In determining the correct exposure, the method already set forth for contact exposures is a reasonably good one. If the paper with a given exposure takes half the proper time to develop, halve the next exposure; if double the time, or more, double it. More could be said on the subject of exposure, and possibly to advantage; for instance, there are tables showing the exact relation of exposure to the number of times of enlargement, but complicated calculations in the dark-room are troublesome and a test-strip is simpler. After a while one gets the ability to determine the approximate exposure required by looking at the enlarged image on the screen, correcting slight errors by length of development, and greater ones by modifying the developer by diluting or strengthening.
It should be remembered, however, that in judging exposure by reference to the screen, we must consider the high lights, as well as the shadows. It is in the high lights that we need the detail if we are to have soft pictures. If this detail in the high lights is plentiful and clear we may know that our light is strong enough for a very short exposure. If it is very faint, we will have to give a long exposure and use diluted developer to save the over-exposed shadows. On the other hand, if the image on the screen is a flat one, we may know that our light is too strong for the negative, and it must be modified by removing the reflector or by interposing ground or yellow glass; and if neither of these suffice, we can simply lay the negative aside for a dark day when the light will be very much weaker. Frequently all necessary contrasts can be obtained by the use of the hard paper before referred to. As under-exposure tends to increase contrasts, we should also give the minimum exposure in the case of flat negatives, abandoning for a time our standard one-minute development. As will be seen by this time, there are many wrinkles about using bromide paper, and it will be found that new ones appear at every seance in the enlarging room.
But why is it that so many of our enlargements are black in the shadows and chalky in the high lights? Why, simply because our light is too weak for our negative. We forget that if we cannot modify our negative we must modify our light. It is this characteristic of the bromide enlargement which has prevented the process from enjoying the popularity it deserves. And I sometimes wonder whether this chalkiness is due to the use of the north light!
Chapter VI
DODGING, VIGNETTING, COMPOSITE PRINTING AND THE USE OF BOLTING SILK
Of all printing processes, bromide enlarging offers the best opportunities for successful dodging and modification. We can cut our light down and take all the time we want, or we can take as little time as we want. A hand, a finger, a slip of paper, or anything within reach, will suffice to shade the light just as we want it. In this connection it is well to always hold the shade nearer the lens than the easel, as greater diffusion results and there is less danger of sharp lines. In shading a foreground to bring up a dense sky, first make a test-strip or two, noting how long the shading is carried on and how long the light is allowed to act on the whole. If the sky is then over- or under-printed we can modify it in the enlargement proper.
The best arrangement for vignetting in enlarging is a piece of cardboard the size of the negative, with an opening cut out at the proper place and about the size of the portion of the negative to be vignetted. This is held near the lens and moved backward and forward between the latter and the screen, the opening showing larger as we near the lens and smaller as we recede from it. Very tasteful vignettes can be made in this way. A favorite method of the writer’s is to use a sheet of bromide paper, preferably that with rough surface, and print on it a small vignette of a portion of a negative. These sheets being of a uniform size are then bound in book form, and make very attractive souvenirs. Variety can be added to the collection by printing some of the pictures through a mat fastened on the screen over the paper, when, of course, they are bounded by straight, sharp lines.
Double printing in enlarging is not at all difficult. Assuming that test-strips have been made determining the proper exposure for each negative, I will briefly outline the process. Taking a landscape negative with clear sky in which we wish to print clouds, we first tack on the screen a sheet of paper the size of our bromide, and after properly adjusting and focusing it, trace with a pencil the outline of the skyline. We then remove the foreground negative and, after tracing, cut out a mask conforming to the size and shape of the foreground, cutting away the sky. We now put in the box the sky negative, and readjust our sheet of paper until after proper focusing the desired portion of the sky occupies the portion reserved for it, leaving the thumb-tacks as a guide when we put our bromide on the screen. Now using the sheet of paper as a guide, place on the edges of the bromide paper two little pencil marks to show how far we shall shade the lower portion of the paper. Our mask being the size of the foreground negative, it is now only necessary to hold it at the proper distance from the lens to have its edge conform to the sky-line when enlarged. But this would leave a sharp line if held exactly at that point, so using the pencil marks on the margin as a guide, we slowly raise and lower the mask very slightly and just sufficient to cause an agreeable blending of the sky into nothing. The proper exposure given, we cap the lens, remove the paper and insert the foreground negative. Now we must again adjust our sheet of plain paper until the sky line marked on it coincides with the sky-line on the screen, leaving thumb-tacks as usual. Registry being thus secured, we simply expose the foreground and develop the composite print.
Needless to say, our clouds must be lighted from the same general direction as the landscape. But if in the negative they are not so lighted it can be reversed in the holder and will then print properly. In almost all cloud printing the tendency is to give undue prominence to the clouds by printing the sky to too deep a tone. This, besides making the blending very noticeable at the horizon, results in unnatural effects and should be avoided.