Never use hypo after it becomes discolored or turbid and deposits a sediment.
Develop longer than you think necessary; a slow printing negative is preferable to a weak one.
Keep your dark room and its contents very clean and free from dust, and well ventilated.
RETOUCHING, OR STIPPLING THE NEGATIVE.
No photographic establishment in these days is considered to be well equipped that does not employ a skillful retoucher and provide all the apparatus and p64 conveniences for the proper performance of this very important branch of the art.
It is within the memory of many photographers when this work of retouching was done on the positive, and some establishments were compelled to employ a large force of skilled hands to work up and finish the crude productions of the camera and the printing frame.
After the introduction of the carte de visite portrait, and later the Imperial card, and the consequent reduction in price, the expense of this work became such a burthen to photographers that they were compelled to perfect their mechanical operations to the utmost extent, and by every means to endeavor to avoid it.
It occurred then to some one of the retouching artists to do this work upon the negative once for all, and from this beginning the art of retouching the negative has reached its present high position.
Retouching, like stippling or hatching in miniature, is a work of art, skill in which is gained only by assiduous practice controlled by good taste, and it is the special work of the artist and not of the photographer.
