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Thursday 1 March 2012

What is in a Photographic Paper?


Photographs are symbol of your beautiful past moments. With photographs, you capture them and revert to your old days. An image printed on a photographic paper depicts your memories and makes them memorable. A photographic paper is generally coated with light-sensitive chemical and is used to make photographic prints. All photographic paper contain a light-sensitive emulsion of silver halide salts. There are three types of photographic papers that are used for negative-positive processes, positive-positive processes and positive-positive film-to-paper processes. Black-and-white papers and colour papers are the two types of photographic paper.

Resin-coated papers and fibre-based papers are the two types of black-and-white photo paper. The fibre-based papers are coated with an inorganic compound called baryta. Gelatin-silver process is used to develop the photographic papers and to create a visible image. Selenium, gold and sulphide are commonly used toners that are used to convert the metallic silver into more stable compounds. An image printed on a fibre-based paper remains unfaded for at least fifty years. The processing, display and storage conditions are the major factors that affect the longevity of any photographic print media. Chloride papers were used in the past for the photography purpose. Now-a-days, chlorobromide papers are used as they produce neutral image tone.