I have the occasional habit when printing of turning on the main darkroom light, i.e. not just the safelight, once a print has gone into the fixer.

I've never observed a problem that might have arisen either at the time of processing or when looking back at prints which are years old. It did just occur to me though that perhaps I might be storing up potential problems by exposing to white light prints which have not then fully fixed.

I can support the idea that no harm can be done by arguing that though un-removed silver halides might well be affected by light exposure even once the print is in the fixer, the continuing fixing process will eventually remove all of those salts anyway so there could be no future breakdown of them to cause staining.

Does anyone have a view? (Of course even if you agree with me that there's no likelihood of harm arising, feel free to tell me it's poor practise anyway).

Trevor Littlewood

-- Trevor Littlewood (trevorlittlewood@aol.com), May 17, 2002

Answers

Personally, I wouldn't do it. What's so important about having the room lights on for those three minutes or so? Since I'm immersing the print in fixer for the purpose of protecting it against light damage, why would I want to turn on the lights before the fixing time is over? I've already invested much time and effort in the image by this point. I would rather muster the patience to carry the process through to completion with all the odds in my favor. A parallel example might be: I could probably remove the extra wall brace at the top of the enlarger column and get away with it, but I would prefer to leave it in place.

-- Ollie Steiner (violindevil@yahoo.com), May 17, 2002.

Since the papers that are usually used today are developing-out papers, no problem will occur if the stop bath was adequate to totally stop the development. The undeveloped halides are soluble in fixer whether they are exposed or unexposed as long as they have not reacted with the developing agents. If you are confident that the stop bath has been totally effective, you can turn the room lights on with the print still in the stop bath. However, to be safe, it is probably (but not necessarily) better to wait until the print is in the fixer.

-- Ken Burns (kenburns@twave.net), May 17, 2002.

I routinely turn on a white light immediately after putting a print in the fixer. I have a 25W bulb in a Kodak "beehive" safelight enclosure right over the fixer tray. Why do it right away? Because I want to know I made a good print. I also turn on the light and look at test squares (not test strips) while they're in the stop bath. I have at least 30 sec. before browning starts. I know my stop bath is going if I get dark stains on the squares. Try this: leave a small piece of undeveloped paper out in the light until it turns a rich brown. Then put it in the fixer. Not that most of the browning disappears, leaving a light yellow. Try the same thing with a coin on the paper and exposed for 1 min or so (depending on brightness) until the shadow of the coin is barely visible on the paper, then fix.

-- Tim Brown (brownt@flash.net), May 17, 2002.

"I routinely turn on a white light immediately after putting a print in the fixer. I have a 25W bulb in a Kodak "beehive" safelight enclosure right over the fixer tray. Why do it right away? Because I want to know I made a good print."

I use to wait at least two minutes before I turn on the light, just to be sure.

"I also turn on the light and look at test squares (not test strips) while they're in the stop bath."

I do the same thing.

-- Patric (jenspatricdahlen@hotmail.com), May 17, 2002.

When I leave a developed, stopped but not fixed piece of paper exposed to light (e.g. coarse test strip), it turns reddish after some time. My conclusion is: a effect that becomes visible in 15 mins starts developing immediately when the light was turned on. During 1- 2 mins it can be neglibile, but I prefer to be on the safe side. In other words, I'm with Ollie.

-- Andrey Vorobyov (AndreyVorobyov@hotbox.ru), May 18, 2002.

I've been turning on the light after 5-10 seconds in the fixer for decades and no problems yet...

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), May 18, 2002.

Thanks for asking this question – I usually wait a minute or two before turning on the white lights, but sometimes I wait only 30 seconds, and was wondering if it causes any ill effects to the print. The answers given here seem to indicate that the print is safe once it is immersed in the fix. The reason I was wondering if it is safe is because I sometimes notice tiny black dots on the print, sometimes only one or two. I already know that exhausted developer causes this problem, but was starting to question whether turning the white light on too soon may have been a cause. It seems from the answers given that it must have been the developer causing the black dots.

-- James Webb (jwebb66@yahoo.com), May 18, 2002.

browsing through some old Camera and Darkroom mags, i read that Eugene Smith, the esteemed photojournalist, routinely turned on the main light as soon as his print hit the fixer. For what its worth.

-- jim meisebach (pacifica011@insightbb.com), May 18, 2002.

I wait about a minute before I turn on the white light. However,for many years I turned the lights on as soon as the print was was in the fix. I stopped doing this when I began to notice that the print has a tendency to change tone after about a minute in the fix. This is especially noticeable when using Forte Poly Warmtone. There is most likely no detremental effects but I now wait the extra minute under safelight for peace of mind.

-- Robert Orofino (minotaur1949@iopener.net), May 18, 2002.

White light after 30 secs in rapid fixer (usually Hypam). Never had problems. I would not feel so safe if it was regular fixer (plain hypo), although it must be only in my mind.

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), May 19, 2002.