I work in a darkroom outside my home and have to use a heated print drier for fiber based prints. Does the heat cause more drying down effect than air drying?

-- Don Karon (kc6d@arrl.net), November 28, 2000

Answers

One interesting effect of drying using heat is that some papers will give a warmer image. Other than that, it shouldn't matter much. Some workers review the print in the darkroom under a weak light and say doing so ends up with prints that have NO 'dry down' factor at all. You might try two things. First, print two prints exactly the same and air dry one while drying the other with heat. Then, print the same images and view one under the light you use now and the other under a 20 watt light. Make the prints the way you want under both light sources, that is-print them differently per how you expect them to come out. Then see if one does 'dry down' and the other not.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), November 29, 2000.

Ctein was discussing this on a another forum. Not all papers are subject to dry down. So it may or may not be a weak light deal.

THe type of drying shouldn't effect the type of dry down. The only possible result is if you ferrotype (gloss the finish) you might see less dry down due to the factor of a glossy print looking like the blacks are blacker than a matt or pearl print.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), November 29, 2000.

The heat factor can have an effect on both 'dry down' and the final color of the print, depending on the printing paper used. Some will change while others won't. Test yours and find what works for you.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), December 01, 2000.