problems with spotting prints

[Todd Schoenbaum]

(I have searched the forum, but have yet to find answers to a few specific spotting questions.)

When spotting, the dye tends to sit on top of the emulsion. Its not all that noticible, but it definitely bothers me. I was wondering if anyone had found some way to get the dye more "into the paper?" Photo-flo? Wetting the area to be spotted?

Also, mixing the (Marshall) dyes to achieve the proper tone works well when the dyes are wet, but as they dry the component colors seperate. I am seeing profound greens and blues.

Any help or other tips are greatly appriceated. Thanks.

[Paul Butzi]

Wetting the area to be spotted helps, as does adding a surfactant (photoflo, LFN, or similar) to the diluted spotting dye.

I never ran into the color seperation problem, but I used SpotTone.

[Michael A.Smith]

Do not use hardener in your fixer and the spotting medim should sink right in.

[Michael A.Smith]

Do not use hardener in your fixer and the spotting medium should sink right in.

It is "medium," not "medim." I should not be so quick with my postings.

[John Cook]

My Spot Tone method (for the last four decades) has been to first spill straight toner onto a small pocket mirror and allow to dry completely.

Then with a Windsor Newton red sable brush I have wet between my lips, I pick up some dry toner from the mirror and dab it onto my other thumbnail.

I further moisten and point the brush with my lips and tongue and pick up a small amount of dilute dry toner from my thumbnail pallet with the damp bristles.

This I stipple onto the print using only the extreme bristle tips until the spot is sufficiently darkened.

Every twelve or fifteen years I wash off the mirror and re-apply more Spot Tone. Just purchased a new handful of Windsor Newton red sable brushes to replace those I bought in 1967.

Perhaps your technique is too juicy if you have a puddle problem. I’ll comment on the Marshall’s separation issue when I finally run out of Spot Tone in another twelve years.

[Brad Rippe]

Hi Todd,

I have found spotting prints works best for very small areas where I stipple the print with a relatively dry brush. It sounds like you are spotting a large area if you see the dyes separate. I use marshalls dye, and add the slightest touch of LFN, and have no problems. If the area of the spot on the print is large, you might try etching the negative emulsion to remove local density (yikes) very carefully with a surgeons scalpel. Be sure to try it on a test negative first! Be sure to use an optivisor. I borrowed a stereo microscope with a zoom feature that lets me really see what I'm doing. I do notice the area I've spotted sometimes shows up in cross light on the finished print, looking like a dust speck because of the reflectivity of the print. I guess you could say that it has that hand crafted feel.
Good Luck, let us know your progrress.

-Brad

[Mark Sawyer]

I'm another user of Spot Tone, and allow drops of it to dry on the glass of a small picture frame, then reconstitute it from a drop of water, also dripped onto the frame at spotting time. (Similar to John's method.) Sometimes there is a noticable buildup of Spot Tone on the surface of the print, as Todd noted with the Marshall dyes. With Spot Tone, this can be minimized (though not totally eliminated) by "polishing" the area with a soft cotton cloth.

BTW, whatever Ansel Adams used to spot his prints darkens with time. His vintage prints often have little dark spots in the skies that look like very bad spotting. Hope it wasn't Spot Tone...

[Todd Schoenbaum]

Thanks all. Tomorrow will be a long day of spotting and mounting. Your ideas will certainly come in handy.

[Richard Littlewood]

I've found this more of a problem with dark and black areas. Spotting out mid and light areas seems to be easier on the paper. Building up the density of a dark area with maybe about 3 lighter spots of dye, rather than one spot of matched colour, works it's way into the surface better without a sort of sheen sometimes visible with dark spotting. Gloss resin coated paper on the other hand is the pits when it comes to spotting.

I used to look on spotting as a therapeutic, and almost quite rewarding, but really it's a total balls ache!

[ronald moravec]

Spottone is supposed to be applied in thin coats and build up to the proper density. For dark areas this is frustrating and I started using more concentrated solutions.

Dry after each coat to be sure you are not going too dark. A hair drier works fine.

Make sure you prewet the area and do not use hardening fix.

[Philip Schwartz]

I print inkjet quadtones and find that the ink works well for spotting my hand-coated prints which are a mixture of platinum and palladium. I use the MIS UTFSN ink set which is an archival pigment. You will need to test the inks before spotting the final print -- the Eboni black may be too intense, and once it's been applied, there is no reducing the density. The quadtone ink set is convenient because you have 4 dilutions of black at your disposal. You do not need to use water or a wetting agent on the print, and the ink is invisible if applied carefully with a brush (I use size 00000)