the chief object being to watch the progress of toning and
chemical changes.
When the desired tone is reached, remove the print from the toning
solution and wash quickly and well in running water for fifteen minutes.
If washed too long, the color of the print will fade and a dead and
lifeless print will result. If not washed long enough, the yellow of the
ferricyanide will remain in the print, robbing its gradations of
brightness and purity of color and impairing the permanency of the print.
A big advantage in this method of toning is its wonderful adaptability.
There is no hard and fast rule as to the proportion of the chemicals to
the bulk of water used. Try two drams of each of the two solutions; then
three drams of each, but watch that the print does not get beyond you in
toning. The only practical difference in my formula and others that I have
seen is that I make my stock solution weaker than that ordinarily advised
and use less of it to a certain amount of water, because I prefer slow
toning and the accompanying ease of control which the flash-in-the-pan
formula does not admit. Quick toning, like quick development, tends to
block the shadows in the print, and if you once get bronzed shadows the
print is practically hopeless. Not quite ruined, however, as a bath in a 5
per cent solution of sodium carbonate will discharge the color and then,
if the print is faded, it may be redeveloped in an alkaline developer such
as metol-hydro. But before it is retoned the print must be thoroughly
washed, as the presence of sodium carbonate does not permit the toning
solution to do its work.
Finally, I may say that, while a bath of acetic acid and water is often
advised to stop the toning action in this method, I have never found it
necessary.
All the thin varieties of bromide paper curl badly in drying. If they are
to be kept unmounted it is well to immerse them in water to which has been
added a few drops of glycerine. This will ensure their lying flat after
drying. A solution of 2 ounces of glycerine in 25 ounces of water is
advised when it is desired to make bromides on heavy rough paper remain
flat, after drying, for book illustration and similar purposes.
If one is trying to rush through a bromide print, it can be trimmed while
wet by placing it on a sheet of stiff paper and cutting through both.
The paper will be found to cockle the mounts badly in drying. Aside from
the glue mountant, formula for which accompa
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