Evening star., 1950-01-22
Camera Angles
Paper Negative Process Salvages Prints
By Alexander J. Wedderburn
Curator of Photography
The Smithsonian Institution

J. Wedderbum
Photography
ion Institution
appeared. It's just as easy as II
sounds.
AS case in point take look at
the accompanying Illustrations
Figure l is reproduction from
the original 4x5 Agfa Supreme Pan
negative in its entirety. At first
glance there is little to recommend
the scene as salon entry. First
there Is a bald sky bisected by
the offending wires. Secondly,
there is too much foreground; and
the barn. tree limbs, and untidy
backyard at the right of the pic
ture all detract from the center
of interest.
However, a careful study Of the
print revealed the possibility of
using portion of the whole. So
we used the enlarger to eliminate
the unwanted portions of the orig
inal composition and came up with
the print illustrated by Figure 2.
BY inserting the negative in the
enlarger emulsion side up, we
placed the tall building on the
right side of the composition as a
block to hold the eye within the
picture. The sky was slightly dark
ened at the top and corners by
lodging for the same reason.
Retouching Was Simple.
Now our photograph has taken
on some semblance Of a good pic
ture. But, in the process Of en-
larging, the wires have become
more prominent, and the pin
holes now appear as large black
spots. Also, the sign on the build
ing has been obviously reversed.
This Is the point at which most
of us are stumped for most Of US
are not expert retouchers. But
instead Of tossing the print aside
as hopeless job, we made q paper
negative to see what could be done
to save 1t.
We made the contact print in
the usual manner with the two
sheets Of paper placed emulsion
to emulsion. Now the sky was
black once more with the wires
appearing as thin contrasting
lines of white. The pinholes like
wise showed up as white spots
against their darker backgrounds.
In less than five minutes our
paper negative was ready for the
final printing. We simple took
an ordinary lead pencil and dark
ened the wires and spots until
they matched their respective
backgrounds. Using the same
lead pencil we blurred the sign on
the building until there was only
suggestion Of lettering left.
With this accomplished We
made the final print, Guardian OF
the Valley" quite an improvement
over the original. In the flrst
place. the Objectionable wires
which detracted from the air OF
antiquity Of the scene, were elm
mated. And the mood Of the pic
ture was considerable heightened
by the overall grain impaired by
the repeated contact printings
The other corrections which were
made possible were incidental but
equally important to the finished
picture.
1t Is the genuine simplicity of
the whole procedure that should
appeal to those of us who have on
occasion discarded some negative
that had inherent possibilities, yet
was unusable because of some
minor defect that apparently re-
quired the attention of an expert
retoucher. The same technique
may be used for removing blem-
ishes, tightening harsh shadows,
and otherwise correcting faults of
a similar nature in Photographic
portraiture.
If you have any artistic skill
at all you will be surprised at the
radical changes that you can make
in your pictures through the
paper negative process. The
course of road may be changed,
an offending object removed en-
tirely. or other pictorial elements
such as clouds added. But, one
way or the other, you will be able
to materially improve the picture
that is almost, but not quite good
enough.
AS word Of caution, let us en-
phasize the fact that the paper
negative will only serve to improve
on an original negative of good
technical quality. AS the old say
ing goes, you can't make a silk
purse out of q sow's ear" That