Flakes on Print

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I have just recently built a B & W darkroom and have made about 20 prints out of it. The one problem I have is small white flaked spots on my prints. I use Ilford muligrade dev, & fix, and use Kodak indicator stop, my paper is Ilford muligrade 4. The dev & fix are mixed to 1:14 and the stop is 15 mils to 1 liter. After exposure I'll dev the paper for 1:30 - 2:00, stop for 10 secs, and fix for 50 secs. I'll put my print in a tub of water while I make others then wash for 3-5 minutes. The prints look fine until I wash, that is when I notice the flakes. Thank you for any help that is given, Mike N. mikenoon@yahoo.com

-- Michael Noonan (mikenoon@yahoo.com), March 24, 2002

Answers

Mike:

Its probably the water. Switch to distilled water for your washes, and see if the problem goes away. You might want to use distilled water for your chemistry mixing as well.

Your paper and products are pretty standard. I doubt if it has anything to do with your chemistry. But, you could substitute the Acetic acid with a water wash or citric acid. certain developers/paper combinations (Like a Glycin based developer) will have problems with Acetic acid. I seriously doubt its the case here.

Try the distilled water. It certainly won't hurt anything.

Regards,

Don

-- Don Sigl (donsigl@hotmail.com), May 29, 2002.


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