Print Artifact

"Pathos" wrote in message
oups.com...
I think I have found the genesis of the artifact. I exposed a
"regular" negative on the same paper, using the same developer, and the
artifact was not formed. I then tried the same process, but without
putting a towel down at the bottom of the door (as I did not do this
morning when I developed the image with the artifact), and the artifact
reappeared. Hence, it does appear to be an issue of fogging, not from
the camera, but from the entrance to the darkroom. Lesson learned.
I'm still wondering why the fogging appears in such an unusual
conformation on the print, as opposed to just a diffuse greying of the
print, as seen when purposely preflashing print paper.

Thanks to all for your input,

Dave


Fogging can be a problem to diagnose. A minilab repair tech told me about a
lab that had an unusual fog issue, that only occurred on the first print
after the lab had been shut down for a period-- overnight, lunch break etc.
The first print would have an indistinct grid pattern image on it. Turns out
that the "box" that held the photo paper had a very tiny hole in the top,
sufficiently tiny to act as a pinhole camera and expose an image of the
ceiling (drop ceiling with grids and tiles). Since it was in a darkroom,
this image only showed up when the darkroom had been inactive and room
lights were on for a time.

As for your problem, the light coming under the door may be reflecting
somewhere to get to your print. You may want to check out the local home
center (Home Depot, Lowes, local hardware store) for some type of door sweep
or threshold that you can easily install. It's important to seal up the room
so that the dark can't escape!


--
Ken Hart