[12].
Roscoe’s Chemistry:—
Lessons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and potassium, sodium, and ammonium in lessons 19, 22, 23; chromium and uranium in lesson 25; mercury, silver, and platinum in lessons 26, 27, and 28.
“Photography with Emulsions:”— Caps. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 22, 24, and 31.
Wet-plate process.
If the student were to ask ten middle-aged photographers whether they prefer a wet plate or a dry plate negative, nine out of ten would, without doubt answer, “Oh, a wet-plate negative.” If the student is curious and asks, why? he will get a vague answer, in which the words “bloom” and “beauty” play conspicuous parts, the adjectives reminding him of an advertisement for patent balms for the skin. The fact is, not knowing the first principles of art, photographers have raised for themselves false gods, and they are still worshipping them. Let us at once and most emphatically state that wet plate negatives do not give so true an impression of nature as a gelatino-bromide plate, nor are the results so artistic. We have seen much of the best of Mrs. Cameron’s work, and she obtained from collodion and silver some of the best results ever obtained from wet plates, for she had artistic insight, yet even in her work the tonality is not so true, and the “quality” and freshness is not so fine as can be obtained from gelatino-bromide negatives. The work by this process is hard, and incapable of expressing texture correctly, while the general impression is more or less artificial. This is fortunate for us, for the slowness of the wet-plate process would seriously handicap it, even if the artistic result were better than that of dry plates. The inadequacy of collodion plates is emphasized when we look at the work of the craftsmen who used them, and whose ideal was sharpness and “bloom.” Such work will be found most unnatural and inartistic. Surely many of the false ideas current amongst photographers arose from the evolution of the art. Daguerreotypes, the first photographs, were shiny, and most of the subsequent processes followed in their wake, until one clear-sighted photographer, Blanquart-Evrard, tried to combat the evil tendencies. Considering, then, the poor artistic quality of collodion plates and their slowness in exposure, there is absolutely nothing to be said in their favour for art work. It is decided, then, that our student will work with gelatino-bromide plates.
Hints to be remembered in developing.
We venture to state briefly certain hints founded on the chemistry and practice of development, which the student must have at his fingers' ends, for let him remember that the vital question of tone depends on development. That exceedingly nice question of getting the tones in approximately true relation, which gives all artists so much work, gives him who uses photography as his medium no less thought, and it is on account of the plasticity of the process of development that we can at once take our stand and repudiate the ignorant assertion that photography is a mechanical process. Of course there are fifty other reasons why it is not merely a mechanical process, to mention one more of which will be enough, i.e. the variety of exposures ranging between the 1/2000 of a second (as with Muybridge’s work), and a couple of hours as in taking an interior. Developing is really what modelling is to the sculptor, and as art guides the modeller’s hand, so it must the photographer’s who wishes to obtain pictures, and the art value of the work of both men will be proportionate to the art knowledge and insight of the workers. Now you can understand how absolutely necessary to pictorial photography is a knowledge of art. Where photographers are devoid of all art knowledge, their aim is to get “pluck,” “nice gradation,” “vim,” “snap,” “sparkle,” “brilliancy,” to use only a few of their strange and cheap terms, and, according to them all these loosely named qualities must be present equally in a sunny picture and in a grey day picture, if ever they dare to expose a plate on a grey day. It is all such talk that has brought photography down to be called a merely mechanical process, which of course it becomes in the hands of those who can and do give “pluck” and “sparkle” to every negative, regardless of effect. It never occurs to these that each picture is a problem in itself, and needs different management from beginning to end. They aim for their “sparkle” from the moment of exposure to the end of development, and obtain all the other qualities described so eloquently by their cheap adjectives, by their unvarying development.
Now let the student, keeping all this in mind, carefully commit to memory these hints, for they are of vital importance.