Early Work In Photography
A Text-book For Beginners

CHAPTER III. PRINTING FROM THE NEGATIVE. Materials Required:—i box of assorted masks and discs, |plate size (cost is.). AVING thoi c ughly mastered printing and toning photo- h grams of simple objects, we will now go on to the use - of a negative in photography. As it is our intention • to lead beginners gradually to the production of a negative, we shall not say much on the subject here, especially as we have provided a ready-made negative for their use, until we have taught them how to make negatives of any subject for themselves. It will be sufficient, then, to simply state that a negative (in the photographic sense) is a transparent picture, in which the lights and shades are reversed. This peculiarity will be in- stantly noticed, if we examine the negative supplied with this textbook. Let us hold this transparent picture to the light, and ob- serve it critically: The sky is the darkest portion, and many details of varying degrees of opacity appear in different places, until we finally discover some quite clear parts. The negative should be, so far as light and shade is concerned, the exact reverse of the scene from which it was made. A careful student will remember that the action of light upon sensitive paper causes it to rapidly darken; it therefore follows that if such paper is placed in contact behind a negative, through which light must pass before attacking the sensitive surface, it stands to reason that the light will act most rapidly through the clearest portions of the negative, while the very dark parts (such as sky and water) will be scarcely altered at all. To put this theory to a practical test, take a piece of clear glass (size 4% by 3± in) and fit it in the printing frame; then place the negative upon the glass, film side* up- * The film side may easily be recognised, as it presents a rather uneven appearance in comparison with the back, which is of a more glossy nature.