Bleach bypass, also known as
skip bleach or
silver retention, is an
optical effect which entails either the partial or complete skipping of the
bleaching function during the
processing of a color film. By doing this, the
silver is retained in the emulsion along with the color dyes. The result is a black-and-white image over a color image. The images usually have reduced
saturation and
exposure latitude, along with increased contrast and graininess. It usually is used to maximum effect in conjunction with a
one-stop underexposure.