TRIM, TRIM, TRIM.
Trim your prints mercilessly. It is safe to say that three pictures out of every four can be improved by a judicious use of the shears. One picture has too much sky, another too much foreground and another one a whole side with nothing in it worth keeping. When a portion of a picture has nothing in it that is interesting or necessary to the balance of the picture cut it out. Note, if you please, the improvement made by cutting off the foreground in the accompanying illustration. Left untrimmed, as in Fig. r, the picture has little to recommend it, but with a snip of the shears we have cut out the flat and uninteresting foreground and have secured a pic ture of far more than the usual interest and beauty (Fig. 2). Take two cards and experiment with your photographs if you have not the heart to attack them with the shears, laying the cards on them in such a way as to cut out from view what seem to be undesirable parts. An experiment of this kind will soon satisfy you that the shears can be used to advantage.
Don't use your hypo tray for anything but hypo.
Look on your ground glass, not through it.
Keep films, plates and paper in a cool, dry place.
Label your chemical bottles and keep them well stoppered.
Always dust out your plate holders and dust plates well before loading. A speck of dirt on the plate will leave a transparent spot which will in turn leave a black spot on the print.
Film cartridges are dirt as well as light proof and so the film requires no dusting. Dust will, however, sometimes settle on the sections of film in place in the focal plane inside the camera if a long time elapses between winding the film into position and making the exposure. A famous lecturer and photographer overcomes this difficulty when cycling over very dusty roads by not turning the key until he sees a picture he wants to take—a very good idea provided you don't forget to turn the key.
Dust on the film after exposure does little harm as it cuts off no light. When in doubt, over-expose. It is easier to restrain than to force development.
Do not develop in warm water as it is likely to cause frilling. The developer should be about 6o° Fahr.
A Saturated Solution is one in which the liquid has taken up all of the solid which it will.
27.34 urains=1 urarn=--27.34 prams. 6o Minims=t Dram.
i6 Drams=i Ounce=437.5 Grains. S Drams=--r ounce.
i6 Ounces=i pound=7000 Grains. i6 Ounces=i pint.
In purchasing or weighing chemicals it is always safe to use grains as the standard of weight, as they are alike in Avoirdupois, Troy and Apothe caries' tables, while the other terms vary.