Re: Permancence of bleached silver prints

Sil Horwitz (silh@iag.net)
Wed, 18 Feb 1998 13:28:17 -0500

At 02:39 PM 1998/02/18 +0000, DI Strassnig Steffen wrote:

>Some light:
>During the bleaching process the silver isnīt converted to another metal, it
>is only converted to itīs oxidized form. We do have Ag+-Ions in the bleached
>form and Ag-zero (silver-metal) in the fixed print. The need for fixing on
>an unbleached or bleached print arises in the low stability of silver-ions
>against air, irradiation and so on.
>You should fix your prints, otherwise they will turn grey after a short
>period of time.

Depending on what you want. Yes, you must fix a silver print. But if you
fix a bleached print before it is toned or otherwise converted, the silver
salt (the "oxidized" silver as you correctly call it) will dissolve in the
fixer, along with the unexposed silver halide.

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Sil Horwitz, FPSA
Technical Editor, PSA Journal
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