I just started getting a dull film on my glossy prints. I mixed fresh chemicals and it didn't solve the problem. It's happening on three different brands of paper also. The film cant be removed without damaging the surface. I would greatly appreciate any advice.

Greg Rust

-- Greg Rust (kgeicrust@aol.com), October 17, 1999

Answers

While there may be something obvious that both of us are overlooking, my suspicions would lie with washing. Are you doing anything different in this area? Do you have "hard" water (i.e., water with high calcium content)? I give my prints a final rinse using bottled water rather than tap water for this reason. I guess if you eliminate washing, the next thing to look at would be the drying process.

-- Joe Miller (jmmiller@poka.com), October 17, 1999.

Are you using a photoflo type of chemical to help eliminate any spots on your prints during drying? Don't use it and see what happens. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), October 17, 1999.

Basically, look for something in your process that has changed recently. To exclude the final washing as the cause, first try a final bath w/o wetting agent (if you use one at all), then try adding a final bath in distilled water (w/o wetting agent) after your usual process. When using distilled water, you should not get any stains due to water hardness. (By the way, water-hardness stains can be removed quite easily by using dilute citric acid, but don't try this on a valuable print!) If the film persists even after the distilled-water bath, try washing a test strip or other unimportant print in distilled water only, skipping the usual tap-water washing. You need not wash to archival conditions, because that would require a lot of distilled water. Just wash a bit, then let the print dry to see if it is OK. Once you have ruled out the wetting agent and the water, work your way backwards through the chain. If - as you say they are - the chemicals are fresh, look for contaminations of the trays/tanks. Finally, also consider the possibility of a bad batch of paper.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), October 19, 1999.