Evening star., 1954-03-07
Camera Angles
How to Print Pictures:
Frame, Troy Methods
Comero Angles
By Alexander J. Wedderburn
Curator Of Photography
~ S,.i.. ,.,.,.

The SmithSe
As stated here last Sunday.
contact printing is the easiest.
quickest and least expensive
method to make prints from
your photo negatives.
Any one can make contact
printS-and with q minimum
of equipment.
A printing frame, a few
trays, and the other few items
and you are ready to go.
Unlike Photographic film.
the sensitized paper used in
printing is not nearly so SEN
sitive to light. Consequently
the entire operation, from be-
ginning to end. can be carried
out under a Safelight. Pro-
1onged exposure of the paper
to the safelight, however.
will cause fog in the developed
print, so keep the paper COW
cred except during the actual
time it is being processed.
Here's How to Proceed
Here's how to go about
making your contact prints:
First. have your chemical So
lutionS mixed and in their
respective trays. Have the de-
veloper in the tray to the left,
the Shortstop in the middle
tray and the fixing bath in
the right. Then the prints
can be passed from left to
right through the three steps
of processing. Space the trays
about 4 inches apart to avoid
the danger of splashing the
content of one tray into the
next.
Now turn off the white light
in your darkroom and turn on
the safelight. Remove one
sheet of normal contrast No.
D. paper from its packet or
box and insert it and the neg
atiye in the printing frame.
Place the negative in the
frame first with the glossy side
of the film next to the glass.
Then slip in the paper with
the emulsion side down so that
It is in contact with the emul-
sion of the film. Lock the
hinged back of the printing
frame and you are ready to
make the exposure.
Expose Eight Seconds
This is done by holding the
frame about 8 feet from
a 60-watt white light bulb and
exposing for about 8 sec
ondS. When the paper is taken
out of the frame there will be
no evidence that a picture has
been printed on the emulsion
as the sheet of paper will be
just as blank as it was when
you first removed it from its
container. But the picture is
there just the same-it be-
comes visible after the next
step in the process.
Place the exposed sheet in
the tray of developer. emul-
sion side up, and be sure that
the entire surface is covered
at once. Otherwise uneven or
spotty development will result.
Try to avoid touching the print
except by the extreme edges.
Once the paper is in the
"Soup" keep up a constant
agitation by rocking the tray
gently from side to side and
from front to back. This will
insure that corners and edges
that project above the liquid
will get full development,
If your exposure was cor
rect the image will commence
to appear in about 20 seconds.
The dark areas will, become
visible first, then the middle
tones, and finally detail will
show up in the highlighted
portions. There will be some
variation in the length of time
that will elapse before the de-
velopment is complete, de-
pending upon the kind of de-
veloper you use. With D-72,
assuming a correct exposure of
the print, it will take just
about so seconds for the print
to reach a complete and sat-
tSfactory development. In
structionS that come with de-
velopers will tell you exactly