Wearing gloves when processing black & white paper

cliveh

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I have heard that some people wear gloves when processing black and white prints. But why would you do this? I would suggest it is a distinct disadvantage.
 

131802

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I used tongs up until a few years ago; switched to gloves when my tongs went missing. Gloves allow me to handle prints better than I could with tongs. The tongs reappeared, but I rarely use them.
 

MattKing

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I use both gloves and tongs, because it is far easier to rinse off and dry gloves effectively than it is to rinse off and dry bare skin.
Primarily I am concerned with a small splash of of fixer getting on my hands and then transferring (and thus contaminating) paper - there is nothing more frustrating than a well made print ruined by a trace of fixer transferred from one's fingers.
I also tend to use my gloved hands, rather than to handle paper in the cascading wash trays I employ. The gloved hands are much easier to dry.
It is no doubt relevant that my working area is temporary and the space is at a premium.
 

BobUK

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Up to my mid teens I had no qualms about handling prints in chemicals with bare hands. Then I read about dermatitis catching up on some photographers many years later. Giving debilitating rashes and sores.
I then bought some print tongs. Used them ever since. Gloves are a nuisance to me, going from dry to wet, then back to dry tasks.
The only things I use gloves for are when weighing and mixing chemicals from the raw, or developing film in my weepy tank.

Have a look at the last paragraph of a Wiki. article that mentions dermatitis catching up on you years later.

Metol - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org
 

Pieter12

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Although I use a slot processor that has its own clip to hold the paper, I keep a small bucket of plain water to quickly rinse my hands between slots/solutions. That is because when I process 11x14, it helps to gently hold the corner of the sheet while transferring between slots. I have considered gloves, but it would seem awkward for me. Same goes for tongs, for the short time--10 seconds--I take to hold and move the paper between slots.

Of course, there are the famously black fingernails caused by amidol, but that's another story.
 

fiddle

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What about contamination? Gloves touch stop or fixer, dev the next sheet. Is wiping down gloves with a hand towel enough?
 

Bill Burk

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Rinsing gloves gets the chemicals off unless there’s a pinhole (happens all the time), in which case I replace the gloves. Then dry and check for droplets between the fingers dry again and go.

I keep a pair of handmade wooden tongs as decor items.
 

ic-racer

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cliveh said:
I have heard that some people wear gloves when processing black and white prints. But why would you do this? I would suggest it is a distinct disadvantage.
Click to expand...

To keep the chemicals off one's hands.
The gloves follow the processing cycle and get rinsed in the rinse bath that holds the prints. After rinsing the glove goes back to sitting beside the developer tray.
I just use one glove, but have a second one for the other hand ready if there are any emergencies, like a dropped print or something.
I have a dry area to the side of the trays and set the exposed print there. Then I don the glove, dip the glove in the developer briefly and place the print quickly in the developer with the non-gloved hand.
 

Paul Howell

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I use tongs, I have tired gloves but found that remember to rinse which in my darkroom meaning to turn the water on in the sink is an additional step.
 

Dali

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I always use tongs but my prints are medium size (8 x 10 in). With bigger prints, I would certainly think differently.
 

Sirius Glass

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I usually use tongs, but I would rather use my hands, so gloves are a good alternative. I found that I could feel well enough with gloves.
 

Maris

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I deliberately do not use gloves when processing black & white paper. My hands are sensitive enough to register the impact of a tiny drop of developer or fixer which I immediately wash off. Gloves reduce that sensitivity and create a risk of transferring chemistry to my precious box of enlarging paper when I reach for the next sheet. Unnoticed fixer can also transfer to darkroom surfaces like enlarger controls, taps, light switches, door knobs; a nuisance to clean up.

Instead of gloves I practiced (and practiced) accurate tong work until I could take paper through the processing cycle mistake free. I'm good with tongs but I envy young Chinese children who are even more deft with chopsticks.
 

DREW WILEY

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Wearing nitrile gloves is just common sense. The disposable kind are so cheap and widely available that there's no reason not to. In terms of tactile sensation, most surgeons wear them. Chemical residue like fixer washes off gloves far more easily than skin. Once certain people develop sensitivity to metol in particular, it's almost like poison oak rash. But there are a number of other potentially unhealthy chemicals used in black and white work, like amidol.

Tongs don't work well on big prints; but there is that option in addition to gloves.
 

Valerie

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After 25+ years of darkroom work I began to get red, itchy hands after a printing session. (I did use tongs for smaller prints, but not usable for larger ones.... ). Gloves are an easy fix. I wash and dry just as I would using bare hands.

Just because YOU do or don't <<insert any technique or process here>>, doesn't mean it is disadvantageous for others... It just means others have a process that works better for them.
 

logan2z

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Maris said:
Gloves reduce that sensitivity and create a risk of transferring chemistry to my precious box of enlarging paper when I reach for the next sheet.
Click to expand...

I never use gloves on the dry side of my darkroom, only on the wet side.
 

Augustus Caesar

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cliveh said:
I have heard that some people wear gloves when processing black and white prints. But why would you do this? I would suggest it is a distinct disadvantage.
Click to expand...
I never have used gloves, and have hardly ever used tongs.
 
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Pieter12

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I think it would be more difficult to determine if gloves are dry than bare skin. Given that, I would probably go through more than 20 pairs of disposable gloves in a typical darkroom session. So, no gloves unless I am doing something like toning or bleaching, or if I have any open cuts on my hands or fingers.
 

MattKing

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I don't discard the disposable nitrile gloves during a session. And they are much easier to both effectively rinse and thoroughly dry than bare skin.
 

Bill Burk

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I’ll go through several pair of gloves in a session but I can get three trips from box to easel through trays on a pair of gloves if lucky. But most of the time it’s one or two. Stupidest things create pinholes. Even the negative carrier can bite a hole in a glove.
 
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