Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-21
HOW THEY MAKE NEGATIVES


how 1 run my studio, because 1 haven't
any studio to run. But 1 am going
to tell how some of the other fellows
run their studios, or at least that part
of the establishment which concerns
itself with the making of the funda-
mental of portraiture, the negative.
This l can do because 1 happen to
have had the opportunity to observe
the widely differing methods of SO
many professional workers.
The negative should be regarded as
the vital part of Photographic work.
Be your operator never so expert,
your printer never so skillful, if the
dark room man does his work improp-
erly, the resulting print will be lacking
in those qualities for which customers
pay you good money.
There are almost as many develop
ment systems today as there aIe men
working them, but, in broad classi-
fication, they are resolved into tray
development, local or brush develop
ment, tank development, and factorial
development, a combination of tray
and tank.
Tray development needs no eXposi-
tion here; it is the old system of half
dozen pans filled with new developer
old developer, carbonate solution, bro
mide solution, warm and cool water,
ETC., etc. 1t still produces good mega
tives, but, as is admitted now by all
expert Photographic chemists, in spite
of, and not because of, the manipula-
tion of the plate from tray to tray.
Tank development is the most mod
ern of methods for the development of
plates in the studio; and the enor-
nous manufacture and sale of the
necessary apparatus in the past few
years has shown that it has come to
stay. 1t is nothing more nor less than
the development of all negatives in
weak solution for normal time, the
solution having a normal temperature
and normal constitution The word
normal in this respect must be TAX
en- as meaning correct for the results
desired. Any solution of any strength
or any temperature, which, acting for
any time whatever, produces The kind
of negative you desire, Is normal.
Inasmuch as almost all plates, and
particularly all those commonly used
for portraiture, have many things i'll
common differing in degree and not in
kind, certain set factors in tank de-
velopment are generally acceE .ei as
normal. For instance, anything in
temperature above seventy or below
siXty-five degrees, is not normal, and
any developer working in quicker Time
than ten minutes or slower than one
hour is no longer a normal tank So
luton. The general acceptance Of the
word normal, as applied to negative,
means, of course, that negative which
produces the print you want on the
paper you use, with the least e!tort,
masking, and expenditure of time.
Factorial development is the treat
ment accorded a plate in a tray OF
solution of known strength at known
, temperature, in which the time of the
first appearance of the ina Sc is not
ed, which time, in seconds, is multi
piled by a certain number known as
the factor of the plate, the result being
the total time of immersion of the
plate in the developer. 1t has been
largely superseded by the tank meth
cd proper, as being easier and quick
er, but factorial development, proper
ly worked, has always produced good
negatives.
The tray worker should have no diff
ficulty in choosing between tank and
factorial systems, if desirious of MAX
ing a change since both produce COOL
negatives, but the one-tank--nlu ch
more easily and with less possibility Of
error than the other. There is no com
petition between either tank o" fac
torial development and brush work,
the latter being highly specialize ID
sytsem of individual treatment, re-
quiring much practice, good taste and
judgment, and considerable intuition,
while both tank and factorial work are
largely automatic in their working.
For this reason, after having out
lined the various systems, it seems ad-
visable to note here more particularly
some of the various notifications Of
0fi iOn nc in RI