Hello there.

Tonight I had a problem with making prints. They all seemed to have a greyish,dull tone to them. I could not figure it out. I changed chemicals, I tried different paper etc. and nothing helped. I thought that maybe my red safety light was too close to the trays etc. Well, I then tried the same negative on my little Durst F60 enlarger and it came out clear, sharp and no grey tone. What would produce this problem? The enlarger that caused the problemed print is a Leica IIC with a Focotar 50 f4 lens and this has never happened before. Could it be the light source? It's worked great until tonight. I checked the bulb and it seemed fine. What else could I check? Any ideas? Any help would truly be appreciated.

Sincerely, Gabe

-- Gabe Sachs (egabe@earthlink.net), April 07, 1999

Answers

Gabe: I saw your question in photo.net, and was going to point you here, but you've already found it.

Can you be more specific about the 'greyish, dull tone'. Do you mean the blacks aren't very black? Or the whites aren't white?

Different enlargers will, in general, give different contrasts, especially with variable contrast paper. What paper do you use? But previous results have been fine, so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

Have you tried swapping the lenses between the enlargers?

Have you checked the Leica for light leaks? With the enlarger on, and safelight off, stick your head on the baseboard, and look up. You should see the bright circle of light in the lens, and nothing else.

Have you checked the Leica for alignment, and correct positioning on the bulb, condensor(s), negative and lens?

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), April 07, 1999.

problem

You never said which paper you are using. I have seen what you described when I used multigrade papers with Ilford mutlitgrade filters that had faded from long term use.

-- Andy Laycock (agl@intergate.bc.ca), April 14, 1999.

tru another bunch of paper. Maybee your paper is exposed

-- isidor stankov (istankov@cg.yu), April 17, 1999.

most papers require an orange/amber filter

-- mark lindsey (lindseygraves@msn.com), April 25, 1999.