Putting a piece of paper or cloth over a flash has little effect in "softening"
the light. Soft lighting requires a large light source. Light from a large
source strikes the object from many angles, reducing or eliminating shadows.
Some third-party flash diffusers have a large diffusing surfaces positioned
well in front of the flash tube. These are more likely to soften the light.
Silver recovery is not new; it's been going on for decades. When I got
seriously interested in photography over 35 years ago, you could buy filter
systems to reclaim most of the silver that would otherwise go down the drain.
Processing labs use electrolysis to recover silver from the fixing bath, which
also extends the bath's life.
Someone asked if B&W film was the only type of film that used silver. Color
film uses it, too. There are no chemicals as light-sensitive as the silver
halides. Believe me, chemists have been searching for many years. (I urge the
person who posted this question to learn something about photographic
chemistry. It won't make you a better photographer, but it's something any
serious photographer needs to know.)
I don't wear underwear, if for no other reason that, if I'm taken to an
emergency room, the doctors won't be able to complain that my underwear is
dirty.
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