Well, I've been having some processing issues in the darkroom. In another thread (from yesterday), I discussed strange gray speckles on the backs of some of my prints along with brownish stains visible when the print is backlit. When backlit, light shines through where the gray specks are.
Today, I rinsed and selenium toned two prints. I mixed fresh toner with distilled water. After washing the prints with the help of Perma-wash, I hung them to dry. As you can see from the attached image, the borders are discolored with some sort of stain. This staining is only visible when the print is backlit.
I use Ilford rapid fix (1 minute). Could this be some sort of selenium-fixer interaction?
My fixer tests as good using hypo check.
One of the prints from today had the gray speckles on the back, but the other didn't. Both, however, have the stained white borders. Some of this staining is probably into the image area, although I cannot see it.
I thought perhaps my selenium toner might be dirty, as I tend to re-use it again and again. I mixed fresh today with distilled water, but still see the staining.
After a 5 minute rinse, followed by Perma-wash, I washed both prints for 15 minutes in running water, shuffling them and dumping the tray at frequent intervals.
Before toning, I held the wet prints up to the light and did not see any staining. So the toning must be causing something -- right?
Sorry to be so wordy, but it's hard to describe what's going on without rambling on.
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