Yellow Stains on Oriental Warm Tone Paper

[Mark Woods]

Hey Guys & Gals,

I decided I'd make my prints for the print exchange with the Oriental Warm Tone paper. I've read so many good things about it, it seemed like the thing to do to share with other LF shooters. I made my 10 prints. Fixed them for 12 minutes. Washed them for 60 minutes (in a rotary drum continuous water exchange). When I squeegeed them for drying, I noticed most had yellow edges. A few had stains that were dark and appeared as exposure problems, but in the shape of chemical stains.

Anyone had a similar experience? And does anyone have a solution? My thought is that the yellow is from the hypo. Should they be re-fixed? (I put a drop of Hypo Check in the hypo a number of times, and it came out good.) Questions, questions, questions.

MW

[davidb]

I would refix and then use a perma-wash type of product.

[Chuck Pere]

I saw the same problem using the latest, glossy surface, Oriental Warmtone. I normally keep my fixed prints in a water bath until I'm done printing. Then I run them through a second fix and permawash. In the waterbath I noticed those yellow edges on the Oriental. I was using several other brands of paper and it was the only one with the problem. New paper just bought. It got a little better after second fix, permawash and washing. But still looks off white. Maybe that's the normal color? But it sure looked white when I first put it into the waterbath. Using Agfa Neutol WA. No problems with the previous version of Oriental WT.

[Toyon]

I have edge fogging with Oriental Warmtone as well (Fogging is the technical term for edge staining). It is such nice paper that for the time being I am putting up with cleaning up the edges with Farmer's Reducer.

I contacted the head of Oriental Paper in the US, Sina Navidbakhsh. I sent him sheets prepared in 3 different developers: Ilford WT, Photo Formulary's Liquidol and Kodak Dektol. All produced staining, though Dektol by far the least amount.

I also got edge fogging with Kentmere Warmtone. I contacted Kentmere, and they admitted to the problem. However, the solutions they suggested (shorter printing times, use of Benzotriazole) I didn't find effective.

I haven't heard back from Mr. Navidbaksh yet, but I suggest you contact him as well with your concerns about Oriental WT.

Contact information is below:
Sina Navidbakhsh
Managing Director
T. +1 800 999 1984 ext. 236
sina@orientalphotousa.com

By the way, applying Farmer's Reducer is tricky, as it will bleach printed areas. I suggest sticking the damp print to a backing board then brushing the reducer on the bottom edge of the print until the stain is gone. Then wipe or blot off excess reducer and then turn the board so that you can work on the next edge now facing down.

[Robert Budding]

Any resolution on this? I was thinking of trying Oriental papers, but this gives me pause.

[Toyon]

I heard back from Mr. Navidbakhsh, he asked me to run some tests on paper that was showing the edge fogging characteristic. I did, and found that Dektol 1:2 created the least amount of fogging. He also sent me two packs of more recently manufactured paper. These have not shown any edge fogging - at least with the Dektol solution. I do think it is the best warmtone out there. However, there is the possibility that the fogging will recur, since Oriental doesn't really seem to know what the problem is, except that it might have something to do with the cutting of the paper. In any case, you can get rid of the fogging by brushing the edges with farmers solution, that takes some care though. I never had a problem with the coldtone, but the tonality is not as nice as with the warmtone.

[j.e.simmons]

I have trouble with Kentmere Kentona in the summer when the temperatures go up - yellow spots just as you are describing. I use amidol as my developer, but I know others who get the same spots using more conventional developers. We've found that adding KBr and benzo - the amounts determined by experimentation - have eliminated the fogging. Maybe something similar is going on with the Oriental.
juan