[pure-silver] Fogged New Oriental Seagull paper [long post]
- From: "Peter Badcock" <forums@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 13:44:09 +1100
G'day folks.
Since I'm an electronics & software tinkerer by hobby (and
profession), my efforts in the darkroom to date have
gravitated more towards controlling electrons in
(semi)conductors rather than fiddling with ions in novel
chemical soups. Having said that, I am always wanting to
learn new things,
and the recent thread re. PC-TEA and restrainers has me
asking questions about my choice of paper+developer which is
proving challenging!
I am trying to work out why some new Oriental Seagull RC
paper I recently purchased is showing an unacceptable level
of fogging. I am currently trying to decide whether this
fog is heat related (due to surface shipping reasons - from
US to OZ), or developer related (since I am using a
relatively =91active=92 developer). I suspect the former,
but for peace of mind and as I clutch at a few straws, I
want to run my situation past this mailing list.
I have estimated using an uncalibrated Zone Ruler (as found
on p. 256 of Way Beyond Monochrome) that the base+fog
reflection density (=3dDmin) of the unexposed+developed
paper matches zone VIII on the ruler. This is approximately
0.09 log units, and is way too high for my liking!
Unfortunately I have no step tablet or reflection
densitometer to accurately confirm this assessment, but it
is clear to me that when I only fix the paper (with NO
development), that the paper base density comes out one zone
lighter on the Zone Ruler (i.e. Zone IX, or paper white as
expected).
I had the paper shipped from the US via surface post by a
friend, and so it is entirely possible that it was cycling
between unreasonable extremes of hot and cold as it sat
inside a steel container on the top deck of the ship! So I
am reluctantly willing to accept that it is fogged from heat
=96 BUT there is some intriguing information on the Seagull
RC paper and the AGFA Neutol Plus which I don=92t
understand, which leads me to ask three questions to solve
the problem.
i) Is my paper FOGGED FROM HEATING during transit? or
ii) Is my DEVELOPER TOO ACTIVE for the paper? or
iii) Is my PAPER TOO SENSITIVE for the developer?
i) FOGGED FROM HEATING?
Quite possibly, however the friendly USPS customer helper
didn=92t have any idea as to the temperatures the contents
of a ship=92s container is subjected to.
ii) Is my DEVELOPER TOO ACTIVE for the paper?
The Agfa Neutol Plus datasheet reads =93Outstanding
activity, so rapid response and high speed yield=94, =93Very
low fog level=94. Why would they talk about rapid-ness and
fog levels unless it might potentially be a problem?
Agfa=92s datasheet for Neutol Plus with RC paper at 1+9
dilution shows dev times of:
20[degC] : 70 =b1 10 [sec]
25[degC] : 50 =b1 10 [sec]
30[degC] : 30 =b1 5 [sec]
I tried varying the development time from between 10s to >
200s (at 26degC), and for times of 20s and longer, all
developments resulted in subjectively identical fog
densities at about zone VIII.
I=92ve read about using a developing restrainer to help
rescue fogged paper, but I=92m trying to minimise all the
possible variables in my printing process at the moment!
iii) Is my PAPER TOO SENSITIVE for the developer?
The RC paper=92s datasheet
(www.orientalphotousa.com/msds/newseagull.asp) says:
"Care should be taken to avoid over-developing which raises
the fog and lowers contrast."
I emailed Oriental-Photo USA, however the reply I got said:
=93You have two choices to test
1) Decrease your time of developing
2) Increase your mixing dilution=94, at the time I
didn=92t suggest heat related fogging.
Why is this so in an RC paper? Since when do RC papers
behave like FB whereby you need to consider something akin
to Factorial Development? I understood, as Ralph mentions
here
(www.freelists.org/archives/pure-silver/10-2004/msg00250.html)
that =93RC papers are definitely developed to completion, no
argument there.=94
I realise I=92ve probably asked way too many questions in
the hope of getting a simple explanation, however any
thoughts would be very welcome. I=92m hoping to settle on a
=91paper of choice=92 right now to experiment with it over
and over, so either I have B&H Photo air-express a shipment
of Oriental Seagull out to me (since no photo store in
Australia will order this paper in for me), or I choose
another paper to play with.
regards
Peter Badcock
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