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High temperature effect on Black and White Silver Geleatin Negatives

cougstar

Member
Allowing Ads
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Messages
43
Location
California
Format
Large Format
Hello,

Wondering if anyone has any information on the effect of high temperatures on already processed negatives and prints. I recently moved, we are located in Southern California. I used to store my negatives and prints inside our air conditioned house with no problems. Now with the move I'm running into space issues in the house. I was going to store them in our garage where I will build my darkroom. But I'm finding temperatures in the garage are reaching 96 degrees Fahrenheit. The Relative Humidity is about 30% where I'm at until the winter rains. Don't think I'm going to be working in those temps. I do all my darkroom work in the mornings when it's in the 70's or so until winter time when things cool off. Anyways, just wondering on the long term effects of storing Black and White Silver Gelatin negatives and prints that have already been fully processed in temperatures like that. Luckily I have a spare fridge to store my new film in so that's not a problem.

Thanks for any info,

Ted
 
I would certainly worry about storing photographic chemicals under those conditions.
 
Chemicals I never had a problem with previously. The Darkroom I was working in would reach 90+ degrees consistently.

Worked in it for 10 years with no chemical problems. I'm able to control the temp of the chemicals while working and avoid working when extremely hot. Only Chemicals I would store would be Fix, Selenium, and Stop. Everything else is just one time use.
 
High heat and humidity could cause prints and negatives to stick to each other or to the dividers and sleeves.I have seen this with materials stored in attics of old homes, and the damage is extensive at times.
 
Had a lab where tap water was about 100 deg F. Used ice baths to temper film development so rated speeds and times could be used. Big jumps in temp between steps will clump the grain. Ilford says stay within 5 deg. step to step. I like one or two max. For printing temperature was not much of an issue as they were high and all the same.
 
The OP question is interesting, about storage of processed and already dried negs. To Rick's comment - I wonder how much of the problem was humidity rather than temperature (sticking). I'd like to hear from PE on this.

(to the "kid" - "SALUTE"+)