williaty
17-Feb-2018, 19:46
I started doing wet plates on my own today with all new stuff, so that means none of the system is known to be safe/working properly. I had HUGE fog at the start of the day, almost Dmax over the whole image. I chased it around and the majority of it seemed to be safelight fogging. By working in near-total darkness with only a small keychain red LED flashlight, the fogging was massively reduced with only a bit of fogging left, but I can't work out where that fogging is coming from. I've included a sadly blurred iphone pic of an unexposed plate. Here's all I can think of that might be useful to know:
1) UVP-X collodion, new bottle, just arrived
2) Freshly made silver nitrate solution
3) Developer is from Bostick and Sullivan, tried it both at the recommended 1:3 for 45 seconds and straight at 15 seconds
4) Fixed in TF-5 straight
a) Poured via waiter-tray method
b) left in silver bath for 3 minutes
c) back side blotted dry
d) developed in B&S developer for either 45 seconds at 1:3 or 15 seconds
e) rinsed in tap water
f) fixed in TF-5 for about 15 seconds (about 3x the clearing time)
So, with no exposure, I'm still getting this:
https://i.imgur.com/5xJkO6R.jpg
Due to the motion blur, it's hard to see but the whole plate is covered in light, whispy straw/tan colored haze in addition to the significant fogging that is visible on one edge.
Any ideas what it might be at this point?
1) UVP-X collodion, new bottle, just arrived
2) Freshly made silver nitrate solution
3) Developer is from Bostick and Sullivan, tried it both at the recommended 1:3 for 45 seconds and straight at 15 seconds
4) Fixed in TF-5 straight
a) Poured via waiter-tray method
b) left in silver bath for 3 minutes
c) back side blotted dry
d) developed in B&S developer for either 45 seconds at 1:3 or 15 seconds
e) rinsed in tap water
f) fixed in TF-5 for about 15 seconds (about 3x the clearing time)
So, with no exposure, I'm still getting this:
https://i.imgur.com/5xJkO6R.jpg
Due to the motion blur, it's hard to see but the whole plate is covered in light, whispy straw/tan colored haze in addition to the significant fogging that is visible on one edge.
Any ideas what it might be at this point?