Troubleshooting
Where did these white spots on my print come from?
Why did my paper print completely black?
Why did my paper print completely white?
Why did my paper turn yellow?
Why are there weird, light yellow marks on my paper?
White spots on prints are the result of lack of light reaching the paper. Before placing your negative into the negative carrier, you must take a cleaning cloth and rub fingerprints or dust off of you negative. If a tiny dust spot covers the top of your negative, the light shining through the enlarger will not continue shining past that area. As you learned in the pencil exercise, areas that are not exposed to light will remain white. Another reason for white spots on prints is if an opaque object was covering the paper.
If you expose your paper to too much light under the enlarger, then your print will become overexposed. Areas exposed to light become shades of black.
If you do not expose your paper to light under the enlarger enough, your print will have few shades of black. The less light that reaches the paper results in white areas. Another reason your print may have developed completely white is if you placed the paper in the masking frame with its backside up. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which side is the light sensitive side and which side is not.
If you do not leave your print in the fixer for at least 7 minutes, the print will turn yellow when exposed to light. It may not turn yellow right away, but it eventually will with time. It is okay to leave prints in the fixer for an hour or more, so don't rush when it comes to fixing. The same goes for washing your print in water, washing for more than 10 minutes does not hurt the print.
When you use tongs to place your paper in different trays, make sure you do not touch the top of the print with the tongs. If your tongs have recently been dipped in other chemicals, such as developer, stop bath, and fixer, it can leave strange marks on the paper.