The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-13
PHOTOGRAPHY
FOR AMATEURS.
XL-IMPRovEMENT OF
NEGATIVES.


lures to be clear. crisp and full of de-
tail. no matter what the state of the
atmosphere at the moment of expes-
ure. while others endeavor TO get gray
siludgy effects under exactly similar
conditions. A perfect negative in one
mans hands would be a failure in
those OF another
But another point to be considered is
the printing of the picture, Photo
srapherS have much choice as to the
printing medium. but unfortunately
the same negative VIII not give equally
good prints with all kinds OF papers
Glossy papers tend to give contrasting
enects. therefore the negatives for such
paper must incline to flatness. Matt
papers, all ''gaslight' printing papers.
sucn as Velox, Dei1ko, Vince, ETC.. and
| piatInotype papers, on the other hand
require contrasty negatives as they
! tend 10 natnesS. So during deyeloo-
ment we must always keep the print
ing process in mind il we hope to get
negative that viii approach perfec-
| ton.
AT this point it may be necessary to
oerne a few common terms so that
there may be no MISUNDERSTANDING az
70 my meaning A "contrasty'' or wig
orous negative is one where there is a
very decided deposit Of silver on the
| high lights or white objects and a very
tnin deposit in the shadows. II the
contrast be excessive the print will
show lack of detail in the high lights
When the shadows are sufficiently
printed, or If the high lights are Ions
IN printing the shadow detail Will be
lost by overprinting. A fiat negative
is the very reverse of a vigorous
one. Such a negative will have a lib
eral deposit Of silver all over. the re-
suit being fiat, insipid print. A
dense" negative is one that has
| liberal deposit of silver, and is easily
known by the fact that it takes a very
long time to print a chin" NEGATIVE
Is the opposite, and prints too quickly
But we may have a combination Of
I these characteristics, and we must be
able TO recognize them all in order to
/ modify them judiciously. In s7lort. we
must recognize the cause.
| UndereXposure will give contrast. but
50 will oyerdevelopmert. Overexposure
tends TO fairness. but so does underde-
velopment. OYerexpoSure tends to
hatness. but so does Acknowledgement
! We may underdevelop an underexposed
plate and underdevelop an overexposed
plate. and thus make matters worse.
We may have very dense negative
that takes long time to print. and yet
1t may give an excellent print because
we partly corrected OVereXpOSure by
overdevelODments. But q dense neg
ative that gives a ''contrasty' print in
dicateS a correct exposure ruined by
overdevelopment
Suppose we take batch Of negatives
that are not giving satisfactory prints
and see if We cannot locate the trouble.
1t might be wise to have a print be-
side us for reference. as it will likely
be a great help. Our first negative
but the high lights on the print are
simply masses of white. That is the
print is too "centrasty." Let US now
examine the negative. by holding it UP
to the sky or in front of a sheet of
white tissue paper behind which is a
lamp or gas flame. Look carefully at
the high lights and see If there be de-
tail present. and if so does it look as
if = ought to show in the print, or is
it lost in the mass Of deposit? IF It
seems as if it ought TO print and glossy
paper has been used. very likely
print on matt. platinotyDe or a gas
light paper would be all that could be
desired. But if the detail be choked
up or a print on the papers just men
toned be unsatisfactory, then the con-
trast is due to Overdevelopment, and
We must undo part Of that by the pro-
cess known as reduction" This is
described later on.
But the negative may be one that at
no stage shows detail in the shadows,
yet one which takes a long time to
print the high-light detail. An exam
inatiOn of the negative will show detail
to be absent in the shadows. Here we
have undeTeXposure combined with
overdeveIopment. The only real rem
edy for this kind of negative is a
hammer. applied very indiScriminately
Or the negative takes a long time to
print. but the resulting picture is fair,
or lust a trifle contrasty. This indi-
Gates full exposure and oyerdevelop-
ment. Reduction will improve this kind
Of negative wonderfully.
Or the negative may take a long
time to print. yet the pictures turn out
fat and lifeless. This is a case Of gross
overeXDosure combined with overdevel-
opnlent. a not uncommon complaint
Reduction will improve such neg
alive. and in a very bad case we may
carry the process sufficiently far to
get rid of some of the shadow detail,
and then recover contrast by intensity
inc what is left.
The negative may print quickly, Civ
ing plenty Of detail everywhere, and
yet the picture be fiat This indicates
underdevelopment and the remedy Is
intenSification. We may have oyerex-
posure combined with underdevelop-
ment. and in this case If is wise to get
rid of some of the shadow detail by
reduction before proceeding to inten-
sify.
It is now time to describe Sow to
conduct the operations of reduction and
intensification. They are even simpler
I 4 &c
why any amateur cannot handle them
successfully.
Reduction is usually accomplished by
means of potassium ferricyanide. COM
monty called red pT7ussiate Of potash
Remember. please, that It is a rank
poison. To use it take a crystal about
double the size of a pea and dissolve
il in about two ounces Of cold water.
Then make I'D an ordinary hypo fixing
bath and add to it enough OF the fer
ricyande solution TO make it a slight
straw color. ITnmerse the negative
previously soaked in water for about a
quarter Of an hour in this. and il viii
/ rapidly lose density. The progress may
be watched BIZ holding the negative
occasionally against the sky or the
white tissue paper heretofore described.
When sufficiently reduced the NEGATIVE
| should be as thoroughly washed as
after an ordinary fixing bath. One
point needs special notice. Daylight
| decomposes a solution Of ferricyani6e
very RAPIDLY. and therefore the tray
should rot be placed in front Of a win
dow. Whenever a solution turns green
! it is useless. Should reduction appear.
stop and add more of the ferricyanide
solution. Of course removing the neg-
alive first from the bath. and sesing
that the latter IS well mixed before the
nePative ia returned.
There are dozens of WAYS by which
the process of intensifcation can be
performed. but for the average indi-
vidusl I consider a one solution in