m FEUR nrOGRAPHER ITTLE BOOKS No. 2, DEVELOPMENT MADE EASY Elementary Lessons for Beginners in Phorography simply fold . WELLINBTON if The World's Siandard Paper for \Coniaoi and CnlargemeniSm Grades :— Piaiino Maii — Smooth, Rough, Cream Crayon, Xira Rough and X (special thick). OrdSnary—Smooih, Rough, and Cream Crayon m\ EN AMMC. -Glossy surfacom WelUfififton & Ward, Photographic Material Manufacturers, Elstree, Herts. THE SUREST and the EASIEST method of developing ROLL FILMS is by the Kodak Developing Tank NO DARK ROOM REQUIRED You simply put the film in the tank. Endorsed and used by the Highest Photographic Authorities. CAN BE SEEN AT ANY DEALER'S And all branches of KODAK, Ltd., 57-61, CLERKENWELL ROAD, LONDON, E.G. 96, Bold St., LIVERPOOL ; 72.74. Buchanan St., GLASGOW; 59, Brompton Road,S.W. ; 60, Cheapside, E.G. ; 115, Oxford St., W.; 171-173, Regent St., W. ; and 40, Strand, London, W.C. THE jfiyi /X DEVELOPERS offer a selection that SUIT ALL TASTES. RfiniNAi simplest, cleanest, most economical, nUUIIlflL and most powerful of all. It can be used for plates or films or Bromide and Gaslight papers. EKIONOGEN P.^^^^^^^ stainless, softly graded nega- MCTni is a clean and powerful developer and highly IflblUL recommended. IMnPCM Clll DUITC is a double solution developer imUUCn OULrnilC that only requires household soda and water and no other chemicals of any description. A M I ^® ^ developer par excellence for Bromide and nlffllUUL Gaslight papers giving soft velvety black. npTni is a developer resembling Pyro in its action, Un I UL but it does not stain the fingers and the plate. These developers can be obtained IN SUBSTANCE for making up. IN CARTRIDGES ready for use when dissolved. IN SOLUTION ready for use when diluted. THE " ■ » " PHOTOGRAPHIC •^1- SPECIALITIES. The AGFA FLASHLIGHT li^rSt^^^^ The AGFA INTENSIFIER ^^lilS^^i^'^'' The AGFA NEUTRAL Toning & Fixing Salts produce lovely tones on any P.O. P. (32 ozs. of solution, 1/-). The AGFA ISOLAR PLATE plate on a scientific principle. The AGFA CHROMO PLATE Si„T1n ^Tl scape negatives without a yellow screen. ALWAYS A5K FOR AGFA. Aiways Consult the AGFA HANDBOOK, fPGO of any Oeaiofm Sole Agents— CHAS. ZIMMERMANN S CO., 9 S 10, St. Mary-it-Hill, LONDON. e.C. SURE AND EASY DEVELOPMENT OF PLATES AND FILMS "THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER " 1/- LIBRARY. PLATINUM TONING. By Lyonel Clark. Sixth edition. P.O.P. By A. HoRSLEY Hinton. EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY. By C. J. Leaper, F. C.S. Fourth edition. SHORT CHAPTERS ON ART PHOTOGRAPHY. By H. P. Robinson. Fourth edition. DEVELOPMENT AND DEVELOPERS. By Geo. E. Brown. Second edition. THE ART OF RETOUCHING. By J. Hubert. Twelfth edition. ELEMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY. By John A. Hodges. Sixth edition. CARBON PRINTING. By E. J. Wall. Seventh edition. WET COLLODION, and How to Work It. By C. W Gamble. Second edition. THE LANTERN, and How to Use It. By Goodwin Norton. Second edition. PLATINOTYPE PRINTING. By A. Horsley Hinton. Third edition. THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S NOTE BOOK AND CONSTANT COMPANION. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. Second edition. PHOTO AQUATINT ; or, THE GUM - BICHROMATE PROCESS. By Alfred Maskell and Robert Demachy. Fourth edition. ANIMATED PHOTOGRAPHY: The A B C Of the CINE- MATOGRAPH. By Cecil Hepworth. Second edition. ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. By G. A. T. MiDDLETON, A.R.I.B.A. MOUNTS AND FRAMES, and How to Make Them. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. Second edition. PRACTICAL PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Part I. By A. Horsley Hinton. Profusely illustrated. PRACTICAL PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Part II. By A. Horsley Hinton. THE PERFECT NEGATIVE. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. Third edition. OZOTYPE. By Thomas Manly. COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY. By A. E. Smith. LANTERN SLIDE MAKING. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. FIRST STEPS IN PHOTO-MICROGRAPHY. By F Martin Duncan, F.R.H.S. THE PRINCIPLES OF SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY. By Fred W. Sparrow, R.N. ENLARGEMENTS : Their Production and Finish. By G. Rodwell Smith. BROMIDE PRINTING. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. PORTRAITURE FOR AMATEURS WITHOUT A STUDIO. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. Part I. (Technical). PORTRAITURE FOR AMATEURS WITHOUT A STUDIO. By Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A. Part H. (Pictorial). THE ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY OF PHOTOGRAPHIC CHEMICALS. By C. Sordes Ellis, F I C, F.C.S. HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH WITH ROLL AND CUT FILMS. By John A. Hodges, F.R.P.S. *«Taquta," complete with Box of 45 Plates and Stand Adapter 21/- Day light-loading Plates, per tin of 45 ea. 2/- *' Taquta " Developer Powder, per tin 6cl. ** Taquta" Brooches or Pendants doz. 2/6 «* Taquta" Brooches, cheap quality doz, 1/6 JONATHAN FALLOWFIELD, Qentral ^dotograpdic Stores^ 146, CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W. Telephone — Telegrams — 4443 CENTRAL. "FALLOWFIELD, LONDON." BARNET PLATES 4 Speeds. Medium and Extra Rapid 35arnet Ortdo. Roll Films and Cut Films . . dSarnet Ortdo. Screen, dj- ELLIOTT fir SON, LTD., BARNET. SURE AND EASY DEVELOPMENT OF PLATES AND FILMS ^ ^ ^ A. HORSLEY HINTON EDITOR OF "the AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER" LONDON HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld. 52 LONG ACRE, W.C. AND SIMPKiN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co., Ld. Imperial Plates have by far the largest sale, because they are easiest to work. With them Development is much simplified. The Various grades are : H.&D. Flashlight - - 350 Special-Sensitive 275 Special Rapid - 225 Sovereign - - 180 Ordinary - - 80 H.&D. Orthocrome — (i) Special- Sensitive 275 (ii) SpecialRapid 225 Process | Lantern INTRODUCTION The Little Books on photography of which this is one are the outcome of The Practical Lessons for Beginners" which have appeared every week since July, 1904, in The Amateur Photo- grapher, and are still continuing. The unparalleled expression of appreciation with which these Lessons " have met leaves little room for doubt that there are very many who would find such plain talks on every-day photographic practice useful in book form. To merely reprint the " Lessons " from The Amateur Photographer would hardly have been sufficient, and the subjects dealt with, therefore, have been en- tirely re-written. A. H. H. 9 EDWARDS* Jsochromatic and . . Ordinary . . XL PLATES AND FILMS ARE THE BEST for speed. THE BEST for quality. THE BEST for ease of manipulation. THE BEST for delicacy of detail. THE BEST for copying. THE BEST for keeping. THE BEST for everything. QUALITY. CELERITY. ECONOMY. From all Dealers or B. J. EDWARDS & CO., Castlebar Works, Ealing. SURE AND EASY Development of Plates and Films — ♦ — Perhaps you have never attempted to do your own developing, or, if you have, maybe you muddled on for a time, and found so little success that you gave it up and let some one else do it for you ; or, possibly, you are still muddling on, now and again getting a good result, but more often failures, and you cannot tell why some are failures and others are not ; it appears to you that you treat them all alike. Of course, it may seem simpler and better to put the work out, and it may appear that you secure a larger percentage of good negatives ; if, how- ever, you but learn how to develop yourself the good results would be more numerous still. It stands to reason that a parent, if it is capable, will better understand its own offspring than a hired nurse ; moreover, your whole photographic practice will be- come more interesting. You will admit this, perhaps ; yet 11 12 Sure and Easy Developonent of you complain you have tried over and over again, but somehow never get any more forward. Sometimes you succeed in making a number of nega- tives, and then, time after time, you try to do just the same, but fail. That is probably due to the fact that, on the occasions on which you succeeded, the plates or films, as the case may be, were correctly exposed and, as it were, almost developed themselves — that is, they required no especial care — where- as, subsequently, you had wrongly estimated the light and so had over- exposed or under-exposed, and in such case some additional care in develop- ment would be necessary. But do not suppose that this additional care in- volves any difficulty on your part. Far from it ; once understand what is required of you, once really grasp what development means, and it should be quite easy and simple. In another of these Little Books I have endeavoured to set forth a simple and safe method of exposing correctly, and if that be read first, the question of development becomes much easier, because, as I have said just now, a correctly exposed plate will almost de- velop itself ; by which I mean that the right moment at which to stop development is so much easier to judge, that it is hardly possible for you to go wrong, and so, as I venture to think that in my Little Book on Exposure I have made correct exposure so simple that no one could very well fail, the Plates and Films 13 perusal of that book is a first sure step to success. Still, I will not insist that you first study the Little Book referred to, because I am desirous in this series of lessons, to save you, as far as possible, from anything of the nature of a tedious course of study. You do not want to go through a course ; you do not want to devote much time or trouble to the matter ; you . really want a short cut to success, and whilst some would say that it is very wrong to indulge you, I am quite willing to do it. We will suppose, then, that you have some plates already exposed, but you do not know whether they are correctly, or over, or under exposed. Now, what are you going to do ? You take them to the dark-room, or whatever extemporised apartment you employ as such, and I am not at present going into the question of how that dark-room should be fitted and arranged ; that will do some other time. Now, I am writing these Little Books for novices — for beginners who are really beginners and know practically nothing, but even such readers under- stand, I suppose, that the plate shut up in its light-tight dark slide must remain so until taken into the dark- room ; but one has so often heard of the uninitiated who, having exposed the plate in the camera, has taken it out to have a look at it ! It should 14 Sure and Easy Development of stand to reason that the plate which is sensitive to the action of such light as the lens focusses upon it is, after ex- posure in the camera, still sensitive to light and, if uncovered in daylight or even candle-light, will have its entire surface affected precisely as though, having first inscribed a definite pattern on a piece of paper, we then dipped the whole in the ink-pot ! The dark-room, as you are aware, is an apartment in which only light of a certain kind — red or orange or deep yellow — is employed, as to these colours the plate is so insensitive that it can be uncovered without being affected. Were the plate sensitive to these colours as well as to the full comple- ment of colours which go to make up what we call white " light, we should have to perform our development, etc., in utter darkness, the inconvenience of which would be considerable. You take your exposed plates, then, without letting the light have access to them, into the dark-room with its red or other safe light, and you place one of the plates in a dish, and having put suffi- cient developer in a glass measure, you, to the best of your ability, do as the text-books direct — namely, you hold the dish in the left hand, tilting it slightly towards the glass measure in the right hand, and then in one even wave flow the developer over the plate, so that the whole surface is almost simultaneously covered, and you then commence rocking the dish. Plates and Films 15 That sounds all very well, but it is not so easy in practice as may be supposed. By the feeble light of the dark-room lamp it is quite likely that some small part of the surface of the plate may, quite unperceived at first, resist the developer, and remain for a while un- covered. It has happened scores of times, with the result that even though within a few minutes later the un- covered part becomes covered, there will be a patch on the negative which is thinner than the rest ; the reason for which very likely remains a mystery to you. Personally, I always develop by pouring the developer over in the way described, and so probably do most who have a little practice, and all goes well ; but there is really no reason for insisting on it, so, instead of asking you to persevere until you overcome the difficulty of uneven development, I say evade the difficulty by placing in the dish sufficient developer to thor- oughly cover the plate, and then slide the plate into it, only then you must immediately pass a soft mop-like camel-hair brush over the surface, in order to remove any little air bubbles, which are nearly certain to make their appearance, and then gently rock the dish to keep the fluid slightly moving. Don't lay the brush down on the bench or anywhere else ; keep a cup or similar vessel with a little water in it, and rest the brush therein when not 16 Sure and Easy Development of actually in use. The kind of brush is called a " mop," and is used by artists for putting in large washes of water- colour paint. But you ask, What developer are you to use ? Well, just for the present it does not matter. Get a ready-made one-solution developer from the chemist or photographic store, and if the direc- tions tell you to take so much developer to so much water, do so. We will go more closely into the constitution of the developer later on. You have, then, immersed the plate in the developer ; you have passed the brush over the surface to remove clinging air-bubbles, and you very slightly rock the dish now and again. What happens next ? Well, not being present all the time, I cannot quite tell, but it will be one of three things — namely, the whole plate will suddenly go dark and you are at a loss what to do ; or, a small part will darken and gradually get blacker, whilst other portions follow suit, and you wonder if it is all right, and how long you should continue ; or, you see no visible change for a long time, and then a small part turns dark, and although you continue rocking the dish and waiting, very little further change takes place. Please consider for a moment, and see if you cannot recall in your own experience just these conditions. Which of the three, I wonder, is your most frequent experience ? The first, Plates and Films 17 darkening all over, indicates the plate has been too much exposed — that is, over-exposure. The second shows that the exposure is about right. The third is a sign of under-exposure — that is, the plate has not been subjected to the light for a sufficient time for it to affect the sensitive film, and remember this, that the developer cannot bring out what is not there to bring. I repeat that I have already, in another Little Book, given directions which should make right exposure so easy that in future you will have no excuse for gross errors either one way or the other ; so I will suppose, in the first place, that the plate gradually darkens in parts, just as the rising tide first fills up the lower hollows, then those on a little higher level, the water in the first, meanwhile, getting deeper until gradually everything is sub- merged, just a hillock or two remaining above the darkening flood. Presently I will deal with those plates the behaviour of which, as already described, indicate over-exposure and under-exposure. Now read carefully the following paragraph, and be sure you understand it. By development we aim at bring- ing out the invisible image to just such a degree that each part shall have an opacity which, when we come to print from the negative, shall intercept the light, and produce lights and darks having the same relation to each other as the various objects in the original 2 18 Sure and Easy Development of scene have to one another ; thus, if any part of the negative is desired to print quite a white, then that part must be sufficiently opaque to entirely prevent the light from penetrating during the time it takes other portions to print sufficiently. You, of course, understand that when a plate or film is exposed in the camera, light is reflected on to it from the various objects in varying degrees, in proportion to the relative darkness and lightness of those objects, and hence the film is unequally affected by light, such portions of the scene as the sky, for instance, reflecting very much more light to the film, than the darker terrestrial objects. But the light differs not only in volume, but in kind ; that is, it differs in colour, and some colours, such as blue, act more rapidly on the film than others, such as yellow and green, and on the whole the process of exposure is often of the nature of a compromise, whereby the most active colours are allowed sufficient time to slightly overdo their work, in order that the slower light may have acted as nearly to the required degree as pos- sible, and then, subsequently, we en- deavour to help along the development of the somewhat underdone slow -light parts, and restrain the overdone quick- light portions, thus compensating for their disparity. I hope that does not sound too hard. Let us go over it again. The light, as it reaches the plate through the lens, has Plates and Films 19 somewhat the same effect as it does when it enters our eye — that is, some parts of the view appear lighter than others, as, for instance, the sky, water, and where the sunlight falls ; and the sensitive plate is affected proportion- ately, but as you are aware, the plate does not appear affected, but to the eye remains unchanged. But as soon as the developer is applied the various parts of the plate respond in proportion as they have been affected by light. Where the light has acted most the darkening comes first, and continues until other portions less affected, and therefore less responsive, have had time to darken ; and, mark you, the longer the darkening is allowed to continue the more opaque or dense will that particular part prove to be when the negative is finished, and the denser any portion is the more effectu- ally will it intercept the light when we come to print from the negative — that is to say, the longer the development the more dense the negative, and the denser the negative the stronger or whiter the high lights in the ultimate print. So when you ask yourself, when shall I stop development, the answer is found in the solution of the problem : " How dense should I allow the darkest parts to become in order to produce the kind of print required ? " Which you may say is only complicating matters instead of giving a simple answer. Not so complicated, perhaps, as it 20 Sure and Easy Development of seems. Anyway it remains the ques- tion you must learn to answer, and it is in just this that I shall try to help you. You might suppose that if you con- tinued development until your negative is as dense as a pattern or standard negative kept at hand for comparison, you might then stop development and so obtain the desired result ; but unfortunately this is not possible, be- cause when development is complete there is still the process of fixing, which entirely changes the appearance of the negative as it leaves the developer. Let me tell you why this is, and then you will see what I am leading up to. When development is complete there still remains a certain portion of the film which light has not penetrated, and which consequently does not re- spond to the developer. This remains as a semi-opaque layer, which the fixing bath removes by dissolving it away. Now, when development has pro- ceeded some way, and you take the negative from the developer, andholding it between your eyes and the dark-room lamp so as to judge whether it is dense enough, it is as though you were looking at it with a dense layer at the back as well, thereby rendering it much less transparent, that is, more dense, all over than it would otherwise be. Have by you then a finished negative which you know to be a good one. How are you to tell what is a good one ? Well, one which will give a good, clear, Plates and Films 21 bright print, let us say like fig. 1, and if you place about six thicknesses of ordinary tissue paper at the back you supply something about equivalent to the semi-opaque layer which I have said exists at the back of a developed but unfixed negative. Suppose your standard or pattern negative, if looked through on to a sheet of white paper well illuminated, has the appearance of fig. 1, then with the six thicknesses of tissue paper at the back it will appear somewhat as fig. 2. In both cases I am supposing that you lay a sheet of white paper on the table immediately under a powerful gaslight or strong lamplight, or if in daylight then near to the window. Then the negative, in order to present the appearance shown in figs. 1 and 2, is held between finger and thumb at about an angle of forty-five degrees as you look through them at the paper. If, then, the addition of several thick- nesses of tissue behind a finished nega- tive forms a layer equivalent to the undeveloped layer of film in the un- finished negative, we at once have something like a guide or pattern, and, although this is only a rough-and-ready guide, it will be something to go on instead of leaving you entirely to con- jecture as to how dense your negative should be before arresting development. Remember that at present we are considering only one out of three possi- ble happenings when the plate is immersed in the developer, or the 22 Sure and Easy Development of developer is poured over the plate namely, that first some portion only grows dark, then other portions, until soon the whole scene or subject is mapped out in varying degrees of dark, the darkest being the parts which will eventually be the high lights of the picture. If now the plate is examined by looking through it, or examined by transmitted light, as we say, it is quite likely that it would appear to possess a nice distinction of light and dark and ample density, and often enough the novice has decided that development may now be stopped. But, alas ! allowance has not been made for the undeveloped layer, and consequently after fixing it will be found that the negative is but a mere ghost. This is what I want to prevent, hence my suggesting that you should have a model for comparison at hand in the dark-room to be examined and com- pared by the same light — the dark-room light — consisting of an acknowledged good finished negative, backed by some half-dozen thicknesses of tissue paper. So it will come about that the image will gradually come up, piece by piece, until, as has been said, you might reasonably suppose it finished. But no ; development must be continued until the darkness gradually seems to swamp and bury everything, as I suggested the rising tide will do, until everything is submerged. At this time, if the bach of the nega- tive be looked at it will be noticed that Plates and Films 23 the subject is faintly visible on that side, as though it had come through. The face or film side of the negative is all black. Then hold this up to the light alongside the tissue-paper-backed negative, and they will be of about the same opacity, and then development may be stopped. Make a very clear mental note of the appearance of that negative in addition to having compared it. Try and fix its appearance in your mind, then rinse it in water and place it in the fixing bath which consists merely of hyposulphite of soda and water in the proportions of \ lb. to 1 pint. After fifteen minutes, and not before, you may take it out of the fixing bath and, lighting either lamp or gas, com- pare your newly made negative with the finished model, but this time re- moving from it the tissue paper. It will be best examined by looking through on to white paper as before described. Well, is it up to sample ? Is it generally rather more transparent ? Are the dark parts greyer ? If so, development has been stopped too soon. On the other hand, if the dark parts are blacker, then development has been continued too long. Now try and recall that mental picture of how it looked before fixing and, re- membering this, proceed to develop the next plate, profiting by the experi- ence gained. What I have tried to do is first to give you a rough idea of what the 24 Sure and Easy Development of developer does, then to give you a guide for comparison. I do not pre- tend that the latter is a perfect and complete method, but it will prevent the greater errors into which the beginner is most likely to fall. But now what about the plate, the image on which, almost immediately it is submitted to the developer, rushes up, by which I mean darkens all over, and in a few seconds, if held up to the light, seems impenetrably black. In extreme cases, your best plan would be to recognise it as a case of bad over- exposure, and throw the plate away, although doubtless a skilful person might succeed in saving it. If, how- ever, the image begins to form as in the instance already gone into, until when about half-way visible, and then the whole is suddenly overwhelmed with a general darkness, something may be done to remedy it, but your tissue paper and good negative will not now serve you so freely as a guide as before, because the plate you are developing will at no time look like the model ; it will never show anything like the same degree of difference be- tween the lights and darks, and if you were to stop development when it arrived as nearly as possible to the opacity of the model, you would only get a negative like fig. 3, which gives a fair idea of an over-exposed negative ; so if after developing and fixing you get something more like fig. 3 than fig- 1> you ill know what is wrong — Plates and Films 25 negative over-exposed, and should have been developed longer in order to secure greater density. Not that this longer development in giving greater density, would ever have made fig. 3 like fig. 1, because, whilst making the dark parts darker, it would also have made the rest darker, all parts having received too much light, and therefore respond too readily to the action of the developer ; but the darkest parts, or the parts you wish to be darkest, will perhaps gain in density rather more than the thin parts, and so produce something more nearly to what you desire. There is one matter more important than it may appear ; that is, you must learn to know by its appearance as soon as it begins to darken in the de- veloper, whether a plate is under- exposed, over-exposed, or correctly exposed, and this is not difficult. It may be said that the degree of vigour and crispness which the image shows as it first begins to appear is the clue. The crisper and clearer it is, the less has been the exposure, and vice versa. The less difference between dark and light, or, as one may say, the softer the appearance, the longer has it been. A happy medium is the result of correct exposure. In figs. 4, 5, 6, I have tried to illustrate the appearance of first under- exposure, second right exposure, and third over-exposure a few seconds after the image has begun to appear. 26 Sure and Easy Development of It is here supposed that we have a landscape scene. Very well, then, if the plate has been under-exposed the plate is much longer in beginning to darken, but when it does begin the sky will come first, or perhaps simul- taneously a pool of water, or anything as light as the sky. These soon grow a good deal darker, and moderately quickly become black, but the trees or other objects which come against the sky, and constitute what is called the sky-line, probably still show no sign of changing, and consequently this sky- line stands out crisp and clear ; harsh, sharp, and sudden. The meaning of this should hardly need explaining — the sky is of course fully exposed — it needs so short a time to record the intense light which comes from it ; but the landscape itself has during the exposure of the plate had insufficient time to reflect light enough to impress an image, and hence ther6 is nothing for the developer to bring out. Of course it may not be such an extreme case as this ; a little darkening here and there of the landscape may indicate that the lighter features are at least partly recorded, and these will get darker yet ; but meanwhile, the sky, etc., are becoming more and more opaque, so that the harshness and crispness of the contrast between the chief masses remains more or less the same. In the case of the correctly exposed plate, the first appearance of darkening Plates and Films 21 commences after a shorter interval than in the instance we have just described. Again, the sky is the ifirst to appear, but almost immediately after various lighter parts of the general scene follow suit, and the outline or skyline is not as vivid and clear. If you think of it you will realise that in nature the objects which come against the sky are not as clearly defined as if cut out in sheet metal ; there is a slight softening off, and this is shown in the less contrast revealed by development. As development proceeds the sky does not go on increasing in depth so much more rapidly than the landscape, as to leave the latter far behind, and hopelessly beaten in the race, so that presently the whole, or nearly the whole, image is darkened. In fig. 6 I have attempted to give the appearance of the image on an over-exposed plate shortly after it has commenced. Here, you see, there is still less contrast ; moreover, the darkening commences almost instantly the developer is applied, and an instant after the effect illustrated is attained the entire image, the lighter portions and all, become merged in darkness. I hope now I have made it understood how one can tell as soon as the image commences to respond to the action of the developer, whether the plate is under, correctly, or over exposed. In recent years expert photographers have argued that when once a plate has commenced to develop its fate is 28 Sure and Easy Development of sealed, and that whether it shows itself to be over-, or under-exposed, no efforts can make it otherwise — that is to say, no modification of the developer can improve the ultimate result. With this, personal experience hardly agrees, but it is quite certain that if the plate is to be saved, a remedy must be applied instantly, if it is to be at all efficacious, and hence the importance of your being able to tell at once if your plate in the developer is all right or not, and in the latter case whether it is over or under done. You will remember we had fig. 3 as an example of over-exposure. And now let us go back a little and apply what we have been reading. Suppose this plate has been slipped into the developer, and the camel-hair brush has passed over the surface to remove bubbles ; almost before we have time to start rocking the dish the surface of the plate begins to change, the sky makes its appearance as a shade of grey, followed quickly by a tendency on the part of the rest to also darken. " Over-exposure," you say to your- self, and you must instantly pour off the developer and souse the plate with water, to stop further progress. I might have told you before, but this is, after all, as convenient a place as any, that you must have always at hand when developing, a little bottle of 10 per cent, solution of potassium bromide. What is that ? Plates and Films 29 Well, 10 per cent, is the same as one in ten, so if you dissolve 1 ounce of bro- mide of potash in 10 ounces of water, or I ounce in 5 ounces of water, there you have it. I have supposed that you are using a ready-made developer, which only requires the addition of water to make it fit for use, so now add to the developer you have been using, but have just poured off the plate, a few drops more of the neat developer, and also a drop or two of the bromide solution ; thus you make the developer stronger and the bromide makes it work slower, so that, when you pour away the water m which the plate has been soaking, and development is thus arrested, and return the modified de- veloper as non-prepared, the dense parts have time to get denser before the other parts gain more density than they should do. At the outset of this lesson in developing, it was suggested that, should the act of pouring on the developer present difficulties, and there is no doubt there are many who do ex- perience difficulty in pouring developer on, in such a manner that the liquid covers the whole surface simultaneously and uniformly, then the developer might be poured into the dish first, and the plate slipped into it. Now, however, that we have poured the developer off and added certain ingredients to it, we need to pour it back, and like everything else there is a right and a wrong way of doing this, 30 Sure and Easy Development of but the surface of the plate being now thoroughly wet and the film saturated, it will not be nearly so difficult to in- duce the solution to cover the film without leaving little isolated patches. Do not leave the dish sta'tiding flat on the table or bench, but take it in the left hand and hold the vessel, pre- sumably a graduated glass measure, containing the developer in the right hand. Now tilt the dish slightly to- wards the glass measure and pour the developer on evenly, and in a continu- ous stream without splashing, and at once begin oscillating the dish so as to ensure the liquid covering the whole surface, then gently rock the dish at short intervals in order that the solution shall not remain stagnant. It must be done without flurry and excitement, and if possible no bubbles must be formed ; but should these occur, as is often the case, they must be dispersed with a brush or finger-tip. Now watch the effect of the streng- thened and bromided developer. Pre- sently you will see the difference between the sky and the landscape increase — the more powerful developer is adding density to the sky and similar parts, whilst the bromide is retarding its action, and so keeping the less light-affected parts back. But remember that the correcting influence of this modified developer is much greater if applied from the first start off, and if, therefore, you know that the next plate to be developed Plates and Films 31 has also been over-exposed, use the strengthened and retarded solution from the first. I wonder whether from this piece of advice it will occur to you how useful, indeed how all but essential, it is to jot down in a notebook the exposure each plate has received, to- gether with the stop used, and some brief description of the character of the subject, because then having discovered that this or that plate has been over- exposed, and having done your best to correct it, you can then form some idea as to what to expect from the next one, and if as long or a longer exposure has been recorded against it, or a larger stop has been used, which comes to the same thing, provided the subject is similar, then you will con- clude that over-exposure has occurred, and you start with a suitable developer from the first. Now take the other case, that of under-exposure. You slip the plate in the developer and rock the dish. Nothing happens. You wait patiently or impatiently, as the case may be, but let me hope it is the former ; presently out of the creamy surface of the plate there starts a dark patch indicating the sky, a patch with a clear-cut edge, and you wait, watching closely for a few seconds to see if anything more will follow. No ! the sky area only gets nearer to black, so you conclude it is a case of under-exposure. Pour off the develo- 32 Sure and Easy Development of per at once into the glass measure, and flood the plate with water. Put about three-quarters of the developing solu- tion into another vessel for future use, and fill up the measure with water. You have now a greatly weakened solution. Pour away the water in which the plate is soaking, and flow on the weak solution, as in the former case of a modifled developer for over-ex- posure. Now, in all probability your patience will be severely taxed, for development will be very slow. The greater the degree of under-exposure the weaker should be the developer, and of course the slower will be its action, but the strength of the solution being reduced its density giving property is also reduced, and so, whilst the least light- affected and least responsive parts are being slowly brought out, the other parts are only very slightly gaining in density. Within reasonable limits it matters not how weak the developer is, or how slow the image is in coming up ; it will come in time, unless, of course, the under-exposure is so gross that there is no light action to develop. If you have another dish it may be well to set the first with its laggard plate on one side, covering it with a piece of card so as to protect it from splashes and the prolonged exposure to the red lamp, which, although safe for an ordinary length of time, is not quite safe for a long period, and rocking it Fig. 1. — A good standard negative. Yi^. 4. — The image soon after appearance, if under-exposed. 1 <■ — l)itti>, if <»\ er-e\i)()M'd. Fig. 7.— Uiulei-exiiu.sed ]il;itt- dex eJoped w ith normal dexeloper and giving excessive contrast. Fig. 8. — Undei-expysed plate developed with diluted developer, showing improvement. Mg. 9.— Correctly exposed plate (same as No. 1), development carried too far. Fig. 10. — Over-exposnre, development stoppe-d too soon. Fig. 11. — Correct exposure, development stopped too soon. l"ig. I-. — Over-exposnre, correctly developed so as to give required density Plates and Films 33 just occasionally, proceed to develop another plate. The use of a developer so very weak that development may take hours will be referred to presently as " stand " development, and is eminently useful for all sorts of exposures ; but that is another matter. If you have some over-exposures and some under-exposures to deal with, and have worried over them, and you then alight on a plate which has had correct exposure, its behaviour in the development will probably strike you at once as being so much more inter- esting, and so much more straight- forward, and hence you are strongly recommended to study the Little Book devoted to exposure, wherein easy methods of securing right exposure are explained. With such a plate, first of all the sky, as before, makes its appearance, but neither so grey nor so quickly as in the case of fig. 6, nor so slowly and clearly defined as fig. 4. Moreover, all the rest of the surface begins to darken first here and next there, one part or another following in due precision like bubbles on a boiling syrup, which presently is on the boil all over. I need not repeat here what I have already told you as to a rough-and- ready way to tell when to stop de- velopment, by having a guide or test negative at hand, backed with several thicknesses of tissue paper, so as to compensate for the undevelopable 3 34 Sure and Easy Development of substratum which will disappear in the fixing bath. The foregoing methods of developing apply equally to glass plates, cut films, and roUable films. The next method, known as " stand " — a tank develop- ment — equally applies to all three, but that in the case of the last two named some slight provision must be made to meet their respective idiosyncrasies. With a very much under-exposed plate you were recommended to place it in a dish containing very weak de- veloper, and covering it up leave it to its own devices, giving it an occa- sional rocking. Now, the principle of stand " development is on much the same lines, a large quantity of solution being placed in a suitable vessel, and several plates placed therein at the same time, and each one taken out at such time when, judging by appearance and comparison with the standard or model, development has proceeded far enough. It is a lazy way of developing, but is useful when for some reason or other no other method is successful, and the novice is at his wits' end what to do with some particular series of negatives, which he dares not risk spoiling in his own uncertain course. The vessel in which the weakened developer is to be placed must be specially constructed with vertical grooves. Into these we slide the plates, which are then held in an upright position, having first poured in sufficient Plates and Films 35 weak developer to cover the plates. When thus on end the tank, or what- ever we may call the vessel, is then covered with something which will ex- clude the light, and the whole is set aside for perhaps two or three hours. The time will depend largely on the strength of the developer, which, as a general rule, may be ten times weaker than normal, so that if you are using a ready-made developer of which you add one part to fifteen parts of water, you would take one part to 150 parts, about 2 quarts, or make a smaller quantity in the same proportions. After an hour or so, during which time the tank, if well secured from light entering it, may stand in the daylight, we examine the plates one by one by the dark-room light. Prob- ably one or two out of a half-dozen may seem nearly done, whilst the others are still a good way behind. This inequality is of course due to the plate having received different exposures. Although it seems quite contrary to the usual ideas about development, it remains a fact that over, under, and normally exposed plates may all be developed in the same solution for different periods, and all turn out decent negatives. A number of plates may be set in this weak solution, and left quite unheeded for an hour or two, according to the strength of the de- veloper. Meanwhile, other things may occupy us. Indeed, it is only a question 36 Sure and Easy Development of of further dilution to enable one to start a number of plates developing over night, and to take them out in the morning. But one thing in the event of such long immersion must be allowed for, and that is, that if the weather be warm, and the solution also partaking of some of the higher temperature, the gelatine film of the plate will very likely partially dissolve, and either blister or peel, or even float ofiE the glass altogether. In cold weather I have known of plates placed in a grooved tank thought only to contain plain water, but which proved to be tainted with a mere trace of developer, inadvertently left for ten days, and on being then discovered proved to be quite satisfactorily developed ! Not a bad way this of treating an accumulation of holiday negatives, which it seems impossible to find time to develop in the ordinary way — placing them in a grooved tank in batches of six or twelve, according to the number of grooves. Perhaps you are going to ask me what developer is most suitable for this kind of leave-them-to-themselves kind of treatment. Well, it matters but little, except that it had better be one of the stainless developers, such as hydroquinone, metol, rodinal, or a combination of two of these. Pyro- gallic developer is not so suitable, because so long an immersion will probably result in staining, although, if the pyro developer contain a large Plates and Films 37 proportion of " preservative," it is quite possible to employ it. Do not be surprised if, in your first attempt, you find when you go to in- spect your negatives, after say an hour's immersion, that the lower half of the plate is much more developed than the upper half. This will be due to the weak solution not being thoroughly mixed, and the " re-agent," as a de- veloping agent is called, has sunk to the bottom, leaving the upper part weaker. However, if the plates are removed for a few minutes, and the bath well stirred and shaken about, and the plates then returned all will be well, and the less developed halves will catch up. The weak developer for " stand " use must be very tho- roughly mixed. As soon as we attempt to apply this method of developing to films we shall find that their flexible nature constitutes a difficulty, particu- larly in the case of the roll films, whilst only a few brands of cut films are stiff enough to stand up in the grooves of a tank, and so I have found an excellent way is to keep them fioating in a vertical position. Some people recommend that the film should be pinned to a cork, in such a way that as the cork fioats the film is suspended vertically. Unfortunately, however, the thin roll films decline to do this until, after being immersed for a considerable time, they lose their curliness, and so some way must be devised to weight the lower end. So I 38 Sure and Easy Development of will here describe my own particular method of developing by floating, and I think it will be seen that it possesses other incidental advantages. There are obtainable from most «> fqi /illL= ^ W. 6 / No. 1 photographic dealers wood clips of a peculiar construction, called "Jay Nay " clips. Each chip consists of two little slips of wood, with a notch or groove across the underside, and Nos. 2 ife 3 two little metal hooks on the upper side. These are shown in the accompanying diagrams, where you see these two slips of varnished wood, showing the hooks on one side, and grooves or notches on the other. Thin red rubber bands are placed in the notches, and round the wood slips, thus holding them together Plates and Films 39 as seen in the next diagrams, Nos. 2 & 3. This is the clip to be used. If we take the little hooks between No. 4 finger and thumb, and pinch them together, the wood slips gape open, as in the second diagram, so I take a film to be developed, and put it into the clip as is shown by the fourth diagram, 40 Sure and Easy Development of and having put sufficient developer of the highly diluted variety into a tank or other vessel, I drop the clip and its dependent film (see diagram 5) into the developer. The clip floats on the No. 5 surface, and so keeps the film vertically suspended below it. As many films as the area of the tank will accommodate floating clips may be put in, and then the tank is covered with an inverted No. 6 dish, or anything which will exclude the light, until such time as it is thought desirable to inspect the films and see how they are progressing. You are then able to lift the films out one by one, without touching them with your fingers, lifting each^out by Plates and Films 41 holding the little hooks, but not so as to make the clip gape and drop the film, and when it is decided that develop- ment is done, the film still retained in the clip is dipped in water, and then set floating in another tank containing hypo, and in due course set floating in a tub or any other convenient vessel of water. Throughout the fingers need never be even wetted nor the films touched. Finally, the little hooks are switched on to a string, put up clothes- line fashion, until dry. Drying takes place fairly quickly, because the air can get all round them. Hundreds of flat films have I de- veloped in this way, with hardly an accident or failure. As the clips in their turn had a pretty good soaking in the hypo bath, I take the precaution of placing them in very hot water for a little while before using them again for developing. In the case of roll films it will be found necessary to weight the bottom edge of the film to keep it straight. From what has already been said about the long time which this slow stand " development takes, it may be worth while pointing out that it causes the least possible interruption to one's ordinary occupations. For instance, if the developer be made so weak that development takes four or five hours, you may set a number of films floating at breakfast- time, cover the tank up securely, and leave them until lunch-time, transfer 42 Sure and Easy Development of them to the hypo, where they may remain whilst you are having your midday meal, and afterwards float them in clean water with the tap slowly running until the next conveni- ent moment, when you take them out and hang them up to dry. Thus, a batch of films may be developed, fixed, and washed, only having demanded in all a quarter of an hour's — five minutes for each operation — personal attention. I have suggested that you might wish to ask me what developer to use for this stand or tank development, and I stated that it mattered very little, but that one which did not stain as pyro always does, or even hydro- quinone does sometimes, would be best. The developer most frequently re- commended for stand development is glycin, on account of it being not only stainless but very free from fog. It is best prepared as follows : — Stock solution : Dissolve IJ oz. sodium sulphite cryst. in 2 oz. boiling water. When dissolved add ^ oz. glycin, and little by little 2^ oz. potassium carbonate. When cold this mixture forms a thin cream. For use as a stand developer take 1 oz. of this stock solution, 90 oz. water, and 80 minims of a 10 per cent, bromide of potassium solution. If over-exposure is suspected, the proportion of bromide of potassium solution may be increased to 1 oz., and the quantity of water reduced from 90 oz. to 25 oz. If under-exposure is Plates and Films 43 feared omit the bromide, add 1 oz. of a 10 per cent, solution of caustic soda, and warm the developer up to 75 degrees F. Rodinal will be found an extremely simple and readily prepared stand developer, if it is used in the proportion of 1 part to 200 parts water ; in cases of normal exposure the image is not long in making its appearance, but this is not complete for about 2 hours. I have finished for the present with the stand developer, so let us consider for a while the developing solution itself. As you probably know, there are an infinite number of formulae for making developers, and I might very easily fill the whole of this Little Book by repeating some of them ; but at first, at least, I suggest that you buy your developer ready made and in one solu- tion, and in such case what is known as " metol-quinol " will, perhaps, serve your purpose best. It is a combination of metol and hydroquinone ; but you can, if you prefer, compound it your- self or send the following prescription to your chemist to be made up — Metol 200 gr. Water 80 oz. Sodium sulphite . . . . 6 oz. Hydroquinone . . . . 150 gr. Potassium bromide . . 50 gr. Potassium carbonate . . 2 oz. The ingredients should be dissolved one by one in the order given, starting with hot water. And now, so far as the novice is 44 Sure and Easy Development of concerned — the beginner for whom these Little Books were designed — I do not think I need say any more about development, but it is quite possible that the merest beginner will very soon take a more intelligent interest in his work, and then he will desire to know more and will want to be able to use alternative methods, either with a view to getting varied results, or in order to secure control over his results and obtain a greater command of them. For such an one, therefore, I will presently go a little further into the question of development, yet still, I hope, steering clear of anything like a heavy scientific treatise. But after development there is the process of fixation, without which development is ineffectual, and hence the matter necessarily belongs here and must now claim our attention. If you took your developed plate into the daylight it would very quickly darken all over, and the image which you have been watching gradually come up, would be swallowed up. This is because when you exposed your plate there was yet left a considerable portion of the sensitive film still un- acted on, and which, having no light action to develop, has remained un- affected by the developer, and is hence still sensitive to light, and this has to be got rid of, and the only way is to dissolve it out by immersing it in a solution of hyposulphite of soda, com- monly called hypo. Plates and Films - 45 It is just that substratum or veil to equal which, in the pattern or standard negative,! suggested several thicknesses of tissue paper should be placed at the back. As I said just now, if your freshly developed negative with developer saturating the film be taken to the daylight, or even gaslight, it would darken all over, the developer in the film darkening or developing the light action as fast as it takes place. If the developer be thoroughly washed out and the plate then exposed to light, this layer of unaltered sensitive film would become insoluble, and remain as an almost opaque veil, which would prevent printing. Hypo is an exceedingly inexpensive salt, costing a penny or two per pound, and you must use it in the proportion of a J lb. in a pint of water ; it dissolves very quickly in hot water, and not very slowly in cold. It is a good plan to get an empty one-gallon stone jar, and putting 2 lb. of hypo therein, fill it up with hot water. The solution will keep in good condition as long as you like, and my advice is that you use it rather extravagantly, throwing it away and using fresh solution out of the gallon jar, if after fixing a few plates it be- comes very much discoloured. But stay ; you will very likely prefer to do your photography without con- stantly disfiguring yourself and your clothes with the horrible brown stains which once upon a time brought 46 Siire and Easy Development of photography in bad odour and ridicule, and if you will promise me not to take undue advantage of a means of pre- venting the hypo bath from discolour- ing, and will not suppose because it remains clear and colourless, that therefore you can go on using it for ever, I will tell you how it is done. Having dissolved your 2 lb. of hypo in a gallon of hot water, add 5 oz. of metabisulphite of soda, or if that strikes you as rather costly, then instead of the metabisulphite of soda add 11 oz. sodium sulphite, 10 oz. tartaric acid, dissolving them first in a little hot water on their own account, and then adding it all together. Whilst I am dealing with the question of fixing I may as well give you another form of fixing-bath, especially useful in hot weather, because whilst it dissolves out the silver that we want to get rid of — that is, it fixes the image — it also hardens the film, often a very necessary operation in hot weather when the water used for making solu- tions, and for washing, is perceptibly warmer than at other times, and is, therefore, quite likely to dissolve the gelatine film quite away ; and whilst I am not going to recommend it, lest you go to extremes, still a warm developer has its advantages in winter time, when the extremely cold water makes a develo- per act very slowly, and then, of course, the modified fixing bath desirable in summer is equally necessary if we use warm solutions in winter. Plates and Films 47 Did you ever encounter a negative which seemed as though it would never dry ? Perhaps you put several in a thing called a draining or drying rack. I wish you knew with what contempt I just called it " a thing," for as a fact, the only purpose it should be put to is one for which it is not in- tended. It is very useful to hold dry finished negatives in, negatives which, perhaps, you have selected from your stock to make prints from. Yes, a drying rack is a very useful negative- holder, but it is a very unsuitable thing for drying negatives in, because they are so close together that it is impossible for the air to get freely to the surface of the inside ones, and so they refuse to dry. When your negatives, then, are sufficiently washed, first let the water drip all it wants to, and then setting them in a vertical position leave them where the freest possible amount of air can act on their surfaces — but of this I will say more presently. I mention the occasional difficulty en- countered in getting a negative to dry because, notwithstanding all one's precautions, there are times when one's best efforts are defeated, and then if the film dries very slowly the surface becomes covered with small pits or shallow depressions. This trouble may be prevented, even with plates which are coated with a soft gelatine, by adding a small quantity of chrome alum to the fixing bath. Before 48 Sure and Easy Development of putting in the alum a quantity of sulphite of soda, equal to the amount of chrome alum to be added, should be dissolved in the hypo solution, and the alum put in afterwards. If this is not done, a dense precipitate of sulphur will be thrown down, which clings to the surface of the negatives in a trouble- some manner. It may be removed, however, by rubbing the surface of the film with a tuft of cotton wool, under a stream of water from the tap, before the plate is put up to drain. If the sediment is allowed to remain on until the negative is dry, it is very difficult to remove ; even rubbing with methy- lated spirit has little effect. A good formula is as follows : — Dis- solve 2 oz. of sulphite of soda in 6 oz. water, then separately add 1 dram strong sulphuric acid to 2 oz. water. Next dissolve a pound of hyposulphite of soda in 48 oz. of water, and mixing the first two solutions pour the mixture into the hypo solution. Lastly, dis- solve 1 oz. chrome alum in 8 oz. water, and add this to the whole. This not only hardens but it has a clearing and brightening effect, and, like the acid fixing bath already described, does not discolour. I shall refer to the question of hardening solutions again presently. Having now given several formulae for mixing de- sirable fixing baths, we next proceed to use it, and at first sight this is a very simple matter. As soon as you decide development Plates and Films 49 is complete, rinse the plate under the tap, or dip it into any convenient vessel filled with clean water. Then lay it in a dish containing sufficient fixing solution to cover it, and there leave it for at least fifteen minutes, and twenty minutes will be better. This may be done with the gas turned up, or even in weak daylight. In fact, as soon as the developer is washed off there is no longer any necessity for the regulation dark-room light. At the end of a quarter of an hour if you examine your negative you will find the creamy ap- pearance of the back has quite dis- appeared, and you have a clean, bright- looking negative, which should appear as fig. 1. Now, if you are anxious, and perhaps impatient, you will very likely want to examine your negative before the ex- piration of fifteen minutes, and it is quite likely that it will appear to be finished and fixed, but it is against just this apparent completion that I want to put you on your guard. We " fix " a plate, in order to get rid of the creamy or opalescent appearance at the back — to dissolve, in fact, the silver salts which have remained un- affected first by light and in turn by the developer ; but as soon as these silver salts appear to have gone it does not follow that the plate is fully fixed. A quarter of an hour is the least time the plate or film should remain in the fixing bath ; if this is not attended to it is almost certain 4 50 Sure and Easy Development of that later on your negative will develop yellowish brown spots, which may prove impossible to get rid of. Fixing seems so simple, the plate not requiring to be watched, but just left to itself, that it is very easy to under- estimate the importance of certain precautions. I wonder whether you will remember the following, because if you do it may make you understand why it is necessary to leave the plate in the fixing bath after the unacted-on film has disappeared. It is this — the hyposulphite of soda does not really dissolve the salts away, but converts them first into an invisible salt, and then dissolves away that new product, so that when, after five or six minutes, you look at your negative and find the creamy film gone, what has really taken place is this — the creamy salts have been made invisible, and then if you return the plate to the fixing bath they will be dissolved away, although you cannot see that this is taking place. You may like to have this explained more thoroughly, and so I will quote a description given by Mr. J. H. Gear, in the course of an article which was published in The Amateur Photographer about a year ago : " That the most perfect fixation of negatives is very important, all will admit, considering it from the point of permanency only, perhaps ; there are, however, other considerations involved, as we shall presently show. We have heard photographers remark (purely Plates and Films 51 rule-of-thumb workers, no doubt) that there appears to be a great deal more made of long fixing and washing than necessary, that they have fixed and washed plates in about ten or fifteen minutes, and the negatives have not faded. We admit that that is possible, and we further admit that long fixation, under certain conditions, may not be nearly so effectual as short fixation, within certain limits, of course. " Let us then just follow the chem- istry of fixation, v/hich is not in the least a difficult matter, and from which, let us hope, sufficient knowledge will be gained to impress upon all that plates must undergo certain definite conditions to ensure a chemically perfect negative, one in which we may find it necessary at some subsequent period, possibly hours only, or it may be weeks or months, to make some alteration chem- ically in the opacity or the steepness of its gradation, which always must entail great uncertainty and danger without the knowledge that perfect fixation exists. " What has to be performed is the removal of all the sensitive salts or silver haloids which have been un- affected by light or have not been re- duced by the reducing agent, more commonly known as the developer. There are several solvents which could be employed for this purpose, but for gelatine dry plates none are equal to thiosulphate of sodium, known as hypo- sulphite of soda, which at a suitable 52 Sure and Easy Development of strength in solution will dissolve away most effectually the silver compounds in the film without the slightest injury to the image, consisting of metallic silver in a very finely divided state. " The usual strength recommended is hyposulphite of soda 4 oz., water 20 oz. (one pint). In practice we prefer a rather more concentrated solution of 5 or 6 oz. of hypo, to the pint of water ; beyond this it is not advisable to go, a highly concentrated solution does not so perfectly fix a plate as one of medium strength, as will be seen later ; it is highly essential that the chemical em- ployed enters freely into the film — the naturally repelling nature of gelatine prevents this taking place with a highly concentrated solution. There is prac- tically no loss of detail nor reduction in the opacity of the image occasioned by fixation with hjnposulphite of soda ; whilst it very freely dissolves the un- altered compounds, it attacks metallic silver so very slowly (if at all) that its action upon the image during the pro- cess of ordinary fixation may be entirely disregarded ; but in conjunction with other compounds the case is altered. In fact, oxygen, as supplied in the atmosphere, is sufficient to cause hypo- sulphite of soda to become a solvent of the silver image ; the inference is, therefore, to not expose the plate to the influence of the atmosphere with the fixing solution upon it, longer than is necessary to remove it from the fixing solution to the rinsing water. Plates and Films 53 " When a plate has passed through the process of development, the gelatine film, which is merely a vehicle for carrying the sensitive compounds (so far as concerns us at present), and after- wards the metallic silver image, con- tains the silver haloids quite unaffected, by either the exposure or development, and also the silver image which has been reduced to its metallic state by the action of the reducing agent or developing solution. It is well known, of course, that in this condition the plate is not transparent, and would not be permanent or capable of producing a satisfactory print without further treatment ; on placing the plate into the solution of hyposulphite of soda, of a suitable strength, the first action of the bath is to change the silver bromide into hyposulphite of silver, and then, if there is an excess of the fixing salt present, it further combines with the hyposulphite of silver thus formed, and forms a double salt, this latter double salt being very soluble in water ; and with washing complete fixation is the result, if the plate has been allowed to remain in the bath sufficiently long to thoroughly change the whole of the hyposulphite of silver into the double salt. Five minutes after the last traces of opalescence have disappeared from the film next the glass may be taken as a safe time, hut not less. Should, however, the bath be of insufficient strength, by reason of a very common sample of hyposulphite of soda, a bath 54 Sure and Easy Development of too weak to commence with, or having been used for too many plates without the further addition of hyposulphite of soda, then, instead of the readily soluble double salt, so very necessary for per- fect fixation, being formed, the hypo- sulphite of silver is changed into silver sulphide, which is a most insoluble product, and perfect fixation cannot be obtained. " To prevent this happening, it has already been said the bath must not be too weak ; neither must it be too strong, or it will not penetrate the film freely to supply the excess required, and should not be allowed to become acid with the possibility of sulphur being liberated. Anything which may be added for the prevention of this should be only done well knowing that a worse defect is not introduced, or great decomposition may take place. " Those preferring to keep their fixing bath clean, and to remove any colour from the film through prolonged de- velopment and the attendant oxidation, may use the following acid fixing bath, which does not appear to deposit sul- phur in the film. Dissolve in 1 oz. of water 3 dr. of citric acid, and in another ounce of water 5 dr. of sulphite of soda ; when dissolved, mix together, and add to 20 oz. of the fixing bath pre- viously mentioned. This bath will also harden the film and prevent the annoy- ance of frilling during hot weather. " A plate merely placed into an ordinary dish and allowed to remain Plates and Films 55 there for ten or fifteen minutes, and then removed, runs a great risk of being imperfectly fixed. It is an acknow- ledged necessity to rock the dish during the development of the plate ; it is equally important to rock the dish during the fixation of the plate, if not for the whole time, at least several times during the process, to ensure an excess of the hjrposulphite of soda pene- trating the film and reaching every part. " From what we have said referring to the perfect fixation, it may be under- stood — or rather misunderstood — that the fixation is complete when the negative is removed from the fixing solution. This is not so. By referring back, it will be noticed that we mention the double salt formed as being very soluble in water ; this double salt must be washed away, as well as eliminating the fixing salt. Running water is the safest means to adopt, and negatives should be subjected to one hour's changing of the water, to ensure the perfect elimination of the hyposulphite of soda ; upon the perfect washing also depends the life of the negative. Failing a continuous supply of water, negatives may be soaked for ten minutes, and six changes after ten minutes' soaking each time will be found sufficient. On removing the negatives from the last washing water, it is advisable to take off all excess of water with a pad of cotton-wool, to prevent tears remaining upon the gela- tine, which frequently cause decom- 56 Sure and Easy Development of position, leaving marks of unequal density. Allow negatives to dry spon- taneously and free from dust." Tf you are accustomed to develop a dozen or half a dozen negatives at one sitting, then it will be best to pro- cure a fixing trough or tank. This is usually lead-lined and has vertical grooves similar to the tank already referred to for tank or stand develop- ment, and this must contain sufficient hyposulphite fixing solution to quite cover the plates when placed thereon end on. If the plates, having been rinsed clean of developer, are placed one by one in this, they must be rocked and may be left there until all develop- ing is finished. It is not as though it were possible to o?;erfix. No harm will arise, even if the plates are left there for an hour, and as hyposulphite of soda is very mischievous stuff if splashed on to a plate, or conveyed to its surface by the fingers, it will be best to have nothing to do with a plate after it has been placed in the fixing bath until all development of other plates and films is done. The fixing bath may be used again and again, but you must notice when the plates placed therein begin to take longer to appear fixed, because that is a sign that the bath is becoming exhausted, and will, therefore, be unable to do its work properly ; and as I have already pointed out that " hypo "is so cheap that it is very foolish to risk the ultimate condition Plates and Films 57 of your negatives for the sake of a few pennyworths of this salt. So, whilst after an evening's work the fixing bath can be left in the tank in readiness for next time, do not try its power too far. If your negatives are to last, they must be properly and thoroughly fixed. Don't forget that, and be induced to take them out of the bath too soon, or imagine that they will fix in a bath which is worn out from over-use. Next, you will have gathered from the extract from the article just given, that very thorough washing is no less important. And here again, because the operation does not present anything to our observation, it is easy to suppose that the washing is done long before such is really the case. You know, or can imagine, that if you tinted a vessel full of water with some dye, and then let the tap run gently into it, it would be quite a long time before all the tinted water would be supplanted by the clear fresh water ; but in the case of a plate left in a vessel of water and the tap left running into it, one must remember that the film of the plate is continuously giving out the hypo which it has absorbed, and hence it will take very much longer to entirely replace the con- taminated water with fresh ; yet this is what we have to do, and as a matter of experience, one whole hour is none too long to ensure complete elimination of the hypo — that is to say, if the plate is left to get washed automatically. 58 Sure and Easy Development of Another way, however, is to wash the plate by hand, so to speak, in which case less water will be required, and the operation is complete in shorter time, but personal attention is neces- sary. Place the plate to be fixed in a dish, and fill up with water. After five minutes pour the water off and repeat. Do this ten or twelve times, giving at least five minutes' interval between each fresh bath of water, and the plate should then prove to be fully washed. You see, as the plate exudes fresh hypo solution from its film, it is poured off and fresh water applied ; but you will probably find this tedious work, because if only ten changes of water are given, and five minutes' soaking allowed each time, it will occupy fifty minutes at the very least. There are means of driving out the hypo, or rather destroying it, several hypo eliminators being given in most text-books, but no one recommends them. Still, there may be emergencies in which it becomes necessary to resort to a quicker means of ridding the film of hjrpo. The favourite h3rpo elimina- tor is potassium percarbonate. After rinsing the plate place it in water, adding 4 or 5 grains of the potassium percarbonate for a quarter-plate nega- tive, and more in proportion to the size or number of the plates ; rock the dish until the liquid ceases to effervesce, then remove the negative and wash for a few minutes. The results of allowing even a trace Plates and Films 59 of hypo to remain in the film are all the more tantalising because they often do not make themselves seen until some time afterwards, when it is too late to apply a remedy. The mischief usually takes the form of grey, circular spots, from the size of a pin's head upwards, looking very like the round grey patches of lichen one sees on tree-trunks and wood fences, and these gradually increase in size, and nothing will eradicate them. Another indication of insufficient wash- ing is when from the first the plate will not dry, and is kept in a condition as if perspiring. This is because hypo- sulphite of soda is what is termed hygroscopic — that is, it has a great affinity for water, and so gathers the moisture from the atmosphere. Assuming now, that our negatives have been entirely freed from the hypo solution, they must be set up to dry in a place free from dirt or dust. In the case of films they may be pinned up by one corner to the edge of a shelf, so that all but the extreme corner hangs free. Many of the films of to-day are coated on the back with gelatine, as well as on the front, and this gelatine is of course very adhesive, whilst wet, hence the necessity of the film not touching anything. In the case of glass plates, a regula- tion drying rack has already been ob- jected to. Let as much as possible of the excess of water drip off, and the surface can with advantage be wiped 60 Sure and Easy Development of with a tuft of cotton-wool ; and then the plate can be set in a nearly vertical position leaning against the wall, the lower edge resting on a strip of blotting, or other absorbent paper ; or a good plan is to drive French or wire nails into a board, or into the wall itself, in pairs about two or three inches apart, and then one corner of a plate is placed between two nails, the top corner just touching the wall. Thus, the water drains off at the lower corner, and the entire plate is freely exposed to the air. Whatever plan is adopted, it is essential that the negatives should dry quickly, or they will dry of uneven density. Factorial Development In the earlier part of this Little Book I suggested that a standard or pattern negative should be kept in the dark- room, which, when backed with several sheets of tissue-paper, might be used for the purposes of comparison, and so guide one as to when to stop develop- ment. It was also suggested that a safe way — a slow but sure method — is to greatly dilute the developer, and leave the plates or films therein for an hour or several hours, by which means plates of widely different ex- posure develop to about the same degree of density ; but in both these methods it is necessary to at last use one's judgment to decide when develop- ment has been carried far enough. Plates and Films 61 There is yet another system of development, which I have not referred to until now, lest the novice for whom these Little Books are designed should regard it as rather a serious business, because it involves a little multiplication sum and counting of seconds. It is not, however, really difficult, and certainly gives a remarkable certainty of results. This, which is known at Factorial Development, was introduced by Mr. Alfred Watkins, who, in like manner, has reduced practically the whole photographic process at each stage to an arithmetical certainty, and explains his entire system very lucidly in a book called Watkins^ ManuaL Briefly, the development by factors depends on the fact that the total time required for complete development always bears the same relation to the time when, after pouring the developer on, the image first begins to appear — that is to say, suppose we find that in a certain negative the image first appears in 2 seconds, and is fully developed in 12 seconds, then if same plate and developer are used, the image which appears in 3 seconds would be fully developed in 18 seconds, and 6, the figure by which we multiply, is called the factor. You can find out the factor for any particular developer if you like, by experiment, but for the majority of developing solutions Mr. Watkins has worked out the factor for us, and so we need only refer to a table. 62 Sure and Easy Development of According to this principle, the photo- grapher has far less power of controlling or modifying the development of his plate than is usually supposed. The addition of bromide slows the action of the developer, but, apparently, has little or no effect on the final result ; and, now, if I attempt to describe the factorial system, I shall necessarily quote pretty largely from Mr. Watkins' book, to which, however, I strongly recommend the reader to turn for himself. I shall also quote from a chapter on this same subject, which I recently wrote for The Barnet Book. To begin with, here are three of Mr. Watkins' maxims : (a) All developers have equal power in bringing out detail if the plate be left long enough ; the ad- dition of bromide merely delays it. (6) All developers are nearly equal in density-giving power, if only development be continued long enough. Exception may have to be made in the case of a develo- per like pyro, which gives a coloured image or stain in addi- tion to the ordinary black deposit, thereby producing an increased density. (c) When comparing similar expo- sures treated in different develo- pers, if each is taken out when the highest light — that is, the greatest density — is alike in the Plates and Films 63 two, every other tone will also be exactly equal, provided that the time has been long enough to bring out the lowest tone in each. (Large variation in the amount of bromide would affect the principle.) " Here are three fundamental princi- ples which the reader may accept without attempting to verify, and Mr. Watkins insists that the addition of bromide or the reduction of the pro- portion of alkali only affects the forma- tion of gradation if the alteration is made before the developer is poured on, the only power of control over contrast or density being the length of develop- ment. He urges that all photographers employ this power even when they think they exercise other means. A man wishes to get thinner negatives with less contrast than he has been getting, so uses a dilute developer and develops for his accustomed time. He gets his desired result, but puts it down to a special virtue in the weak de- veloper, whereas he would have secured the same result if he had only taken the negative out a little earlier. The broad rule, then, is longer development, greater contrast. Now the main principle on which time development is based is this, that any change of temperature (and tem- perature affects development to a marked degree), or any change in the amount of alkali, which lessens, or in- 64 Sure and Easy Development of creases the time required to obtain a certain degree of density or contrast, also alters in exactly the same ratio the time which elapses before the first darkening of the plate begins, so that, if we once ascertain that the time re- quired for full density is so many times the period which elapses before the first appearance, then the plate may be always developed for a given multiple of the time of appearance, and a stand- ard amount of contrast will always result. This multiple is called the multiplying factor. We proceed, then, as follows : — The developer being mixed, place the plate in the dish, and at the moment the hand of your watch touches an even minute pour the developer and rock the dish ; the moment the high lights appear on the creamy surface note the time. The time that has elapsed between pouring on and the first appearance is the time of appearance, and this multi- plied by the multiplying factor gives the total time of development. To take an example. Suppose we are using the metol-hydroquinone de- veloper given on page 43, and suppose also that the multiplying factor which will give the amount of contrast we require is 14. Again, let it be sup- posed that between pouring on the developer and the first darkening of the high lights 20 seconds elapses ; then 20 X 14 will give between 4 and 5 minutes, and when development has Plates and Films 65 proceeded for, say, minutes, the plate can be removed with absolute confidence that development is complete, without the necessity of examining the negative ; it is taken out, rinsed, and passed into the fixing bath. If with the next plate the image should appear more quickly, say in 10 seconds, then, multiplying this shorter time of first appearance by 14, we get 140 seconds, or 2§ minutes, which will be the total time of develop- ment to attain the same density as the previous more slowly appearing nega- tive attained. On the other hand, suppose we desire another plate to possess more contrast, we increase the multiplying factors, say, from 14 to 20 and multiply the time of appearance by that. This system of timing development is not dependent on any particular developer, and, so long as we do not use one in which the formation of density does not follow very closely on the bringing out of detail, it matters little what developer is used. Developers vary widely in one re- spect, and that is the rapidity with which density follows detail ; and hence in the list of typical multiplying factors given below it will be seen that they vary as much as from to 40. In one class of developing agents, such as metol, rodinal, and amidol, the image and all detail appear very early in the course of development, density being attained comparatively slowly. Hence this class are commonly re- 5 66 Sure and Easy Development of garded as not giving sufficient density or contrast, simply because the user does not leave the plate in long enough. The multiplying factors for these are, with average formulae, 28, 40, and 18 respectively, high multipliers giving a long time for total development. In the second class, represented by hydroquinone, pyro, and adurol, the lowest tones or detail appear quite slowly, and by the time they have appeared the high lights have attained considerable density, sufficient con- trast then being attained quite rapidly ; hence a low multiplying factor gives a sufficiently long total time for develop- ment. It is with this class of develo- pers that bromide has most power, for the restrainer is able to hold back the lower tones until the upper ones have full density, and if the plate be taken out at this stage the bromide has altered gradation to a considerable extent. The most convenient de- veloper for time development will be neither of the extremes of these classes, but one with a medium multiplying factor, and in which density follows the first appearance at a comfortable rate. The figures given below have been worked out by Mr. Alfred Watkins as a guide, and represent the multiplying factors of the majority of developers in use, or the ratio between time of ap- pearance and the attainment of a desired amount of contrast or density. They must, of course, be varied ac- cording to the photographer's ideal as Plates and Films 67 to the desirable degree of density, or for the particular character of negative required by circumstances : — Pyro soda — 1 grain per ounce and \ grain bromide 9 3 3 41 4 14 8 53 2 3J Hvdroquinone . . . . . • . . 5 Adurol . . . . . . . . . . 5 Eikonogen . . . . . . . . 9 Metol 28 Glycin 7 Amidol (2 grains) . . . . . . . . 18 Pyro-metol . . . . . . . . 14 Rodinal 40 Metol-hydroquinone . . . . . . 14 Ortol 14 Diogen . . . . . . . . . . 12 Kachin . . . . . . . . . . 9 It will be clear that in the dim light of the dark-room the figures on one's watch-dial may not be very easily read, and hence a special clock, called an eikronometer, may be employed, in which a single hand goes round the dial once in 10 minutes. The minute divisions are very large and are plainly marked ; a single sliding scale or calculator multiplies the time of first appearance by the factor, and points to the total time of development. This system of determining the time of development by figures has now been adopted by most of the more prominent workers of tha day, and has 68 Development of Plates and Films received the most cordial support of many experts, whilst the wholly in- experienced, whatever dislike he may feel for a method involving figures and calculations, if he will overcome this prejudice, will quickly find that it is much better, and is attended with more uniform results, if development be thus guided by definite rule, instead of depending on anything so variable as personal judgment. And now, whether my reader employs the more happy-go-lucky method of stand development, which is the same as developing by flotation, or whether he adopts the more scientific and deliberate method of factorial develop- ment, as just described, it is all but inevitable that occasionally faults will be made, and negatives on which even the utmost care has been devoted will prove over- or under-developed, even when the exposure has been correct ; and so to provide for such emergencies I have devoted one of these Little Books to how to make good nega- tives from bad, and to it I invite my readers' attention. \ Printed by Hazell Watson (b- Vmey, Ld., London and Aylesbiiry. A SURE AND EASY WAY OF MA Kl NG PLATES AND FILMS yield perfect Pictures, is to act on the advice given below. THE "IMPERIAL" Series of Camera Sets is acknowledged to be the most Perfect and Practical 5eries of Outfits ever offered at a low price. The Cameras include in the 'HALF-PLATE SIZE: Set. The Standard Pattern, "IMPERIAL" - - 70A "IMPERIAL PERFECTA" with fomsing body "IMPERIAL FOCAL PLANE " with 2 Shuttm P5/= Eottbk Extension "IMPERIAL" - - - 63/^ The standard Pattern ** Imperial Triple" is also made in all sizes, from i= Plate to Plate, and in Brass- bound Models. Catalogue post free. THORNTON-PICKARD MFG. CO., Ltd., ALTRINCHAM. USE 3|hornton-Pickard CAMERAS & SHUTTERS Amateur PHoto^rapKer Is tptthout doubt the journal you need. This "UTTLB BOOK' is largely reprinted from articles in The Amateur Photographer.'' You bill find similar articles by the Editor appearing heek by heek. There is, besides, much to interest you, for, in addition to the LESSONS ron VEGINNZKS. the Editor Ivill criticise your photographs and anslver your questions, free of charge. You Ivill find everything you can Ipant in the paper. Competitions, Prizes, many Illustrations, and good Printing on i^rt Paper. Ebery l^elpsagent or Haillpay Bookstall Ipill supply it. 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