working out details for next project

[domenico Foschi]

I am ready to approach a new project which will require a large amount of time in the darkroom.
In essence i will be printing an average of 36 images in one single sheet of 20 x 24 ilford MG IV warm , for an estimate portfolio of 12 printed sheets, i know, it is a lot of images to shoot...
My questions are:

1 ) since the printing will require about 3-4 days for one single sheet, will the quality of the image degrade visibly with the latent image being developed after such long time ?

2) Owning a 16 x 20 print washer, i was thinking to wash the prints by taking off 3 plaxiglass compartments and washing the print "folded so that would not cause any crease on the paper.
Has anybody tried this? If so is there something that i have not thought about ?
Any thought greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

[Andrew O'Neill]

The latent image should be fine. I wouldn't bend wet prints whilst washing. Do you have 20x24 trays? Shuggle and soak them in that. That's what I did in my puny not plumbed-not-so-darkroom, in Japan...one tray.

[paulr]

i agree that the latent image will be fine.

tray washing works fine, also, as long as you're patient and don't crowd prints. after a half hour or so of washing with a tray siphon you can soak the print in still water for a while, then dump and replace the water. repeat several times, each time increasing the length of the soak. this is as good a washing as you can give any print. just more labor intensive than a print washer. worth testing once for residual thiosulfate to make sure your time is adequate.

there's also a brand of print washer (cascade i think? i have one but can't remember if that's it) that doesn't use the dividers to stop cross-contamination. it works by water flowing from one chamber to another, over one divider and under the next. it uses a fraction the water of other designs. but the point is, it's designed so you can drape a print across two chambers, emulsion side down, and the whole thing will be under water (you drape it over one of the low dividers ... the ones that water flows over). this lets you do a 20x24 print in a 16x20 washer.

[Brian Ellis]

When I made 16x20 prints in the darkroom I washed them as you describe in (2) and it works. fine. It did greatly reduce the number of prints that I could wash at the same time because I draped the print over three dividers to make sure there wasn't a crease (maybe an unecessary precaution). In my Zone VI washer I could wash three or four 16x20s at a time that way.

[Mark Sawyer]

Photo paper should hold the latent image as long or longer than film, which (properly stored) can hold an image reasonably well for years. C'mon, you've got time for more than 36 images on a sheet...