stains on Viradon-toned prints

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Hello all,

Tonight I got some very unusual staining on some prints. I printed on Ilford MGWT semi-matte, fixed in Ilford Universal fixer, soaked in Permawash, then washed for an hour. Then I toned in Viradon for 45 seconds, stopped toning with Ilford Universal Wash Aid 1:4, and washed for another hour. The prints looked fine after toning, but when I got them out of the print washer, they had orange stains on them. It only happened to the last two prints I did tonight. I had been printing on the same paper but in a gloss surface earlier in the night and got no stains. I'm thinking maybe my fixer was exausted and it's just a coincident that it showed up on my final two prints after I'd switched paper. I find it odd that the stains didn't show up until *after* the final wash.

Any ideas?

--Brad Daly

-- Brad Daly (bwdaly@hiwaay.net), December 18, 2000

Answers

45 sec. is very short for Viradon, especially when you use a strong dilution.

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), December 18, 2000.

AFAIK, Agfa recommends sulfite solution to stop toning, and I'm not sure if Ilford's Wash Aid is indeed sulfite-based. Also, the toning time is indeed very short. So it might be that the stains are in fact areas where the toning proceeded a bit further than in the rest of the print.

Regards, Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de)

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), December 19, 2000.


According to the AGFA web site, Viradon contains both selenium and sulphur compounds. I found a formula in the Darkroom Cookbook for testing for residual silver in prints....meaning incomplete fixing. The main formula is sodium sulfide (a sulphur compound). A brown stain occurs if there is still silver in the print. The alternative formula is 10% selenium toner. Residual silver is indicated by a red stain. Sounds like exhausted fixer is the culprit.

-- Jim Snyder (jim.snyder@uaa.alaska.edu), December 21, 2000.

Actually the test is for residual silver HALIDE. If there was no residual silver, there would be no image.

But it does sound like exhausted fixer.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), December 23, 2000.


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