Bromoil printing and bromoil transfer

by Emil Mayer

This same principle is used in our process, although not exactly as in gum printing. The process itself is not difficult. It is necessary to make two perfectly registered bromide prints, which is most easily done by always placing the printing frame in the same position in filling, as for instance by fitting the same two sides into a rigid iron angle fastened on a drawing board, or, in enlarging, by using a right angled piece of strong, black card glued to the enlarging easel, and fitting the paper into this angle. I have prepared a simple and absolutely certain arrangement for securing registering prints by having a beveled-edge rectangle cut out of sheet iron 2 mm (⅟₁₈ in.) thick, the opening being somewhat smaller than the bromide paper. Thus, for instance, for 24 × 30 cm (9½ × 12 in.) paper, the cut-out is only 23 × 29 cm (9⅟₁₆ × 11⅜ in.). Care must be taken in this work, however, that the bromide paper for both prints is taken from the same packet, since only identical papers expand absolutely equally in the baths and contract equally in drying. Although the paper used by the manufacturer may be of the same quality, yet it may not always be handled exactly the same in coating, so that a registration of the prints may not be possible when one uses paper prepared at different times.

The first print is now very fully exposed and developed soft, just long enough so that the high lights and upper half-tones are well brought out. When this is attained, development is stopped without paying attention to the shadows, which will be full of detail, but weak.

The second print is exposed as briefly as is required for the perfect reproduction of the shadows, with the use of a hard-working developer. As soon as the shadows appear in full depth, the print should be rinsed and fixed. The print then shows, besides the shadows, only the transition into the half-tones. It is not easy to give more accurate instructions for the preparation of the bromide prints, as the work must be carried out differently according to the negative. Only, as a hint, and nothing more, it may be stated that in a print where exposure of about twelve seconds was required for the complete printing of the high lights and half-tones, the shadow print needed only about three seconds, or about one-fourth the exposure. This ratio obviously alters in accordance with the depth and quality of the shadows in the negative, and must be left to the feeling and experience of the worker. When the two prints have been developed, fixed, washed and dried, they should be tested for equality of size by measurement with a millimeter scale. Then rule pencil lines around the edges of the prints very exactly, and treat them in the usual way in the bleaching bath, the second fixing and washing. When thoroughly dry the pictures should be cut along the pencil lines with absolute accuracy, and their registration again tested. It is advisable to write on the back before bleaching “high light print” and “shadow print.”

Pigmenting is effected as usual. Practically, one should always begin with the high light print, as this is intended to give the finest modeling in the high lights and half-tones, while the shadows are treated so that they show all the details, but no depth. This order of working leaves one absolutely free in the treatment of the fine tones, independent of the depth of the shadows. These depths are produced in the transfer in any desired strength by means of the second bromoil. If, however, the work is started in the reverse way, by printing the shadows first, then the half-tones and high lights must be adjusted to the existing depth, which may produce a dislocation of the tone values, even to a destruction of the whole desired effect. The best way is therefore to direct the whole attention in the first place to the lighter parts of the picture, and to suit the shadows to these.

When the high light print is completed as desired, the transfer may be made. The bromoil print is placed on the location guides, described in the previous chapter on “Printing.” Then the transfer paper is placed on its guide and pencil lines very carefully drawn across the edges of the back, on to the pasteboard. Then it is printed. The picture will now appear in full beauty as regards the lighter tones, but obviously as a whole will be flat, since the shadows are grey and without depth.

Now we proceed to the working up of the shadow print, which when complete should appear absolutely bare of high lights and light half-tones. No protective measures to prevent the sticking of the non-pigmented parts to the transfer paper are necessary, as these white portions of the shadow print are already covered from the first transfer. The print is now placed exactly on the marks made on the plate-mark pattern before the first transfer, the first transfer also brought into the same position by the marks on its back and their prolongations, which is very simple in practice, and is then printed. The transfer now shows the full gradation of the negative, or the sum of the gradations of the two bromide prints, which, however, will be enhanced in effect by the plastic softness produced by the double printing. If it should be necessary to strengthen any part of the print, to deepen any shadow, we can again pigment the necessary portion of the proper bromoil and transfer it to the picture by a third printing, for it is thoroughly practicable to superimpose as many impressions as may appear necessary from an artistic standpoint.

This method of combination printing from two bromoils is the best attainable result in the present state of the art, but contains also the germ of future developments, especially as regards color photography, which problem appears to me to be most easily solvable in this, purely artistic, way. Only it is necessary to find an artist who can conduct the various printings with such fine color sense that the final result will actually produce the impression of a work of art in color, not that of a colored photograph, which has unfortunately hitherto been the case with all experiments in this direction. This is obviously nothing more than a hope for the future. For the present we must content ourselves with what has actually been attained, which is no more and no less than to bring us close to our aim, ability to consider and use the photographic plate merely as a foundation for our graphic art.

Combination Printing with One Bromoil.—It is frequently not easy to reproduce perfectly in the transfer the whole scale of tones present in a given bromide print; or at least in many cases a high degree of skill must be employed. It is consequently often very much simpler to make two transfers from the same bromoil, one being inked up for the light parts, while the other is used to fill out and deepen the shadows.

The practical execution of the process is as follows: the bromide print is swollen in the normal way and pigmented with a soft ink suitable for the high lights, the shadows being very lightly inked. The transfer obtained from this bromoil print shows all the details in the high lights, with grey shadows. The print is now immersed in cold water to swell again and then inked up with a hard ink, so that only the shadows and the adjacent half-tones are fully worked up. This print is now transferred to the same paper, so that a transfer is obtained in which the scale of tones of the bromide print is considerably lengthened.