sodium thiosulphate

Definition: Salt of sodium used as fixing agent i.e. to react with undeveloped silver halide to form water-soluble compounds. * Slower acting than ammonium thiosulphate but preferred in some applications. * Also known as hypo. And that's the problem with digital It doesn't smell (unless you count the warm dust off the monitor). No, my hands are up: I do miss the smells of the dark-room, dominated always by the odour of hypo: neither pleasant nor unpleasant, it merely said 'This is photography' and did so from Day One, hence its almost numinous quality. And do you remember that sound of running water as it sloshes over the cascade caressing your prints round and round? STOP me, I could go on.

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