Encouraged by I think it was John Rudiak (now seconded by Paul Simon), not
to mention Carson's reassurances about how film is an easy wash, I became
a reformed person, leaving the film in a tray of shallow water, simply
dumping & turning a couple of times & enough.
And then a discovery. In a tray of still water the thin, floppy, floating
film stays nicely on the bottom. Theory: flowing water entering the
tray is full of bubbles,especially in winter; the bubbles pile up on the
bottom the the film, making it float.
In still water, the bubbles quickly vanish.
On Sat, 16 Mar 1996, Peter Marshall wrote:
> Surely the film you are talking about washing does not in any case need
> archival treatment as it is only an intermediate stage between an archivally
> processed negative and an archivally processed print?
Sure, but I didn't want it to die on me prematurely.
>
> Should it deteriorate it can easily be replicated. Films I washed 10 years
Making sheet film is never easy. Who wants to go into the dark? Besides,
if the pundits are correct, in 10 years there will be no more sheet film.
(Do you really think I'll give up my MacPlus so I can do adobe photoshop &
digital negatives?)
> ago still show no signs of doing so. I think they usually have very thin
> emulsions that wash out rapidly. When I was taught I was told that a one
> minute wash was long enough!>
Whoever told you that was a superior person. Be glad.
> individually in a tray, using just enough water to cover the sheet. Make
> sure the water is not below 20 degrees (68 to some). I use an initial quick
Well that's another story. My temperature control (Leedal) was never
splendid & is now totally on the fritz (oops that's not pc, I mean on the
blink). The water comes in at 45 F & doesn't mix unless I run it like a
fire hose. Of course as long as I fill & dump trays, no need to replace,
but while we're on the topic, any suggestions?
> Of course if you are washing several you can save on water by pouring it
> from one tray to the next so that Film 1's second rinse becomes film 2's
> first and so on.
Peter, wish you had told me the one minute part about 10 years ago.
But the pouring part is not so easy.
Where we have space, as at school, we set up a series of trays and move
prints, film, whatever, down the line from the dirty tray to the clean.
Then the dirtiest tray at the beginning is filled with fresh water and
moved to the end. Saves a lot of *time*, too, as constant filling isn't
necessary. In my own darkroom however, not enough room. And the weight of
a 16x20 tray with even an inch or two of water gives this l.o.l. pause --
too many times the bath therefrom......
cheers for now and thanks to all water mavens on this list,
Judy