You can do a print with the negative out of the carrier to see the defect in illumination better. But I'd probably just open up the mixing box. I'm curious as to what is inside, post a picture.
You can do a print with the negative out of the carrier to see the defect in illumination better. But I'd probably just open up the mixing box. I'm curious as to what is inside, post a picture.
I opened everything up and it still seems OK to me?
photo 1 mixing box with camera flash
photo 2 diffuser held up to ceiling light (there is a crack in the upper left corner that someone taped, but would not seem to be causing the problem)
photo 3 looking up with lights off
photo 4 looking up with lights on
Funny thing is, the problem seems to be gone. When I put everything back together, and turned the light on, I can not see the line anymore. I am going to go make another print now.
It's those pesky gremlins!!
Hmm.
How are you processing prints that big? Could that light strip be from under development?
hey ic, I think you are right. I am roll developing the prints in a tray, which is my first attempt at that. I guess I was just consistently developing the prints enough to reproduce the line - seems unlikely but nothing wrong with mixer/diff - and its gone. not sure, I have to practice I guess. I printed 4 tonight, and this was the best developed....hard line is gone, but there are still some spots, presenting as vertical almost like long inkdots.
Ok so this is making sense now..
How much developer are you using, when I roll big prints I am using over 35 litres of develper. the idea is to fully immerse the roll, and start rolling under chems, this allows even dispersion of chemicals in the first 15-25 seconds of development...
If this sounds like a lot of chemsitry and cost, you must consider the cost of each 30x40 piece of paper being put in the round filing drawer due to uneven development.
I just bite the bullet, save up a days of printing and get on with it.
I use oversize trays, or I use under the bed Home Depot storage containers which hold a ton of chemistry.
my trays only hold about 3 gallons of chems. They are 30x32 inches. And only about half of the roll is immersed at any given time. So I have been starting by putting half the print completely under and immediately pulling the rest through the developer, then start rolling. I diluted my developer to extended my development time to about 2.5 min. I tried pre wetting the print and putting in developer already rolled but this was the worst of the bunch. I figured I would burn a roll of paper at least getting the hang of this.
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