How long does a Photograph last ? Some of the first ever made have held up perfectly, their images as durable as if they had been carved in stone. For Black and white Photos, archival processing is not very different from customary method of developing, fixing and washing. It basically an extension of the ordinary procedures, involving a few extra steps.
During development, those grains of silver salts that have been exposed to light are reduced to black metallic silver, which forms the image; but unexposed grains are reduced and remain in silver form of a silver compound.
When these silver-fixer complexes decompose they produce a brown-yellow compound may discolor the entire print. Archival processing includes procedures that eliminate the traces of residual chemical that washing alone cannot entirely remove.
I Hand Tone all of my Black and White Photo Art the Classic way. There are several reasons for toning a black and white print: to make the photograph more permanent; I love to use BERG BROWN/COPPER Toning Solution is a single bath solution used for toning black and white prints or films, having no offensive odor. The tonal range is very long, giving initially a warming effect, then a brown tone, followed by a sepia and flesh, and finally a deep metallic copper tone. The actual tone produced depends on the length of time of toning and the photographic material.
Color Photo Art born inside a Camera the Classic way.