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The photographic news
- Bandzählung
- 35.1891
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 1891
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- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
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- Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
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- Bandzählung
- No. 1690, January 23, 1891
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The photographic news
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Band 35.1891
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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [JANUARY 23, 1891 70 DEVELOPMENT* BY J. K. TULLOCH, M.B. The question of development is a very wide one, and, in fact, the compounding of a developer is the very simplest part of the whole. It is not to be denied that even in the purely chemical part there is a wide field for interesting experi ment, and I have whiled away many an hour contrasting soda with potash, and this, again, with ammonia. There is room and need for such work ; but I say it is not enough to confine one’s attention solely to this aspect of the question, and it is my intention to-night, while not neglecting this side, to dwell also upon other considerations that are, unfortunately, too often lost sight of. In this way the subject comes naturally to be divided into two heads: first, what do we wish to develop ? and, secondly, how and by what special means are we to attain develop ment ? First, then, what do we wish to develop? This seems almost a nonsensical question; we wish to develop a pic ture, of course. This is undoubtedly so, but all pictures are not alike, and here steps in a very common error. It is assumed by almost everyone that perfect development means getting the last particle of detail out with pluck and roundness of image. This is not always the object of the true photographic artist. Scarcely in two pictures does he aim at the same amount of light and shade or of detail. If he has thought out the effect he wishes to pro duce, he must be prepared to sacrifice detail sometimes, or pluck, or even roundness. Every effect should not be thesame, or his results, however perfect fromaphotographie point of view, will be tame and often inartistic. In look ing over the works of a friend not long ago, he whipped a picture from my hand, saying that he had taken the plate from the developer before the detail was out on a distant hill, but that he had taken it again ; here it was. On comparing the two, there could be no doubt that the first effect was immeasurably the better, but you must all have seen in your own experience how sometimes abso lutely bad photography (from one point of view) gave, accidentally, effects you might have striven in vain for intentionally, unless you recognise upon what the artistic success of a picture depends. I saw in the hands of a beginner the other day a splendid view of the river with a dark, lowering outline of the Tay Bridge. He was in great grief over his failure, having, as he thought, either under-exposed or under-developed, or played havoc otherwise with it. I make Sold to say he will not make a picture like it again for years. But not to lose sight of the point, I wish to insist upon it that grand effects maybe produced, showing the utmost variety of light and shade, detail, and every other photographic quality, which is (according to some) always a fixed amount—namely, as much as you can get into every plate. Suppose, for instance, that the painter was to get such an absurd notion into his head ; he would be obliged often to put in detail into his shadows, when, in point of fact, his eye had seen none. Yet this is just what a great many photographic men do. They pick up a photographic picture, and, after generously allowing its great artistic merit, will sagely add : “Pity there had not been a little more detail in the shadows,” oblivious of the fact that this may be the very reason of its artistic excellence There is no standard quality of detail—or light and shade either, * Abridgment of a paper read before the Dundee and East of Scotland Photographic Association. for that matter—and it certainly is very absurd to count the success of a photograph by reference to such quality as the amount of detail in the shadows, or any other part of the picture. If a picture is an artistic success, this is enough, without a moment’s consideration of it from either an optical or chemical point of view. Yet almost the one point spoken of in relation to developers is this power of giving detail in the shadows, as if this were a sine qua non in every photographic experiment. I quite grant that a man may desire to produce a picture free of detail in the shadows, or all over even ; but this is a very different thing from insisting that every successful photograph shall be crowded with detail, and that successful development always means this and nothing else. This is a huge point in my estima tion—to grasp the fact that successful development ma;/ mean anything, from almost clear glass to very near opacity, and that whatever method be adopted, results as widely different as these shall be within the power of the operator. I think it almost a necessity to adopt artificial light in the dark room. How is it possible to hit the thing to a nicety when the sun may be streaming in upon your dark room window the one moment, and scarcely light enough to see the dish the next ? If it is not an utter impossibility, it is at least a needless difficulty. I have a small gas lamp enclosed in white glass, covered with yellow paper. I have the same light every time, for I have what they call a rat-tail flame, which I turn up till it touches a wire exactly two and a-half inches above the burner. This is a very constant power of light, and adds much to the ease and certainty of judging the density. But I have another aid, and as this introduces other considerations, I must seem for the moment to go off at a tangent. It must have occurred to you that it is an unfortunate thing that the production of detail and the acquiring of density are processes going on at the same time, but not much dependent the one upon the other. Sometimes, when the exact amount of detail desired is just there, the plate will be too thin, and to get it thicker one has to develop on with a certainty of losing the effect he had aimed at. At other times the plate will be quite opaque in parts before enough detail has had time to come up. In order to be master of the situation, and have an easy mind, one must be able to say he will have more detail but no more density, or vice versa, just as he thinks fit. And so he can, but not by the ordinary method ; he must separate the two processes. He must first develop a thin image with just that detail he wants, and secondly, he must add to its density afterwards. Of course this is nothing new; it has been proposed often, but somehow people seem to prefer to stumble on in the bad old way rather than be troubled to learn a newer and better method. Since I have adopted this plan, photography has new charms for me. I am not now a creature of circumstances, but feel that if a picture is not up to the mark, it is my ideal that is at fault, not a mere accident of manipulation. Thisis an immense gain. And now to revert a moment to where we were. Do you see that, while developing this thin image, the plate is always beautifully transparent, and by looking through it to a light of constant strength, one soon learns enough to make the process a certainty as to the amount of detail. I may say that I do not attach any very great import ance to the compounding of a developer. When soda was first introduced I tried it very critically, and got it
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