ENLARGING ON ARGENTIC PAPER AND OPALS.
By A. GOODALL.
[Footnote: Read before the Dundee and East of Scotland Photographic Association.]
The process of making gelatino bromide of silver prints or enlargements on paper or opal has been before the public for two or three years now, and cannot be called new; but still it is neither so well known nor understood as such a facile and easy process deserves to be, and I may just say here that after a pretty extensive experience in the working of it I believe there is no other enlarging process capable of giving better results than can be got by this process when properly understood and wrought, as the results that can be got by it are certainly equal to those obtainable by any other method, while the ease and rapidity with which enlarged pictures can be made by it place it decidedly ahead of any other method. I propose to show you how I make a gelatino bromide enlargement on opal.
[Mr. Goodall then proceeded to make an enlargement on a 12 by 10 opal, using a sciopticon burning paraffin; after an exposure for two and a-half minutes the developer was applied, and a brilliant opal was the result.]
We now come to the paper process, and most effective enlargements can be made by it also; indeed, as a basis for coloring, nothing could well be better. Artists all over the country have told me that after a few trials they prefer it to anything else, while excellent and effective plain enlargements are easily made by it if only carefully handled. A very good enlargement is made by vignetting the picture, as I have just done, with the opal, and then squeezing it down on a clean glass, and afterward framing it with another glass in front, when it will have the appearance almost equal to an opal. To make sure of the picture adhering to the glass, however, and at the same time to give greater brilliancy, it is better to flow the glass with a 10 or 15 grain solution of clear gelatine before squeezing it down. The one fault or shortcoming of the plain argentic paper is the dullness of the surface when dry, and this certainly makes it unsuitable for small work, such as the rapid production of cartes or proofs from negatives wanted in a hurry; the tone of an argentic print is also spoken of sometimes as being objectionable; but my impression is, that it is not so much the tone as the want of brilliancy that is the fault there, and if once the public were accustomed to the tones of argentine paper, they might possibly like them twice as well as the purples and browns with which they are familiar, provided they had the depth and gloss of a silver print; and some time ago, acting on a suggestion made by the editor of the Photographic News, I set about trying to produce this result by enameling the paper with a barium emulsion previous to coating it with the gelatinous bromide of silver. My experiments were successful, and we now prepare an enamel argentic paper on which the prints stand out with brilliancy equal to those on albumenized paper. I here show you specimens of boudoirs and panels--pictures enlarged from C.D.V.--negatives on this enamel argentic.
[Mr. Goodall then passed round several enlargements from landscape and portrait negatives, which it would have been difficult to distinguish from prints on double albumenized paper.]
I have already spoken of the great ease and facility with which an argentic enlargement may be made as compared with a collodion transfer, for instance; but there is another and more important point to be considered between the two, and that is, their durability and permanence. Now with regard to a collodion transfer, unless most particular care be taken in the washing of it (and those who have made them will well know what a delicate, not to say difficult, job it is to get them thoroughly freed from the hypo, and at the same time preserve the film intact), there is no permanence in a collodion transfer, and that practically in nine cases out of ten they have the elements of decay in them from the first day of their existence. I know, at least in Glasgow, where an enormous business has been done within the last few years by certain firms in the club picture trade (the club picture being a collodion transfer tinted in oil or varnish colors), there are literally thousands of pictures for which thirty shillings or more has been paid, and of which the bare frame is all that remains at the present day; the gilt of the frames has vanished, and the picture in disgust, perhaps, has followed it. In short, I believe a collodion transfer cannot be made even comparatively permanent, unless an amount of care be taken in the making of it which is neither compatible nor consistent with the popular price and extensive output. How now stands the case with an argentic enlargement? Of course it may be said that there is scarcely time yet to make a fair comparison--that the argentic enlargements are still only on their trial.