This is the “biggest little thing” in painting that probably has ever
been presented to amateur artists. For beauty of arrangement, ease and
simplicity in its execution, no branch of art work of a similar nature
has ever met with like success. With a fair idea of colors and their
application, you may increase the beauty and enhance the value ten fold
of any ordinary photograph, by following these instructions. To produce
a first-class picture, you must necessarily have a good subject to work
on. A photograph that will take a variety of colors, is best adapted for
a showy picture.
Before applying the colors to a burnished or finished photograph, soften
or cleanse the surface with the tongue until the saliva wets the picture
evenly, without crawling; oxide gall is good, but saliva is the best for
this purpose.
For a palette on which to mix or dilute colors, the bottom of a plate or
saucer will answer. Always have a piece of blotting paper at hand to
take up or remove superfluous paint from the picture, and use it after
each application of color to the photograph.
It is not necessary to mix paints on a palette, washing one color over
another will produce better results. A tint is a color absorbed in the
picture, and washing or wetting will not remove it. A surface color
remains on top, and water will remove it. You can use colors stronger
over the shadows. Use just what liquid you will find on the cork of the
bottle, added to about one teaspoonful of water, for flesh; for
draperies you can use it stronger, or as you desire.
The liquid colors are mostly used, and consist of twelve one ounce
bottles, and are very powerful. Therefore, make your application very
weak, a mere tint only is required. Repeat the washing or tinting until
the desired shade is produced. The colors used are as follows: Black,
Red, Blue, Green, Carmine, Gold, Brown, Violet, Orange, Purple and
Lemon, all of which are transparent, soluble in water, and used as
tinting colors. White is a surface color, and opaque.
For Flesh—Use first a weak wash or tint of gold; over this a tint of
red, a little stronger for the lips.
White—This is always used last for high lights; you can make the white
any tint by use of other colors.
Black—Can be used for a natural tint if toned down; valuable for all
kinds of shading.
Red—Takes readily, and produces all tints from rose to scarlet; used in
flesh.
Carmine—A delicate pink to magenta.
Gold—Takes readily; is a substitute for yellow; used for jewelry, flesh,
blonde hair, etc.; use weak, and wash over with red for deeper results.
Brown—Takes readily; darkened by tinting over with violet or black.
Violet—Takes on touch, and is very powerful; first application very weak
to insure even coloring; it makes all tints from lilac to purple, etc.
Blue—Takes slowly; repeat the washing for deep results.
Green—Takes easily, lighten by washing over with gold; darken with the
blue; always let your first wash or tint be very weak; increase as
desired by repeating.
The colors in moist cake form are often used, but the liquids are
preferable. Sable brushes, about Nos. 3, 8 and 12, are sufficient for
ordinary purposes.
HOW TO MAKE PHOTOGRAPHS
BY THE
GELATINE DRY-PLATE PROCESS
The latest and =most= rapid advance in the art is due to the discovery
of the sensitiveness of a gelatine film. This knowledge has been
practically applied in the introduction of plates prepared with such a
coating; they are called “dry plates,” to distinguish them from plates
which must pass through the silver bath, and be used while wet. The
gelatine-bromide dry plates are now in general use for taking pictures
of out-door scenes, landscapes, houses, groups of people, etc. To make
photographs, =First Procure an Outfit= from a dealer in photograph
requisites, costing from ten to twenty-five dollars, consisting of a
view camera, for making 4×5 or 5×8 inch pictures. This camera is so
constructed as to make either a picture on the full size of the plate
(5×8 inches), or by substituting the extra front (supplied with the
outfit), and using the pair of lenses of shorter focus, it is admirably
adapted for taking stereoscopic negatives. Also, by the same
arrangements, two small pictures, of dissimilar objects, can be made on
the same plate. Included in the outfit, are also one patent double
dry-plate holder, one large achromatic nickel plated lens, one pair
“Waterbury” achromatic matched stereoscopic lens, one Taylor folding
tripod, one carrying case.
=Filling the Plate Holder.= If this is done in the daytime, a closet or
room is selected, and all white light excluded from it. It is difficult
to make this exclusion absolute. One ray of white light will spoil a
sensitive plate, and therefore the evening is generally chosen to
develop negatives, and for illumination, the light from a ruby lantern
is employed.
Gelatine Plates are glass, with one side coated with gelatine,
containing a haloid salt. Place one of them in a dry-plate holder, with
the sensitive (or the coated) side facing outward. Handle the plates by
the edge, between the thumb and fore finger, without touching the sides.
After putting into the holders as many plates as are needed for the
day’s work, pack the outfit so that it can be carried about.
=Taking the Picture.= For field service a camera, a number of plate
holders, filled with sensitive plates, a lens, tripod, carrying case,
and focussing cloth are needed. When these have been taken to the place
which you want to photograph, fasten the camera on the tripod, throw the
focussing cloth over your head, gather it under your chin, draw out the
back of the camera, thus extending the bellows, and continue the
movement until the image on the ground glass appears distinct, then
fasten the back of the camera. This is called “focussing.” At the first
glance, an inexperienced person sees no reflection on the ground glass,
but the eye soon becomes practiced to perceiving the inverted image
there. Substitute a plate holder for the ground glass, see that the cap
is on the lens, pull the slide out of the holder, place it on the top of
the camera, or in a convenient place. If everything is now in readiness,
and the time for exposing the sensitive plate determined, uncap the
lens, re-capping it at the end of the allotted time, and replacing the
slide in the holder. After you have picture impressions on each
sensitive film, pack your outfit and return home.
=Making Negatives.= Amateurs may content themselves with making the
exposures, and sending their plates in a light, tight, negative box, to
some photographer, who will produce the finished picture, and mount them
on cards. It is not necessary that this should be done at once, months
may elapse, and these dry plates be carried hundreds of miles.
The chemical outfit for making negatives comprises the following items:
Two vulcanite trays, a glass graduate, a set of small scales, and
weights for weighing chemicals, a ruby lantern, a bottle of varnish, a
package of dry plates and of chemicals, a small quantity of bromide of
ammonium, neutral oxalate of potash, protosulphate of iron, hyposulphite
of soda, alum, and sulphuric acid. These chemicals are not dangerous,
neither will they injure any one who handles them, and they do not emit
offensive odors. Silver stains, and the disagreeable smell of collodion
belong to the old or “wet” process.
At a convenient time take the plate holder into the dark room,
illuminate it with ruby light, take the sensitive plates out of the
holders, being careful not to touch their surfaces. Hold them by the
edge. Place one of the sensitive plates, film side up, in a tray partly
filled with water. While it remains there, mix this solution: Neutral
oxalate of potash, 5 ounces; bromide of potassium, 20 grains; water, 20
ounces. If the solution does not turn blue litmus paper red, add a few
drops of oxalic acid, enough to make it do so. A graduated glass is used
to measure out the liquids. After rinsing the glass out, mix a second
solution made as follows: Protosulphate of iron, 5 ounces; water, 20
ounces; and acidulate it with 20 drops of sulphuric acid. Both of these
solutions keep well. Now combine a quarter of an ounce of the latter
solution with two ounces of the former and mix them well. Pour off the
water in the tray containing the gelatine plates. Be certain not to
touch the sensitive side of the plate. Flow the combined developing
solution over the plate and displace, by a touch of your finger, any air
bubbles that may form. After a short time traces of the image on the
sensitive film will appear. If they do not, pour the developing solution
back into the tray and add a quarter of an ounce more of the iron
solution. Pour the strengthened solution over the plate and look at it
intently. In a short time the details of the picture may be dimly seen.
Wait patiently till the milky white appearance is changed to a grey
color, and then pour off the developer into a developing bottle, if you
have one. Wash the plate in two changes of water. In the unused tray mix
a solution composed of 4 ounces of hyposulphite of soda and 20 ounces of
water. (Label this tray “Hypo.,” and do not use it for any other
purpose.) A plate lifter is a convenient device for taking plates out of
the solutions or baths. Change the plate to the hypo. tray, and let it
remain there until every vestige of the milky white appearance has
vanished, even from the under surface of the plate. The plate can now be
examined by white light, which has no effect upon it at this stage. Wash
it thoroughly. A negative washing box will be found to be of great
assistance. If this washing of the plate is not done thoroughly, the
hyposulphite of soda crystals will adhere to the plate and mar the
picture. Meanwhile rinse out the tray first in use and partially fill it
with a solution consisting of 20 ounces of water and all the alum it
will hold in solution. Allow the plate to remain in the alum bath five
minutes. Cleanse your hands from any adhering soda solution. Again wash
the plate, and set it on edge to dry in a negative rack.
All the preceding instructions can be briefly summarized.