AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



239 



Stick to the acid fixing bath. I have good 

 prints that were fixed in a plain hypo bath, 

 but 1 have also thrown away many be- 

 cause they were yellow and mottled with 

 brown spots. Papers of this class develop 

 quickly, and it is necessary to use a fixing 

 bath that will get down to business at once 

 and stop development. Otherwise the re- 

 sultant print will be anything but satisfac- 

 tory. 



When the prints are placed in the fixing 

 bath they should be moved about in it a 

 few moments to allow the bath to get a 

 chance at every part of the print. When 

 a print is carelessly thrown into the bath, 

 it is almost certain that more or less air 

 will be caught between the print and the 

 surface of the liquid, forming bubbles and 

 thus keeping the hypo from acting on the 

 print, so that a spotted print results. The 

 manufacturer's directions mention this fact, 

 but do not sufficiently call attention to its 

 importance. Another evil to be guarded 

 against is the overworking of the fixing 

 bath. Chemists tell how much hyposulphite 

 of soda is required to dissolve a certain 

 quantity of chloride of silver, or in other 

 words, that so many grains of hypo will 

 fix a print of a certain size. Hence it is 

 easily seen that it is entirely possible to 

 use- a fixing bath until there is no fixing 

 left in it. Hypo is cheap and it is poor 

 economy to overwork a fixing bath. I have 

 in mind one instance where I failed again 

 and again to produce a good print. Every 

 one turned yellow when placed in the hypo, 

 and after a few minutes' immersion looked 

 as if stained with bichromate of potash. A 

 change of developer was of no avail and it 

 was not until I tried a fresh hypo solution 

 that I located the trouble. 



Keep the bath in an acid condition. Do 

 not imagine you can add a dram of acetic 

 acid to a quart of fixing bath, fix a dozen 

 prints and still find the bath as acid as at 

 first. Sal soda, or sodium carbonate, is a 

 powerful alkali ; alkalis and acids neutral- 

 ize, or kill, each other. Every print placed 

 in the fixing bath carries with it a small 

 quantity of developer, containing more or 

 less alkali, which of course goes toward 

 neutralizing the acid in the bath. I test my 

 fixing bath frequently with blue litmus pa- 

 per and occasionally add a few drops of 

 acid. 



Beginners in the art photographic may 

 not be familiar with the use of litmus pa- 

 per. For them I may say that paper of 2 

 colors, red and blue, may be obtained. The 

 blue paper, dipped in an acid solution, 

 turns red, while the red paper, when placed 

 in an alkaline solution, turns blue. I keep 

 both kinds on hand and find them both 

 useful. 



The light used in printing is important. 

 I have tried several sorts of illuminants 



and have settled on a mantled gas light as 

 being the most satisfactory. I have among 

 my collection of horrible examples a 5 x 7 

 velox print made by a friend when he was 

 a novice in the art. The view is well taken, 

 as far as one is able to judge from the 

 print, but as my friend held the printing 

 frame about 6 inches from the gas jet 

 when exposing the print, only about 4 inches 

 of the center of the print is sufficiently 

 printed to show what it is all about. The 

 ends of the print fade into nothingness in 

 a weird and mysterious manner, much after 

 the style of some of the new school pro- 

 ductions we are nowadays called on to ad- 

 mire. If my friend had given a few sec- 

 onds more exposure to his print, and had 

 placed the printing frame 12 or 15 inches 

 from the gas jet, he would have had a 

 much more even illumination on the nega- 

 tive, and would have obtained an evenly 

 printed picture. I am fortunate in having 

 an abundance of room in which to 

 work. 



I work on a long table, on the right hand 

 end of which stands my 10 x 12 hypo tray. 

 Next to it is a tray of water for rinsing 

 the prints between developing and print- 

 ing. Next comes the developing tray, 

 which is several sizes larger than the actual 

 size of the paper in use. Just to the left 

 of this tray is the developing light, in my 

 case a small oil lamp. I have an 8 x 10 

 sheet of orange glass which I lean against 

 the chimney of the lamp on the side next 

 the trays, and thus get plenty of safe light. 

 I prefer this to working by a dim white 

 light, as recommended by the manufacturers 

 of the paper. 



My printing is done at a separate table, 

 on the opposite side of the room, where I 

 can attach a rubber tube to a gas jet and 

 bring a supply of gas down to the table. 

 I have a burner arranged on a base 

 so that is is about the same height 

 as the center of my printing frame. By 

 placing this burner in the center of the ta- 

 ble I can stand several printing frames 

 around it, though as a matter of fact I rare- 

 ly use more than 2 at once. I like to keep 

 the frames at least 15 inches from the 

 light, as at that distance the illumination is 

 practically uniform, for small negatives at 

 least. A large square of white cardboard 

 placed behind the light helps the illumina- 

 tion, appreciably shortening the time of ex- 

 posure. 



Each of my negatives is kept in a separate 

 envelope, and it is an easy matter, after the 

 correct exposure has been found for a 

 given negative, to jot down on the envel- 

 ope something like this, "Special portrait 

 velox, 30 seconds, 20 inches, M. Q. devel- 

 oper." This serves as a guide for all sub- 

 sequent printing. 



C. M. Whitney, Bayonne, N. J. 



