Process for bleach-fixing color photographic silver halide material

摘要

The process of avoiding color-fog in bleach-fixed color photographic materials and also reducing the silver content in the effluent from the bleach-fix solution by flowing the solution countercurrent to the direction of movement of the developed photographic material through at least two separate zones in the bleach-fix operation. The bleach-fix solution is introduced into the bleach-fix operation at a zone where it has high oxidizing power and acts to bleach the developed material which has previously had a greater percentage of the silver removed in a first step. The solution is then passed to the first stage where its oxidation value is diminished by lowering the pH or adding reducing agents and wherein the oxidizing agent effects a removal of a greater amount of silver than occurs in the subsequent stage.