Photographic paper

“ Photographic printing papers are of two classes—those which are used in direct sunlight and upon which the image gradually appears, and those which are similar to plates and which are given a very short time exposure in artificial light and the picture developed just as we should a plate. The beginner will probably have more uniform success with sunlight paper after the simple process of toning and fixing is learned, although the developing papers are extremely simple to handle and give better results. ”

“ Kineographs (popularly known as thumb books or flip books) ; and, most important of all, complete motion pictures printed on 35mm positive photographic paper rolls.
About half of the films listed in this catalog are represented in the Library’s collection of paper prints. Other films are available in other collections or are likely to be located in the future in forgotten storage places. An ingenious way has been found to rephotograph the paper prints on celluloid by the optical printing process in order that they may be put to current use. ”

“ Still another application of photography, becoming every day more and more familiar to the public, is that which produces enlarged portraits, even life-size ones, from the old daguerreotype or more recent photographic miniature. As we have seen this process, a closet is arranged as a camera-obscura, and the enlarged image is thrown down through a lens above on a sheet of sensitive paper placed on a table capable of being easily elevated or depressed. ”

“ Float the paper on this solution for about two minutes and hang it up to dry. The keeping quality of the prepared paper is remarkable; it has been kept for two years without apparent change; its sensitiveness is at least one-third greater than that of silver albumen paper. Unless developed within an hour or two, the vigor of the proof is much impaired; after twenty-four hours a print can be taken over on the same.
When exposed, only a faint image is visible. ”

“ When the paper is not well sized and not well calendered, the sensitizing solution is absorbed, instead of simply impregnating the surface of the paper, and not only the image is sunk in and its sharpness impaired, but good whites can never be obtained, especially if the image should be toned, owing to the impossibility of eliminating the metallic salts not acted on, that is, not reduced by the action of light which the fibers of the paper mechanically retain. ”

“ Photographic fat or resin prints should be treated like ordinary prints. Moisten them on the back with water—which is preferable to placing them between moistened blotting-paper, since the drawing does not grow too wet—and wait till they are easily flexible. Drops of water on the film can and often do destroy the proof. ”

“ To render this paper still more sensitive, it must again be washed with salt and water, and afterwards with the same solution of nitrate of silver, drying it between times. This paper, if carefully made, is very useful for all ordinary photographic purposes. For example, nothing can be more perfect than the images it gives of leaves and flowers, especially with a summer's sun; the light, passing through the leaves, delineates every ramification of their fibres. ”

“ The commonest form of print is on paper, although the most satisfactory print from the photographic standpoint is the transparency on glass or celluloid film.
Transparencies.—Transparencies are made by the regular photographic processes of exposure and development, on glass plates or films placed in contact with the negative, or in the appropriate position in an enlarging camera. The sensitometry and the terms used to describe the qualities of plate or film for this purpose are those already given in connection with the general discussion of plates and films. ”

“ Exposure.—To print, the tissue is laid over the negative, taking care that it covers the safe edge, and a strip of silvered paper placed in the photometer, then both the printing frame and the photometer are exposed to light side by side.
Unless the negative be weak, when more vigor is obtained by exposing in sunshine, the printing should be done in the shade. ”

“ If a very few sheets are to be manipulated upon, then, for economy, the glass rod is preferable; but if several, the floating has the advantage, because it ensures the most even application. I sent you a short paragraph (Vol. ix., p. 32.) showing how we may be deceived in water-marks upon paper; and when we are supposing ourselves to be using a paper of a particular date, in fact we are not doing so.
I would also caution your photographic correspondents from being deceived in the quality of a paper by the exceeding high gloss which is given it by extra hot-pressing. ”

“ Is the paper, when removed from the water, to be partially dried with blotting-paper, and used in its damp state? or will it keep, and how long?
6. What is the probable time of exposure in the camera?
7. How is the picture developed? and, finally, how fixed?
John James.
Difficulties in the Wax-paper Process.—Can any of your photographic correspondents give me some hints regarding the following difficulties, which I (in common with many other amateurs) have met with in working according to Le Gray's wax-paper process? ”

“ The effect of the unequal expansion of paper, when wetted, in causing distortion of the photographic image impressed upon it, has, in the case of ordinary photographs upon albumenized paper, been well recognized ”

“ For special objects, also, photographs can be sent by telegraph through the use of the photo-relief in plaster of Paris, or other suitable material, which travels backwards and forwards underneath a pointer, the rising and falling of which is accurately represented by thick and thin lines—or by the darker and lighter photographic printing of a beam of light of varying intensity—at the other end, so that a shaded reproduction of the photograph is produced. ”

“ The basis for the preparation of a photo-litho is as a rule a photographic negative on glass or gelatine, which, as the word negative implies, when examined by transmitted light, must have all its tones reversed, that is to say, the drawing or the lines, strokes or points which must in the print be black, must look transparent, whilst the other part of the negative which forms the groundwork must be covered or opaque. ”

“ At this juncture, photography, particularly in its form of photo-zincography, steps in, and offers the means of doing for the amateur of ancient and curious literature, for maps and MSS., precisely what the printing-press does for the great body of readers. All we need is that the obstacles which still render this process expensive, except when applied to objects in great demand, should be removed, that the scholar should be enabled to procure a cheap photographic reproduction as easily as the general reader can obtain a cheap book. ”

“ If you wish to derive any pleasure from photography, you would better drop the old-fashioned paper process, and turn your attention to ferrotypes, or negatives on glass, as with them good results are more easily obtained than with paper. ”

“ When a photo-lithograph like a pen and ink drawing is to be prepared from a coloured picture, or from a sepia or Indian ink wash drawing of a plastic object or a photograph from nature, or from an object not suitable for photographic reproduction an autotypic transfer is to be prepared, a proof of the desired object must be first prepared, and then from this the drawing is to be made. ”

“ To have the negative reversed, the print should first be placed, face out, against the glass of the printing frame, with its back against the sensitive surface of the transparency plate, the back closed in and exposed to a large lamp for about five seconds. Every care must be taken that you use the best of negatives, carefully retouched if necessary, as the professional photographic etchers have informed me that (from their standpoint) the success of the whole process depends on the quality of the original negative and the care taken in artistic retouching. ”

“ The operations of photography serve to make us understand how it is that the sun presides over chemical action in the vegetable world. What is photography? What does that curious phenomenon which fixes a drawing formed by light upon a sheet of paper, consist of? A paper steeped in chloride or iodide of silver is placed in the focus of the lens of a dark camera, and the image formed by the lens is made to fall upon paper sprinkled with water. ”

“ But how much more popular and useful does photography become, when it can be used as a means of securing plates from which to print photographs in a regular printing press, and, what is more astonishing and delightful, to produce the real colors of nature as shown in the subject, no matter how brilliant or varied. ”

“ Art would be too austere if it were not for the makers of etchings and lithographs, of pastels and water-colours.
Photography, the latest arrival in the ranks of the graphic arts, has the widest range of expression, and its technique is interesting as far as it can express mechanically and with [Pg 171] comparative ease gradations of tone that without visible touches, marks, strokes or lines melt imperceptibly into each other. But this smoothness of texture will also be its most formidable drawback. There is no chance for manual expression without destroying the charm of photographic texture. ”

“ When they are required, the above solution of silver is to be plentifully applied, and the paper placed wet in the camera, the greatest care being taken that no day light--not even the faintest gleam--falls upon it until the moment when you are prepared, by removing the dark slide, to permit the light, radiating from the object you wish to copy, to act in producing the picture. ”

“ Should it be required to be still more nicely mounted, and to appear to have been one and the same paper originally, the back edges of the picture should, previous to laying on the paste, be rubbed down to a fine and knife-like edge with a piece of the finest sand-paper placed on a wine cork, or substance of a similar size. The drawing-paper should be of the same shade and tint as the ground of the photograph. ”

“ If you have selected a burnished and mounted photograph wet its surface with saliva; unburnished photographs, photogravures and engravings do not require this treatment, but in coloring them it will be necessary to mix a weak solution of gum arabic with the colors to prevent their penetrating the paper. If printed on too thin a paper the photogravure or engraving should be mounted. ”

“ Has the English public never heard of ‘Magic photography?’ Just a few years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. ”

“ An impression is made with black printing ink on paper by passing it through the hand press. The black impression approved of by the lithographer, the stone is again cleaned with turpentine and proved in the color required, and so with each color-plate, until the proof is complete. When photography is employed, the half-tone negative takes the place of the key. ”

“ By extending each sheet between the light and the eye, and slowly moving it up and down, and from left to right, the variations in its texture will be seen by the different quantities of light which pass through it in different parts; and it is always the safest course to reject every sheet in which inequalities exist. Paper sometimes contains minute portions of thread, black or brown specks, and other imperfections, all of which materially interfere with the process. ”

“ And in the near future it will be a great acquisition when it is once generally recognized that colour plates can be prepared by photographic means without any considerable amount of manual or artistic help. It is the more to be wondered at that photo-lithography has not yet found that extension and general use which it in so high a degree deserves. ”

“ COLLODION PORTRAITS AND VIEWS obtained with the greatest ease and certainty by using BLAND & LONG'S preparation of Soluble Cotton; certainty and uniformity of action over a lengthened period, combined with the most faithful rendering of the half-tones, constitute this a most valuable agent in the hands of the photographer.
Albumenized paper, for printing from glass or paper negatives, giving a minuteness of detail unattained by any other method, 5s. per Quire. ”

“ Copy for Illustrations.—Drawings and photographs, which are discussed more fully later, should not be inserted in the manuscript, because illustrations are sent to the engraver at the same time that the manuscript is sent to the printer. Small drawings should be pasted on separate sheets of paper, one drawing to the sheet, but large drawings and photographs should not be treated in this manner. Mounted photographs are entirely satisfactory, but unmounted photographs should not be pasted on sheets or mounted, except by an expert. ”

“ A photographic artist strives for the same end and in two points only does he fall short of the painter—in color and in the ability to render so accurately the relative values, although this is to a great extent compensated by the tone of the picture. How then is photography superior to etching, wood-cutting, charcoal drawing? The [pg 178] drawing of the lens is not to be equalled by any man. There is ample room for selection, judgment and posing, and, in a word, in capable hands a finished photograph is a work of art. ”

“ If the high light as shown in the ground glass is over the ridge detail on the skin, a poor photograph will result. If the high light cannot be removed by rearranging the lights, then reflected light should be tried.
In order to effect reflected light a large piece of white paper, cardboard, or similar material is used. A hole is cut in the center of the paper or cardboard. This must be big enough for the camera lens to protrude through. The ends of the paper or board are curved toward the skin or finger to be photographed. ”