Film Development Chem. Reactions

I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the direction of a good resource breaking down the actual reactions in film exposure and development. I should be able to figure out most of the mechanisms on my own, but if anyone knows of any literature that perhaps names the reactions or shows intermediates so I can look up mechanisms for what I can't figure out on my own, that would be fantastic.

Thanks.

Graint Haist, "Modern Photographic Processing" will explain all the chemistry in its gory details but easily understandable prose for anyone with decent school chemistry knowledge.

Not a cheap book (about 300$ for two volumes of 700+ pages), but check your local libraries. Universities tend to have it. It's peerless.

Haist was the director of Kodak's Research Lab, so he knows a thing or two.

You may also find a copy of C.E.K. Mees "Theory of Photographic Process" which is even gorier, because it not only gives you the principles, but the associated metrics of the science (e.g. crystal growth rate, energy, efficiency, etc).

Finally, I would recommend Mees's autobiography, "From dry plates to Ektachrome film" to understand the history and evolution of the technology. It is satisfyingly technical, and gives a lot of insight into the thinking behind the research. Mees founded the Kodak Research Labs.

maxbloom said:

I was hoping someone might be able to point
me in the direction of a good resource breaking
down the actual reactions in film exposure
and development. Thanks.

Click to expand...

At Google I'd enter, film exposure development .
To expand the search look for loaded words like
photon, electron, silver, halide, reduction, light,
grain, etc. Dan

I have a small Kodak book called Elementary Photographic Chemistry
which lays it all out in a fairly easy to understand way. It's quite old (mine is 1936) but the fundamentals haven't changed too much.
I ran into my copy at my local used bookseller, but there are numerous copies at bookfinder;
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?a...axprice=&classic=on&mode=advanced&st=sr&ac=qr

Cost is around 5 USD and up.

In the past, I have same tentative for speed of photographic reaction.
I try to make a relation between densitometric data and mecanichal and chemical parameters.

George

Another book with a lot of references:
Photographic Processing Chemistry by LFA Mason. At one time he was in charge of processing chemistry research at Ilford.
It does not cover newer developers,PMK Pyro,Xtol,Pyrocat HD, PC-TEA etc.