Page 109 - The Wellington photographic handbook

This is easily done, as the picture is, of course, quite visible. The
enlargement is then put back into the developer until the clouds
have developed, and is then fixed in the ordinary way.
This method should not be used if sulphide toning is contem-
plated, as there will always be a risk of the landscape, by reason
of the long development it has undergone, toning to a colder
colour than the sky.

BOLTING SILK IN ENLARGING.
Some very effective enlargements may be made by the help
" "
of a material known as " bolting silk or bolting cloth," and
sold under that name by most of the large photographic dealers.
It is a fine even textured fabric, made primarily for sifting or
bolting flour. A piece a little bigger than the largest enlargement
that is to be made should be obtained and stretched on a frame, or
else mounted by its edges to a clean piece of glass, for protection.
It is used by being placed just in front of the bromide paper, on
the easel. If it is placed with the bolting silk in contact with the
bromide paper it breaks up the image into a series of little dots
something like a very fine half-tone picture in a magazine. This is
useful if the original negative is too harsh in its contrasts, as the
deepest shadows do not then come so black and the result is more
harmonious.
If it is separated from the bromide paper by about the thickness
of an ordinary sheet of glass, this texture can no longer be seen,
but the effect is to soften the lines of the picture. The further
it is from the paper the greater will be the diffusion, and in this
way any degree of softness that may seem necessary can be secured
at will.
It is quite a different softness from that got by leaving the
picture out of focus, and is often the making of an enlargement,
which without some such device would be cuttingly sharp. It also
hides pinholes and other slight blemishes on the negative. A
magnificent effect can be secured from a suitable negative by
enlarging very considerably on WELLINGTON Cream Crayon
paper, using bolting silk to soften the definition, and then sepia
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