I have heard you can use reducer on prints to bleach back black scratch marks, then they can be spotted to the right tone. Is this true? Also, I understand reducer contains cyanide. should you wear a respirator when using it?

-- Rebecca (rebecca@antart.com.au), February 08, 2002

Answers

I've had some sucess using an Iodine solution called "LUGOL". I don't know exactly what it contains, but I think it's mostly harmless. It bleaches out the image, leaving a yellow stain that must disapear if you pass the print through the fixer again. Then you spot the white dots with a retouching ink. You can also use Farmer's reducer, which contains potassium ferricyanide. Don't drink it. The effect is slow and you shall have to be patient in order to eliminate black spots comletely.

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), February 08, 2002.

This quetion is on the wrong forum. I have a formula for iodine reducer on the Formulas page of my Unblinking Eye web site. For reduction to total white, you might try a lesser dilution than I recommend on the formulas page--maybe 1:25 or 1:40. As George mentioned, you must refix and wash very thoroughly. And be sure your print is thoroughly washed before you use the reducer. A post on the Printing & Finishing forum states that iodine bought from the drug store works equally well. Be sure to test your spot reduction technique on a test strip before you try it on a fine print.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), February 08, 2002.

Another reasonable alternative if your negative is large (4x5 or more) is to spot the negative defect with black or red opaque. This will of course print as a white mark, which can be spotted out in the usual manner.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), February 08, 2002.

Wasn't somebody manufacturing something like a Spotpen except it had bleach in it to bleach out the black spots? Might be worth searching for. Cheers, DJ.

-- N Dhananjay (dhananjay-nayakankuppam@uiowa.edu), February 08, 2002.

To elimiate a black spot, especially one that's in the highlights, I've used liquid iodine - found in the first aid section of the local drug store - straight out of the bottle. Of course, you don't want to drink it, but I don't think there's any issue of toxic fumes.

-- Richard (r_lingg@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.