GraLab glow

[Jerry Cunningham]

Does the glow of the hands fog film/paper? After I sit in the dark for a while I can see that the glow is pretty bright.
Thoughts?
Jerry

[EdWorkman]

Well you could try leaving a piece of film or paper out.
Or
Believe me when I say I've never had a problem , although I turn the dial away from film.
Then again, I tend to close my eyes in the dark.
I have a Thomas safelight on the ceiling opened a minimum amount.
ONce I opened my eyes after loading 4 rolls of 120 onto the reels and into the can and found I had not turned the safelight off.
I saw no evidence that the short exposure to the weak light had any effect

[Kirk Gittings]

A Gralab timer can fog Tri-X in tray development if it is within 4 ft. I've had that problem, tested everything a ton to figure out what the problem was and had to shield my timer from a direct shot to my tray to solve it.

[seezee]

I've wondered the same thing about the luminous dial on my watch, but considering the glow from my GraLab timer is brighter, concluded it was not likely to fog film. Especially as it gets dimmer by the second once I'm in the darkroom.

[jp]

I turn the gralab around facing away while developing film. If I'm not using it, I can throw a towel over it too.

[Bob Salomon]

Put an unexposed piece of whatever you want to develop on top of your work area, place a quarter on top of it, all of this with the lights out of course, leave the coin in place for however long it takes you to handle and develop whatever it is you want to develop. Now process that piece of whatever it is. If you see the area covered by the coin then something is fogging your piece of material. If you can't see any difference then you don't have a fogging problem over that period of time.

[Vaughn]

Put an unexposed piece of whatever you want to develop on top of your work area, place a quarter on top of it, all of this with the lights out of course, leave the coin in place for however long it takes you to handle and develop whatever it is you want to develop. Now process that piece of whatever it is. If you see the area covered by the coin then something is fogging your piece of material. If you can't see any difference then you don't have a fogging problem over that period of time.

A little better test is to do the exact same thing, but give the piece of whatever you are working a slight over-all even exposure, then put the coin on it, etc. This will elimimate the possbility of a low-level exposure that is below the threshold of the paper or film, but still might have an effect (sort of like uncontrolled flashing). I did this test for the university darkroom and pinned the results on the board. Nothing like hard visible evidence to why one does not leave paper laying around in the 'dark' for too long!

[Kirk Gittings]

Here is what I do-more or less the same. I figure out how long whatever film or paper I am testing will be exposed while processing it. I then do my test at twice that time figuring I will build in a safe leeway for insurance sake. If it fogs I move the light back further or dim it more etc. till the test is clear.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Here is what I do-more or less the same. I figure out how long whatever film or paper I am testing will be exposed while processing it. I then do my test at twice that time figuring I will build in a safe leeway for insurance sake. If it fogs I move the light back further or dim it more etc. till the test is clear.

When tray developing film I just throw a towel over the glowing stuff.
.

[Greg]

I have 3 Gralabs in my darkroom and they appear to be rather bright sometimes after I've been working with my eyes closed then open them. Never had a problem with them fogging film or paper. Each of the three sits on the back of a shelf so although they are facing me directly, the shelves block their glow from reaching either the sink or my major counter work area. I did one time have a problem with the orange "on" light on an outlet strip... it was mounted to the wall with no shelf to block its glow the sink. Easily solved using a piece of black tape. My biggest problem with fogging was the shiny aluminum insulation on the exposed duct system in the ceiling. Light from another room was in effect "light piping" into the darkroom. Not with a glow but with bits of focused light reflections here and there in the room. Had to completely caulk up around the ducts where they entered the room with black caulk.

One of the darkrooms I have worked in had a hanging flat plate over a switch at knees height in front of the fixer tray: allowed you to click on the inspection light handsfree. One time I was processing 11x14 film and accidentally tapped the plate and the inspection light blinked on... promptly disabled the switch.