Continuing work with a 35mm Leica camera, William Mortensen further described how to use techniques developed for large format images could be applied to the "miniature camera."
The use of paper negatives was talked about when I lived and worked as a B&W print technician in Hollywood, California. We never used the process in the lab since we were devoted to cranking out museum quality prints at a rather hellatious rate and paper negatives would've slow down our entire process. We would've needed to work much more closely with photographers and would've needed hours of work on one image. There simply was zero time for such things.
After reading the following article, I wish I'd taken the time to explore this technique. In fact, I wish I still had access to a darkroom to work this out in. Alas, I and my colleagues were held under the St. Ansel, Group F 64 spell of "purist", "realistic" photography back in the day and digital photography arrived before I realized making paper negatives could add to the art and craft of photography.
What caught my attention is William Mortensen's stress on techniques used to avoid what he called the "Fuzzy Wuzzys." St. Ansel used the same term and derisively applied it to Mortensen's work. Alas, Mortensen himself preferred to avoid softness in his images. Which underscores an obvious point that he who "wins" gets to write history.
This will be the last William Mortensen article that I re-post for now from the original 1934 Camera Craft publication. In a month or two I'll try to remember to post a translation of an article from the Camera Club of Paris 1902 that talks about single element lenses, where to buy them (back in the day), and how to adjust the focus point to correct for chromatic aberration.
Until then, the following William Mortensen article is a real "banger" of a thing to read.
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Notes On The Miniature Camera
William Mortensen
About the Paper Negative
There are probably two hundred thousand miniature cameras at present in use. These represent the ultimate refinement of the experience and labours of the most skillful makers of optical apparatus in the world. Hundreds of miles of film pass through these cameras annually, and millions of exposures are made. But despite this tremendous expenditure of materials and energy, the pictorial output is amazingly small. The mountain has indeed laboured, but to date nothing so lively and prolific as the proverbial mouse has made its appearance. There are occasional creditable pictures made from miniature negatives, to be sure; but when compared with the colossal effort, the showing is not impressive.
As a tour de force of camera engineering the miniature instrument seems to exert a strange compulsion with many of its users to linger unduly over the technical aspects of their craft, with a proportionate disregard of the fact that the true end and aim of photography is the making of pictures. Light meters, thermometers, chronometers, logarithms, graphs and higher mathematics have converted minicam photography into a sort of scientific black magic. Amateur photographers assume the manner of initiates performing mysterious rites at the dark of the moon, mumbling gamma factors as they compound their developers. Snapping the shutter becomes a ceremony, and developing the negative, a sacrament. But at this point, apparently, the fine ecstacy exhausts itself; for nine out of ten minicam owners seem to be content for their final result with a perfunctory bromide enlargement of the most bromidic character.
Even the best workers are inclined to distrust all types of "processing." No doubt they fear the loss, through processing, of definition and gradation, virtues which they rightly treasure very highly.. As a matter of fact, miniature negatives may be processed, as I have discovered through my own experience, without serious loss of gradation, and with an apparent gain in definition. The paper negative and bromoil transfer are processes that the miniature camera worker would do well to employ.
For a process of such great potentialities there has been surprisingly little literature on the subject of the paper negative. This paucity of material is no doubt partially due to the simple and obvious nature of the fundamental principle of the process: "paper negative"
the term is practically self-explanatory. But most amateur experiments with the procedure terminate very unsatisfactorily; for there is a great deal more to the process than the fact that it utilizes a negative made of paper. Correctly understood and handled, the paper negative is one of the noblest processes available to the pictorialist. It is employed by Echague, who is probably the outstanding pictorialist of these times. The scope it provides for selectivity and control is only slightly less than that afforded by the bromoil transfer. Indeed, I have found in working with pupils that it affords the best possible preliminary training for the latter process. Not only are the facilities for local alteration similar, but a similar type of original print is required. A print that is correct in quality for a paper negative is also suitable to being converted into a bromoil matrix.
In broad outline the paper negative procedure as I practice it is as follows: A bromide enlargement is made from the original negative. After the desired alterations are made on the enlargement, it is placed with it's emulsion side in contact with emulsion of another sheet of bromide paper and, by printing through, converted into a negative. Further alterations may be made on this negative, after which it is again placed in contact, emulsion to emulsion, with a third sheet of bromide paper on which the final positive print is made.
The procedure given above differs in various respects from that advocated by other workers. For example, instead of starting with a simple bromide enlargement, some advocate making a film positive. I prefer the paper positive on account of its simplicity and much greater ease of alteration. Extensive alteration of a miniature film positive is a
practical impossibility, whereas the enlarged print allows for changes in the same terms in which they will appear on the final print. Another point of difference involves the making of the final print from the paper negative. At this juncture, instead of placing the emulsions in contact, one authority advises putting the emulsion side of the negative against the plain side of the priniting paper, so that the light passes through the thickness of both papers. This procedure, he suggests, minimizes grain, because the texture of one paper tends to neutralize that of the other. My experience, however, indicates that this method introduces undesirable diffusion and fuzziness: keeping the emulsions always in contact, on the other hand, permits of no loss of definition. As far as grain is concerned, I am unable to discern any difference between the results of the two methods.
Much more important than the mechanical details of the process ( variants of which each practitioner may work out for himself ) are certain requisites of print and negative quality. It is failure to understand these that is chiefly responsible for the unsatisfactory outcome of most experiments with paper negatives. Not every print by any means, not
even every good print, is adaptable to the process. There are three of these requisites, and they must all be observed if good results are to be obtained.
CONTRAST MUST BE AVOIDED. The tendency of the paper negative, as of most other processes, is to exaggerate contrast. What seems an effectively contrasty print is often converted into sheer black and white. Hence great care must be taken to secure and preserve all the middle half-tones. There are three sources of contrast, all of which must be avoided, (a) It may be the result of one-sided, unbalanced lighting. A fairly flat lighting is much better for processing, (b) The contrast may be inherent in the local colour of the subject, with large areas of light and dark placed in juxtaposition, (c) Contrast may be of chemical origin. For this reason, in working with paper negatives, it is necessary to avoid contrasty emulsion on the original negative, as well as on the bromide paper, and to avoid likewise contrasty developers for paper negative and final print.
THE SOFTNESS OF THE ORIGINAL PRINT AND OF THE PAPER NEGATIVE MUST BE INTRINSIC AND GENUINE. A sort of spurious softness is to be obtained by under-development. But a print thus secured will not produce a good paper negative. A print of
the right type shows a scanty use of pure black and white, but a full and complete range of half-tones lying between. Such a print is to be gotten only by full development and correct quality of the original negative.
THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE MUST BE OF CORRECT QUALITY. In larger negatives slight deviations from the standard may be permitted; but in miniature negatives each deviation is magnified to a disaster when it is enlarged. A negative of correct quality utilizes the full range of half-tones that its emulsion affords. It therefore exhibits a very sparing use of either full black or complete transparency, reserving the former for nothing but the intensest high-lights, and the latter for nothing but the deepest accents of the shadows. Between these two extremes there must be shown a complete range of translucent half-tones, providing modelling by delicate gradation in the light area, and giving a suggestion of drawing in the darker area. This type of negative is very difficult to obtain unless one understands the precise factors of exposure and development that enter into it. Broadly speaking, these factors may be summed up in two rules. ( 1 ) The minimum of exposure. ( 2 ) The maximum of development. By "minimum of exposure" is meant an exposure based on the light area (rather than on the shadows, as the older rule has it). Such a procedure preserves all the half-tones of the light area, instead of lumping them together with the high-lights as the conventionally over-exposed negative does. But to secure all these half-tones it is essential that the second rule be equally observed. By "maximum of development" is meant full development. Any negative that has to be "jerked" from the developer in order to prevent the light area from blocking up is ipso facto an over-exposed negative. With a developer of reduced alkalinity there is no such thing as over-development if the original exposure has been correct.
The same two rules must be observed in making prints and paper negatives in order to save at every point the all-important middle tones. For this reason I not only employ the briefest possible exposure compatible with the above theory of density, but employ the A solution of D64 at one quarter strength (i.e., one part of D64-A plus three parts of water).
In addition to a negative of correct quality, the following equipment and materials are required for the paper negative procedure as hereafter outlined.
Projection printer.
11x14 printing frame.
Retouching desk, sub-illuminated. ( Failing this, a contact printer will serve. )
Carbon pencil, Wolfe BB.
Felt stump.
Venus pencil, medium.
An ample supply of XF bromide paper. (Defender velour black F)
For clearness of demonstration I have chosen an example showing a rather extreme amount of control. Not only has a background been added, but there are numerous local alterations. The model was originally photographed in front of an illuminated white screen under a flat front light. A tall gray box served for the vertical form in the background.
Note that the original print (fig. 1) is amply supplied with half-tones, and that there is nowhere in it an extreme contrast of black and white. As a first step in planning the picture, make a small enlargement (about 4x6), determine the most effective framing, and with pencil and eraser make a rough preliminary lay-out of the intended structural alterations.
Using this as a guide, proceed with making an 11x14 enlargement on F paper, framing it in accordance with the plan. Be careful not to over-expose the print, and develop it for four minutes in the A solution of D64, one quarter strength.
[My comment: Developer Formula D-64 is then described... but is not provided here...]
After the print is dried and pressed proceed to make the desired alterations. Work with pencil on the face of the print, and with transmitted light. Use the Venus pencil for detail and the carbon pencil for broad passages when intense black is required. The stump is used to accomplish gradations of tone. Begin working with the head. Do not make the error of starting with the background, lest you lay in the tone too dark. The head and figure, as the dominating element of the picture, must determine the key of the other planes of the picture. Emphasize the shadows, rounding the contour of the head and the orbits of the eyes, and filling in between strands of hair and badly placed light passages.
If it is necessary to get extremely dense blacks, turn the print over and work on the back also. Remember always that it is the transparency value of this print that is of importance, not the surface appearance.
Proceed down the figure, adjusting the drapery and shadowing the breasts slightly to emphasize the modeling of the body. Notice (by comparison with the final print) that the vegetables in the lower corners are considerably lowered in tone to lead the eye to the center of the picture.
When the key tone of the dominating plane of the picture is established, begin work on the next plane, which in this case is the timber and stone wall. Be careful to avoid mechanical monotony in the stones, and note that they are suggested with light and shade and not literally drawn in. Keep this plane in a lighter tone than that of the figure. The other planes are built up in order, with progressive lightening of tone. Note that the distant spires echo, in form and number, the motive of the hanging moss, and that the mountains carry out, but not too obviously, the rhythm of the neck-line. The sky is darkened inward from the edges to bring the strongest contrast opposite the head.
To make the paper negative, lay this altered print in the printing frame, emulsion upward, press it into close contact with the glass and lay a piece of F paper over it, emulsion down. Before locking up the frame be sure that the two papers are in absolute contact, for any bubbles or bulges are disastrous. Give it an exposure commensurate with four minute development, with the lens of the projection printer wide open.
The paper negative thus obtained ( Fig. 2 ) shows some increase in contrast, but, thanks to the softness and gradation of the original print, this increase is not serious. At this stage, incorporation of light passages is accomplished. As with the initial print, the work is started on the principal plane of the picture. The detail of the hair is renewed, and the high-lights on the face are intensified. The modeling of the body beneath the dress is suggested by a few high-lights. The neck-line of the dress is lightened and almost eliminated in order to pull the light passages of the picture together. For the same reason the embroidery pattern on the right shoulder is much subdued and considerably lightened in tone. High-lights are intensified on the sash, on the fingers and on the vegetables in the foreground. Notice also that the bad fold breaking the line of the right sleeve is eliminated, and a slight correction made of the disagreeable foreshortening of the fingers of the left hand. Detail and character is given to the confused mass of foliage at the left. Passing then to the other planes of the picture, the high-lights are intensified on the stones in the wall and the sky slightly brightened near the head.
The procedure for making the final print is the same as that described for the paper negative. The exposure and development times are the same. In printing, the principal figure may be given increased dominance, if desired, by "dodging" with the negative removed.
The picture "The Sophisticate" was made by a pupil of mine. I have included it because it is an excellent "piece of work and because it shows the extremely personal type of expression possible with the paper negative process. In this case the formal aspect of the figure has been emphasized by bringing out the wiry outline and making it tight and rigid.
Like Projection Control or any other control process, the paper negative is liable to unskilful and ignorant abuses that make the judicious grieve. Paper negative prints are frequently to be seen in salons and photographic annuals that betray complete lack of knowledge of human anatomy by placing the high-lights in utterly impossible locations. Others, by harsh and obviously drawn outlines, completely violate the integrity of the photographic original. The process must not be regarded as a means of "doping up" an indifferent picture to conceal earlier technical blunders: technically, the original print should be able to stand on its own merits. A control process lays a heavy burden on its user because it cuts him off from the precise mechanical guidance of the camera. Unless
he knows what he wants to do and how to do it, he is very certain to find that what he has made is a mistake, and not a picture.
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