Bromide paper is probably the easiest to manipulate, and it is surprising that more amateurs do not take it up. But the reason is, that information given by manufacturers and others is not always very clear. The capabilities of the paper need understanding, and require patience and perseverance. The adv-stages over the P.O P. are independency of daylight and weather, ax the light from an ordinary kerosene oil lamp can be used. Its keeping qualities surpass that of any other. By altering exposure, or rather the composition of the developer, " variety of tones. ranging from a soft crayon-like tovarich velvety black can be [f once the correct exporare negative can be ascertained, prints can be done in a very short time; for instance, one of my friends once turned out 40, 4x5. prints randy for mounting in 3 hours. Bromide paper can be had in all leading sizes and in a variety of finishes with rough or smooth surfaces, the latter being more suitable for small prints. The disadvantages are very few, one being that it will not do for negatives with very strong contrasts, or for noder-exposed plates; the detail in shadows of the last named class of negatives is generally lost in large ugly black patches. In this respect the superiority of the glossy print out poper is very striking. The best negative for contact printing is one without strong ce fasts in which the shadows show a fair amount of detail, Soft negatives fully expos st yield by far the best results.
It is one of the beauties of bromide printing that the negatives which appear thin and flat beyond hope and which on the ordinary P. O. P. paper will give very fiat impressions, will produce a good print by the simple device of increasing she distance of the pri ting frame from the flame. I find this expedient rather preferable +0 intensifying the negatives, parti ularly if the negative is subsequently to be used for enlarging, us it is well-known that negatives are more suit-ble for enlarging than th se with strong contrasts.
As regards the dark rome, amateurs well k ow that he emulsion, a material used for c-ating bromide paper is ess sensi that used in the manufacture of plat 85 it follows from this that bromide paper may be handled with more abundant light *han would be safe with plates. My advice is therefor, use the brightest light possible snd plenty of it, for you must see what you wre doing, of course you require a dark Toom lamp, and it is better if laced on an ove bonzing shelf, in the shatox of w ich the dish should be kept during the early. stages of development. My fist exposures of bromide paper were mad~ with an in-conde-cent but I found that save for-excep-ud an ordinary gas burner isthe best. Ths time of expose is regulated by the character of the negative and its distance from the flame. Now we have to bear in mind the following Inw governing the intensity of light: It inversely proportional to the square of its distance from the flame, that is to say wice the sistance, four times the Before we take up the actual jon of bromide printing, there elementary principles which we must master. These refer ty the effect of the distance of the flan: on the ch-racter of the print, and may shortly ye stated as follows: If you have a hard, or dense negative, or one showing much contrast, print in " strong light, near the flame, say xt 18 inches distance. A strong lwht over mes contrasts and the result will be soft print. At 18 mobes a rapid bromisle paper behind a fairly dense negative will Hfor! paper, but it ly advisable t+ use a tint in 3 seconds or 5 seconds on a slow
rapid paper only for dense -r con tasting negatives. On the ther hand if we have a thin or -oft negative and wish ty produce vigorous print from it, we have tu print slowly in wesk light, away from the flame. In the case of extremely thin negatives it is advisable t- inter po-e or more layers of tissue paper between the flame and the ne.ative. One layer generally doubles the exp-sure. The distance The distance for a normal negative, that is to say one not too thin and not showing: too much contrast, should be about three feet from the flame with an exposure of nine to twelve
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.