Darkroom Tip: Wash Smarter, Not Longer

Running a tap over your tank for half an hour works, but it's wasteful and no more archival than the Ilford wash sequence: after fixing, fill the tank and invert 5 times, dump; refill and invert 10 times, dump; refill and invert 20 times, done. Diffusion does the work — each fill pulls residual fixer out of the emulsion.

Use water at the same temperature as your process (see: reticulation), and follow with your distilled-water wetting-agent rinse.

Set Analogly's Dev Timer wash phase and count inversions instead of minutes — your negatives, your water bill, and your patience all win.