Washing for permanence: five, ten, twenty and the fibre-print sequence

Washing is the step everyone rushes and nobody photographs. Ilford's short technical note on washing with less water is also the clearest statement of what the wash is for and how little of it a film needs when the chemistry is right.

What the water is removing

Washing removes the residual chemicals of processing; in particular, thiosulphate from the fixer, which can cause long-term image degradation if it is not effectively removed ¹. Ilford's method assumes its own non-hardening fixers, Hypam or Rapid Fixer; a hardening fixer can significantly increase the wash time needed ¹.

Film: five, ten, twenty

For spiral tanks Ilford gives a method it calls well tested ¹. After fixing, fill the tank with water at the processing temperature, within 5 °C either way, and invert it five times. Drain, refill and invert it ten times. Drain, refill and invert it twenty times, then drain ¹. Finish with a rinse containing a few drops of Ilfotol wetting agent at 1:200 ¹. Three tankfuls of water, a few minutes, and the film is washed.

Paper: the fast and the slow

Resin-coated paper is the easiest to wash because its polythene coating waterproofs the paper base: in a dish, a minimum of 30 seconds in vigorous fresh running water, or 15 seconds with agitation in each of three trays of still water ¹. And Ilford warns against overdoing it: water creeping in at the edges can eventually swell and damage the print ¹.

Fibre-based paper absorbs processing solutions into the base and needs much more. Ilford's sequence for dish-processed fibre prints, for optimum permanence, is: fix in Rapid Fixer or Hypam at 1+4 for one minute; wash 5 minutes in fresh running water; 10 minutes in Washaid at 1+4 with intermittent agitation; and a final 5-minute running wash ¹. An archival washer with separate slots for each print increases the wash efficiency further ¹.

Try it

Time your next film wash with the five-ten-twenty method and compare the water you use with a running-tap wash. For fibre prints, try the Washaid sequence once with a timer so the steps become habit.