Do you Pre-wash your film?

Do you Pre-wash your film?

  • Yes

    Votes: 233 42.5%

  • No

    Votes: 261 47.6%

  • What's a pre-wash?

    Votes: 54 9.9%
  • Total voters
    548
Tom A said:
The anti-halation layer should not affect the developing process (it is on the "back" of the film) and with stand and semi-stand developing you leave the film in it long enough anyway.
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The anti-halation layer is on both sides of the film for 120 rolls, hence the interest of pre-washing for 120 only.

The real interest of prewashing here resides in that you won't fill your stop bath bottle (because stop bath is being re-used for dozens of rolls) with that pesky dark purple-blue juice.

Other than that...

But for - maybe - making the ACROS film less prone to develop those infamous "white spots" with developers containing genol.

So, to sum it up :

- sort of interesting with 120
- of no real interest with 135.
 
PKR said:
In doing some recent processing I found Fuji asking for hardner in the fixer for Acros 100 processing. Fuji chemicals aren't sold here in California. I called Fuji and spoke to a chemist and asked how much hardner to add (using Kodak Rapid Fix w/seprtate hardner) he told me he didn't know. So I used about 1/4 of the amount given for a Gal. of solution. Your post has me thinking. I didn't think about tap water much higher than 20c. What kind of chemicals and film do you use? p.
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I shoot a lot of ACROS in 135 format and for the last several years I've used exclusively Formulary TF-4 and TF-5 to fix ACROS And 2TMY. Neither TF-4 nor TF-5 contains hardener, and neither one requires a stop bath. I have not had problems attributable to the lack of a hardener.

Formulary states that most modern films have a built-in hardener. Given that, and given my own experiences, I would be surprised if ACROS required a hardening fix.
 
I started working in labs almost 50 years ago, and never heard of pre-washing until I came here a few years ago. It used to be that everyone knew that there were two things that would tear your quality--grain size and texture, both--to pieces. One was temperature fluctuations, the other excessive wet time. Now I hardly hear anyone talking about keeping everything within a degree or so, and people seem to be into these developers with one hour developing times (which I tried, and hated the look of).
 
mdarnton said:
I started working in labs almost 50 years ago, and never heard of pre-washing until I came here a few years ago. It used to be that everyone knew that there were two things that would tear your quality--grain size and texture, both--to pieces. One was temperature fluctuations, the other excessive wet time. Now I hardly hear anyone talking about keeping everything within a degree or so, and people seem to be into these developers with one hour developing times (which I tried, and hated the look of).
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Not only that. Apparently, according to the Pro-stand developers, temperature is irrelevant and the ISO too. Rate your film at any speed, change speeds anywhere in the roll from iso 50 to iso 3200 and Rodinal will take care of it all. One gentle turn somewhere at half-time will do the trick.

These new internet Gurus, sadly, have no clue.
 
I don't. I'm fairly vanilla in my development techniques, I just follow the instructions. I think I recall a C41 kit I used suggested a pre-wash, so I did.
 
My Father taught me how to process film and he always pre heated the film with water at the same temp as the developer, now we lived in the North of England and it was bloody cold in the winter. I have been using the same system for 35 years, never had any sign of bubbles, I rap the tank twice after three inversions and twice again after a minute or so.
When I went onto roll film, I got a huge shock the first time, as a purple coloured water came out.
Quite obviously the initial agitation of the developer will dilute the small amount of water, that remains on the film surface in the tank from the pre wash.
Everything reacts to heat and cold, so expansion and or contraction of the emulsion will take place, however small, so when a fluid of a different temperature comes in contact with it the obvious happens.
The other side of this method is that if the film and the tank holding it, are colder than the liquid developer, they will both reduce the temperature of the developer once it is introduced into the tank and in turn alter the developing time by you needing to increase it.
Just my thoughts and they have never failed me.
 
However "controversial" pre-washing may be, it is up to each of us to determine the methods that work best for us. If you don't notice the effect that using a pre-wash vs. not using one has on your results, well, you're probably not paying enough attention to your progress.
 
I pre wash. When I don't, my output is inconsistent. When I do, I usually get just what I expected. It helps to work with a single film and learn its characteristics.

When pre-washing, I feel the film is doing two things, releasing unnecessary soft material (this comes out as purple, and I'm not sure what it is), and opening up the "pores" at the right temperature, ready for that magical dev soup.
 
Prewashing does impact film

Prewashing does impact film

Yes, pre-wash (pre- wet) does in fact impact the overall look of your image. a pre-wash will allow for the developer to initially impact the entire area of film more equally, thus providing a greater tonal range, and yes, reduce grain size. In the grand scheme of things this impact seems quite miniscule (it isn't some fantastic adjustment), but in conjunction with managing your temperature, time and ratios each adjustment will give the film an extra nudge thus adding up to a noticeable difference in the final image. Others may consider this negligible or simply not the case, but in my countless hours of testing a particular film (FP4) I have been able to isolate the impact of pre-wetting and find it a valuable technique in my process. I must re-iterate testing. Regardless of what developer or film is being used time consuming consistent testing is the key.
 
I pre-wash Fomapan film in 4x5 when drum developing. I was having an issue with pinholes in the emulsion (I already use water instead of a stop bath) and pre-washing seems to have mitigated the problem.
 
I have got more consistent quality and better film when pre-wash and nowadays i always pre-wash about 5min on start of a developing turn. For me it has helped, cant say if its working for somebody else.
 
I do almost all my developing nowadays using Pyrocat HD, and I pre-wash, because I'm dealing with long developing times and very (sometimes extremely) dilute developers, because I also sometimes do semi-stand/extreme minimal agitation development.
 
I do it since I learned it once like that and I am not sufficiently interested to test if it makes a difference.

Some things turn into habit. For example, I do not rewind film into the cassette but leave the last centimeters hanging out and rip an end off, so it is clearly marked as used.
 
I sometimes do with 135. I always do with 120, I don't know why. I think it's because I love the dark water that comes off of 120 film. Who knows.
 
I didn't vote as it depends on what film/developer I am using.

I prewash when using C41, Caffenol CL or Pyrocat HD.

I do not prewash when using most other developers but especially when using Pyrocat HDC as a 2 bath developer as I want the emulsion to become fully loaded with the part A prior to the introduction of the part B developer. I also add a few drops of wetting agent to Solution A to ensure the emulsion gets suitably wetted with the introduction of the solution.
 
I wasn't taught to pre-wash when I started developing roll film 60 years ago and I've seen no reason to change. When I worked in a high school darkroom our lineup of tanks for sheet film began with a plain water pre-wash.
 
When I pre wash the water is blue, but when I do not pre wash the discarded developer is clear. If the developer did something to the blue tint then it was meant to, right? Therefore I don't want to mess with what was intended.
 
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