Part 2 (2/2)
By the following method anyone can, without any knowledge of drawing, produce from a photograph a pen and ink sketch suitable for reproduction as an ill.u.s.tration. From the negative a silver print is made on alb.u.men or gelatine or collodion paper. This is fixed without toning in a solution of hyposulphite of soda. It must then be thoroughly washed to remove all traces of hypo, and when dry, the outlines of the photograph are traced over with a fine pen and a waterproof ink, obtainable at any artist's material store. If the photographer possesses a little knowledge of drawing, some of the shading can also be attempted. When the ink is dry the picture is immersed in a saturated solution of b.i.+.c.hloride of mercury (poison) when the photograph will disappear, leaving the outline sketch intact.
The picture is again well washed and dried. Newspaper sketches are often made from photographs in this manner, a zincotype being quickly produced from the drawing. Gaslight paper can also be used.
PHOTOGRAPHS ON SILK.
Photographs can be very effectively printed upon silk, satin, or other fabrics. There are several methods of accomplis.h.i.+ng this. A simple one is the following:[2] The silk best suited for the purpose is that known as Chinese silk, and this is first washed in warm water with plentiful lather of soap, then rinse in hot water, and gradually cool until the final was.h.i.+ng water is quite cold. Next prepare the following solutions: Tannin, 4 parts; distilled water, 100 parts.
Sodium chloride, 4 parts; arrowroot, 4 parts; acetic acid, 12 parts; distilled water, 100 parts.
[2] From the ”Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Photography,” by the author.
The arrowroot is mixed up into a paste with a little of the distilled water, and the remainder added boiling hot, with the acid and the salt previously dissolved in it. When the solution is quite clear the tannin solution is added, and the whole allowed to get fairly cool.
The silk is then immersed for about three minutes, being kept under without air in the folds, and then hung up to dry, or stretched out with pins on a flat board. The material is then sensitized by brus.h.i.+ng over with the following solution: Silver nitrate, 12 parts; distilled water, 100 parts; nitric acid, 2 drops to every 3 ounces. Other methods of sensitizing are by immersing in or floating on the silver solution. After sensitizing, the material is dried by pinning on to a board to keep flat. It is then cut up as required, and printed behind the negative. Every care must be taken in printing to keep the material flat, and without wrinkles or folds. It must also be kept quite straight; otherwise, the image will be distorted. Printing is carried on in the same manner as with printing-out paper. It is then washed and toned in any toning bath. The sulphocyanide gives the best action. Fix in a 10 per cent. solution of hyposulphite of soda for ten minutes; wash and dry spontaneously. When just damp, it is ironed out flat with a not over-heated iron. Black tones can be obtained with a platinum toning bath, or with the uranium and gold toning bath, made up as follows: Gold chloride, 1 part; uranium nitrate, 1 part.
Dissolved and neutralized with sodium carbonate, and then added to sodium chloride, 16 parts; sodium acetate, 16 parts; sodium phosphate, 16 parts; distilled water, 4,000 parts.
Very effective results may be made by printing with wide white margins, obtained by exposing with a non-actinic mask.
Another method is the following: Ammonium chloride, 100 grains; Iceland moss, 60 grains; water (boiling), 20 ounces.
When nearly cold this is filtered, and the silk immersed in it for about fifteen minutes. To sensitize, immerse the silk in a 20 grain solution of silver nitrate for about sixteen minutes. The silver solution should be rather acid.
Or immerse the silk in water, 1 ounce; sodium chloride, 5 grains; gelatine, 5 grains. When dry, float for thirty seconds on a 50 grain solution of silver nitrate. Dry, slightly overprint and tone in the following bath: Gold chloride, 4 grains; sodium acetate, 2 drachms; water, 29 ounces. Keep twenty-four hours before using. Fix for twenty minutes in hypo, 4 ounces to the pint of water.
PHOTOGRAPHING A CATASTROPHE.
On this page we reproduce a curious photograph by M. Bracq, which appeared some time ago in the _Photo Gazette_.
[Ill.u.s.tration: By M. Bracq. From Photo Gazette. FIG. 28.--A CATASTROPHE.]
Despite all the terrible catastrophe which it represents, carrying pictures along with him in his fall, the subject has not experienced the least uneasiness, not even so much as will certainly be felt by our readers at the sight of the tumble represented.
The mode of operating in this case is very simple and we are indebted to _La Nature_ for the description of the method employed by M. Bracq.
The photographic apparatus being suspended at a few yards from the floor of the room, in such a way as to render the ground-gla.s.s horizontal (say between the two sides of a double ladder--a combination that permits of easy focusing and putting the plates in place), there is spread upon the floor a piece of wall paper, about 6 feet in length by 5 feet in width, at the bottom of which a wainscot has been drawn. A ladder, a few pictures, a statuette, and a bottle are so arranged as to give an observer the illusion of the wall of a room, that of a dining room for instance. A hammer, some nails, etc., are placed at the proper points. Finally, a 5 feet by 2-1/2 feet board, to which a piece of carpet, a cardboard plate, etc., have been attached, is placed under the foot of a chair, which then seems to rest upon this false floor at right angles with that of the room.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29.]
Everything being ready, the operator lies down quietly in the midst of these objects, a.s.sumes a frightened expression, and waits until the shutter announces to him that he can leave his not very painful position. This evidently is merely an example that our readers will be able to modify and vary at their will.
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