[to MAKE BAD NEGATIVES [ INTO GOOD Elementary Lessons for Beginners in Photography simply ro,d - WELLINGTON Coated with the Ideal “Wellington” Emulsions. Speed Nos. H.&D. Watkins Wynne's SPEEDY - 250 220 f90 ISO SPEEDY - - 225 200 f78 LANDSCAPE - . 125 100 f64 ORTHO PROCESS - 80 05 f47 For latitude in printing WELLINGTON Wellington and Ward, Photographic Material Manufacturers, Elstree, Herts. The “ Queen ” of Gaslight Papers. Ten grades for soft, normal and plucky negatives. BARNET QRTHO CHR0M,TIC Jgr/W Gr-cen Sensitive II I So Easy to Use. ^If you use the BARNET ORTHO PLATES you won’t get Bad Negatives. £ ' | -plates 1/- per doz.— of all dealers. Sole Manufacturers, ELLIOTT & SONS, Ld. , Barnet, Herts. TO MAKE BAD NEGATIVES INTO GOOD ELEMENTARY LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS IN PHO- TOGRAPHY SIMPLY TOLD BY A. HORSLEY HINTON EDITOR OF “ THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER LONDON HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld. 52 LONG ACRE, W.C. AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co., Ld. “ Planastigmat.” The lens for alhround work and perfect pictures* Every lens carries a full guarantee of perfect optical quali- ties* Its freedom from spherical aberration renders it an ideal lens for Telephoto and Architectural work* Let us send you one on trial* J-plate 5/4-plate 6x4 4f" focus. 5|" focus 6" focus. 60 /- 68 /- 76 /- 7x5 9 X 7 7" focus. 9!" focus. 90 /- 150 /- ALL SIZES TO 20 x 15 IN STOCK. Full Particulars from A. E. STALEY & Co., 19, Thavies Inn, Holborn Circus, LONDON, E.C. INTRODUCTION The Little Books on photography of which this is one are the outcome of “ The Practical Lessons for Beginners” which have appeared every week since July, 1904, in The Amateur Photo- grapher, and are still continuing. The unparalleled expression of appreciation with which these “ Lessons ” have met leaves little room for doubt that there are very many who would find such plain talks on every-day photographic practice useful in book form. To merely reprint the “ Lessons ” from The Amateur Photographer would hardly have been sufficient, and the subjects dealt with, therefore, have been en- tirely re-written. A. H. H. 5 GfiQ Amateur PHotograpHer Is Ivithout doubt the journal you need . This “LITTLE BOOJi” is largely reprinted from articles in “ The Jlmateur Photographer. ” You Ivill find similar articles by the Editor appearing Iveek by Iveek. There is , besides, much to interest you, for, in addition to the PKHCTIOZL LESSONS fok BEGINNERS, the Editor Ivill criticise your photographs and anslver your questions, free of charge . You Ivill find eberything you can Ivant in the paper. Competitions, Pi izes, many Illustrations, and good Printing on 3lrt Paper. Ebery Newsagent or 'Rail Iv ay Bookstall Ivill supply it. Send a postcard for a FREE SPECIMEN COPY to 31, Long Jlcre, London, W. C . TO MAKE BAD NEGATIVES INTO GOOD ♦ It is all very well for people to say that prevention is better than cure, and in another of these Little Books I have told you how to prevent getting bad negatives ; but having got them, you want to improve them, don’t you ? and there is really no reason why you should not, especially as out of a batch of negatives the best are nearly always the least important subjects, and the bad ones the very things you value most. Now I want you to make me a pro- mise — to enter into a compact with me — that if I make it quite clear how you can convert your bad negatives into good ones, you will not do any more prints from the bad negatives until you have had a good try to im- prove them. Is it a bargain ? Very well, then, it’s “ up to me,” as our friends in America say, to explain the matter in such a way that even the least enlightened shall be able to 7 8 To make Bad Negatives into Good understand, and somehow I think I shall suoceed. You see, it’s like this. I don’t want your taste to degenerate. You have a number of negatives which will only yield dull, gloomy, miserable-looking prints. You admit they are not as you would like them to be, but they are the best you can get ; so you put up with them, and in time you get more or less used to them, and become less fastidious about your photographs. You are not nearly so particular as you used to be ; you get slack and easy-going, and “ That’ll have to do,” or “ That’s good enough for me,” are remarks with which you will often greet your own productions. Once you get that way you’re lost — you will never get on ; but very likely you will soon get off alto- gether, and give up photography for some other pursuit, in which, by mere chance, you happen to excel from the first. If, now, you will take it from me, and rest assured that with a very little trouble you can make all your bad negatives into good ones, there will be a new interest for you ; and as soon as you have treated one or two negatives which will not print nicely in the way I will tell you about, the chances are you will want to go through with the lot, and the disappointment and disgust you felt when certain subjects and views you so counted on turned out badly, will give place to a comfortable feeling of satisfaction. To make Bad Negatives into Good 9 The Pattern Negative Do you know a good negative when you see one ? Probably not ; how should you ? You may have no photo- grapher friend who knows any more than you. You see nice, clear prints in a shop window, but you have never seen the kind of negative they are made from. Now, it isn’t just the easiest thing in the world to describe intelligibly what constitutes a good negative. Perhaps your best test is to make a print from what you believe to be your best negative, only that, even then, we have hardly a satisfactory test, because your negative may be very dense, and although it does yield a good print in time, it takes a very long time about it. In the first illustration in this Little Book (fig. 1, facing page 32) is a reproduction of a really good negative, and underneath it is a reproduction of a print made from it. But a negative is a transparent thing, and a picture of it in ink on white paper is not a fair representation, though it may help you to understand me ; but just take some negative of your own, which you reckon to be good, and try and follow my description. I am holding in my hand the very negative marked fig. 1, and looking through it at or towards the white opal shade of my incandescent gas lamp. Now I note that the sky portion, although at first I thought it nearly 10 To make Bad Negatives into Good opaque, is not so dense but that I can see through it quite clearly the shape of the white lamp-shade and the chimney ; but the wall of the room, and the curtains beyond, are nearly in- visible. The path or roadway in the negative is not so black — that is, not so dense — as the sky ; still, it is not thin enough to admit of one’s seeing through it any objects in the room except the very whitest and brightest. The large building at the side catches the sunlight in parts (see this in the print, fig. 2), and these sunlit portions are a trifle denser than either sky or road ; whilst here and there such small bits of high light as people’s frocks, children’s white sun-bonnets or hats, and a white para- sol in the middle distance are very nearly jet black. Still examining this negative by the opal lamp-shade, I note that the two central figures, and the portions of the people sitting at the side of the walk which print darkest, are nearly trans- parent glass — that is, just about the same degree of transparency as one thickness of white tissue paper would be ; and in between those nearly clear glass portions and the dense parts first described, all the other objects range in varying degrees of density. Now, please, look through your stock of negatives and see if you have any- thing which seems to contain a similar range of clear and dense. If you have time, make a print from it, and if it occupies no more than a reasonable To make Bad Negatives into Good 1 1 length of time, and gives a nice, clear little print, without any harsh white areas or impenetrable blacks, you may conclude that it is all right, and this is to be your pattern or standard negative with which all the others have got to compare favourably. Wheat from the Chaff Perhaps the next negative you take up is so dense you can hardly see through any part of it, and when you do make out the image it seems lost in a fog, or as though you were looking at it on a dark night. Or yet another shows the subject only like a thin veil, a sort of ghost picture, through every part of which you can see the lamp and nearly everything else quite plainly. It is evident that we shall have to deal with quite a variety of negatives. But no matter, they have all got to be brought up to the standard of the pattern negative. Not worth the trouble, you say ? Oh, very well then ; only, don’t keep tiem, lest one day you yield to the temptation of making prints. If the negatives are worth keeping, it is worth while having them in good printing condition. So, now, just make up your mind to go through the entire collection of negatives you have. By all means throw away what you do not want, but of the others make three classes: (1) the good — that is, those which are approximately up to the 1 2 To make Bad Negatives into Good standard of the pattern ; (2) those which are too thin\ (3) those which are too thick . Wait a bit ! What do I mean by too thick. Too thin will be easily under- stood, but with negatives there are different kinds of thickness or density. The negative which is too thin may be judged from fig. 3, and the negative that is too dense may belong to the kind shown in fig. 4, which is too dense all over, or that in fig. 6, which is very dense in parts, although thin in others. Keep these illustrations before you, and sort out all the negatives you intend to keep, and compare each one as you come to it. Maybe you have not thoroughly overhauled your collec- tion for a long time, and you will, no doubt, come across some curious speci- mens. Some which have developed strange spots and stains — throw them away ; others which have circular encrustations like grey lichen — away with them. Some which are scratched, and which you kept, thinking you might be able to repair them ; well, you have not done so, and perhaps it is hardly worth while — let them go. Sift the wheat from the chaff. Separate the sheep from the goats, driving the latter away and dividing the lean sheep from the fat. Treatment of Thin Negatives Now I propose that we start on your thin negatives first — negatives which To make Bad Negatives into Good 13 more or less resemble fig. 3. There you can see all the subject clearly enough, but when compared with your pattern negative it seems weak and lifeless. Perhaps, before you seriously consi- dered the matter, or compared it with the pattern or standard negative, you were at a loss to know why the prints it gave were so gloomy and foggy. Well, now you see there is so little difference between the denser parts and the thinner parts, except as re- gards the sky, that the light pene- trated both in almost the same space of time, and the result is a flat print. Of course, you could make the negative darker or denser by coating it in some way, but then you would only increase the density generally ; you would not increase the density of one portion more than another, and so the degree of contrast between the different parts would remain the same. Just consider for a moment what it is we have got to do. Look at the negative, fig. 3. The sky portion is a trifle more dense — that is, it looks blacker — than the trees, for instance ; whereas we want it to be so much more black, or dense, that it will almost entirely prevent the light from pene- trating to the printing-paper. Whilst the trees, etc., are printing, thus we shall have a clear, light portion for the sky. But remember, the sky portion has to be increased in density all in and out the intricate outline of the foliage which comes against it. Fancy trying 14 To make Bad Negatives into Good to paint round all those finely serrated edges ! What a labour ! Indeed, some of the outlines, if examined very care- fully, are so indecisive, they so melt away into the atmosphere, that it would be quite impossible to paint round them. Try it, if you like, and you will soon realise how far beyond the most dexterous human skill it is to increase the density of the sky by painting on it. Besides, it is not only the sky, but everything throughout the picture, which wants strengthening in due pro- portion. If for a moment we regard each plane in the landscape as though it were a piece of theatre-stage scenery — the foreground, the middle distance, the distance, and so on — each on a separate flat card or board, and standing one behind the other with the sky as the back-sheet of all, then in the over-thin negative it is as though all these pieces of scenery were pressed up too close to each other ; and the process of strengthening, or Intensifying, has for its aim the separation of these various planes, not merely making the whole landscape stand away in contrast from the background or sky, but making each plane separate itself from the one behind and the one in front, so giving depth and relief throughout. This is why this first means of making bad negatives into good ones which I shall describe is called 4 4 Intensifica- tion.” There is just a little contrast between To make Bad Negatives into Good 1 5 the various planes, but not sufficient ; and so we aim at making these differences of density more intense. Moreover, it is not only the differences of intensity between various planes, but in the same way we want to increase the difference between light and dark objects in the same plane. We not only want to make the house and trees stand out against the sky, but we want the white window-panes and curtains to show in proper degree of contrast from the rest of the house, and we want the trees and shrubs which are nearest to show in contrast to those just behind them. Well, are you still in doubt as to whether it is worth while troubling ? Just try one, and I think you will find the gain so great and really so easily achieved that you will not be long in doing all the rest of your thin negatives. The process will only occupy you a few minutes, or say a quarter of an hour, although you will have to leave the negative under treatment for half an hour or so in the middle of the process. Meanwhile, you can go and do some- thing else. Now to begin — Intensification Intensification is carried out in any light most convenient ; no dark room is required. What materials will you want ? Just two things purchasable at any chemist’s. A little mercury 1 6 To make Bad Negatives into Good bichloride, say 1 oz., and 1 oz. of liquid ammonia in a bottle. Dissolve the mercury in a pint of water in the ordinary way. It will dis- solve very slowly ; very hot water hastens matters, but better still, add about 2 drams of pure hydrochloric acid to the water, and the mercury will soon dissolve. As this solution of mercury bichloride will keep in good condition as long as you like, you may as well mix up the lot and keep it in a 20-oz. or pint bottle for future use ; but of course, you can mix up a smaller quantity if you prefer. I may as well give you the formula as a guide : Mercury bichloride . . . . 5 parts Hydrochloric acid . . . . 1 part Water . . . . . . 100 parts If you happen to have ammonium chloride, also called “sal ammoniac,” by you, it can take the place of hydro- chloric acid, but more in proportion will be required. The formula would then read : Mercury bichloride . . . . 5 parts Ammonium chloride . . 5 „ Water . . . . . . 100 „ That is^to say, 1 oz. of each of the two chemical salts in 20 oz. of water— or shall we call it a pint ? Label that bottle “ Mercury Intensi- fier,” because, being quite colourless and having no smell, you may forget To make Bad Negatives into Good 17 what it is, and the mercury is a deadly poison — it not only kills, but kills very painfully. If amongst your appliances you have a negative washing tank — a vessel with vertical grooves, or a trough with a removable metal rack with grooves — place say half a dozen of the thin plates to be intensified therein, and stand it under the water-tap, and let the plates wash in running water for about half an hour. If continuous running water is not easily available, never mind ; fill up the tank, and leave those plates soaking, changing the water every five or ten minutes. Of course, you might do this before you start mixing up the above-named solution, so that when you are ready you will not have so long to wait. The object of this washing is to soften the films of the plates, and also to ensure their having parted with the last trace of the hypo bath in which they were originally fixed. What ? You always wash your negatives thor- oughly ; you are sure of it ? Well, I need not doubt it ; but it may be some time ago since those negatives were made, and perhaps on that particular day you were hurried, and did not de- vote your usual care. I don’t suppose you can remember exactly. Anyway, water is usually cheap enough, and a half-hour’s wash now will make doubly sure. When all is done you will not regret having given the plates this 2 18 To make Bad Negatives into Good additional washing ; but if you omit it you may very bitterly regret it. It may be nothing will happen ; on the other hand, if by chance there is a modicum of hypo left on the film of the negative to be intensified, there will be irre- vocable disaster. This process of intensification I tell you of is perfectly safe and simple ; but if when you put it in practice you spoil a negative, and on inquiry you are told that it is due to the negative not having been properly washed at the outset, then you will be perfectly justified in saying, “ Why did you not tell me before ? ” So now I have told you. Ten minutes’ soaking will no doubt be long enough to soften the film, and that may suffice ; but half an hour’s washing will make sure of its being clean, as well as soft. Here I will give you in brief outline the three or four stages of the process of intensification, so that you may see in advance what you are in for : 1. Wash for half an hour. 2. Immerse in mercury solution for probably about five to ten minutes. 3. Wash again for half an hour. 4. Immerse in very weak ammonia and water ; this will occupy about one to two minutes. 5. Wash for ten minutes. First, then, place the negative in a dish, and pour over it sufficient of the mercury solution to well cover it, and To make Bad Negatives into Good 1 9 occasionally rock the dish. Very soon the film will begin to turn greyish in colour, and will continue getting whiter. The more it bleaches — that is, the whiter you let it become — the greater the degree of intensification you will ultimately secure, and precisely what moment to stop bleaching I must leave a good deal to your judgment. Probably, when your plate assumes the bluish white appearance which would result from the thinnest possible layer of milk on a dark surface, you will have gone far enough. And, after all, it does not matter so very much, because if when it is finished you find you have not intensified enough, you can give it another dose ; or if, on the other hand, you should over-intensify, it can all be wiped out and removed in an instant, and you can start fresh. Suppose now you decide to stop bleaching ; then pour off the mercury solution, which will do again quite well. If it has remained clear, you can pour it back into its bottle, or into a glass measure ready for the next plate ; but if it has become at all cloudy, throw it away. (This cloudiness is a pretty sure sign that your plate was not washed as free from hypo or other chemical impurities as you supposed.) Y ou will perhaps notice that , if viewed from the glass side or back, your nega- tive, now it is bleached, looks like a positive — that is, like a print on white glass or china ; but let that pass, and now for the second stage. 20 To make Bad Negatives into Good Wash in running water for half an hour, at least. A cautious worker will wash for an hour, but probably half an hour will suffice. The plate can, of course, be left to itself whilst washing, and you can occupy yourself in any way you choose meanwhile ; but, the washing over, we proceed to blacken the white image by immersion in a solution of ammonia. The proper proportion of the ammonia bath is 1 oz. in a pint of water; but I do not think it will be necessary to mix this up, if you don’t happen to have a spare bottle to put it in, or if for any reason you don’t want to. Take a dish, and having put enough water therein to well cover the plate, add “ a dash ” of ammonia. Suppose, for instance, you have 4 oz. of water in a half-plate dish, then a couple of drams of ammonia will be ample ; anyway the exact proportions will not matter. Into this plunge the well-washed, bleached plate. Instantly it will turn dark. Rock the dish a bit, and when in a minute or so you find, on looking at the back, the whiteness has entirely disappeared, just give it another few seconds’ rocking and remove it for its final wash. This need only be for five or ten minutes, and your negative will now be found to possess a very different appearance. It is now set up to dry. There is nothing very difficult in all that, is there ? It is just wash, bleach To make Bad Negatives into Good 21 in mercury, wash, blacken in am- monia, wash. Just compare this negative which you have intensified with any one of the other thin ones soaking whilst waiting for their turn. Isn’t there a difference, and don’t you want to be getting on with the next ? The weak ammonia used for blacken- ing the first negative is not worth keeping, but the mercury solution, as has been said, can be used again. Suppose you have a dozen negatives to intensify, and two washing tanks, each with a rack for twelve plates, a little systematic working will save time. For instance, you take the first plate from the tank where it has been washing, and having been bleached, you transfer it to the second tank for washing ; and without disturbing the mercury solution in the dish, you introduce thereto the second negative, and in turn place this in the second tank to wash, and so on for the whole dozen. By the time the entire dozen are bleached the first will be very nearly ready to come out of the water to be blackened. Thus, in less than an hour, an entire dozen poor, thin, useless negatives may be converted into twelve good ones, which will not be a bad hour’s work. If for any reason you want to undo the intensification you have produced, this can be achieved by, after thorough washing, immersing the negative in a clean, freshly made solution of hypo- 22 To make Bad Negatives into Good sulphite of soda, about the same strength as an ordinary fixing bath. We next proceed to operate on the over-dense negatives ; and here let it be said that, like the previous process of intensification, all operations can be conducted in any light most con- venient. You have sorted out the over-dense negatives from the others, and these will require subdividing into dense-all-overs and dense-in-parts. Reduction Take any one of these dense nega- tives and compare with fig. 4 and fig. 6. Which does it most resemble ? Perhaps you cannot make up your mind at first. Try another and another until you alight on one which, in its degree of density and its degree of contrasts, does seem to be like one or the other. Gradually you will get all the over- dense negatives in one or the other group of dense-all-overs or the dense- in-parts. Now I am not going to keep you waiting by explaining why these plates have come so dense, and why the density is of a different kind. I have dealt with that in another of these Little Books entitled, Development made Easy . All we have to do here is to deal with things as we find them, so let us first take in hand the dense-all-overs. There is fig. 4, for an example. You can hardly see through any part of it, except, perhaps, quite the most To make Bad Negatives into Good 23 shadowy part of the tree-trunk. The overwhelmingly black sky area en- croaches on the outline of the tree, which is lost in the blackness ; and if a print were attempted from this it would take a very long time, and' in all probability some portion of the tree would be merged in the white sky, which would cast a kind of mist over the tree- top. We will proceed, therefore, to reduce the excessive density, which, like a veil, prevents the light from penetrating as it should do. There are several methods of re- ducing, and presently I will explain when that which we are now about to use is inadvisable ; but probably, in nine cases out of ten, this first method will be the most useful. The chemicals you will require are red prussiate of potash, otherwise called “potassium ferricyanide,” and hyposulphite of soda. Unlike the intensification just de- scribed, Reduction is achieved in one process. It is, therefore, simpler, and there is less room for accident. You will remember that in intensi- fication absolute and complete elimina- tion of hypo from the film was necessary before using the mercury bath, or disaster was to .be expected. Not so, however, in the method of Re- duction to be first described. Indeed, if the reduction be of a newly developed plate, and follow immediately after fixing, the film does not require washing 24 To make Bad Negatives into Good at all. If, however, the negative has been made some time, it had better be placed in water to soak and soften whilst the necessary solution is being made up. Dissolve 1 oz. of hyposulphite of soda in half a pint of water, and place two or three crystals of the red prussiate of potash in about an ounce of water. Stir the latter until you get a deep orange solution ; the crystals need not entirely dissolve. Into the hypo solution pour about half of the orange solution, or sufficient to make the whole a light yellow colour, about the colour of whiskey. Into this place the soaked negative, and occasionally rock the dish. After a minute or so, take the nega- tive out, and hold it up to the light. You will probably notice that it has already grown less dense. If you are not sure, compare it with another over-dense negative of about the same character, originally, and you will soon see the difference. Return it to the dish and continue rocking occasionally, examining it from time to time. Now bring forward your pattern or standard negative, and continue re- ducing until the film you are treating seems a trifle thinner than the pattern. Then wash for about half an hour in running water, and finally dry. That is all. But you may say, why make it thinner than the pattern ? Because your pattern is dry, the other negative To make Bad Negatives into Good 25 is wet, and negatives have a way of drying denser than they look when wet. In fig. 5 we have a reproduction of the same negative as fig. 4, after being treated as above ; but it might very well have been treated longer, and the reduction carried further. Still, sufficient has in this instance been done to make all the difference in the world as regards its printing quality. The crystals of ferricyanide of pot- assium should be bright clear red, but if when you procure them they are covered, with a greenish powder, just place as much as you require to use in a little water. Rinse them round and pour the water off ; they will soon be clean, and as the precise strength of the solution does not matter, the trifling loss involved in this rinsing is unimportant. If during the plate’s immersion in the reducing bath, composed of hypo and ferricyanide, the solution should lose its yellow colour, add more of the orange-coloured ferricyanide solution. If the reducing bath be made too strong — that is, too deep in colour — it will stain the film, and the stain is not easy to remove, though it may some- times yield to an immersion in a solu- tion of alum and hydrochloric acid : namely, alum, 1 oz. ; water, 20 oz. ; hydrochloric acid, \ oz. Now we come to the other kind of over-dense negatives — those which are only too dense in parts. Take as an example fig. 7, which is a print from 26 To make Bad Negatives into Good a negative such as fig. 6, which has no doubt been under-exposed, and then developed too long in the hope of get- ting more detail out of the tree. Why is it too dense, you ask ? Well, in the first place, the sky prints horribly white, and moreover, the excessive denseness of the high lights makes an undue and harsh contrast between the lights and darks. You see, things in nature blend into each other in an indescribable manner. Occasionally, when there is an east wind blowing, the landscape looks un- naturally clear and cut out, and then we remark upon and deprecate the unusual harshness ; but ordinarily, a tree against the sky, although per- fectly defined, yet has in reality a soft- ness of outline which is misrepresented in such a print as fig. 7. And now I must tell you why the red prussiate of potash or ferricyanide reducer already described is not the best process in such a case as this. In the first place, this ferricyanide reducing bath has a way of attacking the thin parts of the negative more vigorously than it does the dense parts, but in such a case as fig. 8, the thin parts in the negative, representing the tree- trunk, branches, and foliage, are thin enough. Where the excessive density is chiefly is in the sky, etc. ; it is this that needs reducing, not the tree. Now, even if the ferricyanide reducer was quite impartial in its operations, and reduced all parts equally, it would To make Bad Negatives into Good 27 hardly be what is required ; but it has been stated that its tendency is to act most on the thin parts, just where its activity is not required — for the result would be to, simultaneously with re- duction, increase the contrast, thus making matters worse than before. But there is a reducer which has an entirely opposite effect, in that it re- duces the denser parts more than the thin parts, and this is ammonium per- sulphate. Procure an ounce of this in a bottle. It cannot be kept in a paper packet. Of course, no chemicals ought to be kept in anything but stoppered bottles, but a salt like persulphate of ammonia absolutely must have a bottle. If we had two negatives exactly alike, each yielding a print like fig. 7, and we reduced one with persulphate and the other with ferricyanide, we should get two results, which, printed from, would give prints something like fig. 8 and fig. 9. The former is the consequence of reducing with persul- phate, and the latter with ferricyanide. You see in the former, whilst the whole has been reduced, the degree of differ- ence between the dark and the light is not so great ; as a matter-of-fact, we get a flatter, softer print. Indeed, the sky portion has reduced to so much greater degree than the rest that it is almost possible to point out the trifling suggestion of a cloud, which, although present, was entirely buried in the denser film of a negative like fig. 6 ; but 28 To make Bad Negatives into Good in fig. 9, whilst a reduction has been effected, the contrast between the darks and lights, far from being decreased, have been slightly accentuated, and so making the negative better in some respects, but worse than ever in other regards. The persulphate of ammonia, how- ever, is perhaps not quite so easy to use as the other. Still, no real difficulty attends it. This is how to proceed. In, say, 4 oz. of water dissolve “ a pinch ” of persulphate. I know “ a pinch ” is pretty vague for a measurement, but the exact proportion is really of no consequence. Even the most correct handbooks give as the quantity 10 to 20 grains of ammonium persulphate to each ounce of water. The same precaution must be taken as regards exhaustive washing of the negative before using persulphate as was the case with the mercury intensi- fier ; so that a batch of negatives had better be put in a rack in a tank to soak and wash in running water for half an hour, at least. Should this precaution be omitted, and the film prove to have a trace of hypo in it, the effect of the persulphate bath will be irradicable brown stains. Having prepared the negative by wash- ing, it is immersed in the persulphate solution and the dish occasionally rocked. No change takes place at first, but presently you will notice a sort of milky cloud being given off by To make Bad Negatives into Good 29 the negative ; this indicates that the persulphate is dissolving away the image, and it must now be very closely watched, as, once the action has com- menced, it proceeds very rapidly. Take the negative out and examine it at very short intervals, and a little while before it has reached the degree of reduction required, wash quickly and vigorously under a tap. In the previous process it will be remembered that reduction was con- tinued rather further than seemed necessary, to allow for a darkening of the image when dry ; but in this case allowance has to be made for the fact that the action continues after the plate has been removed from the solution, and continues its ravages until copious ablutions drive out all remaining persulphate which the gela- tine film has absorbed. We have now merely to wash thor- oughly and set up to dry. These are, I think, the only two reduction methods with which the beginner need trouble himself, and I want you to thoroughly grasp their respective uses. Both reduce un- equally, attacking some parts more than others. To reduce, and at the same time increase contrast , use ferricyanide and hypo. To reduce, and also reduce contrast , use persulphate. Thus you may have a negative which is very dense all over, but which, when printed from, still gives a flat, dull picture — 30 To make Bad Negatives into Good meaning that, despite its opacity, there is not sufficient variety between the darks and lights. In such case use the ferricyanide and hypo, which will reduce away the black veil of opacity and, at the same time, work more on the thinner parts of the negative, representing the darker objects in the picture, whilst acting but little on the dense portions, which represent the high lights in the print ; so you increase the contrast. If you have a landscape negative which, when printed from, gives the landscape quite fully printed, whilst yet the sky, although it contains clouds, is hardly printed from at all, because it is so thick that it would require much longer, or a scene in which there is water which remains a mere white patch when all the rest of the view is fully printed, it is obvious that you require a reducer which will reduce the sky or the water, whilst hardly altering the rest of the landscape. Or, to put it another way, in such a negative, if you print until the clouds make their appearance, and the sky portion is printed and the water prints its ripples and gradations, the remainder of the scene, being so much thinner, will be so overdone as to represent the scene as if on a dark night. So you need some way which will not affect the parts already thin enough, whilst, however, reducing the sky and the water. In such a case the persulphate of ammonia is just the thing. The denser the object, the more To make Bad Negatives into Good 31 it acts ; the thinner the region, the less it works : and so you have a reduction which tends to equalise excessive differ- ences in density — that is, excessive contrast. But perhaps the reader, on looking at the reproductions used to illustrate this Little Book, may feel that the advantage gained by the processes I have given are hardly great enough to repay him for his trouble. It is quite conceivable that the beginner, who is unaccustomed to critically examine and compare prints, will hardly appre- ciate the importance of the difference between fig. 8 and fig. 9, the prints made from negatives, both originally like fig. 6, but which have been re- spectively reduced with persulphate and ferricyanide. To begin with, allowance must be made for the fact that these are reproductions printed in ink on paper, and the full amount of difference can- not be shown. Moreover, the beginner will, sooner or later, begin to appreciate the superiority of the soft, delicate print over the harsh, bright one, and it is then that he will value the peculiar properties of persulphate. The differ- ence between figs. 7, 8, and 9 is, per- haps, chiefly noticeable in the sky. If your negative prints the sky as white there must evidently be some- thing wrong. Skies, even cloudless ones, are not fairly represented if depicted as a blank, mere blank paper. Compared with the rest of the scene, 32 To make Bad Negatives into Good a cloudless blue sky would be as a grey ; for you know that if in a landscape view there happens to be white linen hanging on a line to dry, those white things appear much whiter than the blue sky ; yet, in a white-sky photograph, both linen and blue sky are of the same tone. If the negative has thus falsely rendered the blue sky, it stands to reason it must have rendered every- thing else that is blue in a similarly false way ; and blue and blue-grey enters into everything, because all nature is pervaded with atmosphere which, when seen in a sufficient volume, appears blue-grey, hence the blue and grey of distance. Now, in fig. 7 we have an example of a negative which has been so deve- loped as to falsify the blues and greys, and it is in an attempt to recover what has been lost that fig. 9 has been produced. Were the negative reduced with ferricyanide, we should merely get a negative which is thinner in the over-dense sky, truly ; but it is also thinner in the tree portion, and so, when printed, the exaggeration of the difference is not corrected. By getting the sky thinner in both cases there is just a faint cloud made visible close down to the skyline ; but then, in fig. 9 this is obtained only with a deepening of the already rela- tively too deep darks of the trees. There are still the dense-all-overs to deal with — negatives which, unless Fig. 1. — The standard negative. Fig. 3. — Negative too thin all over. Fig. 4. — Negative dense all over. Fig. 5. — Negative No. 4 after reduction in ferricyanide and hypo. Fig. 6. — Negative dense in parts. Fig.. 8. — Print from dense-in-parts negative reduced with ammonium persulphate. Fig. 9. — Print from dense-in-parts negative reduced with ferricyanide and hypo. Fig. 10. — Print from a foggy dense-all-over negative. Fig. 11. — Print from same negative as fig. 10 after reduction with ferricyanide. Fig. 12. — Print from same negative as fig. 11 after intensification. To make Bad Negatives into Good 33 viewed with a strong light, seem like mere pieces of black smoked glass. As we look through such a negative to a strong light, we can just see the image, but there does not seem any contrast ; it is as though we were handling the over- thin negative fig. 3, and looking at it by a very feeble light. Fig. 3 and fig. 10, if compared, will appear to be first cousins, except that the latter is darker all over. Were you to place two or three thicknesses of black tissue paper at the back of the negative marked fig. 3, we should probably make it appear exactly as fig. 10. Why is this ? Probably because, either by light or excessive development or both, the faint flat image, deep down in the film, has had piled on to it a layer of density beneath which it lies almost buried. With this, then, we proceed to first of all remove this black layer — this fog which enwraps the hidden image, and makes the negative appear so dense. This we shall do by reduction, even though the image which we may then clear up is so thin that to further re- duce it would clear it away altogether. Remember the buried image has been observed to be flat, although so opaque ; this means that it lacks contrast, and as we have found that one of our re- ducing agents, whilst reducing, also increases contrast, we shall select this for use in the present case. So the negative from which the print fig. 10 was made is reduced in a solution 3 34 To make Bad Negatives into Good of ferricyanide and hyposulphite, as before, and after a while we shall get a very thin, clearer negative, with but a ghost of a thin image ; so far so good. We then thoroughly wash it, when we find ourselves in possession of a nega- tive of much the same character as fig. 3. What did we do with that fig. 3 ? Why, we intensified it, so as to increase or intensify the difference between its lights and darks. So with the negative which gives fig. 11, we proceed to intensify it, by first bleach- ing in a solution of mercury bichloride, and then, after thoroughly washing, blackening it again in ammonia and water. Here, then, we have used both processes in succession, first reducing, to clear away the superfluous deposit, leaving the thin, flat image which was beneath, and this we have built up by intensification ; thus, again, making a bad negative into a good one from which an improved print, fig. 12, is made. Supplementary Processes Whilst I think the mercuric chloride intensifier which I have given, and the two reducers, are all that the beginner need know, it is just possible that he may be inclined, after a while, to try other methods. I therefore give, very briefly, some supplementary processes, both for intensification and reduction. In No. 64 of the “ Lessons for Be- ginners ” (October 17th, 1905) which To make Bad Negatives into Good 35 appeared in The Amateur Photographer I reproduced three prints, showing successive stages of intensification by the uranium method. These little prints were sent to me by a correspondent. He first intensi- fied the negative, then made a print. Finding that he had effected an im- provement, but not a sufficiently marked one, he re-intensified the nega- tive, and so obtained a still more improved result. The method used was what is known as the Uranium process. The formula consists of one part each of uranium nitrate, glacial acetic acid, and ferri- cyanide of potassium, dissolved in fifty parts of water. When you place the negative in this it gradually becomes stained, at first yellowish, then deeper to an orange, and finally a brownish orange or brick-red. You then take the negative out and wash until the stain is removed from the thinnest or more transparent parts , and then dry it. How consider for a moment what has been done. You know, probably, that yellow, orange, and red resist light action ; for this reason these colours are used for dark-room lamps, and often for wrap- ping up sensitive papers, plates, etc. If such colours make light unable to affect our plates during developing, for the same reason these colours would prevent the light from affecting the sensitive paper in the printing-frame 36 To make Bad Negatives into Good precisely in proportion to the intensity or depth of the colour. When you intensify a negative you seek to add light-resisting power to the parts that should be denser than they are, with- out adding much, if any, to the parts which are not required to resist the light. In the mercury intensifies this added light resistance is attained by increasing the density of black deposit. Now if we stain a negative with one of these non-actinic, as they are called, colours, we shall make it print much slower, because we are resisting or re- tarding light action ; but the retarding is general all over the plate. What we want is a stain which the film will take up in proportion to the depth of the image upon it. Thus, whilst the thin- nest part is absorbing one volume of stain, we should want a part twice as dense to absorb twice as much stain, and the part three times as thick, three times as much — -and so on. At this rate we should have the thinnest portion doubling its light re- sistance. We will call it 2 ; the twice as dense would double itself, making itself 4, and the three times would make itself 6. Still, the relative light resistance of these different densities have not been altered ; but if, now, by washing, we can rid the whole film of one volume of stain or light resistance, we get 2 — 1 = 1, 4 — 1=3, 6 — 1=5; so that now, instead of once, twice, and three times, we have once, three times, and five times, To make Bad Negatives into Good 37 increasing in density the denser parts according to their greater denseness. Do you follow that ? Let me try again. Suppose we call each different density in the picture by a number according to its degree of density. The very thinnest parts we will call 1 ; the part which is twice as dense we call 2 ; the part which is four times as dense we call 4 ; and so on. Suppose we can find a chemical stain of such a nature that each density of the negative will absorb precisely its own weight (or rather, its own opacity) of stain ; then the whole image would have just double its former power of resisting light, would it not ? and if the stain be of such a kind that it will wash out, the washing water will not wash from one part more than another ; and so, if we wash just sufficiently long to, as it were, deduct one volume of stain from all parts, each part remains double its own density, minus 1. The density we called 1 became doubled — that is, 2 ; then, if it washes away 1, it comes back to its original density — namely, 1. Not so density 2, which became double — that is, 4 ; which, if it washes away 1, remains 3 instead of the original 2. A greater density, say 6, would show a still greater alteration, because, be- coming double, it is 12 ; then it washes away 1 and remains 11, so that this part, instead of being only 6 times the thinnest portion, or 1, has be- come 1 1 times more light-resisting than 1 . 38 To make Bad Negatives into Good Rather crudely explained, that is what takes place in the uranium intensifier. Having mixed up the solution as given, — viz. uranium nitrate, 1 part ; glacial acetic acid, 1 part ; ferricyanide of potassium, 1 part ; water, 50 parts, — we immerse the negative, which, as already stated, gradually takes the reddish stain. Then, when it is thought this has proceeded far enough, it is removed and washed. As soon as the most trans- parent parts have lost all the yellow stain, the plate is set aside to dry. The most transparent part, or the No. 1 density, is restored to its original condition, but all other parts retain the stain in proportion to their relatively greater density. Suppose the staining process be repeated until the parts which have doubled their light resistance double it again, we shall see how enormously we can intensify or increase the differ- ences of various parts. As each part doubles its density it will go on increas- ing at a greater ratio. I ought, to be correct, to add that, in addition to the staining, an actual increase in opacity or density takes place, due to a deposit of reddish-brown uranium ferricyanide on the silver image. To make Bad Negatives into Good 39 Mercury Iodide Intensifier Another form of mercury intensifica- tion may be mentioned. It obviates the double operation of alternately bleach- ing and blackening, and also does away with the necessity of exhaustive wash- ing after fixing ; indeed, it is necessary for the film to retain some of the hypo in order that the bath shall work properly. The formula is as follows. There are three solutions to be made separately : (A) Mercury bichloride . . 60 gr. Water . . 8 oz. (B) Potassium iodide . . 180 gr. Water . . 2 oz. (C) Sodium hyposulphite .. 120 gr. Water . . 2 oz. Add (B) little by little to (A) ; a red precipitate will appear, but as we add more of (B) this disappears. Cease adding when a trace is still apparent. Then add (C). On removing the negative from the fixing bath (and it is assumed, there- fore, that intensification will immedi- ately follow the development and fixation of the negative), it is to be rinsed only and then immersed in the above mixture, when it will gradually gain in intensity. When dense enough, remove it, wash for a couple of minutes, then place in a clean hypo bath for a few seconds, and finally wash thor- oughly. 40 To make Bad Negatives into Good Copper and Silver Finally, I will give particulars of intensification with copper bromide and silver. It is a most reliable process, and one which will, on occasion, give a remarkable degree of intensification. Two solutions are first made, as follows : (A) Copper sulphate . . . . 200 gr. Hot water . . . . 1 oz. (B) Potassium bromide . . 200 gr. Hot water . . . . 1 oz. When cool, add (B) to (A) and immerse the negative. In this it will bleach, and when the bleaching is deemed to have gone far enough, the negative is removed ; wash for not more than five minutes, and blacken in the follow- ing silver solution : Silver nitrate . . . . . . 44 gr. Water.. .. .. .. 1 oz. If, instead of the silver solution, an ordinary developing solution be used, such as hydroquinone or metol, a far greater degree of intensification than is likely to be required in ordinary practice will be obtained. And now as regards making bad negatives into good by means of in- tensification and reduction, I do not think anything more need be said. Not that the foregoing exhausts the subject, but to go further into the matter would To make Bad Negatives into Good 41 be to make this something like a regular text-book, which is the very thing I mean to avoid. There remains, how- ever, another aspect of the subject which seems to naturally follow, but that it involves a slight modification of the title. Instead of “ making bad negatives into good ones,” let us see what can be done in the direc- tion of making good negatives from bad ones, and leaving the bad ones unchanged. New Negatives from Old Ones The simplicity and directness of the intensification and reduction processes which have occupied the earlier part of this Little Book have everything to recommend them. Nevertheless, of course, with all their simplicity, acci- dents will happen, and in the event of a negative possessing some especial interest, bad though it be, the inex- perienced may very reasonably hesitate to immerse it in this bath and in that, for fear that in some unforeseen and unaccountable manner it becomes stained or otherwise permanently injured. Suppose, then, we make a new nega- tive altogether from the original bad one, and make a good one of it at the same time, and so leave the original untouched, which at least remains, whatever its defects, as something to fall back upon. 42 To make Bad Negatives into Good Let it here be said, this is a dark- room operation, and therefore unlike the two processes we have been con- sidering. For this purpose you only need precisely the same appliances and materials that you employ when developing negatives exposed in the camera. At least, then, you will have nothing new to learn. What we are going to do is to print on to glass plates — negative plates — from the negative of which we desire to procure an im- proved edition. You do not understand ? Well, now, consider what happens when you expose a plate or film in a camera. The light affects it in certain parts, and inproportion to that effect pro- duced subsequent development brings out the latent image. Very well, then, if instead of subjecting the plate to an image projected upon it by a lens, we submit the plate to light under a ready-made negative, so that, according to the varying densities of that nega- tive, the light will fall on the plate in varying degrees, we can subsequently, in like manner, develop just the image which the light lets fall upon it. That, I think, should be clear. The plate occupies the same position to a piece of printing paper, but the image, instead of being visible, needs developing. So we place the bad negative in a printing- frame in the usual way, and, retiring to the dark room, superimpose an or- dinary low-speed negative plate, and place film to film, of course ; and To make Bad Negatives into Good 43 then, closing the frame, lay it face down on the table, in such a way that white light, if now introduced, cannot creep round the print or into the back. We are next going to make an ex- posure to light, and it may be candle, gas, or electric light, according to our fancy or our dark-room fittings. Sup- pose, however, we have to rely on a candle, there will be nothing to re- gret : it is a constant, uniform light easily managed, even though a trifle slow. Set the candle up, and having lighted it, lift the printing-frame and hold it at a distance of, say, two feet from the candle, moving it about so that the light of the candle may reach equally every part of the nega- tive. In order to avoid the possibility of the negative receiving the light un- equally, as, for instance, when one raises it from the table some portion gets the light first, it were better on laying it down to cover the front of the frame with a sheet of card, and, as soon as the frame is in position op- posite the lighted candle and ready for exposure, the cardboard can be with- drawn shutter-like, and the whole face of the negative thus exposed at the same instant of time. Now comes the point at which our power of making a. good or bad negative from the old bad one comes in. If you know a little about develop- ment, or if you have read the other 44 To make Bad Negatives into Good Little Book devoted to Easy Nega- tive Making , you will be aware that the character of the negative — that is, whether it be dense or thin, flat or full of contrast — depends very largely on the exposure and the de- velopment. In a general way, a short exposure followed by development in strong solutions gives vigorous results with strong contrasts, and, on the other hand, a long exposure and a weak developer give a softer, flatter re- sult. Bearing that in mind, let us suppose that we are dealing with a negative such as fig. 3, from which it is desired to produce a stronger negative without in any way tampering with the original one. Having placed it in a printing-frame, and an ordinary slow negative plate in contact, expose it to the light of a candle, say, for six seconds, and then, extinguishing the candle, proceed to develop the plate in quite the usual manner, but using solutions at full strength, with a drop or two of bromide added to retard the action — the object being to allow the image full time to gain the maximum amount of density of which the plate is capable. This new plate will, of course, be a positive — that is, a picture on glass ; this, being fixed, washed, and dried, is used to make the new negative from, and again short exposure and a strong development may be resorted to, thus To make Bad Negatives into Good 45 securing two chances for getting greater density and contrast. I have suggested six seconds as the exposure when making the first con- tact print on the plate, but this is a mere guess, as of course, all depends on the character of the original thin negative ; but you must start off from something, and probably six seconds will not be far off. As the resulting transparency is to be used to expose from again, it will be well to use a stainless developer such as metol, hydroquinone, or ro- dinal, slightly increasing the proportion of potassium bromide given in any regular formula. An excellent metol and hydro- quinone formula is as follows : Metol . . 220 gr. Water . . 80 oz. Sodium sulphite . . 6 oz. Hydroquinone .. 170 gr. Potassium bromide . . 50 gr. Potassium carbonate . . 2 oz. In this the metol and hydroquinone are in such a large proportion to the usual negative-developing formula be- cause we are aiming at extreme density. In addition, a bottle of 10 per cent, solution of bromide of potassium should be at hand. But to return. Having exposed for, say, six seconds, the plate is placed in a dish, and a sufficiency of the above developer being made ready, a 46 1 To make Bad Negatives into Good few drops of the bromide of potassium solution are added, and the whole flowed over the plate ; rock gently, and watch for the first appearance of the image. It should not appear very soon, but after a while there will be a darkening of certain parts, and then very de- liberately the whole image should come up, clear, sharp, and well-defined. If it be otherwise, if it comes up quickly and the outlines are soft and confused, and lights and shades are not crisply defined, the exposure has been too long, and you will save time in the end if you promptly throw this failure away and try again. Should it, however, appear to be- have like a not-over-exposed plate, continue development until the darks are well through to the back of the plate, and remember that the image is a positive, and not a negative, so do not be deceived. The sky, instead of coming black as we are accustomed to see it, will of course remain white, and all the objects will appear almost as in a paper print. Then, gradually, the whole will slightly darken, and if, on holding the plate rather closely to the dark-room light, the darks seem quite impenetrable, in all probability development may be stopped, the plate fixed and washed as usual. This positive transparency is now to be used as the original, and from it a negative made by contact in precisely To make Bad Negatives into Good 47 the same way as it was itself made from the original thin negative ; and again, if sufficient degree of improve- ment has not been attained, exposure and development must be employed to give them aid. I am almost afraid to suggest it, because my reader may think I am trying to lead him a very roundabout way, but of course, now that from the first part of this Little Book you have been told all about intensification, you may intensify in turn both the contact transparent positive and the subsequent new contact negative, thus giving additional intensifying power in two stages. Meanwhile, the original bad negative, in all its badness, remains untouched ready for future calls. But suppose the original negative be such as fig. 6, then the exposure should be prolonged to several times the length considered accurate for an ordinary negative, and a normal de- veloper with two or three times the prescribed quantity of water used. A slight modification of the formula just given which should be suitable is as follows : Metol . . 50 gr. Water . . 60 oz. Sodium sulphite . . . . 1J oz. Hydro quinone . . 30 gr. Potassium bromide . . 10 gr. Potassium carbonate i oz. In such a case as this, rodinal is a 48 To make Bad Negatives into Good useful developer, if used in a much more diluted condition than is usual ; thus, one part in sixty parts water will be quite strong enough. Its vigorous action, but tardy gathering of density, admirably suits it for assisting in getting softer, flatter results from a dense and strong original, and only actual experiment can give the reader the least idea of what an immense power lays within his reach in the way of getting improved negatives from bad ones. Now, although I have tried to ex- plain this making of new negatives from old, which shall be an improve- ment on the originals, I am by no means sure that my reader will realise how really simple the matter is ; and moreover, I am not at all sure that my reader will all at once appreciate how modified exposure and development enables one to make a negative thin or dense at will. I devoted one of the earlier “ Lessons for Beginners ” in The Amateur Photo- grapher to this particular subject, and I will quote it here because I want to leave nothing that may help to make this mat- ter clear to the most careless reader. If he has failed to grasp the import of the foregoing pages, perhaps I may catch his attention and comprehension with the following. There is nothing like “ rubbing it in,” to use a colloqui- alism. It is remarkable what a lot of very plain talking it sometimes takes to To make Bad Negatives into Good 49 make the average intelligent person grasp a quite simple fact, not only in photography but in other things. You may preach and you may write, telling people how to do things ; it goes in at one ear and out the other, until all at once the matter seems to catch a man’s intelligence, and something prompts him to go and do it. He knows he has been told before ; he feels now as if he has known how to do it, and has known what a useful thing it is to do all along, and wonders why he has not done it long ago. In the present Little Book I have not raised the question as to why and how you get bad negatives when really you ought not to get anything but good ones. Exposure and development are quite simple, if only taken intelligently, but the fact remains that you have in your possession a number of nega- tives which will not give satisfactory prints. But you want prints from them, I suppose, otherwise you would not in the first place have exposed the plates or films, whichever they are. Very well, then, isn’t it worth while some leisure hour, when you cannot go out photographing and making new nega- tives, just to turn to and improve these bad negatives, so as to get good prints from them ? I have now told you how this can be done, and I imagine you saying, 4 4 Yes, I’ll do that some day ” ; and then you hesitate, because you still have a lurking 4 50 To make Bad Negatives into Good notion that it will be rather a bother. It is something you have not done before, and you are shy at starting a new job. Well, after all, it isn’t really new in principle. Did you ever make a bromide print ? No ? Well, if you had you would know that when you expose the bromide paper and negative to the light, if you expose too long you will, on development, get a flat, gloomy- looking print, because the light has had time to print through the more dense portions, which have thus nearly caught up to the darker- printed parts. I want you here to note, and to remember always (if you are not al- ready well aware of it), that in bromide paper, and in dry plates— which, by the way, are similarly made — after the sensitive coating has responded to the action of light to the utmost of its power, giving intense black upon deve- lopment, it commences a reverse action, so that this reverse action might possibly have reached half way on its return journey to the original state by the time the slower printing parts had progressed half way on their outward journey, and thus you would get one even tint all over. Something like this occurs every time you get a flat, foggy negative or print due to over-exposure. You start with white paper, and as soon as printing begins, the light through To make Bad Negatives into Good 51 the clear parts of the plate begin printing, and by the time they print fully out, making black, the denser parts have only just begun to print ; but if you continue so as to get these darker, the portions which are fully printed, as they can print no more, begin to return, until the two sets of tints come near to meeting, and as the result you get an insufficient amount of contrast. You must understand I am not talking of P.O.P. or other visible print- ing processes, in which, after the deepest tint is reached, the surface acquires a metallic appearance, called “ solarisa- tion.” I am speaking of bromide paper, and when I say the image prints black, I mean, of course, it will be black when developed. I speak of the result as if it were possible to develop simultaneously with ex- posure. Well, after all this explanation, let us get back to the matter in hand. Dry plates are glass coated in precisely the same way as bromide paper, except that the sensitive coating is more sensitive, and there are other plates called lantern plates or special trans- parency plates, which are not quite so rapid or sensitive. For the proposed operations, eirher slow or ordinary dry plates or lantern plates may be used ; probably you have some dry plates or rigid cut films by you left over from the summer, so make a start with these by way of experiment. Place your 52 To make Bad Negatives into Good negative in a printing-frame just as if about to make a print, but instead of super-imposing a piece of printing- paper, substitute a dry plate, putting negative and plate film to film, doing this, of course, in the dark room ; then close the back of the frame, and, se- curely covering the frame so that no light can get to it, light a candle, or the gas-burner if your dark room is pro- vided with one ; then, at a distance of about two or three feet from this light, uncover the printing-frame, and make an exposure of, let us say, twenty seconds. Again cover up the frame, or turn it face down on the table, extin- guish the candle or gas, and proceed to develop the dry plate which you have thus exposed, precisely in the ordinary way. You are accustomed to see the image in your negatives come up, high lights, such as the sky, first, because these have received the most light action ; but you must remember that, in your negative which you have been print- ing from, the sky and high lights are the densest portions, and these pro- tect the sensitive plate from light action ; consequently the reverse oc- curs, the sky remaining unchanged whilst the other parts gradually make their appearance. When you judge development to have progressed far enough, transfer the plate to a fixing-bath, and finally wash it. Now what do we find ? On the glass To make Bad Negatives into Good 53 plate is a print ; the sky or other high lights are clear glass, or nearly so, and if you were to lay the plate on white paper you would hardly know it from a print, and because it is the reverse of a negative we call it a positive. If in making this you have only exposed the plate just long enough, you will have a positive possessing all those faults which made the original negative useless and started us on the present experiment ; but if you have exposed too long, then the light will have had time to penetrate the dense parts of the negative, and instead of clear glass for sky we shall get more or less of a slight grey tint, whilst the portions which might otherwise be black — the houses, trees, etc. — will have had time to print, and more than print ; that is, start reversing in the manner I have tried to make clear. Then, the darkest tones returning and the lighter ones still progressing, we reduce the degree of contrast of which we at first had reason to complain. From what has already been said you should know that development may have a good deal to do in giving a too vigorous or “ contrasty ” effect, or a flatter and weaker one. In the present case you may over-expose to the requisite degree, and still defeat your purpose by using a strong developer, which would immediately give the ex- cessive contrast you are trying to cure. So remember to keep the developer 54 To make Bad Negatives into Good weak, diluting it with perhaps its own bulk of water. But, say you, what is the use of a print on glass, even if it is of better quality than could have been obtained on paper ? Wait a bit. Having suc- ceeded in making a positive in which the faults of the negative are dimi- nished, if not entirely cured, you have at your disposal the means of making the new negative, which is to replace the bad original one, and, incidentally, you have a glass positive which is neither more nor less than a lantern slide ; therefore, take care of it — fix it and wash it as thoroughly as you would your most precious negative, set it on one side, for I shall refer to it later, after we have made the new negative. You must now dry your positive, either by leaving it to dry of its own accord, in which case operations must be suspended until next day, or, which will perhaps be preferable, by immers- ing it in methylated spirit for five or ten minutes, after which the plate should dry in another ten minutes ; then proceed exactly as before, when you made the positive from the negative, but, using your positive and a new plate, the result will be a negative. In grammar we are told that two negatives make a positive, but in photo- graphy we find a negative and a plate give a positive, and a positive and a plate in turn give a negative. To make Bad Negatives into Good 55 Of course, what held good in the case of the positive as regards exposure and development influencing the amount of contrast in the resulting image holds good now, and so, if the original fault of too much contrast has not been suffi- ciently overcome in the single process of making the positive, similar steps may be taken again now, and what perhaps could not be wholly accom- plished at one step can be achieved in two. At the outset a trial print from the condemned negative should be made on P.O.P. or other convenient paper. Do not make it carelessly ; you will want it as a guide, and if it is poor and badly done, why, of course, it will be a bad guide and mislead you ; tone it and fix it, but if you are very impatient a comparatively short washing will serve, as you will probably not want to keep it for long. Now, when you have made your transparent positive as directed in the foregoing, you compare it with the print, and see at once whether, as the result of long exposure and weak developer, you have obtained a softer image. If it is in your opinion soft enough, then you have only to take care that in making the new negative you retain just that same amount of softness, and you can be sure that all future prints made from it will be of the same quality as your transparent positive. It is a case of things that are equal to the same thing are equal to 56 To make Bad Negatives into Good one another. On the other hand, if you feel that you would like your ultimate picture to have still less contrast, you have merely to behave with regard to the exposure and development of the new negative as you did when making the transparent positive ; expose rather longer than you think is required, and develop with a developer in which you have put at least twice the amount of water prescribed by the formula, and unless you have a very bad case to deal with you ought to thus secure a new negative giving you all you want. I do not think there is anything more to be said on this matter, but in the matter of improving of negatives there is one often-neglected operation, which should be mentioned here. The simple art of 46 spotting ” is very powerful to convert an indifferent negative into a good one, or rather, it will cause a negative, which fails to give a print that pleases, to produce a quite satis- factory one, and in a manner which may very well cause surprise. You may have a negative in which there are a number of long, transparent spots in the sky portion. You hardly notice them perhaps at first, and it hardly occurs to you that these will show in the print; but, sure enough, they do, like little ink splutterings. Then there may be small, circular spots not quite so bright and clear as the others, but still much thinner than anything else in the negative ; To make Bad Negatives into Good 57 and these, of course, print as dark circles or spots. These can be cured in so complete and legitimate a manner that it is a pity not to cure them ; but if you have a case of an irregular patch on the negative due to unequal development, or arising from your negative not having dried uniformly, why, I am not going to tell you how to remedy that ; because you cannot — at least, not satisfactorily. You may dodge it, or manoeuvre so as to make it show much less in the print than at first, but no straight rules to meet such cases can be given, and it is rarely worth while. But specks and spots are different. The removal of the little transparent specks in the sky and elsewhere is called “ spotting,” and consists of filling them up one by one with a very fine-pointed camel-hair brush charged with a suitable water-colour paint. Of course, it would be very nice to get a paint the exact same colour as the negative itself, so that, when we had filled up the spots, they would entirely disappear and become homogeneous with the rest of the sky, or whatever part of the negative they are in. This, however, seems hardly possible, be- cause, if the colour matched, there would sure to be a little overlapping which would show. Hence the gener- ally adopted plan is to “ spot out ” the little holes, which look like 58 To make Bad Negatives into Good pin-pricks, with an entirely opaque colour. A steady hand and some patience, together with a light touch, are neces- sary. It is best to set the negative in a retouching desk, if you have one ; if not, it can be placed against the glass of a window, so that you look through it towards the light. Then, mixing a little moist water-colour paint — a red or a black being prefer- able — just touch the little spots one by one. When this is done it is curious what a tidying-up effect it will produce ; the negative at once looks smoother and more acceptable. Now when this is printed from these little opaque spots will show in the picture as little white spots, and now the spotting opera- tion is repeated, this time matching the colour of the print exactly, touch- ing out each spot and making it invisible. Do you know the effect of removing white daisies from the surface of a smooth green lawn ? Well, taking out these white spots is like that — the print, like the lawn, at once looks smoother and more even. Specks and spots in a photograph are an abomination, and all the more so because they can be so easily removed. And what about the other blemishes I spoke of — the circular, semitransparent spots ? These are larger, and are not quite clear glass, and hence it is not To make Bad Negatives into Good 59 necessary to 4 4 spot ” these out solid. If we did the white spot caused on the print might be difficult to paint out. To deal with these satisfactorily, I think a simple form of retouching desk will be all but essential ; also, you will require a little bottle of retouching medium. Touch each spot to be obliterated, on the film side, of course, with a tiny speck of retouching medium — you can apply it with the end of the cork of the bottle or with the tip of your finger, immediately rubbing it smooth, and spreading the medium so as to cover the whole area of the spot with the soft part of the hand, taking care, how- ever, that your cuff or finger-ring do not scratch the film. Then, placing the negative in the retouching desk, take a hard lead pencil, H or HH, and make a very fine long point. Poising the pencil so that the point can be made to just rest on the film, but not holding it so as to impart any appreciable pressure, let the point work in very tiny circular scrolls all over the spot. At first you may see no re- sult, but as the pencil-point continues to work round and round you will gradually find the spot gaining in density, and it is for you to so guide the pencil as to fill up the area with an even tint of exactly the same depth as the surrounding film. This is 44 Re- touching,” a subject to which I hope to devote a Little Book later on ; but it seemed appropriate to mention just 60 To make Bad Negatives into Good this much in this connection, as the removal of circular spots due to bubbles in the developer, or some other un- known cause, will go a long way to- wards making a bad negative into a good one* Printed by Ha tell, IVatson 4r Viney, Ld, , London and Aylesbury. The Delicate Sheen of this grade has been universally admired* Its Surface is semi-glossy# and coated with the unrivalled VELOX Emulsion# pro- vides a matchless printing medium for all negatives* With “ VIGOROUS " ART VELOX, weak# thin nega- tives give# without intensification# ad- mirable results. With “ SOFT ” ART VELOX, harsh and so-called chalky negatives print well# with full detail. 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