PREPARING A LANDSCAPE NEGATIVE FOR PRINTING.
Landscape negatives are rarely ever in perfect harmony for printing,
and much may be done by judicious doctoring of the best of negatives
to secure the best of prints. With moderate negatives it is absolutely
essential that they should be improved. Let us take the example of a
hard landscape negative, which if printed so that the deep shades should
show detail, would show none in the high lights.
A piece of thin tissue paper (the kind known as _papier minerale_ is
the best), of the size of the negative, is damped evenly with a sponge,
and carefully pasted on the back of the negative. The negative is then
held up to the light, and the high lights carefully traced with a
faint line by means of a pencil. These are then cut out by means of a
sharp penknife, and a trial print taken in the shade. If it be found
that the shadows still print too deeply when the detail in the high
light is visible, another thickness of tissue paper may be applied,
cutting out this time, perhaps, the high lights and the half tones.
Another trial print will show whether the object is attained. If still
not satisfactory, crayon in powder from the scrapings of a stick of
crayon, or blacklead, may be applied by a stump to the parts requiring
it. It may happen that the effects of the tissue paper may be seen in
the print by the light penetrating beneath it, and causing the edges
of the shadows to print too dark. In this case, which may arise from
the negative being taken on a thin glass plate, the parts covering the
high lights, and which were cut out, should be indented with a jagged
edge such as this, the dotted line showing where the cut would come if
it had been cut out in a clean sharp line. Another mode which we have
sometimes found successful, though care is required in employing it, is
to coat the back of the plate with a very dilute emulsion of a quarter
the ordinary consistency, then to expose it, through the negative, and
develop with one of the ordinary alkaline developers (we prefer the
ferrous oxalate),[19] and then fix. This last film may be protected with
a layer of albumen 1 part of albumen to 25 parts of water. By this means
the shadows become subdued and the contrasts diminished, and there is no
danger of any sharp demarcations in the shades being apparent.
[Illustration: _Fig._ 16.]
There is one way of improving a hard negative, if taken on a gelatine
plate, which would probably be dangerous in the hands of a novice, but
which is most effective when used with skill and judgment, but must be
applied before the plate is varnished. One of the most popular methods
of reducing the density of an over-intensified gelatine negative is with
a very weak solution of perchloride of iron. The writers have found that
the reducing agent may be applied locally. Let us suppose the case of a
figure in a landscape in a light dress, which produces a white patch in
the print. The negative should be placed in a dish of water, then lifted
up until the part to be reduced is just above the level of the water;
a solution of perchloride of iron should then be applied to the part
with a camel's-hair pencil, care being taken that it does not spread
over the edges or run down the negative. When this is found to be taking
place, the plate should be allowed to fall into the water; it can then
be lifted again, and the operation proceeded with. It is not easy to
give any strength for the solution of perchloride of iron, but it is
best to begin weak, and strengthen as required. A saturated solution has
been used in an obstinate case without any mischief being done, but this
required very careful watching.
For landscapes, Mr. England has successfully used a strong solution
of cyanide of potassium with the same object. He moistens the parts
of the gelatine plates which require reduction with water applied by
a paint-brush, and afterwards, with another, applies the cyanide. The
reduction can be watched as it progresses, and by a judicious use of the
brush no sharp line of demarcation between the reduced and unaltered
parts is visible.
With a thin negative the tissue paper may be applied as before, only
in this case the shadows are left bare, the half tones have one
thickness of tissue paper over them, the highest lights two or three. An
emulsion may be used in this case as well, only instead of fixing the
transparency which is at the back, the precipitated silver is dissolved
away by nitric acid, and the developer applied again. By this means,
the density in the high lights may be doubled if required. It must
again be repeated, that in all cases the use of emulsion requires great
care, seeing that if any get on the varnished surface, markings are
sure to occur. It sometimes happens, especially with gelatine plates,
that the corners of one side of a negative print too dark. This is very
visible in sky and sea pictures. The careful application of blacklead
on the tissue paper on the back of the plate may often save a beautiful
negative that would be otherwise useless.
In most landscape negatives there is a want of atmosphere (by which
we mean the haze always present in the air) in the distance and middle
distances, and we have found that by applying one piece of tissue-paper
to the back of the negative to cover the middle distance and distances,
and another to cover the distance alone, atmospheric effect is produced.
The effect of atmosphere is usually shown by grey tones as compared
with those of the foreground, and the greyer they are the more distant
should the objects be away in nature. This effect is accomplished by the
tissue-paper. It must, however, be remembered that the lights of distant
objects are greyer than those of the foreground, hence the tissue paper
must be used with judgment to prevent the distant lights from appearing
too white. This sometimes is effected by giving _the lights in the
foreground_ a covering of tissue paper. We very much doubt if there
exists any landscape negative which would not be improved by the use of
tissue paper, since photography often tends to do away with atmosphere.
We have, in some cases, strengthened the high lights on the film side
with the paint-brush and Prussian blue. This requires skill, and should
be done very sparingly. It may be objected that when these artifices
are resorted to, that the photograph must of necessity fail in regard
to truthfulness. The answer to this objection is quite easy to give.
If a photograph were true in itself, they should never be resorted to,
but since it always falls short of the truth, it is quite legitimate to
give it the effect that a perfect process would do, by which we mean one
in which the intensity of the negative is exactly proportional to the
intensity of the light producing it.
It has been shown in the PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS of 1877, that the
gradations of a negative are never perfect, and the use of the tissue
paper, &c., makes it more nearly in accord with nature.
These remarks, of course, have reference only to what we might call "a
good printing negative;" the advisability of doctoring poor negatives
is scarcely open to argument. Improve as much as you like, but be very
careful not to overdo it.