Early Work In Photography
A Text-book For Beginners

lo Early Work in Photography. Hold the frame, back upwards, in the left hand, keeping the thumb firmly pressed upon the lower half of the back, to prevent it moving; with the right thumb, release the top pressure spring, and turn it clear of the back. The top half of tlie back may now be opened, and the paper turned back, so that its face (or sensitive side) may be examined. You will notice quite a variation in the depth of colour, repre- senting a scale of tones. It is tliis variation of colour according to the amount of light action that causes the subtle half-tones in a photogram. A practical application of tliis experiment may be made with a piece of lace or dried seaweed, or, still more beautiful, a dried or a skeleton leaf. In this case it is only necessary to put a sheet of clean glass in the printing frame, and on it place the leaf (or other object); then cover it with a sheet of sensitive paper; replace the back of the frame and expose to daylight, until tlie visible portions of the paper are quite black. The leaf will then show in beautiful white or tinted tracery upon a black, or very deep brown, ground. On no account remove from the frame until the printing has proceeded far enough, or the result cannot fail to be disappointing in its “washed-out” appear- ance, due to the fact that the fixing operation (about to be described) lightens the tint of such prints to a considerable degree. Many varieties of dried leaves and ferns may be reproduced in the same manner; but it must be borne in mind that it is necessary to use them only in a dry state, otherwise, the sap would injure the paper, and probably cause it to stick to the glass. It is necessary to keep these prints protected from the further influence of light, until they have been " fixed.” And now let us consider what is the nature of the change effected by light in the salts of silver, with which we have been dealing; it is simply this: The silver salts have been reduced to their metallic* state, more or less, according to the intensity of the light attacking them. It will be clearly understood that portions of the paper, hitherto protected from light, still contain sensitive matter, capable of reduction if exposed to light, and it will be equally obvious that if we can remove this sensitive matter without removing the parts already altered by light we shall have a picture composed of metallic silver, the white portions of which contain no matter sensitive to light, hence no further change can be *This statement is made for the sake of impressing the action ûpon the be- ginner; as a matter of fact the visible image consists of a mixture of metallic silver and silver photo-chloride, and the latter usually preponderates.