like to point out that I in no way placed blame, but merely asked a question about the possible origin of these issues. I distinctly asked "what is this and how can I correct it?" which implies no blame, so please don't infer something that isn't there. The suggestion that it was water on the paper came from a friend who is knowledgable about photography but it doesn't mean they're right, it was just speculation on their part and I recognized it as such which is why I came to this forum to see if anyone had any insight. Why bother the company if I'm making some error? I also know I don't know everything so I come to my peers for help.
Other than this particular problem I haven't had any issues with the paper but I've had it a few times. I also assumed that the prints weren't washed enough so I washed them excessively (one hour) but the problem continued. I might be making another error somewhere else. I process one print at a time with a timer in my left hand for active awareness. For these prints I used Dektol 1:2 for 60 seconds, kodak regular stop bath 48 ml in 1000 ml of water for 30 seconds and (kodak rapid fixer without hardener) single bath fixing (these are RC) for 60 seconds. I then take the tray out of the darkroom and put under running water in a kitchen sink to wash it. I normally wash for about ten minutes, just to be sure, with wet hands I carefully massage the print as I was told by a old friend who's been printing for 40 years that this would speed the removal of the fixer. I then place the prints face down on screens to dry. One of the things my friend who said it water noticed was that it seemed to occur in the same areas of each print if there was a distinct highlight in the same spot/area of the paper.
Out of the box the paper looks perfect, no defects that I can see, no waves, no spots, literally nothing that's apparent under safelight conditions.
I actually hope that it's something that I'm doing and can correct, I love this paper. I've got 48 images to print by October 6th for a show and I shot and will print all of this on the knowledge that I have with this paper. Moving to something else would be like reinventing the wheel. Could it be the massaging? I keep my hands clean but you never know?
-Puma
