ENLARGEMENTS.
[Sidenote: Enlargements.]
The best enlargements made for the trade are made from very
sharply-focussed negatives. In fact, some of the best enlargers take up
the negative from which the enlargement is to be made, and examine it with
a small magnifying-glass, and if any of the outlines are woolly they will
not promise a good enlargement. This, then, shows that a small negative
must be taken very sharply if it is to produce a good enlargement; that
is, it must be taken purely from that point of view, all artistic
considerations being thrown aside. It is obvious, then, from what we have
already said, that this is undesirable, for every negative should be
suited to the subject.
[Sidenote: Increased falsity of drawing.]
Enlarging, too, of course increases all falseness in drawing; if the
drawing in the different planes is wrong in the small negative, it will be
still worse in the large negative or print.
[Sidenote: Enlarging hap-hazard.]
But, it will be argued, and justly, that sometimes an enlargement is more
artistic than the small picture from which it was produced. This is
sometimes, but rarely, the case; and when such is the case, it is the
_result of chance_. You would never be able to take a negative in a
particular way so that you know for certain it will be improved by
enlarging so many diameters, and therein lies the inherent defect which
unfits this process for artistic work.
[Sidenote: The method.]
The actual process of enlarging is very simple, either by artificial light
or daylight; but it is in our opinion a needless and undesirable
proceeding.
[Sidenote: An example.]
We have made many experiments in this direction, but we have never yet
been able to get an enlargement as fine in quality as the direct
photograph. All the little subtleties which give quality to the work are
either lost or are only obtained accidentally. Not long ago we saw a
beautiful portrait—an enlargement, the print from the small negative of
which was very poor, and no one was more surprised at the improvement in
the enlargement than the photographer himself, but he could never make
sure of doing the same thing again. Therefore eschew enlargements. A
picture of fine quality, quarter-plate size, is worth a dozen enlargements
24 × 22.
[Sidenote: Tonality.]
It is only in certain very limited effects that the tonality will be true
after enlargement, and that of course constitutes another fatal objection.