What happens to silver bromide during fixing?

• A. Unexposed silver bromide is removed
• B. Exposed silver bromide is changed into metallic silver
• C. Silver bromide is dyed black
• D. Silver bromide is converted to chlorine

Answer: (A)

During fixing, the goal is to make the image permanent by removing the silver halide that did not contribute to the image. The fixer dissolves unexposed silver bromide crystals in the emulsion, so those unexposed grains are washed away. The grains that were exposed have already been reduced to metallic silver during development and remain in the image; fixing doesn’t convert these exposed grains to metal—that happened earlier. There’s no dyeing or conversion to chlorine involved. So the correct idea is that unexposed silver bromide is removed.