Film developing in the context of "Latent image"

A contact print is a photographic image produced from film; sometimes from a film negative, and sometimes from a film positive or paper negative. In a darkroom an exposed and developed piece of film or photographic paper is placed emulsion side down, in contact with a piece of photographic paper, light is briefly shone through the negative or paper and then the paper is developed to reveal the final print.

The defining characteristic of a contact print is that the resulting print is the same size as the original, rather than having been projected through an enlarger.

Film stock is a type of photographic film that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector.

Photographic film consists of a long strip of transparent plastic film base, coated on one side with a photographic emulsion: a mixture of gelatin and microscopic light-sensitive silver halide crystals. A very short exposure is made, producing an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph.

Instant film is a type of photographic film that was introduced by Polaroid Corporation to produce a visible image within minutes or seconds of the photograph's exposure. The film contains the chemicals needed for developing and fixing the photograph, and the camera exposes and initiates the developing process after a photo has been taken.

In earlier Polaroid instant cameras the film is pulled through rollers, breaking open a pod containing a reagent that is spread between the exposed negative and receiving positive sheet. This film sandwich develops for some time after which the positive sheet is peeled away from the negative to reveal the developed photo. In 1972, Polaroid introduced integral film, which incorporated timing and receiving layers to automatically develop and fix the photo without any intervention from the photographer.

A minilab is a small photographic developing and printing system or machine, as opposed to large centralized photo developing labs. Many retail stores use film or digital minilabs to provide on-site photo finishing services.

With the increase in popularity of digital photography, the demand for film development has decreased. This means that the larger labs capable of processing 30,000-40,000 films a day are going out of business, and more retailers are installing minilabs.

Bleach bypass, also known as skip bleach or silver retention, is a modification of traditional film processing that is used to achieve muted colors but rich blacks. It generally involves the weakened or partial omission of the bleaching function during the last stage of processing of color film. By doing this, the silver crystals that produce an image in photochemical film stocks are retained in the emulsion alongside the color dyes. This effectively results in a black-and-white image superimposed on the three color separations unified by the final print of color film stock. Film printed in this way usually have reduced saturation and exposure latitude, along with increased contrast and more prominent grain. It usually is used to maximum effect in conjunction with a one-stop underexposure.