Bright white spots on prints

[Tom Monego]

Air bells or other defects on a neg should be obvious on inspection, at least the ones I have had were.
So I have another question, what is your illumination source? If it is an enlarger remember the light through the lens is a point source, this brings out any defects in the whole lighting system. This goes back to the hundreds, possibly thousands of medical contacts I have made, the white acrylic helps. Without the acrylic the white spots (dust on the enlarger condenser??) was tough to control. Give it a try.

Tom

[rdenney]

Also with film, spots may appear due to the use of stronger than appropriate stop bath.

I've had that produce grain reticulation, but never spots of high enough density to make sharply defined white spots on a print.

And anything that makes a "no density" spot on a negative will produce a black spot on a print, not the reported white spots.

The OP did report "spots or circles", which has me leaning in the direction of bubbles or dried chemical spots in the contact-frame glass, especially if a collimated light source is used.

Rick "without visual samples, we are all just throwing out possibilities" Denney

[Brian K]

Rick I didn't say that the spots were on the negative, I said that an issue, acid caused gas pops, that happens on film emulsions could possibly happen on print emulsions.

I think his problem, which I previously mentioned, is if he is using his enlarger as the light source that he is projecting spots onto his paper. These spots would only appear when the enlarger light is activated and as he's projecting it onto negatives in a contact frame it would be difficult in the darkroom to see them while printing.

If he's not using his enlarger as the light source he needs to fog paper using an alternate source and process that in order to rule out the paper and chemical aspects of his printing. Once that is done he should then put paper in the contact printer without a negative in order to rule out the negative. One can assume that he's at least checked his negatives for 1 to 2 mm opaque specks on them.

It is extremely unlikely that it is water bubbles on his print paper as it is something that is easily seen while the paper is in developer and is a rare occurrence even in the case of severe under agitation. Dried chemical spots on the glass is something that he'd surely notice with the naked eye. And unless he is clueless I'm fairly sure he's cleaned and inspected the glass itself when he first encountered this problem. Several one or two mm opaque specks on a piece of contacting glass is rather hard to miss, especially after one encounters a problem and takes the time to inspect the glass.

[rdenney]

Rick I didn't say that the spots were on the negative, I said that an issue, acid caused gas pops, that happens on film emulsions could possibly happen on print emulsions.

Oops--missed that.

Rick "who'd like to see a scan of the defect" Denney

[Jess C]

Do you notice the spots as your image develops out in your developer or only after you have gone through the entire process? Also, what film format are you using and does this occur with all negatives you have recently printed when you noticed the problem?

[Lindsay Lovejoy]

I saw little white spots on Ilford Multigrade FB when I left the prints in the washer far too long. The emulsion apparently became soft and white spots were the weak points. Make sure your prints aren't in the water more than a day.

[Robert Hughes]

Make sure your prints aren't in the water more than a day.

Change your prints at least as often as you change your underwear. Right?

[bob carnie]

Unless your Mother made you turn them inside out to save on detergent.

Change your prints at least as often as you change your underwear. Right?