An acid stop keeps an acid fix acidic. Do you use and
reuse an acid fixer?
Keeps on developing. Nothing more than a hint of water
bath development. Some go for it; two bath, the
B bath being water. Dan
I've been developing using tap water instead of stopbath
and the results are fine, but someone told me the negative
keeps on developing unless i use stop bath.
Hi,
I've been developing using tap water instead of stopbath and the results are fine, but someone told me the negative keeps on developing unless i use stop bath.
does it keep on developing even after it's been hung out to dry???
fyi: i am developing 35mm 400 iso BW film with HC -110
Robert.
Not using with paper is not such a good idea, even more so if you are using fiber based papers. I wouldn't worry so much about over development. That's pretty hard to do if you've exposed the paper correctly, since development is carried through to completion. The problems, veiled highlights etc., come about when some of the alkaline developer gets carried across to the acidic fixing bath. That's a sure way to cause staining and possibly some fogging of the highlights. You need to be extra cautious about washing the paper free of developer before its immersion into the fixing bath. That's tough to do in a tray without constantly changing water. The first couple of prints may work out OK, but after that the amount of developer carried over into the stop tray becomes significant enough to be of concern. If you have a sink in your darkroom, then you can use water rinse to your heart's content at the expense of a lot of wasted water. I don't see any advantage to this save the absence of the stop bath odor, which is not so bad if you've diluted your stop bath to the proper strength. It's only acetic acid at half the strength of table vinegar. If the odor of stop bath is bothersome, I'm willing to bet that the working solution is too strong.I quit using stop bath with film several weeks ago. So far, so good. I just started "not using" with paper.
I use a stop bath with paper but not with film.
I only use a water stop bath with film if I plan on re-using the fixer. If the fixer is going to be discarded after use I just pour out the developer then pour in the fixer.
Steve.
Why would you discard the fixer after use?
Why would you discard the fixer after use?
tim in san jose
Not using with paper is not such a good idea, even more so if you are using fiber based papers. I wouldn't worry so much about over development. That's pretty hard to do if you've exposed the paper correctly, since development is carried through to completion. The problems, veiled highlights etc., come about when some of the alkaline developer gets carried across to the acidic fixing bath. That's a sure way to cause staining and possibly some fogging of the highlights. You need to be extra cautious about washing the paper free of developer before its immersion into the fixing bath. That's tough to do in a tray without constantly changing water. The first couple of prints may work out OK, but after that the amount of developer carried over into the stop tray becomes significant enough to be of concern. If you have a sink in your darkroom, then you can use water rinse to your heart's content at the expense of a lot of wasted water. I don't see any advantage to this save the absence of the stop bath odor, which is not so bad if you've diluted your stop bath to the proper strength. It's only acetic acid at half the strength of table vinegar. If the odor of stop bath is bothersome, I'm willing to bet that the working solution is too strong.
Tim,
Why would you NOT?
The fixer rapidly accumulates insoluable silver salts, which will eventually precipitate out onto the paper, and (being insoluable) cannot easily be washed away. That is why there are clear guidelines for the use of two fixer baths for archival prints, and why there are limits on how long you can use a finite amount of fixer.
I'm also a big fan of a dilute sodium sulfite bath after the fix, to re-dissolve those little salty buggers before the final archival wash.
that's a heck of a lot of feedback ... I'm developing HP5+ and time is 5 minutes (Dil B) at 68 F using Ilford rapid fixer and my wash is just 4 or 5 water refills with increasing agitation frequency with each fill.
i guess by using water stop bath i'm extending the developing time minimally from 5 minutes upwards but unless i'm doing anything radically wrong in all this i'll just do it this way.
PE,One example of an exception is TF-4 which is formulated to prevent this situation. But, even here I use a stop.
PE
Thanks for the clarification PE.TF-4 is heavily buffered and therefore resists pH changes strongly. All I can say is that it performs well with an acid stop bath and does not smell as much of ammonia as when you just use a rinse. It is very well formulated.
PE
... because the shorter time in the fixer
probably means less fixer to wash out. Ed
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