prints came out grey?

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I was so excited to print my first film! but was so disapointed to see very grey prints. I tried doing different teststrips, but no matter the tests just showed various degrees of greyness? I'm not sure why, is the paper old? I had it for over a year but kept it safe, or is it the safe light? I'm not sure about this as the edges of the print look white enough. I have an old enlarger, the dome type. The pictures are sharp and the negs seem good compared to my other negs. [ I took a year course in England and have all my old notes etc.] Or is it the paper? Acugrade variable contrast. What about the developer? I have used the kodak Dektol,made it up into stock and then diluted it to 1/1 mix with water. I have only you lot out there to ask? thanks for being there for me!!

-- Louise Garcia (westyorkshiregal@cs.com), February 04, 2001

Answers

if the outer edge of the print is grey (outside the print area) is grey it might be the chems or your safelight, I had a similar problem when my fix went bad and the prints would gradually darken over a couple hours after drying, otherwise i'd play with contrast filters and make longer exposures on the test strips, or simply try a different, new pack of paper...

-- Jason Tuck (Jtuck80@csi.com), February 04, 2001.

Sounds like a safelight problem. You say the edges are white enough; so if you are using an easel that protects the edges, then I would assume stray light or a bad safelight is getting to the image area during printing. Why the fogging doesn't continue during development suggests not much of this light is getting into the area where the developer tray is. Check the enlarger for leaks, such as light leaking out the top and bouncing off your ceiling. Do this by turning on the enlarger with the lens cap on. Also test the safelight by placing a piece of printing paper on your easel, laying a quarter or a lens cap on it, and letting the safelight shine on it for a couple of minutes. Then develop as usual. It's a good idea to test a new darkroom more extensively, too, but this brief test may show up your particular problem.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), February 05, 2001.

Louise It may be as the other posters have said. But my guess is eiher underexposed or underdevolped (or both) negatives. Here is how to tell. Take a piece of paper out of the box and lay it next to the enlarger but not so the enlarger light hits it. Or in other words, make a print on your easel with the paper on the bench beside the easel. then develop the paper as you normally would. If it does not get gray then it is not your safelight or light spill. Next, make a proper proof of the negative. Use white light (no neg in enlarger, about f 8 at 3 second intervals. put a strip of that negative under glass on top of a piece of paper. cover up all but 1 inch and make an exposure. then uncover another inch and make another 3 second exposure. and so on and so forth. develop normally. look at the film edge. pick the stripe that is not differnt from the next darker stripe(if you have a short strip you may have to start at 9 seconds and go from there) and note the time for that strip. make another test strip of the whole strip at that same printing time. look at it. if it is gray then you have either underexposed or underdeveloped (or both) negatives. good luck. kevin

-- Kevin Kolosky (kjkolosky@kjkolosky.com), February 06, 2001.

Did you use a contrast filter with your VC paper?

-- PJT (pjt_123@hotmail.com), February 07, 2001.

No, why?

-- Louise Garcia (westyorkshiregal@cs.com), February 07, 2001.


Hey, Louise, you need to read up on what VC paper is all about! The paper allows you to use specially made filters to get different degrees of contrast. This way low-contrast negatives and high-contrast negatives can be printed on paper from the same box, and you need not buy graded paper, each sheet of which has only one contrast. As has been suggested, you may be printing a real low-contrast negative, and without the right filter, the VC paper just isn't contrasty enough to give nice blacks and whites. Ask your camera-store guy to show you some filters.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), February 08, 2001.

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