>>3874161>i've never heard these and always figured both were close to instant.I mean the majority of the "stoppage", is even quicker. Those times are to stop development to pretty much negligible and untraceable levels.
>i want to try C-41 or ECN-2 one of these daysYeah give it a go, they're fun and even if you don't keep times and temps to the t, you'll get good results.
>>3874176>Then we disagreeWe'll agree to disagree then.
I can't see how any base-acid reaction in the *developing agents* could be the reason.
The developing agents themselves are usually neutral or acidic (hydroquinone, ascorbic acid, etc.).
The base that increases the solution pH acts as activator/accelerator for the dev agent.
It goes like this:
The hydroxyl group (OH-) "steals" a hydrogen cation (H+) from the dev agent, say D, turning it into "D-". Now the dev agent has an extra electron, so it can much more readily "donate" some electrons to the silver halide (Ag+Br-), to reduce it to metallic silver (Ag), while the dev agent gets oxidised (gains an O-- atom, becoming D++O--), and some waste products are formed (H+Br-).
What I'm saying is, you don't neutralise the dev agent with an acid-base reaction, you neutralise the accelerator.
The accelerator can be neutralised by dropping acid on it (stop bath), *or* by diluting it drastically (water bath), dropping the pH close to 7 - or lower, with a stop bath.
They both have the same effect, as even a neutral or very slightly alkaline pH virtually stops all developer reaction for all practical purposes, bringing its speed to a crawl.
One works a bit faster than the other, that's all.
>Water works to stop development in the sense that development will eventually stop from the remaining traces of developer becoming exhaustedNah that would be compensating development achieved in some niche techniques with water baths by immersion in big, open tanks and no agitation.
Water in a normal daylight tank stops development by dropping the pH.
