Spotting problem - spotted spots changed color!

**Steve Goldstein** · 4-Mar-2014, 07:25

A couple of weeks ago I spotted a few prints made on Adox MCC110, developed in Ansco 130 and lightly toned in KRST 1+19 (3-4 minutes at 70C). The prints were dry-mounted prior to spotting. I used SpotPens for spotting, the standard ones, not the warm-tone. After spotting I stored the mounted prints in Clearbags to await framing, giving them a few hours to dry thoroughly, and then leaving the bags unsealed.

This morning I went to finish the framing. In looking at one of the prints I noticed that the color of the spotted regions had changed significantly, going from a very good match to the print tone to looking almost like rust on the print surface. Another print, toned and final-washed at the same time, and spotted at the same time too, doesn't seem to have this problem upon quick inspection, but I had to get moving towards my day job so couldn't examine it as carefully as I'd wished.

Has anyone ever encountered this? Is there a fix that will allow me to save the print? The SpotPens sure are convenient, but if I have to switch back to Spotone I can do so, I have enough for several lifetimes.

**Steve Goldstein** · 4-Mar-2014, 11:29

Oops, toning temperature was 70F, not 70C!

**Toyon** · 4-Mar-2014, 13:53

Never happened to me. Either the pens have gone bad or they attracted a contaminant from the bag. It's a shame because they are easy to use.

**Drew Wiley** · 7-Mar-2014, 16:40

Always do a test on the border of the print and evaluate it dry. But otherwise, hard to say what caused it. Sometimes paper can be contaminated in one of the
solutions, or in the wash water itself, by little particles which has not been filtered out, like rust. Common in tap water during the rainy season some places. This can embed in the gelatin and later bleed through. Or else maybe something in your dev was not completely dissolved in the first place.