out of date paper

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i have some out of date paper and wondered if there is any point in using it or will it just give me really poor quality prints. its about 1 year out. cheers

-- stephie d (stephie9000@hotmail.com), September 10, 2001

Answers

Try the paper and you will know. Maybe it's still okay.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), September 10, 2001.

Papers vary. Some go bad very quickly. Others last for years. If it has not gotten too hot, it is probably still okay.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), September 10, 2001.

run a piece throught the developer, stop bath, fixer and wash, then check the base color. If it has gotten old you could try some anti- fog chemistry to the developer. I have reservation about using that for serious work that i sell or hang, but my students have tried it with some success. Might work out for practice, but it is hard to transfer times to fresh paper.

-- Ann C lancy (clancya@mediaone.net), September 10, 2001.

i just printed some photographs on agfa portriga rapid that was about 8-10 years old. the whites were a dull grey, the paper base just grey. but all other tones from middle grey to black were fine. it looked sort of like a nice print that got fogged. but then i popped the whole thing in some potassium ferricyanide, and the whites just cleared right up, and looked like a regular portriga rapid print.

if you need to get a certain result, then using fresh paper is best. but its also fun to just see what happens. paper thats old and a little wacked out, isn't necessarily 'bad' - just has new characteristics.

-- James Luckett (jl@mollymail.com), September 11, 2001.


If you have some new paper of the same type, print a negative with the same enlarger settings (same filter, exposure, etc.) and compare the two. Try this on a negative with good highlights and white areas. This should give you an indication if the paper quality has deteriorated.

If the paper is not up to the quality you want, use it for contact sheets of your negatives if it is not too bad (just remember that your negatives may be better than they look). Or expose the paper, develop it, and cut holes in it as needed for burning when extra exposure is required. The white (back) side of the print will show you the image to make the process easier, and the dark side will not reflect light back to the partof the image you are masking.

-- Jim Rock (jameswrock@aol.com), September 11, 2001.



Use the outdated paper to make contact sheets. I file this rough contact sheet in back of the sheet sleeve for use as reference to make notes and to quickly see the subject in my loose leaf book.

-- Russell E. Brubaker (brbkr@macs.net), September 13, 2001.

If your paper is fogged, there are ways to diminish the effects (additives in the developer, etc. I use all my fogged paper to make lith prints. They come out really fine...

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), September 14, 2001.

If its only a year it migght be just fine, depending on what it is and how it was stored. adding a little benzotriazole will salvage the paper if its isnt too far fogged, which it almost certainly isnt if its only been a year. Going by memory I'd say start with 15-20 ml of a 2% solution per liter of developer, but check that against another source because my decimals may be off somewhere...

-- Wayne (wsteffen@skypoint.com), September 18, 2001.

I keep a bottle of stock restrainer solution: for 100ml, first dessolve 1g of sodium carbonate (anhydrous), then add 1g of benzotriazole. This is like the old Ilford IBT formula. To keep the highlights clear add 5ml of this per litre of working developer, and be sure that you develop your print fully.

-- Samuel Tang (samueltang@austarmetro.com.au), September 28, 2001.

I recently bought some AGFA Record Rapid, which had to be at least 10 years old. I was really stunned by the prints on this Fibre Based paper. I also bought some AGFA Brovira Speed, which was old and fogged, but these prints I ran through the sepia toner for some nice vintage effects. You just don't notice the base fog anymore, when you do this.

-- Johan van 't Leven (awinkel01@freeler.nl), March 05, 2002.


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