What will the appearance of a film be if submerged entirely in the developer but not in the fixer?

When a film is submerged entirely in the developer but not in the fixer, the resulting appearance can be understood through the processes of film development. The developing solution acts to convert the exposed silver halide crystals on the film into black metallic silver, resulting in darkening where the film was exposed to light.

In this scenario, since the film was not fixed, it means that the unexposed silver halide crystals have not been removed. The developer will turn the exposed areas dark, while the unexposed areas will remain unaffected, creating a situation where darkening occurs only on the portion of the film that was developed. This can lead to an appearance where there is a straight line indicating the separation between the developed (dark) and undeveloped (light) areas. The result is typically a film that is dark at the top (the part submerged in developer) and lighter or even clear at the bottom, where it did not receive the same treatment.

This profile reflects the effectiveness of the developer in processing only the exposed regions of the film, while the fixer plays a crucial role in stabilizing the developed image, which is absent in this case.