Early Work In Photography
A Text-book For Beginners

Printing from the Negative. 23 the amount of subject we wish to include when printing from the negative it is destined to cover. The hole may be made with knife or scissors, and it is not necessary to be at all careful in keeping the edges clean cut, in fact they may be quite rough in outline. The pierced cardboard is now to be tacked upon the outside of the printing frame in such a position that the opening of the card comes over the part of the negative that is to be printed. The negative and sensitive paper are placed in the frame as previously described, the opening in the cardboard is then to be covered with a piece of tissue paper to ensure diffusion of light, and the whole exposed to light in the usual way. In this position the negative, instead of being visible, will be covered with the cardboard vignetter, the opening of which is covered with tissue paper. Of course, printing will take a longer time than when the negative is quite uncovered, and the result will be different from any other method of printing. Thus, when using a medallion mask the resulting print possesses a clean-cut outline, dividing the picture from its wliite margin; this is due to the opaque mask being in actual contact with both negative and sensitive paper. The effect of the vignetter will be very different, for this reason: the vignette,' although partially protecting the sen- sitive paper from the action of light, is placed not in contact with the negative film, but at a considerable distance from it, i.e.,on the exterior of the printing frame. The light is thus enabled to strike beneath the protecting cardboard and exert a gradually lessening influence upon the sensitive paper which, therefore, yields a print with a softened and graduated margin. If the outline is at all harsh in appearance, it is due to tlie vignetter being too near to the surface of the negative. This fault may be remedied by nailing a strip of wood (about half-an-inch thick) around the outside (front surface) of the printing frame and attaching the vignette to it. This will increase the distance between vignetter and negative, and so cause a greater diffusion of light and, of course, increased softness of margin to the print. There are, of course, many other methods of dealing with sensitive paper (such as combination printing, &c.), but as they do not properly come within the scope of a first hand- book, we shall defer their treatment for a later and more advanced work. We ask the student to carefully and thoroughly practise