Evening star., 1952-07-13
By Alexander J. Wedderbun
cvrGtor Of Photography
The Smithsonion institution


In school we learned that / and
] equaled 2. But in photography
there are times when l and
still equal lone picture that is
We are talking about simple photo
montage, of course, where two OF
more negatives are used to make
the finished print. BY combining
the better parts of two or more
negatives we can often produce
q better picture than could be
printed from the individual shots
Printing from two negatives is
by no means as simple as the
one-shot job. Yet, with a little
care, any one who has an en-
larger in his darkroom can make
an excellent montage print. AL
though, theoretically, there is no
limit to the number Of negatives
that can be used in combination
printing, we are going to start of
with two.
Let's get one point over right
at the start. There Is absolutely
no point in making a montage un-
less 1t will be an improvement
over what can be obtained from
the individual negative. So don't
waste paper on useless expert
mentS. Wait until you have a
picture that seems to be lacking
in some respect. Then go to work
and look for the missing subject
matter in one of your other mega
tiVes. Failing here you can de-
llberately shoot a supplementary
negative that will add the touch
Of perfection that the first one
lacks.
Putting in the Sky.
Assume that you have a pretty
fair landscape shot with noun
tains In the background but find
that a large area Of blank sky Is
q weak point. At the time you
made the exposure it may have
been that there were no clouds
or you may have simply forgotten
to use your sky filter, but no mat
ter the cause-here you are with
q scenic shot that could be in the
prize-winning class, except for
that one defect.
Instead Of tossing it away. start
going over your negative file and
perhaps you will run across some
other scene which has just the
sort Of cloud formation that will
be the making Of your landscape
shot. If you can't find what you
need then wait until day arrives
when the cloud formations are
impressive and shoot several sky
negatives. not forgetting to place
"a yellow or orange filter over the
lens.
In either event you will now
have the two component parts of
your proposed picture, one with
the landscape and the other with
the cloud effects. Our job now
will be to combine the two and
come up with one picture that will
not reveal the fact that more than
one negative was used.
Darkroom Procedure.
Since there will be a great deal
of shifting of paper and negatives
we suggest that you use the. great
est care in following the proce-
dure that is outlined. First, place
a sheet Of heavy white paper in
the easel of the enlarger. The
back side Of an old print will do
If the paper is double-weight.
Now place the landscape negative
in the carrier and adjust the
image until you obtain your final
composition. Don't worry about
that blank sky. We will take care
of that bit later.
Using a hard lead pencil or
pen, trace the skyline all the way
across your sheet Of paper. Now
turn off the enlarger light to pre-
vent overheating the negative
while you are performing the next
step. With sharp pair of scis-
sors or a razor blade, cut along
the line which you traced on the
paper and you will find that you
have two masks with edges that
correspond at the skyline Of your
picture. Write the word, "sky"
on one and the word, ground"
on the other so that there will be
no danger of confusion later on.
The "sky" mask will be used to
hold back the upper part of the
picture while the landscape is
being printed and the ground"
mask is similarly used to hold
back the lower portion of the
scene while you are printing in
the clouds.
Use one of the masks as guide
to trace the skyline on another
sheet of non-sensitive paper, which
will be needed as a guide for later
manipulations. Next we must
make few test exposures so that
both the sky and ground areas of
the final print will develop evenly.
Bear in mind that there will be
two separate exposures on the
final print. II one should reach