Page 141 - The Wellington photographic handbook

the worker in bromoil comes to know instinctively by feeling the
surface of the wet print whether it is all right for inking up. The
high-lights of the picture are distinctly " slippery " (for want of
a better word) to the touch, while the shadows are harsh and
with a suggestion of roughness.
The shadows of the original print have now been converted
to such a state that they will readily accept and hold the pigment
when applied with the correct dabbing action with a brush, whereas
the high-lights, being charged with water, will repel the greasy
ink, and the half-tones will take the ink in due proportion according
to their depth of tone.

THE PIGMENTING PAD.
To keep the bleached print in condition for applying the
pigment, it must be in a state of moisture. Therefore, after leaving
the final washing water, it can be either pigmented at once, or
dried and then subsequently re-wetted for pigmenting. Assuming,
however, that the process is being continued, and the bleached
and fixed print is taken straight from the washing water for pig-
menting, it is kept moist by being placed on a pad of wet blotting
paper. This pigmenting pad is best prepared by taking, say, a
dozen sheets of clean white blotting paper, wetting them one at a
time, and placing on a sheet of glass, zinc or some other hard
level surface. The blotting paper pad should, of course, be made
larger in all directions than the print which it is desired to pigment.
The reason for laying the damp blotting paper down a single sheet
at a time is to enable the final pad to be quite flat and compact.
If the pad of a dozen sheets were wetted when in contact, they
would probably cockle up in an awkward fashion that would prove
fatal to the production of a perfectly level surface for working upon.
The pigmenting pad is kept wet whilst in use, and the print
is taken straight from the washing water and laid face upwards
upon it. The gelatine surface of the print is then lightly blotted
over with a sheet of blotting paper or a clean smooth cambric
handkerchief. When all visible moisture has been removed, the
print is in a proper condition for pigmenting.
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