CHAPTER I
PRODUCTION OF THE BROMIDE PRINT
Failures in the bromoil process in the great majority of cases can be ascribed to the fact that the basic bromide print was not satisfactory. Therefore the method of preparation of the bromide print or enlargement deserves the most careful consideration, for the bromide print is the most important factor in the preparation of a bromoil print. The beginner, especially, can not proceed too carefully in making his bromide print.
Because of the extraordinary importance of this point, we must first define what is here meant by a perfect bromide print.
In deciding how to produce a satisfactory bromide print as a basis for a bromoil, we must exclude from consideration esthetic or artistic grounds.
The bromide print must be technically absolutely perfect, that is, it must have absolutely clean high lights, well graded middle tones, and dense shadows. Especial stress must be laid on the brilliancy of the high lights. It is best to compare these high lights with an edge of the paper which has not been exposed and is not fogged or, even better, with the back of the paper. The highest lights should show scarcely a trace of a silver precipitate and must therefore be almost as white as the paper itself. Negatives which do not allow of the production of prints as perfect as this should not be used while the bromoil process is being learned.
This apparently superfluous definition of a perfect bromide print has to be given in this way, because it only too often occurs in practice that the worker himself is not clear as to what is meant by the expression, perfect bromide print. This may be partly ascribed to the fact that the silver bromide process—whether rightly or wrongly need not be determined here—has not been properly appreciated among amateurs who are striving for artistic results. Bromide printing has frequently been considered not to be satisfactory as an artistic means of expression, and has therefore been considerably neglected. In many quarters it is considered as just good enough for beginners.
Nevertheless, the bromide process is per se an uncommonly flexible method and gives, even with a very considerable amount of overexposure or underexposure, that is, even when very badly handled, results which are considered usable. It is even possible that an improperly made bromide print, one for instance, which is soft and foggy, might in some circles be considered as esthetically more interesting than a perfect print. This is an undeniable advantage of the process. It may also become a danger, if an imperfect bromide print is used as a starting point in the bromoil process. If anyone is not sure on this point, let him compare his own bromide prints with such samples as are frequently shown by manufacturers in window displays and sample books. He will then see what richness of tones and wealth of gradation are inherent in the process. If, however, an imperfect silver bromide print is used as a starting point for a bromoil, it can not be expected that the latter will display all the possibilities of this process. If the bromide print is muddy, the work of inking will be difficult, and it will be impossible to obtain clean high lights. If it is underexposed and too contrasty, it can not be expected that the bromoil will show details in the high lights which were lacking in the bromide print. If the worker himself does not know that his silver bromide print is faulty, he is inclined to ascribe the difficulties which he finds in making the bromoil print and his dissatisfaction with the results, to the bromoil process itself. Most of the unsatisfactory results in bromoil work must be ascribed to the imperfect quality of the bromide print which is used, and this is the more important as this lack is not perceptible to the eye after the bleaching is completed. Whoever, therefore, desires to successfully practice bromoil printing, must first decide impartially and critically whether he actually knows how to make bromide prints, and must acquire full mastery of this process.
The technically perfect bromide print made from a properly graded negative can, as will later be described, have its gradations changed in the bromoil process without any difficulty, and thus be made softer or more contrasty. The advanced bromoil printer who is a thorough master of the technique of the process will therefore easily be able to work even with poor negatives; when making his bromide prints from such negatives, he will consider the ideas which he intends to incorporate in the bromoil print and will make his bromide print harder or softer than the negative and at the same time retain the necessary cleanness of the high lights.