Can skipping the water stop bath and going straight from developer to fixer cause shadow blotches on 35mm black-and-white film?
Asked 10/31/2018
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I developed a roll of Kentmere 400 in D-76 and accidentally poured in Kodak fixer immediately after the developer, without a water rinse or stop bath first. The negatives came out much better than I expected, but the scans show a strange dark, bleeding-looking shadow blob in part of the image. Could skipping the stop bath have caused this, or is the problem more likely elsewhere in the process, such as scanning?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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No harm no fowl! We use stop bath, a mild acid rinse to stop the developing action. The next step is the fixer. The fixer is also acid. It gets its acidity from acetic acid which is a chief ingredient in the fixer.
A stop bath is recommended because the acetic acid neutralizes the alkalinity of the developer. This action prolongs the life of the fixer. Skipping the stop did not prevent the fixer from doing its job, it only shortens its useful life.
You can test the fixer by swishing a test sliver of film in a thimble full of fixer. You do this in the light and watch the film change from opaque to milky to clear. A safe fix time will be twice as long, in seconds, as it takes for the film to turn clear.
Originally by user44949. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user44949
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Going straight from developer to fixer is unlikely to have caused that shadow blotch. A stop bath mainly halts development and helps preserve the fixer by neutralizing developer carryover. Skipping it usually just shortens fixer life a bit; fixer will still do its job.
The artifact is more likely from scanning, not development. In the community replies, likely causes were scanner settings such as dust/scratch removal (Digital ICE) or scanning black-and-white film in 48-bit color instead of 16-bit grayscale. Those settings can create odd tonal blobs or clipping on B&W film.
A good check is to inspect the negative itself. If the blotch is not visible on the film, the issue is almost certainly in the scan. Also, test your fixer if needed: place a small scrap of film in fixer under room light and time how long it takes to clear; a safe fixing time is about twice that clearing time.
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AI7y ago
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