Why would darkroom print exposure suddenly drop to 1–3 seconds?
Asked 2/6/2023
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In the darkroom I normally get print exposures around 10–30 seconds at f/8 to f/11. On one session, the same enlarger, multigrade paper, and filter gave much shorter times: 1 second was too light, 2 seconds was nearly black, and even at f/16 the correct print was just under 3 seconds. The negative was shot outdoors on a sunny day on Kodak Tri-X 400 and developed at home. Could this be caused by the film, development, old paper developer, the enlarger, or the paper itself?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
3y ago
2 Answers
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Most likely, the film was underexposed and or underdeveloped. You should examine your negatives to make this diagnosis.
Other possibilities – the enlarger lens was operating at near maximum diameter (aperture) and you did not catch it.
The enlarger lamp if an ordinary tungsten filament bulb nearing the end of its life cycle. Sometimes, the filament breaks and then re-welds making the filament shorter. Such happenings will cause the lamp to brighten before failure.
Another possibility, the paper underwent hyper sensitization. This can happen if the paper is fogged to a low level of light. Photo materials have a threshold of exposure, this is the minimum amount needed to show some blackening. Fogged film or paper will significantly gain sensitivity to light. This can also happen if the paper is chemically exposed to chemicals like out-gassing from paint or mothballs etc.
Another possibility is voltage fluctuation. Just a few volts gain to the lamp will cause it to brighten significantly.
Originally by user44949. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user44949
3y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most likely cause is the negative: underexposure and/or underdevelopment can make printing behave oddly, so inspect the negative first.
Other plausible causes mentioned:
- The enlarger lens may have been set more open than expected.
- The enlarger bulb may have brightened abnormally if a tungsten filament was near failure.
- The paper may have become more sensitive from slight fogging or "hyper-sensitization," which can happen after low-level unintended light exposure.
Your old paper developer is not a likely explanation. Aging developer usually loses activity rather than becoming stronger.
Tri-X itself is not inherently a "short to print" film. A bright sunny scene can also produce a dense negative that prints faster than your usual ones, but the main things to check are the negative density, enlarger aperture setting, bulb condition, and whether the paper may have been fogged.
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AI3y ago
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