Hi Gem,

Thank you once more for your advice. I looked at the condenser and it was fairly dirty, so I cleaned it as you recommended. I also reprinted the photo. I don't have a light table yet, but I noticed that after I put the negative on the negative carrier, but before I lowered the condenser, I could see a good deal of dust on it. I tried removing this both with a blower brush and with an antistaticum, but neither was very effective. What is a good way to remove dust?

Anyway, I reprinted it, and there are still specks and spots (not too surprisingly, given that I could only remove about half the dust).

I did also print another negative, which has a very black sky. It was contrasty, but not locally so, so to experiment I printed it on grades 0-3. There were no noticeable specks or dots on any of these, even on the broad expanse of velvet-black sky. This makes me think that the first negative is indeed compromised somehow, perhaps in stop bath, as you say.

Thank you again for the help.

Stephen