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Bleaching and Toning Issue…
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All,
I was making the below picture on the weekend and I am having a problem with the sky. As you can see it has white specs in it. Have you seen this before?
I reckon its the bleach as I see some of the specs after I partially bleach.
I’m using the bleach from the fotospeed sepia kits. Diluting it 1+30 and bleaching for 30 seconds. Does it look like the bleach is exhausted or something? I had used this mix of bleach once before to partially bleach about four seven inch prints and it was fine. Should I mix up a new bleach every time when I am diluting down to 1+30? Do you reuse bleach or mix up fresh each time?
Any idea would be great
Cheers
M
I haven’t seen this before but bleach can be reused so I doubt its to blame. Did you fully wash the print before bleaching?
Peter, I washed the print for around 5 minutes in plain water. How long would you normally give?
Tim Rudman in his book does say that incorrect fixing and washing before bleaching causes most toning problems…
The print would need to be properly fixed, hypo cleared and washed before bleaching. If there is fixer left in the paper, it will combine with the bleach to form farmer’s reducer and you’ll have irreversible bleaching. I still don’t know if this is what is causing your light specs but its all I can think of at present.
I think your possibly right o wise one. Wolfgang over on flickr was thinking the same, told me to wash for longer…
In the past I would only do a full wash at the end before hanging up to dry. With all this washing I hope the government doesn’t bring in water meters for a long time to come. Id be happy just paying a standard across the board water tax :-)
Breaking new ground here Martin, never seen it before. I would always fully wash for at least 40 minutes before bleaching. I have used the same bleach 1+20 and re used without issue so I dont think it’s the bleach. Could you have added the bleach to a contaminated container or dish. Outside of that I’d agree its most likely the incomplete wash.
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