Gloves, gloves, stupid damn gloves!!!!

[Daniel Stone]

hey guys,

I'm still doing a "head scratcher" on this one. I want/need to wear nitrile gloves in the darkroom when I print/develop negs, but I've been having a problem with getting chemistry residue on the paper edges when printing. You know, those fixer "fingerprints" on the edge of the paper, even with rinsing my gloved hands w/ warm water?

any ideas, I use gloves when I D.B.I., but instead of fingerprints on the egdes, the wet glove's fingertips get the emulsion side stuck to the gloves when trying to remove the film and put it into the pre-soak tray 1 at a time.

any ideas on best working method of gloves for printing/developing?

thanks

-Dan

[Robert Ley]

Dan,
I had an instructor in college who was highly allergic to darkroom chemicals, probably metol, and used gloves while in the darkroom. His gloves were very large industrial strength and came up over his elbows.

He could easily slip out of them and he always used tongs for moving prints.

Needless to say, he didn't develop sheet film in a tray and if you are that allergic to the chemicals you might want to rethink your development routine.

That photo chemical sensitive instructor made a point to tell us that he developed this sensitivity to chemicals over many years of overexposure, and advised us to use the tongs and to limit our exposure to the chemicals. I took his advise to heart and use a daylight drum and keep my hands as much out of the chemicals as I can.

[ic-racer]

I have used the heavy Playtex gloves for prints for 20 years or longer.

1) after the fixer, wash the gloves with water then dry with towel
2) before touching the dry paper, dunk the fingertips in the developer


I don't usually get a fixer issue (white marks) with the above method. I do get black marks if a black residue forms on the bottom of the developer tray. That will get transmitted to the edges of the paper if my fingertips touch the bottom of the tray. Because of that I never let the developer tray sit with developer in it over night.

[Drew Wiley]

See my comments about gloves in the "pyro" question post. I always wear gloves and always rinse them consistently in running water after every single step where there's
any risk of adverse contamination at all. I flip on light switches afterwards with a little
wand, and don't touch doorknobs with dkrm gloves. An exposed piece of paper is
touched only at the extreme margin by the gloves. Film is handled by disposable clean
nitrile gloves used only once. I tray develop sheet film with gloves, never a problem.

[bob carnie]

Call me crazy , but I buy my gloves from a medical supply house, 5000 at a time and walk the gloves through the trays once and discard after each run, I never wash them and reuse.. they go on easy and come off easy , and no chance of the dreaded fingerprint issue.

[Bruce Watson]

I've got contact dermatitis with some chem. in the darkroom. Probably metol, but I didn't have the money for testing at the time so I'll probably never know. Or care for that matter.

This chemical sensitivity of mine is what led me to want to process film without getting my hands in the developer. In the end, I opted for a Jobo 3010 tank. I load dry film into the dry drum, and poor the chems into and out of the Jobo CPP-2 without touching the chems. I used to wear gloves anyway, just in case, but after I changed over the XTOL (no metol) I stopped. Then again, I hardly ever get my hands wet until the final rinse stage anyway. Which is part of the joy of the Jobo system.

That's my solution, yours is probably different. If you like your current processing method except for the "fingerprints" (glove-prints?), then I'd second the Carnie method -- one set of gloves for each chemical run, then discard, no reuse of gloves. This gives you the minimum exposure and minimum chance of contamination also.

[PViapiano]

For paper...use tongs.

For sheet film...wear gloves, of course, but unload all your sheet film first. Use your hands to put the film into the presoak. When they're all in, put the gloves on and transfer each sheet to the dev, and so on down the line. Handle the sheet film ONLY by the edges or the tiniest edge of the rebate near the notch.

[jeroldharter]

Avoidance is of course best, so using the gloves one off or switching to a Jobo drum would solve the problem.

The advice to dip fingers in paper developer before handling paper sounds good as I occasionally ruin a print with a glove print.

For film, I would change gloves because you can't re-do film. For paper, I use a large pyrex measuring cup full of clean water and dip my gloved hands in it and that seems to clean them well. I use flour sack towels to dry my hands with minimal dust. I hate paper towels which are just compressed dust.

I have never done DBI in trays, but maybe you could use ungloved hands to put the film in the water pre-soak and then put on the gloves to finish the processing.

[John Bowen]

Call me crazy , but I buy my gloves from a medical supply house, 5000 at a time and walk the gloves through the trays once and discard after each run, I never wash them and reuse.. they go on easy and come off easy , and no chance of the dreaded fingerprint issue.

Ditto, except I buy mine on Ebay - Nitrile, powderless.

I wear two gloves when developing films in trays and one glove on my left hand while developing prints. As always, YMMV

[ki6mf]

Playtex living gloves from any grocery store and i wash and dry them after moving the paper into each tray so I do not contaminate anything.

[Doremus Scudder]

Resident heretic here...

I use blue nitrile gloves over and over... no problems with fingerprints or chemical carry-over except for once, when there was a pinhole in the finger of one glove that allowed some fixer inside and which then marked the edges of a batch of negatives. My most recent pair of gloves is stained brown from the pyro and has been going for months... I discard the gloves when they seem to be getting weak and risk tearing (I stretch test them before use).

IMO, there should be no more problem with gloves that fit properly than with bare hands. That means, if you wash well with running water and dry well, then the gloves should be clean. Problems arise when you don't wash well (dipping gloved hands in a tray of water just won't cut it, use running water, and soap if needed) and/or don't dry well (clean cotton towels and then air drying till the gloves are really dry).

That said, I wear the gloves primarily for negative developing. For single prints, I use old-fashioned rubber-tipped bamboo tongs (I hate the plastic and steel ones). For multiple prints I use gloves or bare hands.

Back to the gloves: I often wear a pair of gloves for an entire afternoon of developing without taking them off. That means, I don the gloves before mixing chemicals, wash and dry them before unloading holders (which I do with the gloves on; this is the trickiest part of the process). and run them through the chemicals in order (being careful not to contaminate upstream, of course). When finished with one batch, I wash, dry and start over.

As for prints, gloves shouldn't leave more fingerprints than bare hands if they are clean.

So, I guess my advice [correct spelling :-)] to you is to simply be cleaner and drier with your gloves. Avoid upstream contamination in the chemicals, wash with soap and running water or at least a lot of running water and dry thoroughly before handling dry paper/film. Remember, the gloves only protect your hands from chemicals, etc., but you need to take the same precautions against contamination on the outside as with bare hands (something I wish they would emphasize to food-service workers!).

Best,

Doremus Scudder

[Toyon]

The dreaded residue and prints is awful, but can be removed by using farmers reducer and a small brush or q-tip. I suggest you change your gloves for every printing session. You should rinse the tips as often as possible, and you can even use a little tray cleaner on the tips to make sure they are clean. The person that changes them for every run is pretty far up the OCD spectrum, I think that thoughtful rinsing can do the same thing. Note: that some nitrile gloves are textured at the finger tips - those should be avoided as they are harder to clean.

[Vlad Soare]

Doremus, are you able to take them off your hands without turning them inside out? I find I can't do that. My hands perspire inside, and the gloves stick and won't come off unless I turn them inside out. And after that I'm not patient enough to try to turn them back. So they're off to the trash can. :)

[Gary L. Quay]

I posted this on a different thread, but I'll post it here too, because it's more relevant to this conversation:

I just found some gloves at a CarQuest store in Portland called "Raven." They're black and non-powdered. Significantly, they are tough, and can be taken off and put on many times, even with damp or wet hands. None of the other gloves I've tried can do this (especially since I use gloves that fit fairly tight). During my last prnting session, I used one pair, removing them to handle the film and paper (contact printing) and putting them back on before the using the developer. I didn't have to break out another set until I went to the toning bath because I didn't want residual fixer on my hands in the toner. I will use the same pairs next printing session. No rips, no fuss, no holes.

No, I don't own stock in the company. I just want to pass along this find. They are about 50 percent more expensive than the other gloves I've tried, but I use far fewer of them, which makes them cheaper to use.

--Gary