Many times I get questions about “soaking” so I decided to make an article about it. First of all I want to warn everyone that I don’t give one’s word about the result and receipts - you have to remember about the risks and that you can destroy your film. I was lucky not to “ruin” none of my first rolls, but I successfully destroyed some of them when I thought I was experienced in soaking.
What is “soaking”?In the simplest terms it’s a chemical action to change the structure of the film/emulsion. All this can lead to color reorganization, stains , blotchiness and any other visual “turns”. Usually we influence with temperature or liquids. All this possible only because of “alive” structure of the film.
TEMPERATURE.
We all know keeping your film rolls in a fridge protects them from deteriorating. But what if we’ll try the other way around? The easiest way is to leave your film on a radiator. Because this is a very “soft” method you won’t see any result leaving your roll for an hour - fearlessly leave it for a month or more. Also you won’t get any hard destruction on your film: you can see some color changes in shadows, highlights and mid tones. ISO can go down but not so criminal.
Be careful with any other options to heat your film - it can cause damages of your roll.
Then you can try BOILING - I really love this method. You can get beautiful blotchiness with it’s own color so it enlarges your color palette. But watch out the time: I recommend star with seconds, not hours! If you like the result, you can increase the time in future.
LIQUIDS.
Here are the most “popular” ingredients: lemon juice, vinegar, washing powder, wine, beer, soda, salt, tea but you can try anything your fantasy allows. You don’t have to use only one from the list, all of them can mixed between each other but again... BE CAREFUL and start with “mild” proportions and short time. You must understand that there’s a huge difference if you soak in a full glass of vinegar or in a glass of water with a spoon of vinegar. All this ingredients you can soak about an hour for the first time. More - depends on you. Some of them can be left for days but I advice to start from an hour, shoot it, develop, see the result and feel the speed of “changes”.
I know people try “coffee” soaking but you need to be very very careful here, because it can develop your film (wine, by the way, too).
THE MOST HOT-BUTTON QUESTION:
Soak before or after shooting?
First of all, there’s no HUGE difference. I tried both options but saw no changes if I do it before or after. MAY BE your images lays on a film surface more “unique” because the structure is already changed, but truly - don’t know)
If you too afraid to “loose” your shots, you definitely should soak before. The main thing is to dry it completely. It will be difficult for those who can’t wait: film have to be left for 2 weeks or even a month. To speed up the process I use rice: it absorbs moisture. So I put my rolls in a rice and leave it near the radiator.
If you will use your film wet, it can be teared or you can damage your camera with water!
Of cause you can use a blowdryer (remove your film from a bobbin in a dark) but wet film can easily be damaged or scratched. And lots of dust too)
ALSO don’t forget to wash your film roll in a water after soaking.
All the soaked rolls even when they’re dry move on “a little bit” complicated in a film race. If you don’t like this feeling, so soak it after the shooting: specially when you already have your well-tried receipt. But still it must be dried before developing!!!!!!!! Wet film is very fragile.
