Chapter III: The Inking-Up (2)

The ink can obviously be placed on the bromoil print not only with the brush but with any other suitable ink carrier, such as _rollers_. Yet by this the process is rendered _more mechanical_ and deprived of all those great advantages, which distinguish it from all other printing methods. _Especially, the possibility of local treatment is mostly lost_; the unlimited command of the tonal values and the structure of the ink can only be guaranteed by the use of the brush. The only offset to this loss is a gain in speed. Agility, however, is not sought after in artistic labors. If one wants to prepare a lot of prints quickly, it is better to use the bromide process, which is especially suitable for such a task, and thus save the trouble of the bleaching and the other processes necessary in making bromoil prints.

RESOAKING OF THE PRINT DURING THE WORKING-UP.—_Resoaking the print during the inking up, without regard to the existent film of ink, is one of the most important aids in the bromoil process._

This procedure is based on the following considerations: It has already been pointed out that the prepared gelatine film possesses the property of again assuming after drying the same degree of relief which was imparted to it by the warm water bath. When a swollen print is taken out of the water and placed on the pad for working up, evaporation immediately begins at the surface of the film; the gelatine, therefore, continuously gives up water to the surrounding air during the work, and more quickly in proportion as the air is drier and warmer. As has already been mentioned, the damp pad does not alter this, since the supply of water from the pad through the paper is not sufficient to restore the water content of the film. Therefore, while one inks up one part of the print, all other parts gradually lose their water; and since it is this water which renders the gelatine, after its tanning, capable of repelling or taking the greasy ink, the work gradually becomes more and more difficult. The gelatine film, which feels smooth when the film is removed from the water, especially in the high lights and any exposed margins, becomes gradually leathery. It may still take ink, but the distribution of this, and especially the development of the drawing and the details, become more and more difficult.

_If, however, the print, which is partly or entirely inked up, is again placed in water and this time in cold water, the gelatine film very rapidly absorbs this and again attains the same degree of relief that it had at first._ Sometimes it appears as though a marked clearing up of the image takes place in the water; the high lights become cleaner, and many details appear in the shadows which were not visible during the working-up. On the other hand, with some inks the picture appears to become weaker under the water. This, however, is only an illusion and is of no importance, as in drying, or in again going over the picture with the brush, the image again attains the previous depth and color and still greater clearness.

Here also, one must take care that the print is _completely immersed_ and that no air bells adhere to the film, since those places to which the water does not have access do not reswell, and on further work may give rise to spots. In removing the print from the water the inked-up surface should not be touched with the fingers, or finger prints will remain in the ink. The print should therefore be taken hold of by the edges.

While the print is soaking in the water, the bringing out of the details, especially in the shadows, may be facilitated by stroking those parts with the tip of the finger or a swab of absorbent cotton. In the same way dirt which has collected on the surface during the work may be removed. In the latter case one may also use more vigorous friction, even though the ink film is thus removed, since the removal of the troublesome particles is more important than saving the thin film of ink, which can be easily renewed.

The print is then removed from the water, placed on the pad, and dried as previously by spreading over and pressing down a lintless cloth, although because of the film of ink any wiping action should be avoided. Then when the brush work is resumed, it can be completed in an extraordinarily easy manner.

It should be specially noted that the print must be _worked up after this second soaking with the same brush as before, which need not be recharged with ink_. Only after the print has been hopped in this way, should fresh ink be applied.

During the work, the bromoil print, as a rule, will scarcely retain the necessary degree of dampness longer than a quarter of an hour, and not this long in dry and warm weather.

_The resoaking of the print should be undertaken without hesitation as often as any difficulty in the distribution of the ink is met with; for this saves a great part of the brush work_, and almost automatically brings out contrasts and details. Especially while learning the process and later with more difficult prints, the work is most conveniently divided as follows: first application of the ink and distribution by hopping, as long as it is easy; resoaking the print; drying off and hopping anew with the brush not freshly charged with ink; second application of the ink and hopping of the ink now applied; another soaking, and so on. The operation may be repeated as often as desired without the film taking any harm.

Because of the possibility of always bringing the print to the correct degree of relief during the brush work by means of resoaking, _there is absolutely no limit to the size of the bromoil print_. One can simply finish a part of a print of any desired size and then, after another soaking, go on to the next part and so on until the whole print is inked.

If the relief of the film corresponds to the desires of the operator, the bromoil print may be finished completely in this way. _If it is seen that the relief is not sufficient to give the desired modeling and contrast, the resoaking may be effected with warmer water than was used at first._ Yet, until the worker has completely mastered the process, this should be done carefully and the temperature of the water gradually raised by adding hot water, in steps of not more than five degrees, until the requisite relief is attained. The use of a _thermometer_ is here absolutely essential, for the estimation of the temperature of the water by the hand is quite unreliable and may lead to the greatest errors. This applies to all water baths used in the bromoil process. At this point it should be noted that a print, which on account of its characteristics has to be placed at the beginning in very hot water to attain the necessary relief, is usually covered with very tiny air bells, which can easily be overlooked; they must be removed by wiping under water so as to avoid troublesome spots.

If the relief of the whole print is satisfactory, but, because of the character of the negative, a few places in the deep shadows do not show the necessary details, the desired shadow detail might possibly be attained by increasing the whole relief, yet at the same time the relief in the rest of the image would be carried too far. In such cases, the places which should be relatively more swollen can be separately more highly swollen while the rest of the surface of the print retains the original relief, by pressing on them a cloth soaked in warm water or a suitably formed swab of absorbent cotton. A still stronger effect is obtained when such places are painted with a water-color brush charged with a one per cent solution of ammonia, either on the film or, after previously marking the outlines, on the back.

When the relief of the gelatine has been increased by soaking in water which is warmer than that used for the first bath, certain precautions must be observed in removing it from the water. It frequently happens, when using certain inks, that _the water which runs from the film causes streaks and spots_, and that evening these out is at least troublesome and frequently very difficult. This action, which does not occur when resoaking in a bath of the same or a lower temperature, is explained by the fact that the greasy medium of the ink is liquefied by the high temperature of the water, and runs down irregularly or mixes with the water and is carried off by it. There are thus formed on the film of ink marks which show the form of the streams of water which have run off. Such troubles may be avoided by bringing the support close to the dish in which the print is soaked, lifting the print out of the water as far as possible in a horizontal position and placing it in the same position on the support, and immediately spreading the previously dried cloth over it and carefully drying. By observing this precaution, the running off of the water from the film, which is the cause of this difficulty, is prevented. Any traces left by the cloth, used for drying off, can be easily evened out again by the brush.

By making use of this soaking of the print during the work, the bromoil printer _is absolutely unlimited in the time used for his work and is not driven by any necessity for haste_. He can continue his work in peace and without hurry, and devote himself to any particular part of his picture at will, without being afraid that other parts will meanwhile lose their capacity for being worked up.

THE REMOVAL OF THE INK FROM THE SURFACE.—If, in the application of the ink, a fault occurs, which for any reason cannot be corrected with the brush, or if one sees in the course of the work that the ink film is not satisfactory in tonal values or shading, the print would have to be discarded, if it were not possible to remove the ink without damage to the film. This is feasible, however, without any special difficulty; one need not, therefore, throw away such a print, but after removal of the ink can again ink it up, but this time with avoidance of the previous fault.

_If there are only small faulty places, the ink may be removed from the print as it lies on the pad, as follows_:

Cut a small piece of transparent, waxed paper, or, lacking this, of thin smooth white paper of approximately the shape of the overinked spot, but slightly larger, and place it on the faulty spot, turning up a little corner so as to be able to lift the paper again. Then rub with the finger tip carefully and pull off. The ink is thus removed from the bromoil print and transferred to the paper. If the removal is not complete, the operation is repeated with a second piece of waxed paper. If very small places, as, for instance, the eyes of a portrait, have to be dealt with, the rubbing should be done with a round stick, such as a penholder.

_By inking again, the part that has been thus removed may be replaced without any trace of a correction._

If the whole film of ink is to be removed from a bromoil print, _a soft dry cloth or better still a swab of absorbent cotton should be soaked in benzol or other solvent, and the picture washed with it_. The medium of the ink is dissolved by the benzol and the ink taken up by the wiping cloth.

Every stroke must be made with a clean portion of the swab, which must frequently be soaked again with benzol, otherwise the ink dissolved by the benzol and taken up by the swab will be again put down on the paper. If, after washing with benzol some traces of ink still remain on the film, the print should be _immersed in water, but only after the benzol has completely evaporated not only from the film but also from the fibers of the paper_, and it should then be gently wiped with the finger. Even if the film still shows a slight tint after this, the working-up may be begun again successfully, since the traces of the previous inking disappear under the new application of ink.

This complete removal of the ink with benzol may also be repeatedly effected. _Beginners can, therefore, use any prepared print several times for experiments._ But experts should not think of washing an unsatisfactory print with benzol. Those who possess a transfer machine can remove the film of ink mechanically in the simplest way by transfer.

_If it is desired to remove the ink from very small portions of the print_, this is most easily effected by repeated use of _art-gum_, which should be sharpened to a point. After every application of the art-gum, a fresh surface of the gum must be used, so that the ink is not again transferred to the picture. It should be noted, however, that repeated use of the gum on the same spot may cause blisters.

FAILURES.—To assist the beginner, some possible failures will be here described.

It may happen that during the inking _the print becomes covered with fibers and small hairs of the most different shapes_. This phenomenon may sometimes become so troublesome that a successful print appears problematical. It is frequently _incorrectly assumed_ that these impurities are _caused entirely by the brush_. Hairs that have fallen from the brush are always recognizable as such, for they are straight, relatively thick, lie entirely on the surface of the film, and can be easily removed. When there is an excessive appearance of _fibers_, they are due to the use of an unsuitable cloth for drying. The fibers are of the most different shapes, from dots to recurved and entangled lines.

From the fact that they always appear most strongly and frequently during the inking up, it is frequently erroneously assumed that they are caused by the brush used for the inking, or that dust is deposited from the air; this is not so. A dirty brush may be to blame; mostly, however, they are fibers of very different shapes, which are brought on to the damp and somewhat tacky gelatine film by the pressure of an unsuitable cloth, which is not free from lint, and they are held fast by the gelatine and torn from the cloth as this is lifted. At first these thin and almost transparent fibers are not visible. But they take the ink, and thus it happens that they seem to appear in ever increasing numbers during the inking. If _individual_ fibers (which may come from an otherwise suitable cloth), or brush hairs that have fallen out, have to be removed, this is readily effected by _art-gum_, worked to a point with the fingers. With such a point long fibers can be very easily lifted from the film, while the tiny cloth fibers cling very firmly to the film. A small white spot, where the gum point has touched, remains, as this removed the ink also from the gelatine. Such points can be completely closed up by repeatedly going over them with the brush.

Single hairs or fibers lying on the surface may be allowed to remain, when they occur in places where for any reason one must not destroy the ink film; they can be very easily removed from the film with a sharp instrument in the after treatment of the finished print; usually they leave scarcely any mark.

If, on the other hand, the fibers have appeared in large numbers, the print should be immersed in water and one should try to remove them by gentle friction with the tip of the finger, which is generally successful, even if the film of ink is also removed at the same time. If, however, the fibers adhere so firmly that they cannot be removed in this way, which is particularly likely to happen in the shadows, the whole coating of ink must be removed in the manner outlined in the previous section, page 73.

The only safeguard against the appearance of this difficulty is the use of a material as free from lint as possible for drying the film.

It may happen that _the print takes the first hard ink instantly and very readily_, but that even with long hopping clearness of the details is not obtained; the picture indeed shows up well, but remains muddy, as even the high lights retain the ink and become darker with further application of the ink. Then, as a rule, the requisite relief has not yet been attained, and the print must be placed in warmer water. If all the instructions for the development of the bromide print, the bleaching and the swelling have been adhered to, and success is still wanting, then the fault lies in the paper, which was hardened too much in manufacture. The bromoil process is based on the fact that the shadows are tanned more than the high lights, and that then the tanned places take up more ink than the untanned. If the whole film was completely hardened from the start, there cannot be more tanning added by the bleaching, and the ink will take everywhere, in the lights and in the shadows.

_If the high lights of the picture completely repel any grade of ink_, while this adheres thickly in the shadows, then the formation of the relief has been forced too far.

If the print _takes the ink neither in the high lights nor the shadows_, there is either a fault in the preliminary preparation, as, for instance, bleaching in too warm a solution, or one too strongly acidified, or the print has been acted on too energetically by the ammonia bath. In the last case the print may be dried and again swollen in water.

_If large or small irregular spots_ which take the ink more strongly than the surrounding parts, _are formed during the inking_, the reason is either that the prints have lain one on top of the other in the preliminary baths, or the film has been prevented from swelling by air bubbles, or by having risen out of the water. Thus certain places are less well prepared or are not swollen, and therefore behave as though they had been more strongly tanned, that is to say, they take even the first ink strongly and stand out from their surroundings as spots and streaks. Sometimes such spots are improved by putting more ink on the print; if they are not of large area and are in the less important parts of the picture, they may be ignored, as they can be removed from the finished print without special trouble, as will be explained later. If, however, the spots have a large area, or occur in an important part of the picture, for instance, in the eyes of a portrait, it is preferable to stop further work. As a matter of fact, all such blemishes may be removed by after treatment of the print, but the trouble entailed by the correction of large faults is greater than the work of preparing a new print.

Sometimes darker spots or streaks of irregular outline show themselves during the work, which from their shape cannot be ascribed either to air bubbles or to partial sinking of the relief. Then there are probably irregularities in the gelatine coating, for which the preliminary treatment of the bromide print is not responsible.

If the print shows a satisfactory relief, but still takes the ink badly or not at all, the reason is in the incorrect composition of the bleaching solution, or the _omission of the intermediate drying_ after bleaching.

Finally it may happen that the image _appears_ almost _as a negative_ during inking-up, since the high lights take the ink quicker than the shadows. This phenomenon appears when the intermediate drying after bleaching has been omitted, or if _the work has been begun with too soft an ink_. In such cases, if too much ink has not been applied, the fault can be corrected by further working-up with a hard ink. If this is of no use, all the ink must be removed from the faulty places in the manner already described.

If during the inking-up _small irregular white spots in groups_ show themselves and shift their places, then there are drops of water in the brush or on the print. The print should be dried, the brush also, and the spots hopped dry and worked over.

_Yellow or brown spots and patches_, which often appear during the work, increasing in number and continually enlarging, or even penetrating through the film into the fiber of the paper, are to be ascribed to the fact that particles of amidol were deposited on the film before the soaking of the print. When these particles dissolve in water they cause the trouble just described. If there are merely scattered spots of this kind which have not penetrated the paper, they may be scraped out of the finished print and then retouched. The real remedy, however, is in keeping the amidol carefully closed and as far as possible not in the same room as the prepared prints.

_Ink streaks_, which a print treated with a soft ink shows when it is taken out of the warm water, only appear when the print is placed in a slanting or vertical position; they can be avoided by taking the print from the water and immediately bringing it into a horizontal position on the support and rapidly drying, so that the water cannot run off.

The failures caused by the use of the ammonia bath were described on page 46.

ALTERATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE PICTURE BY THE INKING.—If the inking is carried out exactly according to the previous instructions, which have been given chiefly for the benefit of beginners, the result will be a picture which, as regards gradation, will be like the original bromide print before it was bleached. The finished bromoil print, produced by a perfectly even application of ink over the whole picture by means of successive additions, each thoroughly worked over with the brush, differs from the original bromide print in coloration, structure, more extended gradation, and change in the character of its surface. As the worker is at liberty to stop at any desired stage of the work, he can obtain from the original bromide print, according to his taste, a delicate light-toned bromoil or a very rich and highly modulated print, or any intermediate stage between these two extremes.

Yet these possibilities by themselves alone would not justify the conversion of the original bromide print into a bromoil. The substitution of a new photographic positive process for an old one is only justified if the new process accomplishes something essentially different and above all something better. But absolutely uniform working over of the bleached bromide print with greasy inks does not completely fulfil this postulate. Mere changes of gradation of the whole picture or of its color can certainly be attained by simpler photographic methods. The extraordinary advantages of the bromoil process lie in other directions.

_Bromoil printing, for instance, permits us to ink any individual part of the print more or less, or even not at all, at will_; it is possible to give enormous brilliance and aerial perspective to the high lights; they may show when finished every tonal value represented in the negative; it is also possible to darken them to an extraordinary extent by the application of more or softer ink. On the other hand, the shadows may be kept perfectly light by omitting to ink them or by very delicate treatment, or, by successive applications of the ink, they may be strengthened to very great intensity and yet retain all their details.

_The worker has wide opportunity for control in the local treatment of his prints. His dependence on the negative is limited to the drawing, while in the treatment of the tonal values he is absolute master._ Most of the other positive processes are dependent on the negative for their extremes of depth and of delicacy; the bromoil process does not know this dependence. If it is desired to obtain a delicate picture from any negative, one uses only a little ink, and hops it off thoroughly; then there may be obtained from even _the most contrasty negative a delicate print, but one thoroughly worked out in all its details_. On the other hand, there is practically no limit to the continued application of ink; the film is still capable of taking up more ink, long after the limits of artistic pictorial effect have been passed. The result is that in the bromoil process _vigor and depth of the shadows can be produced in any desired intensity_. The most striking advantage of the process lies, however, in the possibility of changing the tonal values of any individual portion of the print at will.

If for example, a negative was used in making the original bromide print which had been taken without any attention to the requirements for getting correct tones, by suitable treatment in making the bromoil one can obtain an approximately correct print without special trouble, since one can, for instance, convert an absolutely clogged-up sky, which is pure white in the bromide print, to a suitable grey tone by the use of soft ink, and at the same time lighten foliage which is too dark; a flat print, wanting in plasticity, may be improved by making objects in the foreground more vigorous, and accentuating appropriate parts of the middle distance. It is easily possible to supply the lacking aerial perspective of certain kinds of prints. In portrait work in the bromoil process, skilful workmanship renders one absolutely independent of the nature of the background. A light background can be made dark, a dark one light. In portraits taken out of doors, the small details of the background that are out of focus or obtrusive may be omitted, toned down or completely remodeled. Unpleasing details of the clothing or the hair can be omitted or so far softened down that they are no longer disturbing. We are able to accentuate certain parts of the picture to make them dominant, while other parts of the image may be treated very sketchily; in short, the possibilities of control which this process offers are almost inexhaustible.

I will now try to outline the methods of carrying out some of these modifications, as far as is possible without practical demonstration.

The beginner is first of all recommended to use a proof print from the negative as a check, so that he may have a clear idea as to what changes he needs to make, and so that further, in carrying out his ideas, he does not change neighboring parts of the print which should remain unchanged. The simplest example of control is the _lightening of the shadows_. This is done by very careful application of the ink, which is stopped before the shadow parts become too dark. One should avoid touching such parts later with the brush, when it is charged with soft ink.

If light portions are to be made darker, the procedure depends upon the size of the parts involved. Extensive parts of the picture in high relief, as for instance the sky, should be gone over as evenly as possible with a suitable soft ink, and with this, simultaneously, by going lightly over the lighter places and applying it more heavily here and there, clouds may be put in. The evenness of the inking is of the greatest importance here, as it cannot later be hopped off very much; frequently in such cases the ink only lies on the surface, without adhering firmly; if left untouched, it combines intimately with the surface when the print is dry, but is easily removed by hopping. It is possible to change the outlines of neighboring parts of the image; if too dark edges are formed, they can be easily softened by after treatment of the finished print. In some cases it may be necessary to add considerable quantities of varnish or linseed oil to dilute the ink. The darkening of too light places may be also effected by dabbing ink with the brush on the finished dried print, which the print then naturally takes all over.

_If tiny light patches are to be made darker_, the point of the large brush, or if necessary of a very small brush should be used, avoiding any disturbance of surrounding parts, as far as possible. Such changes are difficult only when the bright spots that are to be worked out are in immediate contact with very dark parts. The process is much simpler when parts of the print of medium tones, which are surrounded by lighter parts, are to be darkened. If, for instance, the eyes of a portrait are to be darkened, ink should be applied to the whole of the eye with a small brush, and then hopped off. A tree trunk, which must be brought out in relief, should be covered throughout its whole length with soft ink, and the ink should then be worked over, by hopping it from the lighter toward the darker parts. In practice, the bringing together of neighboring tones, which differ considerably in value, can be easily effected by _hopping off the ink from the darker parts_ with a brush that has not been freshly charged with ink, _and depositing it on the lighter parts_. The lightening of too dark places can also be attained by going over them with a perfectly clean brush that has not been dipped in the ink. Isolated high lights can be accentuated by touching them with a pointed water-color brush, dipped in water; then the film swells and repels the ink. _Stained high lights or too dark middle tones_ may be lightened by wetting a brush of proper size by means of a wet cloth and then lightly hopping with this the places which are to be corrected. The brush picks up the color, but must be immediately cleaned by rubbing it on a clean portion of the palette, after which it may be again wet and used again. Clouds can be worked into dark parts of the sky in this way.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE INK.—Independently of the surface of the paper on which the work is done, _the structure of the coating of ink can be influenced by the nature of the brush work_. If a brush well charged with ink has its full surface placed firmly on the gelatine film and then slowly lifted up, an impression of the surface of the brush remains; the individual hairs or groups of hairs of the brush have each deposited a part of the ink that they had taken up, and a very coarse-grained spot of ink is produced. If we now hop, that is, dab with quick light blows of the brush, the ink begins to be distributed, since it is taken away from the lighter parts and taken up by the shadows. The drawing of the picture _thus appears under the brush, at first with a very coarse grain and without many details_. The longer one hops and thus distributes the ink, the finer becomes the grain, and it especially becomes much finer on the addition of softer ink. _The bromoil printer hence has it completely within his power to limit the division of the ink to any desired coarseness of grain_, assuming, of course, that he has suited the consistency of the ink to the degree of relief, and is therefore able to completely finish the print with the original ink without adding any softer. Prints may thus be prepared, which because of their coarse structure, resemble certain graphic methods. But, when this is intended, the application of the ink must be carried on as evenly as possible from the beginning, so that it needs very little hopping off, for any considerable amount of hopping unavoidably produces a finer grain. Even if the use of softer inks is necessary, a coarse structure can be obtained by suitable brush work. _The longer, however, the ink is distributed by hopping, the finer becomes the structure of the ink film_ and the smoother the surface.

_The most perfect smoothness is also attainable_, if it is desired for any reason. For this a not too volatile solvent should be used, such as heavy benzol. The method of using this is as follows: when the print has been fully inked and is complete, though still somewhat coarse-grained, a cloth should be wet with the benzol, and the brush lightly pressed thereon and then passed quickly over the desired parts of the picture. At first a smeared spot is formed on the surface of the print; by continued gentle hopping the spot is gradually worked out, and by continued working we get a fineness of detail, equal to that of printing-out paper. It is true that even the highest lights acquire a delicate film of ink, so that a print treated in this way is somewhat low in key. If the hopping with the brush charged with benzol is not continued until the finest possible grain is attained, a misty effect may be produced, with some suppression of the finest details; a method which is frequently useful in the production of landscapes.

By suitable ink and brush technique the effect of any other known photographic printing process may be attained in bromoil printing, from the rich-in-detail gloss of collodio-chloride paper to the characteristic effects of gum-bichromate. Yet the far-reaching possibilities which bromoil places at our command really only begin where most of the other processes end.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF WORKING.—In the following pages some of the different methods of technique, which the bromoil process permits, will be briefly sketched. Obviously, however, the description of these methods cannot be made complete without practical demonstration. Nor can all conceivable methods of working be mentioned, as individual treatment of the process can be varied in many ways.

We will first describe the method of working which is most suitable _for the beginner_, because it offers tolerable certainty to those who have not yet mastered the process.

The beginner, in order to obtain good results, must start with a bromide print as clean and well-modeled as possible, and its high lights should not be fogged in the least. He should place the print, bleached and prepared exactly according to the methods detailed in this book, in water at about 18° C. (65° F.), leave it there for a few minutes, dry its surface, and begin the application of the ink with the stiffer ink, which should be thinly applied and then worked over until the hopping brings out no further detail. If the drawing of the image does not quickly appear upon hopping the print, and the result is only a detailless patch of ink, the original temperature of the soaking bath must be increased. Then the print should be again immersed in the water, left for two minutes, and again dried. The work of hopping is now continued with the same brush with which the print was originally treated, _and without its having been again put into the ink_. As a rule the mere placing of the print in water again will have increased the contrasts, and new details will have appeared, which can be considerably accentuated by now going over with the brush. Only when the print has been again worked over, should fresh ink be carefully applied with the brush; this should then be distributed by hopping, and the print again soaked in water. The procedure thus outlined: application of the ink, hopping, soaking, going over it with the empty brush, fresh ink application, hopping, soaking, and so on, is continued as long as the print gains in strength and depth, without becoming dull or muddy. If, however, this point is reached, the inked print should be immersed in water at a rather higher temperature and left in it for some minutes. The print is then further treated with the brush, without fresh inking, and will soon become much clearer in the high lights. If the clearing thus obtained is not sufficient, the temperature of the water bath should be increased by a few degrees, but not more than 5° C. (9° F.) at a time. As the high lights become clearer it may happen that the stiff ink will no longer be taken up. Then it is necessary to soften it a little. This method of working will guarantee to the beginner the attainment of good results with tolerable certainty.

HARD INK TECHNIQUE (_Coarse-grain Prints_).—If it is desired to prepare a bromoil print of _rough surface and coarser character_, the worker must be able to finish the print exclusively with a relatively hard ink. For this it is necessary to determine by trial the temperature of the water bath at which the film of the print acquires a relief which is absolutely suitable for the stiff ink. When this degree of relief has been found, the print should be inked up strongly but evenly from the very start, so that one is not compelled to go over individual places several times with the brush. Thus the coarse structure of the ink is obtained. The use of hog’s bristle brushes is also efficacious in coarse-grained work.

SOFT INK TECHNIQUE.—This method of working is used on the one hand for the preparation of low-toned misty effects, on the other hand to obtain fully and richly modeled prints. In the first case the bromide print should be correctly exposed, but not completely developed; while in the second case it should be thoroughly developed. The print is then, according to the choice of the operator, either brought at once to a fairly high relief, or only gradually raised to the same relief during the application of the ink. Then, in the course of inking, a point is soon reached at which the stiffer ink is repelled by the high lights and perhaps also by the lighter half-tones, and during the hopping is again taken up by the brush. Then the ink should be carefully softened with linseed oil or varnish, and the whole print gone over with the softer ink. Prints which are executed in the soft ink technique are characterized by a specially fine velvety surface after defatting.

SKETCH TECHNIQUE.—If one proposes to completely work up certain parts of a print and leave the rest treated in a sketchy manner, and possibly to omit some parts altogether, one should begin by working up the part which should stand out. Thus, in a portrait, the head should be first worked up; then proceed systematically, with the ink remaining in the brush, to sketch in the clothing and the background, and perhaps leave unimportant parts of the print completely untouched. To facilitate the work, disturbing details or a too prominent background may be removed or reduced on the bromide print, before bleaching, with dilute Farmer’s reducer. If, when the work is finished, the parts that have not been inked are visible through their relief and glossiness, these traces of the uninked picture completely disappear in drying, if the original bromide print was not developed too vigorously. If one contemplates producing a vignette, it is absolutely unnecessary to obtain this by the use of masks or vignetters when making the bromide print. The effects which result from the suitable treatment of the bromoil print are far more free and beautiful.

If certain parts of the picture are to be accentuated and all the rest is to be rendered visible, even if only sketchily, one may also work in the reverse way. The whole picture should be given a thin coating of ink, as even as possible, which should be hopped only just enough to barely bring out the drawing. Then work out those parts, to which attention is to be directed, keeping as closely as possible to the outlines. When these, the most important parts of the print, are finished, it is frequently seen that the rest of the picture is too delicate. This should then be gone over again with the ink as at first, without completely working it up, until the correct tonal value is attained. Then the necessary harmony is obtained by going over the outlines with the brush.

LARGE HEADS.—The far-reaching possibilities of the bromoil process offer special advantages for the free modification of tones in portraits. It is advisable to take the portraits with a neutral or dark background. The only exception is when a head is to be done in red chalk, when a white background is preferable. Starting from such a negative in bromoil printing the background may be kept, according to choice, either light or very dark, or be shaded. One precaution should, however, be observed in every case; before starting on the head itself, the background should be worked in lightly from the margins toward the head, so that no dark line may be formed when working on the outlines of the portrait. If this shows during the work, it must be worked down to harmony with the background at once before it gets too dark. One can, therefore, from a given negative, produce at will either a fully worked-up head against a dark ground, or a light, sketchy image on the light background of the paper, or any intermediate stage.

If, as previously suggested, parts of the picture are to be treated sketchily, while others are to be fully worked up, the parts which should appear sketchy are allowed to remain coarse-grained, while the structure gradually becomes finer in passing into the worked-up portions. No portion, however, should be made perfectly structureless. Bromoil prints thus worked up are much more artistic than those pictures which are known by the name of photo-sketches. The latter usually show a head, printed with all the gradation and fullness of detail given by printing-out paper. The tone becomes gradually lighter toward the edges, where we find some strong lines, imitating the character of a line drawing, all surrounded by a perfectly white background. To the trained eye the technique of such photo-sketches is abominable, for the contrast between the inimitable detail of the head and the perfectly blank background is so great that it cannot be bridged over by the effort to imitate the manner of an etching. On the other hand, such problems can be solved in an artistic way with our process, for the head may always be produced in a rather coarse grain, so that it dovetails harmoniously into the sketchily treated surroundings.

OIL-PAINTING STYLE.—If it is desired to prepare portraits which resemble reproductions of oil paintings, one should proceed as follows: the head should be first inked in considerably deeper than it should appear in the final print; then, if the head is on a light background, it will appear vigorous, even if not much ink is used. If, however, the background is dark and heavy, the inked-up head will appear considerably lighter because of the contrast. For this style of work it is best to select a warm dark brown ink. When the head is finished, some very soft ink of the same shade should be placed very thickly in the corners and margins of the picture, and this should be worked from all sides towards the head, which naturally must not be touched with the soft ink. Finally the blending of the head with the background should be very carefully done. In the lower part of the portrait the clothing should blend into the background in a similar manner; only one must take care in making the negative that no light pieces of drapery or accessories are used, because they cannot be easily completely covered. Any lighter accents, which may be desired in the background, should be made by removing the ink with a clean brush. One may thus make the head stand out in a dark oval, or attain similar painting effects. Prints prepared in this way ought not to be defatted, as they then lose their similarity to oil paintings. They must be left to dry for several days, in a place free from dust, until the thickly-applied ink has hardened.

NIGHT PICTURES.—Twilight and night effects can be easily obtained from ordinary negatives by carefully swelling the bleached print so that the differences of relief existent in the print are only slightly brought out. Then the capacity of the lights and shadows for taking the ink is not so very different, and the gradation is shorter. A second possibility of obtaining the same effect is offered by using mainly soft ink, which, as is well known, adheres to a certain extent even in the high lights of the print; only the soft ink must be applied very carefully and thinly in the shadows, so that these do not become choked up with ink.

In this way one may make night pictures from daylight exposures, accurately corresponding in tone values to night exposures. Previous practice has been to use either underexposed negatives or overexposed prints for such effects; in both cases the night effects were gloomy, but false in tone values, and usually without details in the shadows. In bromoil printing the gradation can be shortened as described, without loss of drawing, and one can simulate perfectly the short scale and mysterious gloom of night. If the too dense sky of the negative cannot be sufficiently darkened by the use of soft ink, its inking should be postponed till the print is dry.

PRINTS WITH WHITE MARGINS.—If it is desired to obtain bromoil prints with _margins of the natural paper_, the negative should be masked with clean-cut black safe-edges of lantern slide binding strips, or one may use a mask, and print or enlarge on a sheet of bromide paper large enough to leave unexposed margins of the desired width. In making enlargements the mask, cut out of rather thin card, should be pinned on the enlarging screen over the sheet of bromide paper. After bleaching such a print the tanned image will appear slightly depressed within a strongly swollen, white frame of less tanned gelatine. The inking is done without any attention being paid to this unprinted edge. In consequence of its strong relief this gelatine does not take any ink from the brush, or, at most, a mere trace. When the print is finished, the ink is easily wiped from the white margins by means of a damp cloth, which removes this ink with the greatest ease. The finished and dried print is enhanced in effect if a plate mark is impressed in this wide white margin.

THE SWELLED-GRAIN IMAGE.—Coarse-grain printing in bromoil has previously depended on a very carefully determined relation between the degree of relief of the film and the consistency of the ink, which had to be so chosen that the ink was not very easily taken up by the film. If inking was then skilfully done, the structure of the face of the brush was visible to a certain extent all over the print and gave the effect of a more or less coarse and irregular-grained image. It was obviously necessary for the success of a print of this type that no portion of the image should be gone over several times with the brush, for, if this was done, the structure was obliterated and the spot in question became smooth. Since, also, the requirement that the degree of relief must be rather high for the chosen consistency of the ink could never be fulfilled by the shadows, since these always take the color easily, we often obtained an undesired smoothness of effect in the shadows. For this reason typical coarse-grain prints could not always be produced with certainty.

I therefore endeavored to improve the technique of bromoil in this respect and to work out a grain method which could be depended upon with certainty in every case. The basic thought was that _the fundamental basis for making a coarse grain print should be a part of the film itself_, and I endeavored to prepare the latter so that a grain structure could be produced which should equally underlie all parts of the image.

Such a grain structure can theoretically be obtained in the following way: if we allow a properly prepared uninked bromoil print, which has been brought to the proper degree of relief, to dry off a little and then spray it by means of an atomizer with extremely fine liquid drops, the film will again swell up under every drop, but only under these; and when we ink up, we obtain a definite grain effect which, however, only persists if the inking is completed before the sprayed-on water grain again dries out. Such a relief grain is not permanent, because the subsequently swollen portions of the film cannot retain the difference in swelling. This process, therefore, has only experimental interest and practically can be used but rarely.

To make the swelled grain useful, the secondarily swollen points of the film must permanently retain the difference in swelling which has been imparted to them.

To attain this end, I start from the fact that portions of the gelatine which are treated with alkaline solution will swell much more in a bath of warm water than spots which have not been thus handled. If, therefore, the desired grain can be applied to the film by means of an alkaline solution, all the elements of the grain will swell up more strongly in the water bath than their surroundings, and will therefore protrude above the rest of the film and thus attain and retain a better degree of swelling than the latent tanned image.

The next step was obviously a practical treatment of the film by spraying it as evenly as possible with extremely fine drops of an alkaline solution. It soon appeared that the greatest attention must be paid to the type of apparatus with which the spraying was to be done. Any atomizer whose spray combines fine and coarse drops is useless. Any atomizer which is worked by blowing with the mouth or by intermittent blasts of a pump is unsuitable, for at the instant when the stream of air is interrupted, a certain quantity of liquid remains in the mouthpiece and is thrown out by the next blast of air in the form of coarse drops. Therefore, only continuously functioning atomizers can be used, preferably those types which are actuated by double rubber bellows. Only with such atomizers is it possible to count with a fair degree of certainty on the production of a system of uniformly fine drops. Ammonia, which has previously been generally used in bromoil printing as a swelling agent, cannot be used to produce such a grain, because the ammonia gas volatilizes in great part in its passage through the air. A five per cent solution of potassium carbonate has been found to be most satisfactory.

The next question is at what stage of the process the swelled grain should be produced. Making it on the dry print is not permissible, because the droplets are taken up too greedily by the dry film and diffuse quickly and irregularly. The safest method of working is to place the bleached and dried print in cold water until it becomes limp, then blot it off until quite dry on the surface, and then treat it.

The practical method of producing the swelled grain is as follows: the print, which has been swelled in cold water and thoroughly dried off, is placed on a horizontal support and the atomizer set in action; as soon as it works with complete uniformity, it is passed back and forth across the print as evenly as possible under continuous observation, until the whole print is uniformly covered with a layer of extremely fine drops. The most important precaution is the continuous observation of the print while the spraying is being done, and this is best done by having the light fall on the print at as small an angle as possible. The practical way to do this is as follows: the print is laid on a table near the window. The operator sits in front of the window and gets both his eye and the atomizer very slightly above and in front of the print. Under these conditions there is a reflection of light in every single drop, which makes the observation of the distribution of the drops very easy. At the instant when the whole film seems to be uniformly covered with dew, the atomizer is quickly turned away from the print.