Does it matter if do one water rinse

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Between each be development step? Ie, developer>stop>water>fixer>water>hypoclear>rinse. If use water for stop then skip that step, otherwise do as above with regular stop bath.

[Two23]

I've been doing development, water stop (distilled), fix, rinse. No problem with either film or glass plates.


Kent in SD

[Pere Casals]

You may check it in The Darkroom Cookbook, read the stop bath section. http://www.ub.edu/artsgrafiques/sites/default/files/base%20de%20dades/fixat-r2.pdf

Water Stop bath is perfect, with it you may substract several seconds in the development for exactly the same effect, but's not necessary, you won't see a change.

Acid stop bath was benefical to protect the acid fixers that were popular in the past, but today we use mostly use neutral or alkaline rapid fixers, so the acid we transport to the fixer it is not benefical.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Well for this phase of testing, I am going to stay with the Kodak stop bath at 1:63 dilution. My next set of tests everything will be the same except will use water stop bath and see if there is a difference. So far I have not seen it hurt anything.

[Doremus Scudder]

Even alkaline fixers are buffered well enough to withstand the small carry-over of acid from the stop bath. Mix your stop bath as directed or a bit weaker and drain the print well before transferring to the fix and you'll have no problems. The capacity of the fixer will be reached well before the carried-over acid has any deleterious effect.

Kodak recommends a water rinse after the fix and before the Hypo Clearing Agent to achieve maximum capacity. If you don't rinse (I don't) the capacity is diminished (read the tech sheet/packet for exact numbers). I make my own wash aid from sodium sulfite and bisulfite in the appropriate volume for the batch I'm doing and transfer directly to the wash aid from the selenium-toning bath. The reduced capacity is no problem; the chemicals are cheap and my whole work flow gets reduced by two steps and I don't have to make room for two more trays.

Water stop baths work alright when they are fresh, but quickly become less effective with carried-over developer. The best would be to have a running water tray. Keep in mind that you need at least 60 seconds with agitation in fresh or running water if you use a water stop. Personally, I can't bother with changing out the tray or rigging up another running-water tray, not to mention spending the extra time. I use Kodak Indicator Stop at the recommended dilution for prints and about half-strength for film with PMK.

Best,

Doremus

[Drew Wiley]

Some papers and films tend to mottle using a plain water stop instead of acid stop. True thick-emulsion sheet films, which retained quite a bit of dev in the emulsion when entering the stop, no longer exist; but some emulsions are still thicker than others. Among papers, Ilford Classic and Cooltone mottle quite easily in plain water stop if you don't move especially quick to fully submerge the print and get water fully swished across the surface. I run into this issue because my personal amidol formula for cold print tones is actually acidic rather than alkaline; but it's economical to use, with wonderful results.

[Pere Casals]

Speaking only about film processing:




Some papers and films tend to mottle using a plain water stop instead of acid stop.

With film, I've never had a problem with water stop bath, with acid stop bath I had problems one or two times.




Even alkaline fixers are buffered well enough to withstand the small carry-over of acid from the stop bath.

OK, but protecting acid fixer from alkaline developer contamination is not a reason anymore to use an acid stop bath, if we use a neutral or an alkaline rapid fixer then transporting acid to the fixer has no sense.

Then, what reasons remain? Stopping development 10s sooner?


In a plain water water bath we use fresh water each time, while the stop bath accumulates developer and we end throwing that dirt plus some acid in the fixer. With water stop bath we may dump water (say) two times so we put clean film in the fixer.

I don't say that an acid stop is harmful, just I question: why ? what benefit ?

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I have tried both and have seen no difference in final results. I use fresh fixer and stop each session. If a lot of film in one session, I will replace when I replace developer during session.