There was a dicussion here on old Pure Silver about using a very dilute bleach prior to processing the print in teh developer. I recall about a 1:100 dilution of Part A Kodak Sepia toner of the old formula. Of course, it would take some testing to get the right bleaching to brighten without lossing detail in the highlights. Does anybody else recall this? Eric Neilsen Photography 4101 Commerce Street, Suite 9 Dallas, TX 75226 214-827-8301 http://www.ericneilsenphotography.com ----- Original Message ----- From: BOB KISS To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 9:22 AM Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Old Paper Developer Question DEAR DON, A few suggestions: 1) Yes, I have discovered that old papers seem to exhibit less fog with the same degree of development in the Formulary 130 developer (glycin, metol, hq) than in dektol. 2) The trick is to develop just the right amount of time. This is when the D-Log E curves are as steep as they will get. After this time the curves remain at the same steepness (contrast) and the speed of the paper increases but, more importantly, so will the fog.which you don't want. 3) I have found that Benzotriazole can help some but Richard Knoppow will rightly say that it has a different purpose. 4) What I have found to work beautifully was a very mild bleach following the first fixer to clean up the whites, a rinse, then the second fix and then the usual remaining hypoclear, toning, washing procedure. 5) It is very important to make your test strips and test prints carrying them ALL THE WAY through the process including using Ansel's trick of drying the tests in a microwave oven. Judge them dry.then you will know what your results will really be otherwise both the bleaching and toning will give you final results VERY different than what you see after the first fix. In the long run you save more paper and time taking these precautions. CHEERS! BOB ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Don Sweet Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 1:13 AM To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [pure-silver] Old Paper Developer Question I have few boxes of 25+ year old enlarging paper, including Ilfobrom and Portriga Rapid. It is unopened, so I decided before blazing away I should look for some information about how to best to process it, particularly to minimise fog. First I sourced some benzotriazole which I thought could just be added to Dektol or Neutol or Bromophen developer. Then following links from the UnblinkingEye website I found some suggestions that both amidol-based or glycin-based developers are more resistant to fog than the usual MQ or PQ blends. Does anyone know if that is right, and whether either of them is likely to be a better developer for my old paper? Thanks Don Sweet __________ NOD32 2882 (20080218) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com