[LargeFormat] Removing black spots from prints

[Jim Hemenway]

Don:

I don't make wet prints anymore.  I scan the film and use Photoshop to 
fix any spots before printing on a 2200.

Not helpful to you I guess, so in your case I would either use a super 
soft graphite pencil to spot on the emulsion side of your film, a 4B or 
even a 6B if you can find one. One spots by tapping the pencil to leave 
lots of little dots. Use any eye loupe or some extra strong reading 
glasses, (about $20 for 3 at Costco). If the results are not what is 
desired then erase and do it again.

Or, use the finest watercolor brush that you can find and some variously 
diluted little batches of black ink on the print... spot the same way as 
above, it takes practise.  I haven't done it in such a long time that I 
can't tell you what kind of ink to use on RC paper but I used to use 
india ink on the old Kodak fibre papers.

For what it may be worth, I use canned air when I load my 11x14 film 
holders.  A spray on both sides of the holder with the darkslides 
withdrawn and then once more after I've slid in the film but before 
closing the dark slides.

Where is the dust coming from... oil heat or a wood stove?  Can you 
control it?  How often do you vacuum your darkroom and/or sheet film 
loading area?

Jim, "Not Mister Clean himself" Hemenway


Wilkes, Don MSER:EX wrote:

> The bane of LF has come to bite me in the posterior: dust.  Close inspection
> reveals that a couple of small dust particles must have been clinging to the
> surface of the 4x5 sheet when I exposed it, resulting in black spots on the
> print. Naturally, according to the rules of large format, these appear in a
> large, smooth area of uniform sky...
> 
> Does anyone have experience in dealing with this sort of problem?  I don't
> want to retouch the neg itself -- it's fairly important to me -- so I'm
> thinking the route to follow will likely be bleaching and (probably)
> subsequent spotting.  At the moment, I'm using Ilford MG RC, and I have
> little idea how it reacts to bleaching (nor spotting, for that matter --
> it's never been my forte).  If it comes to it, I'd consider switching over
> to fiber-based paper, I guess, but hope that isn't necessary.
> 
> Digital workflow would solve it, but it's not an option, both for monetary
> and personal preference reasons.
> 
> One thing that's worrying me is the first of the batch that I loaded for the
> Yosemite trip...I haven't souped the others yet, as I wanted to ensure
> everything was tickety-boo with my processing first.  Also, I've been both
> unusually busy and not feeling all that terrific lately.  Don't want to rush
> nor fumble what may be the only negs I have of that perhaps
> once-in-a-lifetime trip.
> 
> God, I hate dust...
> 
> \donw in Victoria, B.C.