About ten years ago, I turned over my darkroom for use by the son of a friend with provision that he could use as much of some Agfa Brovira graded paper (paper based) which I had left over from the mid-1970s - no special storage. He ran into a bit of fog, but so little that it looked more like an enhancement to his image. He actually won a prize in a photo contest with one of those prints. The reason I still had the stuff was that I assumed it was all degraded and useless, to be thrown out at next cleaning. I suspect that if I had modified the developer with a little additional potassium bromide, it would have printed fairly well. Normally, I store my new B&W paper stocks in my film freezer, since I tend to get into the darkroom infrequently, but for longer sessions.
Cheers, Alex! Getting the old paper working is very much a work in progress. I'm working on part 2 as we speak and that one is looking quite promising - and tricky!
I recently came by a cache of 1980's Agfa Brovira, all sorts of sizes, et. Three digit postal codes. Bought 4 packs, and the first pack came out fogged. I did a "coin" test and it was clearly fogged. Thanks to your information, I'm thinking about going back and buying the rest.... of course, for a discount.
That's great! Brovira (RC or fiber) also tends to lith very well, with beautiful range of tones, so definitely check out the lith episode on my channel - at this point, I'm convinced that lith is the most practical and artistically rewarding way to utilize fogged paper.
Thanks for doing all this. I promptly went into my darkroom and carried out the experiments on 3 packages (partly used up, fortunately) of fogged 16 x 20. Your work is really helpful.
16x20 is serious stuff! Hope some of it turned out to be useful. Stay tuned for part 3 coming soon - on lith printing! Spoiler: lith can handle even pretty badly fogged paper.
This is great. Your delivery is entertaining, best of both worlds, informative and entertaining! Now I have to go down and fix an image with no sky density. I'll introduce some fog on purpose (pre-flash)!
Thanks for this. I have heaps of old paper that was stored badly for 35 years. I also watched your video on bleaching. Your videos are a great introduction to experimenting with salvaging old, formerly useless paper.
Thank you for the kind words - and watching, of course! It's been a bit of a forced hiatus but the new episode (on lith printing) is coming very soon, stay tuned :)
Hi, I've enjoyed your video. I've been working with expired papers since rigging my first home darkroom in 2009. Seldom make "normal" prints with them, but extensive chemistry play and research have provided me a great enjoyment of these papers. Looking forward to your part 2 (hope you get into lith printing - love lith*, with or without benzotriazole). CHEERS
Glad you enjoyed it! There will definitely be talk of lith printing later in the series - as well as a short demonstration of other various non-standard techniques like lumen/photograms.
Possible to make a bit darker copy and then bleach the fog. Finally use selenium toner to get good contrast! Used that method on old orwo paper that got lovelly tone to it. I use neutol wa developer witch is slow and I suppose already has some restrainer. Difficult with hard working dev as dektol. Everything happens allmost at once. Azo paper seems to have best shelf life! I have a batch from 1947 still going strong. No need for additives. But this is a contact printing paper and is so slow ( to slow for enlarging).
I explore the bleach method in the second installment of this series 🙂 It is indeed a very effective solution against fog, as long as the printer is okay with handling the bleach and spending time on extra steps involved.
Thanks for this videos ... i have not finished watching all the other parts, however i have a question: my paper appears to be as fogged as the one shown in this video, but the edges of the paper are white. what could be the cause for this? The paper is an old Agfa paper that came with the enlarger. I developed a sheet from the middle of the stack in complete darkness and the paper came out grey except for the edged which are white.
Thank you for watching! Might very well be that thicker packaging at the edges may have protected the paper better in those areas. However, from a practical standpoint, it hardly matters - in most framing options, the borders get covered by the mat board anyway. Some of the papers I have also exhibit such uneven fogging.
I never made my own but there are formulas floating online. Good place to look would be Photrio forums, multiple professional photochemists posted their recipes there.
About ten years ago, I turned over my darkroom for use by the son of a friend with provision that he could use as much of some Agfa Brovira graded paper (paper based) which I had left over from the mid-1970s - no special storage. He ran into a bit of fog, but so little that it looked more like an enhancement to his image. He actually won a prize in a photo contest with one of those prints. The reason I still had the stuff was that I assumed it was all degraded and useless, to be thrown out at next cleaning. I suspect that if I had modified the developer with a little additional potassium bromide, it would have printed fairly well. Normally, I store my new B&W paper stocks in my film freezer, since I tend to get into the darkroom infrequently, but for longer sessions.
This is awesome! Lots of excellent technical information, well presented and explained. Glad you were able to get that old paper up and running again!
Cheers, Alex! Getting the old paper working is very much a work in progress. I'm working on part 2 as we speak and that one is looking quite promising - and tricky!
Excellent channel. I accidentally came across your page. Even if I search 10 rolls of film you’re not at the top of the list! Keep it up.
I recently came by a cache of 1980's Agfa Brovira, all sorts of sizes, et. Three digit postal codes. Bought 4 packs, and the first pack came out fogged. I did a "coin" test and it was clearly fogged. Thanks to your information, I'm thinking about going back and buying the rest.... of course, for a discount.
That's great! Brovira (RC or fiber) also tends to lith very well, with beautiful range of tones, so definitely check out the lith episode on my channel - at this point, I'm convinced that lith is the most practical and artistically rewarding way to utilize fogged paper.
Ok fine I only saw part 1
And nice comnent. Yes it can be nice with not perfectly white base!😊
Thanks for doing all this. I promptly went into my darkroom and carried out the experiments on 3 packages (partly used up, fortunately) of fogged 16 x 20. Your work is really helpful.
16x20 is serious stuff! Hope some of it turned out to be useful. Stay tuned for part 3 coming soon - on lith printing! Spoiler: lith can handle even pretty badly fogged paper.
This is great. Your delivery is entertaining, best of both worlds, informative and entertaining! Now I have to go down and fix an image with no sky density. I'll introduce some fog on purpose (pre-flash)!
Pre-flashing sure sounds fun! Thank you for the kind words :)
Thanks for this. I have heaps of old paper that was stored badly for 35 years. I also watched your video on bleaching. Your videos are a great introduction to experimenting with salvaging old, formerly useless paper.
Thank you for the kind words - and watching, of course! It's been a bit of a forced hiatus but the new episode (on lith printing) is coming very soon, stay tuned :)
Hi, I've enjoyed your video. I've been working with expired papers since rigging my first home darkroom in 2009. Seldom make "normal" prints with them, but extensive chemistry play and research have provided me a great enjoyment of these papers. Looking forward to your part 2 (hope you get into lith printing - love lith*, with or without benzotriazole). CHEERS
Glad you enjoyed it! There will definitely be talk of lith printing later in the series - as well as a short demonstration of other various non-standard techniques like lumen/photograms.
Nice job on this!
Thanks for watching!
Possible to make a bit darker copy and then bleach the fog. Finally use selenium toner to get good contrast!
Used that method on old orwo paper that got lovelly tone to it. I use neutol wa developer witch is slow and I suppose already has some restrainer. Difficult with hard working dev as dektol. Everything happens allmost at once. Azo paper seems to have best shelf life! I have a batch from 1947 still going strong. No need for additives. But this is a contact printing paper and is so slow ( to slow for enlarging).
I explore the bleach method in the second installment of this series 🙂 It is indeed a very effective solution against fog, as long as the printer is okay with handling the bleach and spending time on extra steps involved.
Thanks for this videos ... i have not finished watching all the other parts, however i have a question: my paper appears to be as fogged as the one shown in this video, but the edges of the paper are white. what could be the cause for this? The paper is an old Agfa paper that came with the enlarger. I developed a sheet from the middle of the stack in complete darkness and the paper came out grey except for the edged which are white.
Thank you for watching! Might very well be that thicker packaging at the edges may have protected the paper better in those areas. However, from a practical standpoint, it hardly matters - in most framing options, the borders get covered by the mat board anyway. Some of the papers I have also exhibit such uneven fogging.
Do you happen to know the formula for making your own restrainer? Thank you!
I never made my own but there are formulas floating online. Good place to look would be Photrio forums, multiple professional photochemists posted their recipes there.
Do you have a p.o. box. I may have some old photography paper and sheet film id be willing to donate.
That is very generous of you! I am based in the Netherlands, so postage might be a bit prohibitive depending on where you are.