DAYLIGHT NOT PHOTO-FLOOD... BUT WATCH THE GNATS!!
After a laps of almost a full year I finally have completed a processing session. Successfully, too, I hasten to add. Also I decided to revert to a system often practiced during E4 days. That is to abandon chemical reversal: white light was to be the order of the day!
The decision was the result of there being several side issues involved. In the first place I received a phone call from Ron Croad to the effect that he had been plagued by a red/brown cast in the shadows on films he had processed. The cast had disappeared on subsequent films after he had extended the time in the reversal bath.
Now I have long suspected the fact that this type of cast - the tobacco effect? - was due to either contamination or fogging after washing following the first developer. A minute quantity of D1, still in the emulsion, could cause either contamination or fogging. And, as the so-called reversal bath,being an acidic one,looks tobe partly a stop bath, could explain Ron`s cure. The extra time in the reversal has obviously "killed off" any remaining dregs of D1.
After all we are told that the reversal chemical, Stannous Chloride, doesn`t work to its full potential in an acid bath which explains why we are advised not to wash the film after the reversal bath so that a medicum of Stannous Chloride remains in the emulsion and so is able to complete its work in the alkaline colour developer.
So, having all these points in mind, I decided to use an Acetic Acid stop bath ... but only following a gradual and full wash after the first developer in view of the advice we are entreated to follow to ensure the various emulsion layers receive more or less equal development - top to bottom.
The use of this method would enable me to have a `rest day` between first development,washing, stop bath and white light reversal. With advancing age and somewhat indifferent health I relish the prospect as a definite boon and bonus! This system could also be attractive, and of help to members who work unsociable hours or shifts: for the film or films, can be left as long as necessary, after reversal, before completeing the processing sequence. For one of the big advantages of this method is that the film/films can be left for one day, or a week, or even longer after the reversal. I suggest storing them in a plastic box, rolled loosely, until the processing can be finished. I use an empty ice cream container.
After reversal I prepared the rest of the solutions - colour developer, conditioner and fixer: I found the bleach prepared a year before to be perfectly alright after a period of aeration. And on the day following I checked the pH values and then completed the processing in the normal way. There was a slight hiccup! You see I had intended using Photo-Flood for the reversal... but my one and only bulb gave up at a crucial moment! There was no way I could get to the photo shop. So what to do? Well there`s always that one commodity, which to politicians have so far failed to tax, DAYLIGHT! There was nothing else for it! On the washing line went my films. 11.
The results were... well good. Very good, indeed! So you see daylight is a cheap and adequate light substitute for reversal.
Oh! By the way... If you decide, from choice or circumstance , to use the washing line, as I did, I would advise you to have a quiet word with the local swarm of gnats and/or midges! Persuade them to move over the fence into your neighbour`s garden. Just for a while, you understand! For the insect population down your way may not be so considerate as mine! They might just consider your film to be an exiting new playground! And that`s not the point of the exercise! Not at all!
Ron Knowles (Area 11).