# Ilford MGIV RC  Chenical Smell



## Elenarain (Aug 15, 2018)

I am using Ilford MGIV RC  De Luxe for lumen prints in a contact frame.  After about 30 minutes in the sun, the paper (and everything it contacts) develops a really terrible strong chemical smell that does not diminish after fixing or copious rinsing.  It still has this terrible odor over a month later. Is this paper not appropriate for this process .. am I missing a step? I’m getting beautiful images but can’t handle the smell.  BTW I am using a combination of organic and inorganic materials for exposure.. doesn’t seem to matter..


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## vintagesnaps (Aug 15, 2018)

I've done lumen prints, and I've never had anything like that happen. Although I'm doing lumen prints with vintage paper, and leave them on a table in a window for minutes, hours, days... (long exposures because some of the color gets washed out in the fixer). I've used Ilford paper in the darkroom.

The only thing I can think of is that for lumen prints I use diluted fixer, maybe 1:9 parts fixer to water. In the darkroom though I've used the usual strength fixer, and prints can float around in that for some time and be fine. I mean, you can smell the fixer but once the prints are dry I've never noticed any lingering strong smell. 

You could try AlternativePhotography.com . Or try asking on Home - The Film Photography Project , ask Leslie (whose user name I can't remember offhand). Or maybe try APUG (which has changed but if you search you may find their new site, it was called analog photograhy users group).


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