Does anyone know what happens if I develop colour photographic paper (c type) in black and white developer? Will I get an image?
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\$\begingroup\$ Why do you want to know ? Color negative or B&W ? There used to be a paper made for printing color negs on B&W paper and developed in B&W chemistry for a B&W print. Part of the fun of darkroom work is experimenting to see what happens. TRY IT. Conversely: If you are interested in alternative darkroom printing, You can get "color" in a silver gelatin ( black and white ) paper developed in highly diluted lithography chemicals. Research Lith Printing. Only certain papers are compatible and the color is more of an overall tone. ( but not always ) \$\endgroup\$– Alaska ManJun 22, 2019 at 17:36
1 Answer
If you develop colour RA4 paper in black and white chemistry, you will get a faint black and white image, but it will appear very bright and with a very low contrast.
Colour paper also contains a small amount of silver, which will react just as the silver in black and white paper when developed in b&w chemicals, but not enough to create proper, dense blacks. The silver in colour paper is only intended to react with the colour couplers to form dyes during development and is, if processed in colour chemistry, washed out of the paper during the bleach step.