PHOTOGENIC DRAWING ON PAPER

We shall now proceed to describe the various processes for Photogenic drawing on paper; first, however, impressing on the mind of the experimenter, the necessity which exists for extreme care in every stage of the manipulation. In this portion of my work I am entirely indebted to the works of Professors Hunt, Fisher and others.

I. APPARATUS AND MATERIALS.--Paper.--The principal difficulty to be contended with in using paper, is the different power of imbibition which we often find possessed in the same sheet, owing to trifling inequalities in its texture. This is, to a certain extent, to be overcome by a careful examination of each sheet, by the light of a candle or lamp at night, or in the dark. By extending each sheet between the light and the eye, and slowly moving it up and down, and from left to right, the variations in its texture will be seen by the different quantities of light which pass through it in different parts; and it is always the safest course to reject every sheet in which inequalities exist. Paper sometimes contains minute portions of thread, black or brown specks, and other imperfections, all of which materially interfere with the process. Some paper has an artificial substance given to it by sulphate of lime (Plaster of Paris); this defect only exists, however, in the cheaper sorts of demy, and therefore can be easily avoided. In all cases such paper should be rejected, as no really sensitive material can be obtained with it. Paper-makers, as is well known, often affix their name to one half the sheet; this moiety should also be placed aside, as the letters must frequently come out with annoying distinctness. Well sized paper is by no means objectionable, indeed, is rather to be preferred, since the size tends to exalt the sensitive powers of the silver. The principal thing to be avoided, is the absorption of the sensitive solution into the pores; and it must be evident that this desideratum cannot be obtained by unsized paper. Taking all things into consideration, the paper known as satin post would appear to be preferable, although the precautions already recommended should be taken in its selection.

Brushes.--The necessary solutions are to be laid upon the paper by brushes. Some persons pass the paper over the surface of the solutions, thus licking up, as it were, a portion of the fluid; but this method is apt to give an uneven surface; it also rapidly spoils the solutions. At all events, the brush is the most ready and the most effectual means.

Distilled Water.--All the water used, both for mixing the solutions, washing the paper, or cleaning the brushes, must be distilled, to obtain good results, for reasons before specified.

Blotting Paper.--In many instances, the prepared paper requires to be lightly dried with bibulous paper. The best description is the white sort. In each stage of the preparation distinct portions of bibulous paper must be used. If these be kept seperate and marked, they can be again employed for the same stage; but it would not do, for example, to dry the finished picture in the same folds in which the sensitive paper had been pressed. A very convenient method is to have two or three quarto size books of bibulous paper, one for each seperate process.

Nitrate of Silver.--In the practice of the photographic art, much depends on the nitrate of silver. Care should be taken to procure the best; the crystalized salt is most suitable for the purpose. While in the form of crystal it is not injured by exposure to light, but the bottles containing the solutions of this salt should at all times be kept wrapped in dark paper, and excluded from daylight.

II. DIFFERENT METHODS OF PREPARING THE PAPER.--Preparation of the Paper.--Dip the paper to be prepared into a weak solution of common salt. The solution should not be saturated, but six or eight times diluted with water. When perfectly moistened, wipe it dry with a towel, or press it between bibulous paper, by which operation the salt is uniformly dispersed through its substance. Then brush over it, on one side only, a solution of nitrate of silver. The strength of this solution must vary according to the color and sensitiveness required. Mr. Talbot recommends about fifty grains of the salt to an ounce of distilled water. Some advise twenty grains only, while others say eighty grains to the ounce. When dried in a dark room, the paper is fit for use. To render this paper still more sensitive, it must again be washed with salt and water, and afterwards with the same solution of nitrate of silver, drying it between times. This paper, if carefully made, is very useful for all ordinary photographic purposes. For example, nothing can be more perfect than the images it gives of leaves and flowers, especially with a summer's sun; the light, passing through the leaves, delineates every ramification of their fibres. In conducting this operation, however, it will be found that the results are sometimes more and sometimes less satisfactory, in consequence of small and accidental variations in the proportions employed. It happens sometimes that the chloride of silver formed on the surface of the paper is disposed to blacken of itself, without any exposure to light. This shows that the attempt to give it sensibility has been carried too far. The object is, to approach as nearly to this condition as possible without reaching it; so that the preparation may be in a state ready to yield to the slightest extraneous force, such as the feeblest effect of light.

Cooper's Method.--Soak the paper in a boiling hot solution of chlorate of potash (the strength matters not) for a few minutes; then take it out, dry it, and wet it with a brush, on one side only, dipped in a solution of nitrate of silver, sixty grains to an ounce of distilled water, or, if not required to be so sensitive, thirty grains to the ounce will do. This paper possesses a great advantage over any other, for the image can be fixed by mere washing. It is, however, very apt to become discolored even in the washing, or shortly afterwards, and is, besides, not so sensitive, nor does it become so dark as that made according to Mr. Talbot's method.

Daguerre's Method.--Immerse the paper in hydrochloric (or as it is more commonly called, muriatic) ether, which has been kept sufficiently long to become acid; the paper is then carefully and completely dried, as this is essential to its proper preparation. It is then dipped into a solution of nitrate of silver, and dried without artificial heat in a room from which every ray of light is carefully excluded. By this process it acquires a very remarkable facility in being blackened on a very slight exposure to light, even when the latter is by no means intense. The paper, however, rapidly loses its extreme sensitiveness to light, and finally becomes no more impressionable by the solar beams than common nitrate paper.

Bromide Paper.--Of all common photographic paper, the best, because the least troublesome in making, and the most satisfactory in result, is that which is termed bromine paper, and which is thus prepared:--Dissolve one hundred grains of bromide of potassium in one ounce of distilled water, and soak the paper in this solution. Take off the superfluous moisture, by means of your bibulous paper, and when nearly dry, brush it over on one side only, with a solution of one hundred grains of nitrate of silver to an ounce of distilled water. The paper should then be dried in a dark room, and, if required to be very sensitive, should a second time be brushed over with the nitrate of silver solution.

In preparing the papers mentioned above, there are two circumstances which require particular attention. In the first place, it is necessary to mark the paper on the side spread with the solutions of nitrate of silver, near one of the extreme corners. This answers two purposes: in the first place it serves to inform the experimentalist of the sensitive surface; and secondly, it will be a guide as to which portion of the papers has been handled during the application of the solution, as the impress of the fingers will probably come out upon the photograph. The second caution is, that the application of the sensitive solution (nitrate of silver,) and the subsequent drying of the paper, must be always conducted in a perfectly dark room, the light of a candle alone being used.

III. PHOTOGENIC PROCESS ON PAPER.--Method.--The simplest mode is to procure a flat board and a square of glass, larger in size than the object intended to be copied. On the board place the photographic paper with the prepared side upwards, and upon it the object to be copied; over both lay the glass and secure them so that they are in close connection by means of binding screws or clamps, similar to g. g. fig. 29. Should the object to be copied be of unequal thickness, such as a leaf, grass, &c., it will be necessary to place on the board, first, a soft cushion, which may be made of a piece of fine flannel and cotton wool. By this means the object is brought into closer contact with the paper, which is of great consequence, and adds materially to the clearness of the copy. The paper is now exposed to diffused daylight, or, still better, to the direct rays of the sun, when that part of the paper not covered by the object will become tinged with a violet color, and if the paper be well prepared, it will in a short time pass to a deep brown or bronze color. It must then be removed, as no advantage will be obtained by keeping it longer exposed; on the contrary, the delicate parts yet uncolored will become in some degree affected. The photogenic paper will now show a more or less white and distinct representation of the object. The apparatus figured at 29 consists of a wooden frame similar to a picture frame; a piece of plate glass is fixed in front; and it is provided with a sliding cover of wood, c., which is removed when the paper is ready to be exposed to the action of the light. The back, d., which is furnished with a cushion, as just described, is made to remove for the purpose of introducing the object to be copied, and upon it the prepared paper; the back is then replaced, and, by aid of the cross piece and screw, e., the whole is brought into close contact with the glass.

The objects best delineated on these photographic papers, are lace, feathers, dried plants, particularly the ferns, sea-weeds and the light grasses, impressions of copper plate and wood engravings, particularly if they have considerable contrast of light and shade--(these should be placed with the face downwards, having been previously prepared as hereafter directed)--paintings on glass, etchings, &c.

To fix the Drawings.--Mr. Talbot recommends that the drawings should be dipped in salt and water, and in many instances this method will succeed, but at times it is equally unsuccessful. Iodide of potassium, or, as it is frequently called, hydriodate of potash, dissolved in water, and very much diluted, (twenty-five grains to one ounce of water,) is a more useful preparation to wash the drawings with; it must be used very weak or it will not dissolve the unchanged muriate only, as is intended but the black oxide also, and the drawing be thereby spoiled.

But the most certain material to be used is the hyposulphite of soda. One ounce of this salt should be dissolved in about a pint of distilled water. Having previously washed the drawing in a little lukewarm water, which of itself removes a large portion of the muriate of silver which is to be got rid of, it should be dipped once or twice in the hyposulphite solution. By this operation the muriate which lies upon the lighter parts will become so altered in its nature as to be unchanged by light, while the rest remains dark as before.

It will be evident from the nature of the process, that the lights and shadows of an object are reversed. That which is originally opaque will intercept the light, and consequently those parts of the photogenic paper will be least influenced by light, while any part of the object which is transparent, by admitting the light through it, will suffer the effect to be greater or less in exact proportion to its degree of transparency. The object wholly intercepting the light will show a white impression; in selecting, for example, a butterfly for an object, the insect, being more or less transparent, leaves a proportionate gradation of light and shade, the most opaque parts showing the whitest. It may be said, therefore, that this is not natural, and in order to obtain a true picture--or, as it is termed, a positive picture--we must place our first acquired photograph upon a second piece of photogenic paper. Before we do this, however, we must render our photograph transparent, otherwise the opacity of the paper will mar our efforts.

To accomplish this object, the back of the paper containing the negative, or first acquired photograph, should be covered with white or virgin wax. This may be done by scraping the wax upon the paper, and then, after placing it between two other pieces of paper, passing a heated iron over it. The picture, being thus rendered transparent, should now be applied to a second piece of photogenic paper, and exposed, in the manner before directed, either to diffused day-light or to the direct rays of the sun. The light will now penetrate the white parts, and the second photograph be the reverse of the first, or a true picture of the original.

Instead of wax, boiled linseed oil--it must be the best and most transparent kind--may be used. The back of the negative photograph should be smeared with the oil, and then placed between sheets of bibulous paper. When dry the paper is highly transparent.

IV. APPLICATION OF PHOTOGENIC DRAWING.--This method of photogenic drawing may be applied to useful purposes, such as the copying of paintings on glass by the light thrown through them on the prepared paper--Imitations of etchings, which may be accomplished by covering a piece of glass with a thick coat of white oil paint; when dry, with the point of a needle, lines or scratches are to be made through the white lead ground, so as to lay the glass bare; then place the glass upon a piece of prepared paper, and expose it to the light. Of course every line will be represented beneath of a black color, and thus an imitation etching will be produced. It is also applicable to the delineation of microscopic objects, architecture, sculpture, landscapes and external nature.

A novel application of this art has been recently suggested, which would doubtless prove useful in very many instances. By rendering the wood used for engravings sensitive to light, impressions may be at once made thereon, without the aid of the artist's pencil. The preparation of the wood is simply as follows:--Place its face or smooth side downwards, in a plate containing twenty grains of common salt dissolved in an ounce of water; here let it remain for five minutes, take it out and dry it; then place it again face downwards in another plate containing sixty grains of nitrate of silver to an ounce of water; here let it rest one minute, when taken out and dried in the dark it will be fit for use, and will become, on exposure to the light, of a fine brown color. Should it be required more sensitive, it must be immersed in each solution a second time, for a few seconds only. It will now be very soon effected by a very diffused light.

This process may be useful to carvers and wood engravers not only to those who cut the fine objects of artistical design, but still more to those who cut patterns and blocks for lace, muslin, calico-printing, paper hangings, etc., as by this means the errors, expense and time of the draughtsman may be wholly saved, and in a minute or two the most elaborate picture or design, or the most complicated machinery, be delineated with the utmost truth and clearness.