I belong to the school which would produce a photographic picture only by purely photographic means, without, however, being too orthodox; I would not, therefore, repeat the whole laborious making of a bromoil print, because I might not think it photographic to spot out with water-color a small spot the size of a pin’s head, or to remove a small particle of ink with the etching knife. This is actually not retouching, but there are people who consider these changes as such.
By retouching I mean the justly condemned excessive “working up” of a positive print, that is a change of values on the finished print. That should not be done.
Bromoil printing is still that exquisite process which permits the correction of false tones, the suppression of undesirable and the emphasis of the most characteristic details in the most extensive way during the work.
I consider it objectionable to leave all faults which occur during the long process of picture making, for the sake of convenience, to be improved on the positive print. But if it does become necessary to use retouching on the transfer, it can be done with a soft eraser. An excellent means of working up larger areas has been described by Dr. Mayer (see [page 123]), which consists in working on the transfer with the same brush and the same ink as was used in making the bromoil. Thus clouds may be imitated by pigmenting the white surface and then working in the clouds with the eraser, etc.
Since, however, this and other improvements can be carried out, not only as well, but even better on the bromoil print itself, it is advisable to do so much with the brush that nothing remains to be done on the transfer.
Drying.—As soon as the transfer leaves the press, it is finished, but as the ink is very easily smeared it is advisable to leave it exposed to the air for two or three days. After the lapse of this time the ink has usually hardened.
Very heavily inked prints require from eight to ten days to dry and may be considered as absolutely dry when the oily sheen which can be seen immediately after printing, especially in the shadows saturated with ink, is replaced by a velvety, perfectly matt surface.
Retouching can be begun about one or two hours after it has left the machine.
A transfer should not be mounted, for it looks best as it is, if the margin is sufficiently large.
Conclusion.—The technical difficulties of making a good transfer are not small, and to overcome them requires a certain degree of skill in the worker, which other processes do not require to an equal degree. By “workers” I mean especially amateurs, not those professionally skilled in the graphic arts. After overcoming these difficulties, caused chiefly by the materials, there is a certain feeling of satisfaction in having actually produced a work of art. By using the different techniques of bromoil printing: soft ink, hard ink, sketch, and coarse grain, one can obtain transfers of such beauty as may confidently be said can be attained by no other process. There is unlimited possibility of variation; and this alone assures the bromoil transfer process preëminence over any other method of printing.