DODGING, VIGNETTING, COMPOSITE PRINTING AND THE USE OF BOLTING SILK
Of all printing processes, bromide enlarging offers the best opportunities
for successful dodging and modification. We can cut our light down and
take all the time we want, or we can take as little time as we want. A
hand, a finger, a slip of paper, or anything within reach, will suffice to
shade the light just as we want it. In this connection it is well to
always hold the shade nearer the lens than the easel, as greater diffusion
results and there is less danger of sharp lines. In shading a foreground
to bring up a dense sky, first make a test-strip or two, noting how long
the shading is carried on and how long the light is allowed to act on the
whole. If the sky is then over- or under-printed we can modify it in the
enlargement proper.
The best arrangement for vignetting in enlarging is a piece of cardboard
the size of the negative, with an opening cut out at the proper place and
about the size of the portion of the negative to be vignetted. This is
held near the lens and moved backward and forward between the latter and
the screen, the opening showing larger as we near the lens and smaller as
we recede from it. Very tasteful vignettes can be made in this way. A
favorite method of the writer's is to use a sheet of bromide paper,
preferably that with rough surface, and print on it a small vignette of a
portion of a negative. These sheets being of a uniform size are then bound
in book form, and make very attractive souvenirs. Variety can be added to
the collection by printing some of the pictures through a mat fastened on
the screen over the paper, when, of course, they are bounded by straight,
sharp lines.
Double printing in enlarging is not at all difficult. Assuming that
test-strips have been made determining the proper exposure for each
negative, I will briefly outline the process. Taking a landscape negative
with clear sky in which we wish to print clouds, we first tack on the
screen a sheet of paper the size of our bromide, and after properly
adjusting and focusing it, trace with a pencil the outline of the skyline.
We then remove the foreground negative and, after tracing, cut out a mask
conforming to the size and shape of the foreground, cutting away the sky.
We now put in the box the sky negative, and readjust our sheet of paper
until after proper focusing the desired portion of the sky occupies the
portion reserved for it, leaving the thumb-tacks as a guide when we put
our bromide on the screen. Now using the sheet of paper as a guide, place
on the edges of the bromide paper two little pencil marks to show how far
we shall shade the lower portion of the paper. Our mask being the size of
the foreground negative, it is now only necessary to hold it at the proper
distance from the lens to have its edge conform to the sky-line when
enlarged. But this would leave a sharp line if held exactly at that point,
so using the pencil marks on the margin as a guide, we slowly raise and
lower the mask very slightly and just sufficient to cause an agreeable
blending of the sky into nothing. The proper exposure given, we cap the
lens, remove the paper and insert the foreground negative. Now we must
again adjust our sheet of plain paper until the sky line marked on it
coincides with the sky-line on the screen, leaving thumb-tacks as usual.
Registry being thus secured, we simply expose the foreground and develop
the composite print.
Needless to say, our clouds must be lighted from the same general
direction as the landscape. But if in the negative they are not so lighted
it can be reversed in the holder and will then print properly. In almost
all cloud printing the tendency is to give undue prominence to the clouds
by printing the sky to too deep a tone. This, besides making the blending
very noticeable at the horizon, results in unnatural effects and should be
avoided.
If the sky portion of the landscape negative is thin, it might print
slightly and spoil the effect of the clouds. This can be overcome by using
a weaker light in enlarging. Where this is not desirable, a mask can be
cut for the sky portion and used slightly while the foreground is being
printed. By using it a very little during the first part of the exposure
the tint will be overcome, while objects projecting above the horizon will
be sufficiently printed. It will be found easier, no doubt, to print the
landscape first and sky afterwards. But this does not result in good work.
The landscape should invariably be printed after the sky portion.
Bolting silk enlargements were for a time very popular. Sometimes they
were artistic. Then every-one began making them, too often from unsuitable
negatives, and they fell into disrepute. This method of enlarging is, in
fact, suitable for very few negatives and only where broad effects of
light and shade are desired. To cut up a spotty negative with a succession
of lines does not necessarily give a broad effect in the picture. But for
softening down heavy masses of shadows, and blending them harmoniously
with masses of light or half light, the process is without an equal. The
bolting silk can be bought by the square yard of dealers in photographic
supplies, and should be stretched evenly over a frame made of quarter- and
half-inch wood, being tacked between the two strips. This frame can be
easily adjusted to fit over the paper on the screen. By using the side,
bringing the cloth within a quarter of an inch of the paper, the lines are
more evident, which is not so objectionable for very large work. But for
the softest effects, reverse the frame and use it at half an inch from the
paper. In this way we get a soft diffusion of the lines and much greater
general softness. It should never be used nearer than a quarter of an
inch, as the lines then become too evident, and hence fail in the effect
desired. The bolting silk comes in three grades, fine, medium and coarse.
The medium is the best for general work. It should not, however, be used
for sizes under 8 × 10. The interposition of the cloth requires about
one-half additional exposure. Focusing, of course, must be done without
the frame in place. The bolting silk should only be used with paper which
is to be toned to some color other than black, as there is something
incongruous in its use with black tones.
Few branches of photographic work, outside of negative-making, are as
fascinatingly interesting as the making of enlarged prints on bromide
paper from small negatives. Every amateur has negatives worthy of
enlargement in his collection, and the process is so simple as to be
within the capacity of the amateur who is still in his first year in
photography. Its practice will stimulate his interest and help him in all
his other photographic work. Especially will it help him in
picture-making, the merits and defects of composition being a hundred fold
more plainly evident in an enlargement than in the small print from the
hand-camera negative. Moreover, in its essentials, bromide enlarging calls
for no special equipment other than the ordinary hand- or view-camera, and
a dark-room or other convenient work-room from which all "white light" can
be excluded on occasion.