Evening star., 1949-12-25
Camera Angles
Procedure in Making Contact Prints
By Alexander J. Wedderburn
curotor Of Photography
The Smithsonian Institution

by Alexonoer }. WeooetDuIh
curotor Of Photography
The Smithsonian Institution
With a little practice, any one
can make a satisfactory contact
print. AS pointed out last week,
the most popular method among
amateur photographers consists
of using a printing frame which
is negative size or slightly larger.
The film is placed In contact
(emulsion to emulsion) with a
sheet Of sensitized paper and ex-
posed for a few seconds in the
frame to white light. The ex-
posed sheet is then run through
a series of three processing solu-
tions and is washed and dried.
All this is done under the safe
light so that it is very easy for
the beginner to inspect each step
of the operation. There is room
for error, of course. but even if
a print or so is ruined by over
or underexposure. little harm has
been done for the paper is mex
pensive and another print can be
made at once.
We will assume that you are
about to make your first contact
prints. To begin, get your trays
of working solutions in the proper
order. They should be lined up
in the following order: Developer,
shortstop and fixing bath. Allow
at least or 4 inches between
the trays so that there will be
no danger of splashing the chem
ical from one tray into another.
Now we are ready to go to work.
With the white light turned off
and safelight on place the mega
tive and paper in the printing
frame. The glossy or shiny side
of the negative should be placed
against the glass face of the
frame. This leaves the emulsion
side up. Now insert a sheet of
the paper, emulsion side down.
in the frame and lock the hinged
back In position.
Making the Print.
In selecting paper for the first
try use contrast paper No. 2. This
Is for correctly exposed negatives
and the way it reacts will be a
guide, if the results are not what
you expected. Now, hold the
frame about feet from a 60
watt white light bulb and expose
for exactly 8 seconds. Before
making this exposure be sure that
your box of printing paper is
tightly closed.
When you take the sheet of
paper out Of the frame it will
appear just as blank as when it
went in, but don't let that bother
you. The latent image is there
and waiting to be developed.
Place the sheet in the tray Of
developer, emulsion side up. Do
this quickly and be sure that the
entire surface is covered by the
developer at once. This is most
important as the print will de-
velop unevenly and with spots if
this is not done.
Now rock the tray gently from
side to side and from front to
back. If the exposure happened
to be right the image will begin
to appear in about 20 seconds.
You will notice that the dark
areas will become visible first,
then the gray areas or middle
tones and finally, as the print
nears full development. the light
est areas will show detail. The
length of time for full develop
ment, assuming correct expo
sure, will vary according to the
developer that you are using. In
D-72, the print should come out
In so seconds. The correct length |
of time will be indicated by the
manufacturer Of the developer.
Shortstop Bath.
At this point the print should |
be removed and holding it by a |
corner for second or two,
drained Of excess developer. Then |
place it in the. tray of acid Short
stop for another two seconds. |
This bath neutralizes the de-
veloper that remains in the print. |
You may substitute tray of plain
water for the acid bath, but the
latter is preferable.
After this brief rinse, transfer
your print to the fixing bath and
allow it to remain for minute
then turn on the white light
and inspect your print carefully.
If, by some chance, it is a perfect
print return it to the fixing bath
and leave it there for 20 minutes.
Then wash for at least one-half
an hour in running water and dry
either in a blotter roll (for matt
and semi-matt prints or on a
ferrotype tin (for glossies).
But if, as we suspect, your first
try is somewhat less than the best
obtainable we shall first have to
determine what was wrong and
then make plans for correcting
the error. This will be due to