Actual metallic silver on print

[Tim Meisburger]

I was scanning a print of a portrait a few days ago (normally I scan negatives) and decided to finally scan this old print from last year. I was doing multiple copies of a team portrait (yes, I am in there), and one came out like this, with a lot of the image (primarily around the border of the sheet) changed to what looks like actual silver. I have no idea why this happened, as it did not happen in other prints in the same run. Not sure the scan does it justice, but it looks kind of cool in the flesh, and if I could repeat the mistake I would play with the technique, but I have no idea what I did. Do you have any idea?

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l496/Tim_Meisburger/2013-8018_zps6e29fbc6.jpg (http://s1120.photobucket.com/user/Tim_Meisburger/media/2013-8018_zps6e29fbc6.jpg.html)

[jcoldslabs]

Tim,

Is the metallic sheen warm tone in appearance, maybe slightly yellowish? If so it may be dichroic fog. From what I've read this happens when a print or negative is not stopped properly (or at all) and then fixed in nearly exhausted fix. I'm not sure it can be controlled, but why not try? If you fully developed the print and then put it directly into some weak or well used fix you might be able to recreate the effect.

One definition I found is: "Dichroic fog: an iridescent coating on a print that appears when developer is carried into the fixer on the print surface. Use of an acid stop bath helps to prevent it."

I have had this metallic look show up on some of my really outdated type 55, presumably because the fixing component in the reagent had weakened. Here is one example of this metallic surface on a negative:


http://www.kolstad.us/ebay/T55-%2881%29---Spider-Mum-METALLIC.jpg

Jonathan

[IanG]

It's poor fixing and washing and silver thiosulphate complexes that weren't washed out forming colloidal silver on the print surface. Some of this can often be removed using a some cotton wool and a dilute a ammonia solution. I'd wash and refix if you want to preserve them further.

Ian

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Jonathan and Ian. Yes, its warm and yellowish, and at the time I was making many prints to give away and was stopping with plain water. Likely I missed the stop and threw the print in exhausted developer. Cool! I have never done it since (I use acid stop always now), but maybe I'll give it a try and see if I can reproduce the effect on purpose.

Cheers, Tim

[paulr]

This seems like the exact kind of thing someone would have figured out how to do deliberately. Exploiting glitches is one of the many ways people are rediscovering old materials. It's a cool effect.

[LF_rookie_to_be]

I've had this happen to me on a number of Ilford Multigrade RC sheets - by large the RC paper I used the most - on fresh as well as expired sheets. An older and truly knowledgeable photographer told me it has to be the fixer. So I resorted to using two fixing baths, in addition to stop, and making sure they aren't exhausted. It never appeared again.

But it certainly is a strangely appealing and unique-looking glitch!

[AtlantaTerry]

Is this akin to "Solarization"? I believe that is where the paper retains some of the developer while in a weak stop of fix so then reacts to light. The technique was a Big Deal in the '60s.

If my aching memory bones are correct, the actual term is something like "Sabattier Effect".

[paulr]

The sabatier effect has more to do with tones reversing on the negative from extreme overexposure. You see it especially on older films ... the sun rendered as a black circle, etc.. This became known as solarization, and a method of (sort of) mimicing it in the darkroom through flashing paper in the developer was popular for a while.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarisation
I don't know if any versions of this resulted in that silvery, dichroic fog look.

[BetterSense]

I have multiple RC prints from 2-4 years ago, early on in my darkroom actually, that have metallic-looking film that appears to be near the surface, usually in the shadows. Based on the info in this thread, it was probably me stretching out my fixer too long. I don't have a good method for when I change my fixer.

I am strongly considering going to two-bath fixing, simply to make up for my own lack of discipline.

[jnantz]

i wish i had more silvered out prints.
rockland's halochrome toner is kind of cool
but not quite the same mirror like surface.

[Tim Meisburger]

Would dilute fixer achieve the same thing, or is it the altered chemical composition of exhausted fixer?

[Sevo]

Would dilute fixer achieve the same thing, or is it the altered chemical composition of exhausted fixer?

It is due to the fixer being so silver overloaded that silver precipitates on surfaces. Crystallization needing a seed and silver crystals being a better seed for silver than other solids, it often follows the pattern of the developed image more so than blank areas of the paper/film or tray wall - but the latter get stained as well.

Dilute fixer will obviously overload faster - but going by the fact that the phenomenon is almost unknown to photographers that only use modern (relatively dilute, acidic) photographic ready-made fixers, I suspect that over-used very dilute fixer does not have the required concentrations, and won't do as a economic way to achieve the effect. If you want to toy with it, try a pure hypo solution (no acids or buffers added) saturated by feeding it with leaders and rejects or a box of fogged paper...

[Cor]

Slightly related but there is an obscure toner (re)described (original from an old Norwegian photo journal AFAIK)by Judy Siegel in her Issue 7: The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography as a Plating-Out toner for Silver Gelatin (SS toner), which gives a mirror like appearance of a print, very funky and unique, not for every image.

Best,

Cor

[Tim Meisburger]

Great! I have a process now. I will use a Paterson Orbital, so can get by with just 50ml of fixer, which should overload quickly. I will also use plain hypo. I'll fix two prints with 50ml using an acid stop, then try a third with no stop and see if that works. If not, I'll skip the stop and try again, and see if I cannot get the effect with the third or fourth sheet. I'll give it a try Saturday and report back.