After development the plate should be well washed, and then placed in an alum bath. Alum acts as a scavenger, and clears up all the remains of the developer. Next the plate should again be well washed, and put in the hyposulphite bath. This bath should be constantly renewed, for as soon as it becomes well discoloured it is inadvisable to continue its use. It should not be made stronger than 1 to 5, 1 to 10 being the best proportion. Taking the plate from the fixing bath, you should wash it very thoroughly, and re-plunge it into a fresh alum bath, leaving it for a few minutes, then again wash it, and put it into a plate-washer, the water of which should be frequently changed. It can then be placed in a drying rack, and left to dry gradually in a dry room, where no dust is raised.
Duplicate plates.
It is, in our opinion, always well to expose two plates on each subject, for the operator can thus, in a second plate, correct any error he may detect in the first. This is our own invariable rule, and the practice, apart from the better results obtained, has taught us better than any other method could have done, how wonderfully the plate can be brought under the operator’s will. It is hardly necessary to say the first plate should be examined after development, by daylight, before proceeding to develop the second. Once having seen a beautiful thing in nature, the enthusiastic student will determine to get it perfectly, if it takes fifty plates and as many days to do it in.
Study of tone.
We strongly advise those desirous of doing artistic work to begin by studying tone, expose (always giving two exposures to each subject) on selected subjects, especially fit for the study of tone; for example, a figure in a white dress against a white background, another in a black dress against a black background, and then a white dress against a black background, and a black dress against a white background; some white flowers against a sheet of white paper; yacht-sails against the sky; faces against the sky; black velvet in bright sunshine, and on a grey day; yellow flowers (with orthochromatic plates) on a white background. In short, the student should think of all the possible harmonies and discords that can be found indoors and out of doors, and he should, before taking a plate, make a mental translation of the subject into black and white, and put on paper roughly, with a piece of charcoal, what he expects to get, by drawing rough masses in tone of the subject. He should at first think nothing whatever of composition, or the more poetical qualities of a picture; but simply study tone, and by this he will learn thoroughly exposures and development. Let him eschew all requests to take portraits, dogs, horses, parks, and what-nots; but let him always study tone. When he has mastered tone, and with it exposure and development, he knows the most difficult part of his technique and practice, let him then proceed to picture-making. In this early stage let him take anything and everything that is a study of tone, and let him take it anyhow, no posing, no arrangement, and when he knows his métier thoroughly let him destroy all these early plates ruthlessly. We strongly advise him to give away no prints of early work, or he will most surely rue the day when he did so. In our opinion a year is not too much in which to work in this way, both in doors and out of doors, in studios and out, with shutter and without, before there is any attempt to take a portrait or picture of any kind.
Accidents and faults.
In working with gelatine plates various unavoidable accidents and faults will crop up, some of which can, however, be remedied. Such cases we will now go into.
Under-exposure.
Gives chalky whites and sooty blacks, ergo no tonality, ergo worthless. No remedy, destroy at once.
Over-exposure.