[LargeFormat] Removing black spots from prints

[Jim Hemenway]

Don:

I wasn't thinking about your spots being black on the prints.  Way back 
when, mine were white dots from dust on the negatives.

Pittsburgh Camera Exchange has a small lot of old darkroom stuff 
including some spotting colors for B&W for sale for $17.99.  Go to 
http://www.pghcamex.com/ and enter spotting colors into their search engine.

Jim


 > Don:
 >
 > I don't make wet prints anymore.  I scan the film and use Photoshop 
to fix any spots before printing on a 2200.
 >
 > Not helpful to you I guess, so in your case I would either use a 
super soft graphite pencil to spot on the emulsion side of your film, a 
4B or even a 6B if you can find one. One spots by tapping the pencil to 
leave lots of little dots. Use any eye loupe or some extra strong 
reading glasses, (about $20 for 3 at Costco). If the results are not 
what is desired then erase and do it again.
 >
 > Or, use the finest watercolor brush that you can find and some 
variously diluted little batches of black ink on the print... spot the 
same way as above, it takes practise.  I haven't done it in such a long 
time that I can't tell you what kind of ink to use on RC paper but I 
used to use india ink on the old Kodak fibre papers.
 >
 > For what it may be worth, I use canned air when I load my 11x14 film 
holders.  A spray on both sides of the holder with the darkslides 
withdrawn and then once more after I've slid in the film but before 
closing the dark slides.
 >
 > Where is the dust coming from... oil heat or a wood stove?  Can you 
control it?  How often do you vacuum your darkroom and/or sheet film 
loading area?
 >
 > Jim, "Not Mister Clean himself" Hemenway
 >
 >
 > Wilkes, Don MSER:EX wrote:
 >
 >> The bane of LF has come to bite me in the posterior: dust.  Close 
inspection
 >> reveals that a couple of small dust particles must have been 
clinging to the
 >> surface of the 4x5 sheet when I exposed it, resulting in black spots 
on the
 >> print. Naturally, according to the rules of large format, these 
appear in a
 >> large, smooth area of uniform sky...
 >>
 >> Does anyone have experience in dealing with this sort of problem?  I 
don't
 >> want to retouch the neg itself -- it's fairly important to me -- so I'm
 >> thinking the route to follow will likely be bleaching and (probably)
 >> subsequent spotting.  At the moment, I'm using Ilford MG RC, and I have
 >> little idea how it reacts to bleaching (nor spotting, for that matter --
 >> it's never been my forte).  If it comes to it, I'd consider 
switching over
 >> to fiber-based paper, I guess, but hope that isn't necessary.
 >>
 >> Digital workflow would solve it, but it's not an option, both for 
monetary
 >> and personal preference reasons.
 >>
 >> One thing that's worrying me is the first of the batch that I loaded 
for the
 >> Yosemite trip...I haven't souped the others yet, as I wanted to ensure
 >> everything was tickety-boo with my processing first.  Also, I've 
been both
 >> unusually busy and not feeling all that terrific lately.  Don't want 
to rush
 >> nor fumble what may be the only negs I have of that perhaps
 >> once-in-a-lifetime trip.
 >>
 >> God, I hate dust...
 >>
 >> \donw in Victoria, B.C.