Page 147 - The Wellington photographic handbook
P. 147
to harden overnight in a warm room free from dust, or pinned
up by the corners in the same way as with a wet bromide enlarge-
ment, taking particular care that nothing comes in contact with
the pigmented surface, as it can be very easily damaged or smeared.
The drying process can be hastened considerably if the print is
pinned up to dry over a mantel of a fireplace in which a good fire
or gas stove is burning, so that the print comes in a direct current
of warm air. In this way it is frequently possible to dry a bromoil
print in an evening. Otherwise, if this cannot be accomplished,
it is as well to allow at least twenty-four hours to elapse before
attempting to touch the surface, or the pigment will not have had
time to set and may easily be abraded. Under ordinary circum-
stances it will take two or three days for the pigment to dry quite
hard, but before that happens a little attention may be paid the
print for the removal of hairs and foreign matter referred to above.
These can be neatly picked or scratched off with a small lancet or
lancet-point (used for retouching), which is obtainable from photo-
graphic dealers and sold for the purpose. Small irregularities can
be very gently scraped down with the keen edge of the little blade,
used at right angles to the surface of the paper, and finally, when
the dark spots have been cleared away, any light spots can be filled
in with a small sable or camel's-hair brush and a little Indian ink,
which should be worked down with water to a light tint to match
the general tone of the print. Little touches here and there will
level the surface up, and the print should then be allowed to harden
still further before trimming and mounting in the usual way.
BROMOIL-TRANSFER.
A further development of the Bromoil process, and one that
in the hands of the pictorial worker is capable of giving results
,
of the greatest beauty, is the Bromoil-Transfer process. This
method, as its name indicates, is one whereby the entire pigmented
image of the bromoil print is transferred to another paper support,
and it is in the choice of this paper support that a further variety
of effect can be introduced, so that the finished result is practically
an oil-pigment picture on plain paper.
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