I'm not able to obtain a true white in my b/n prints. My white is gray ! I have a old Durst C35 with color head and I use 35mm film but I have a 70mm focus for the Durst. Help me !! Bye bye

-- marco moroni (marcoelo@tin.it), May 25, 1999

Answers

White is caused by no light hitting the paper and black is caused by a bunch of light hitting the paper. If your whites are not white then probably too much light is hitting the paper: too much exposure, safelight fog, stray light from your enlarger. Other possibilities are that your paper is already fogged or your paper is having a chemical fog. For the last two you can take a piece of paper and put only in the fixer for the normal time and then put in your normal viewing area, rinsed with water of course. Then take another sheet of paper without exposure and develop normally, compare the two pieces and see if both match. If you think that you might have safelight problems process the second piece with the safelight off. If they don't match then your paper is either already fogged from heat, light or age or else it is having an adverse reaction to the developer. My paper that I use most has this problem when processed in dektol so I have to add another chemical to reduce this effect.

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), May 25, 1999.

There are many possible reasons.

The negative might be of an image that has no whites. The negative might be over developed. You might be exposing the print too long. The paper might be fogged. Your room might have light leaks. If you are using a safelight it might be fogging the paper. You might be over-developing the print. The developer might not be diluted properly. Your stop bath might be exhausted. Your fixer might be exhausted.

For more information, including tests which might help you isolate and correct the problem, please refer to http://darkroomsource.com/faq.htm#notwhite

I hope this helps, Andy Hughes http://darkroomsource.com/ dedicated to darkrooms

-- Andy Hughes (andy@darkroomsource.com), June 01, 1999.