Another, in my series of stupid noob questions.

[Tim k]

Stupid, if you know the answer, but its making me nuts trying to figure this out.

Part 1,
I was just reading (well, watching u-tube) that you can expose a negative to light as soon as the developing stage is over, just as it goes into the stop bath. This was a video on using btzs tubes.

If this is true, is it also true when developing prints?

Part 2,
When I open my brand new package of paper (ilford rc) in the dark, how do I know what side is up? The only thing I can find was to lick your fingers and see what side sticks? really?

The good news is, that I am making a little progress.

Thanks guys

[Ash]

1.

I'd not recommend you allow anything light-sensitive to see light until during/after fix. With some papers it will fog. With film you might get uneven development. I usually take the top from daylight dev tanks after a few minutes of fix.


2.

You use a safelight

[photographs42]

I suppose you could but why would you want to? You have a large investment in time with those negatives. Why risk degrading them by turning the light on a minute or two sooner?

You will learn to “feel” the emulsion side of the paper. It has a different texture.

Jerome

[Glenn Thoreson]

Don't expose your film to light until it's been in the fixer for at least a minute. In the olden days, developing was done by inspection using a dim dark green or red safelight. It takes a lot of experience to do that and you only have a few seconds to do it. With modern films and methods it's not only hazardous to your film, it's totally unnecessary. Under a safelight, RC paper has a distinctive mottled look on the emulsion side. The sticky finger test works, too. After a while, you'll get used to seeing it. Once you figure out which side is up you can mark the package so you know.

[Vaughn]

1. What Ash wrote.

2. Some RC surfaces are difficult to visually see the difference between front and back. Do the wet finger test...noting how the paper was orientated in the bag you took it out of. All the sheets will be orientated the same way (judge by the way the flap of the bag opens.)

Once you know which surface is which, another test is running your dry finger lightly over the surface of the paper. I know that the "N" surface of Kodak's RA4 paper (RC) will make a slightly different note than the other non-emulsion side (a slightly higher note if my memory serves me.). Won't work if you have music blasting away!

Vaughn

[Ole Tjugen]

1: Within certain limits, yes you can. As long as the light it's exposed to is very weak compared to the exposures in the deepest shadows (thinnest parts), both negatives and prints can take surprisingly much light before fixing. If you've been sitting in safelights/nolights for the better part of an hour, your eyes will be a lot more sensitive than any film yet made.

2: They just look different. Also the paper tends to be packed paper side out, so that it curls opposite in the middle of the pack. The "inside" is the emulsion side.

[SAShruby]

2. RC paper curls inwards on emulsion side. Same for FB.

Added: I guess Ole was faster than me.

[sanking]

In BTZS workshops taught by Phil Davis it was common practice to remove the caps from the tubes in room light, and plop them directly into the stop bath. This results in exposure of a few seconds. I have done this myself numerous times without any damage to the negative in terms of extra fog. In fact, it is my standard operating procedure for developing negatives in BTZS type tubes.

But please note the operating principles. Room light, and only a few seconds of exposure to room light.

Sandy King

[jeroldharter]

I use 4x5 BTZS tubes. when I open the tube to dump developer, I have a dim safelight on. I place the open tube into a tray of stop bath and give it a few spins and then leave the open end adjacent to the edge of the tray so it gets minimal light. In theory, I could use room light but sometimes the open tube sits in the tray for several minutes while the other tubes finish development so I use a safelight which is adequate.

When all tubes are in the stop bath, I pull the sheets of film out with safelight on and place each sheet into a slosher tray of fixer and then turn on the room lights. Have never had any problems with fogging which can be confirmed by densitometer.

[Jim Galli]

I'm surprised at what I'm seeing here. Just because you've poured off the developer doesn't mean it's all gone or that developing has stopped. If you flip lights on you are adding exposure with developer still present in some diminished form. I usually do not consider myself conservative but, I wouldn't do it. Once the stop bath has completely eliminated developer it is OK, but I still prefer to count to about 30 after it is in the fixer before the lights go on.

For finding the emulsion side of film in the dark, when the tall part of the film is going up and down the notch is on the right side. For paper you have to learn to 'see' the emulsion side with the dark light on.