Stop bath

Stop bath is a chemical bath usually used in processing traditional black-and-white photographic films, plates, and paper used after the material has finished developing. The purpose of the stop bath is to halt the development of the film, plate, or paper by either washing off the developing chemical or neutralizing it. With the former, a simple water rinse can be used between developer and fixer, but the development process continues (though possibly at a very low level) for an indefinite and uncontrolled period of time during the rinsing.