Emulsion side up or down?

[Noah B]

What do you all prefer? I usually process emulsion side down, and some scratches or specs come on my film from time to time. What are the benefits of each and does it really matter?

[Bill Burk]

I process emulsion up because I use infrared and the image "appears" sooner. I do get minor scratches despite care.

(When I process several sheets at a time in 5x7 tray with no slosher tray).

Processing emulsion up leaves the emulsion vulnerable to the corner scratches as you shuffle sheets. The corners of the sheet stack is like two razor blades. Drawing the bottom sheet out from the stack you always pass the corners and if you don't ensure liquid separation from those two corners every single time, you can get nicked.

So emulsion down should be better.

[Heroique]

When you’re developing sheets in a tray, I’ve noticed pros and cons w/ either method, and preferences seem to go both ways.

For example, in The Negative, Ansel Adams is an “emulsion-up” man:

“Take the films to be developed, emulsion side up, gently fan them so each can be individually handled (hold them only by the edges). You can then place them one by one in a water bath, pressing each down under the surface.”

Now, if you agitate by moving sheets, one by one, from the bottom of the stack, and placing them on top, the sheet you’re moving seems to run a risk of being scratched by the sharp corner of the sheet on top of it, as you’re pulling the bottom one out-and-away. Just as Bill says above.

In Using the View Camera, author Steve Simmons seems to be an “emulsion-down” man:

“Set your timer for the longest development time required, and move the first sheet of film into the developer tray putting the emulsion side down [emphasis by author]. This is to avoid scratching the emulsion side of the film during the agitation process.”

However, it seems to me that a sheet with emulsion side down might suffer damage from the bottom of the tray – or perhaps from one’s finger-nails or finger-tips, as one places them under the sheet to be lifted…

Different strokes!

[Louie Powell]

I process using a slosher insert in an open tray. The slosher keeps the sheets separated so that they never touch each other. I always process them emulsion-side up so that if there are any scratches caused by the film touching the bottom of the slosher, they will be on the back of the sheet and not in the emulsion.

An advantage of a slosher is that once the sheets are placed in the individual cells of the slosher, they remain there until the film has been processed and washed. Normally, the only time I actually pick up a sheet is when I am hanging it to dry, and since that is done with the lights on, there is much less risk of inadvertently scratching a sheet in the process.

The one exception is that if I have a few sheets that require N- processing, I have to transfer them from the slosher to a tray of water in the dark while the slosher is still in the developer. I always wear rubber gloves to prevent damage from fingernails, but that's still a tedious transfer.

[Doremus Scudder]

Emulsion-side up for me. I develop 4x5 film, nothing larger.

I've tried both. I learned from Adams' "The Negative" and had fine luck for a long time after the learning period. After reading Simmons' book, I decided his logic was good and switched to emulsion-side down for a while.

While it may be a tad bit safer emulsion-side down, there are other considerations. I was unable to find trays that allowed me to get my fingers under the stack that did not leave development artifacts on the negs. The problem was the grooves/ridges on the tray bottom. I've got several days' worth of ruined negatives with dense areas that line up with the grooves in the bottom of the Paterson trays. I tried other trays with ridges and got dense areas where the ridges were. My negs seem to stick to the bottom of flat-bottom trays, so I switched back to emulsion-side up. I tend to like the Paterson trays with deep grooves so I can easily get a finger under the stack.

Keep in mind that any sharp places on the bottom of a tray can scratch a negative when developing emulsion-side down. I got of few of those along the way as well.

As far as preventing scratches go, well, I'm down to a very, very low rate of scratching. With soft-emulsion films like the old BPF an probably Efke, Foma, etc. you have to be really careful. I always lift the other sheets away from the bottom sheet and then lift and drop the bottom sheet to get developer between it and the other sheets before pulling it out. Keep the stack aligned and pull the bottom sheet straight out. Slide it out horizontally and don't lift it till it has cleared or almost cleared the other sheets. That will help you avoid one cause of corner scratching.

The other cause is not being careful when immersing of the sheet. Don't put them in corner first, or the corner will certainly scratch the neg below it. I like to lay them flat on the developer surface and then gently and slowly sink one side with the balls of my fingers. I then guide it down to sit on the negative directly below, trying to keep them as aligned as possible. Don't get them crossed up, or you'll scratch one.

Hardened-emulsion films like Kodak and Ilford are less susceptible to scratches. I'm now using only those and it's been several hundred negatives now since I've had a scratch, but there's always the chance...

Best,

Doremus

[Bill Burk]

And an additional tip, if you see what looks like a speck of dust clinging to your neg as you wash it don't try to rub it off...

(That's what emulsion scratches look like under water and you will just make it worse) I did that yesterday.

[mdm]

I have tried up and down. Up I get more scratches and sometimes uneven development from the sheet floating and the emulsion not getting wetted someplace immediately. Down works best for me except if you are not fast to remove the first sheet from the bottom of the stack you can get uneven stain with pyrocat. I am going to start using a sacrificial sheet first. I also use fairly warm pyrocat 2:2:100 to prevent glove/finger marks and minimise handling by reducing development time. I use an IR scope thing nowdays and develop by inspection, judging by the base side of the sheet. Pyrocat seems much harder than D23 but is doable. I like to see what is going on. 5x7 for me. I do 4x5 with the taco method and semi-standing pyrocat.

[Leigh]

I do emulsion down for both 4x5 and 8x10.

There seems to be less risk of damage when you pull the bottom sheet out to shuffle the stack.

When you pull out the bottom sheet you raise one end of the stack slightly.

That way the trailing edge of the film is the only part in contact with the tray bottom,
and the back of the film rides along the edge of the sheet above it.

I use the Cesco trays with dimpled bottoms, so only a very small percentage
of the bottom film surface actually contacts anything.

- Leigh

[Maris Rusis]

When doing shuffle development of 4x5 sheet film I always have it emulsion side up but I don't use trays.

I use my glass salad bowls, the ones that look almost hemispherical. The advantage here is that only the film corners touch the bowl, there's lots of developer under the film, and the wide gaps at the edges of the film give plenty of finger space to pull that bottom sheet to the top.

[Scott Walker]

I always developed emulsion up when shuffeling. I have recently changed to a new process.


I don't think this method was mentioned. Explained to me by a fellow photographer.
For 8x10 sheet film, use 4, 8x10 trays with adequate chemistry to cover the film.
Put 1 sheet of film in each tray emulsion side up and agitate by rocking the trays.
Use a 16x20 tray for stop & another for fix.

Seems so simple I am going to give it a try.


Ok, so I tried it.....

Wow! What an excellent stress free way of developing film, I can't believe I have been going about this the hard way for so many years.

I have always shuffled a stack of up to 6 sheets of film and as it has been pointed out technique is critical. if you lose focus in the first two minutes when shuffling you might as well just turn the lights on. I have had excellent results shuffling but there is still the odd occasion when the results are not perfect. One other downfall of shuffling is that if you have 5 negs that require normal development and 1 that requires +1 development you have to do it in 2 batches because searching through the stack to find 1 or 2 sheets that need to stay in the developer longer is not easy.

Yesterday afternoon I developed 4 batches of 4 sheets using 4 trays of developer and I still can't get over how easy it was. Agitation was virtually identical for all the film and the results were perfect. I had 1 holder with FP4 on one side and HP5 on the other. I developed the single sheet of FP4 with 3 sheets of HP5 and after 11 minutes I pulled the FP4 out of the bottom right tray and put it into the stop, at minute 12 I moved the neg from stop to fix and then at minute 13 I took the remaining 3 sheets out of the developer and put them into the stop. Could it be any easier? I also had some +1 and some -1 sheets to develop, again dead simple to develop them together. I use an audible timer that tells me when each minute is up (at each minute you hear 1 minute, 2 minutes, and so on) along with a metronome so I can agitate at precise intervals. This worked very well for shuffling and seems to be even better for the multiple tray method.

Ok enough rambling, I'm just kinda geeked about finding out about this method of tray developing my film. :D

[Andrew O'Neill]

Emulsion side up or down, you still run the risk of scratching when using the shuffle method. You took the time to expose each sheet of film, so why not develop one sheet at a time? Time consuming, but it's the best way. Multiple trays of developer is a great way when you do have several sheets to process. In the past I did up to 6 sheets/6 trays, and that was in my tiny darkroom in Japan.

[mdm]

Thats a very good idea Maris, thanks for that. I will sacrifice a bowl and try it in a minute.

[Drew Wiley]

Always emulsion down.

[Jay DeFehr]

I am very tray-averse, and the only way I'll use them is one sheet at a time, with brush agitation -- emulsion-up, obviously. If my 8x10 slot tanks work as well as my 4x5 tanks do, I'll switch to slot tank development for all sheets. In the meantime, it's one-at-a-time, emulsion-up, with the brush for 8x10.

[turtle]

Multiple trays increases the amount of developer you need to mix up, however. I guess you could run more negs through each tray in successive batches.