Developing B&W transparencies at home

George Mann · Mar 14, 2023

Has anyone done this successfully?

relistan · Mar 14, 2023

There are a number of threads on this. Search for "reversal".

Search results for query: reversal

www.photrio.com

Molli · Mar 14, 2023

I've been making Black and White Paper Reversals off and on over the past few months, trying to work my way up to doing it with film. I have this irrational idea that the only decent photo I ever take will be part of some experiment I've dreamed up and the emulsion will slide off into the sink or not develop at all or something equally irrevocable. Experimenting with paper leaves me less nervous!

A few days ago I remembered that I have some 2"x3" sheet film so I don't need to risk an entire roll or a full 4"x5" sheet. I'll be using Potassium Permanganate and Sodium Bisulphate rather than dichromate and sulfuric acid. If/when I work up the nerve, I'll let you know how I got on. You may just have provided some much needed motivation.

Black and White Paper Reversal:

George Mann · Mar 14, 2023

OK, I will look at the links. But is there any possible way to develop films such as Fomopan R100 and ADOX Scala without using toxic chemicals?

Anon Ymous · Mar 14, 2023

George Mann said:
OK, I will look at the links. But is there any possible way to develop films such as Fomopan R100 and ADOX Scala without using toxic chemicals?

What's your definition of "toxic"?

Bronson Dugnutt · Mar 14, 2023

Anon Ymous said:
What's your definition of "toxic"?

Silver salts.

But really, just take photographs of your negatives and develop normally.

George Mann · Mar 15, 2023

Anon Ymous said:
What's your definition of "toxic"?

Toxic/caustic chemicals, such as the type of bleach used.

Anon Ymous · Mar 15, 2023

George Mann said:
Toxic/caustic chemicals, such as the type of bleach used.

You don't have to use a bichromate bleach, there are alternatives. You also don't have to work with concentrated acids either, you can use more dilute ones in larger quantities. But you have to realise that many of the darkroom chemicals aren't exactly benign and need to be treated accordingly. And I'm not talking about reversal chemicals specifically.

relistan · Mar 15, 2023

Less toxic options are copper sulfate bleach with citric acid and hydrogen peroxide bleach. On my blog, linked in my signature, you can find a pretty good peroxide bleach. The first post also has links to a lot more info.

EDIT: here you go https://imager.ie/a-better-peroxide-black-and-white-reversal-bleach/

250swb · Mar 15, 2023

Adox reversal developing kit

https://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/film...w0z0MXuIEg3fYvOOdmjFmJXNBRS7nVoUaAgYNEALw_wcB

relistan · Mar 15, 2023

Tsubasa said:
Basically no, because the bleach has to be acidic and a potent oxidizer. Apart from the now banned dichromate (at least in the EU), permanganate is not so toxic (unless you swallow it of course), maybe it stains a lot (but metabisulphite will remove any stains of it). There's also another bleach bath, it's based on cerium but it's way too expensive and it's experimental, done by an old Fuji research paper.

See my post above. There are other options. Copper sulfate is not too bad and if you use citric acid then the resulting bleach is pretty safe. Household ammonia is not nice but many people have worse cleaning products in their house already.

Alternatively the safest is peroxide bleach (3%) as linked from my blog above.

Developing B&W transparencies at home

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