What is the role of chemistry in photography, what are the chemical processes involved?

Question

Also does anyone know what are the environmental impacts of photography? Any websites that provide this information would be alot of help!

Answer 1

The fundamental chemistry is the sensitization of silver halides (AgCl, AgBr, AgI) by light, which prepares them for reduction to black silver metal by a developer. A typical developer/reducing agent is p-aminophenol, H2N-C6H4-OH. In black-and-white photography, whether negatives or print paper, the reduction (or not) of silver halide produces black and white areas and all shades of gray. A white area on a negative lets light go through to expose the print paper, while a black area does not. So black in a negative gives white on a print and vice versa. Many people print digital photos out on paper, so in that way, digital uses the same chemistry.

After development, the technician "fixes" the image by adding sodium thiosulfate solution, Na2S2O3. This dissolves unexposed silver, so the unwanted silver does not darken and ruin the print or negative with time. Na2S2O3 was once called sodium hyposulfite, so photographers still nickname it "hypo."

In color photography, the process is surprisingly similar. There are three dyes called yellow, magenta (a red), and cyan (a blue). Exposing and reducing silver halides to silver metal in the different dye layers causes each dye to show through (or not).

Spent developer solutions could cause environmental problems if dumped into lakes and streams. The silver is valuable, however, and photo labs send spent solutions to recovery centers.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Outside of the composition of the picture, photography is all chemistry. This statement excludes digital photography from the discussion for nit pickers like me.

The various processes are the sensitization of the film emulsion through exposure to light, the enhancement of the sensitization (developing) which makes the chemical changes visible to the eye, stopping of the developing process and finally the stabilization of the exposed emulsion. The environmental effects are those created by any man-made chemical process, toxins have been created and need to be disposed of.

For detailed websites dealing with the photographic process, try Kodak, Fujifilm and Agfa. I don't know their exact websites but a search will find them. For environmental impact try Greenpeace and Pollution Probe. Same need to search for the website, but you can do that.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

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