Film Developing: Cleaning Trays

Video Transcript

"This is a chemical called Tray Cleaning Solution and really it's very important after a while to clean your trays and your darkroom. At least once a month I try to have a maintenance day where I really clean it out. This is an Edwol product, single solution tray cleaner. There's also another way around it where you can use either vinegar, or Stop Bath. Essentially what these are, they're neutralizing agents being that any kind of, they call it tar that builds up in your tray, the acidity in that is actually going to neutralize it and wipe it down. One lab that I worked in for many years, at least once a week we have to clean all the trays with essentially vinegar and water and it really, at first nobody wanted to do it. It was not a pleasant job but once I noticed how clean our prints were, how clean the darkroom itself was, we never had to go back and remake a print because of contamination. So again, it's back to the discipline and the taking the time to doing these things right, where it really was, it saved you money and it saved you time and it made just being in the darkroom a lot, just a lot better experience than being in a dirty darkroom."