I am experimenting with RA-4 direct positive / RA-4 reversal processing and I am getting persistent whitish veils / cloudy halo-like patches in the final print.
I normally understand standard RA-4 printing quite well, but this reversal process is giving me trouble. My sequence is:
- B&W first developer
- Stop bath (1-2% acetic acid) then rinse in water
- Artificial light re-exposure / fogging
- RA-4 develop (Dev -> Blix).
I use Multigrade BW paper developer. I have tried shorter first development, but I am not yet sure if that is the key factor. Adding a proper stop bath improved the result, but it went form really bad to just bad.
The RA-4 working solution is about two weeks old, stored with the air excluded. The developer is still clear, so I would normally assume it is not badly oxidised.
The attached photos show the issue. The bright cloudy areas are not reflections from photographing the print; they are actually in the print. I am not mainly asking about exposure or filtration. The colour balance is still off, but that is not the main problem. The issue is these local white/grey veiled “halos”.
I first suspected uneven re-exposure, so I tried using an A2 LED light pad for a more uniform fogging exposure. It made no real difference. What I have not tried yet is re-exposure with actual daylight. Questions:
- Does this look like a familiar problem in RA-4 reversal / direct positive processing?
- Could this be caused by the B&W first developer being too strong, too weak?
- Should I try daylight re-exposure instead of LED fogging?
- Is somthing exhausted (BW developer and/or ra-4. Paper is quiet new)?
Any practical experience with RA-4 reversal would be very welcome before I blind replace chemistry.