Use developer at a temperature of about 70° Fahr. After exposure, soak the paper in water until limp and brush lightly over the surface while wet, with a tuft of cotton and flow developer over the print.
The image should appear slowly and should develop up strong, clear, and brilliant. When the shadows are sufficiently black, pour off the devel oper and rinse the print thoroughly with pure water. Increasing the amounts of Bromide of Potassium given in our formula is sometimes neces sary to prevent grayish high-lights.
After development is complete the print should be placed in clean water for a few seconds and then immersed in the fixing bath. Do not attempt to develop too many prints in one portion of developer. After five or six have been developed mix up a fresh portion.
There are a number of developers that will produce good results on Bromide papers, when used by experienced hands, understanding their limitations. The professional photographer enlarges from a uniform quality of negative and for a certain effect ; on the other hand, the amateur, from the wide diversity of his attempts, finds his negatives varying in density and quality, and the best developer for him to use is the one affording the great est latitude in exposure and development, and one that keeps well in solution.
Without question Nepera Solution is the best developer for this pur pose. Nepera Solution is known as the universal developer, as it may also be used for plates, films and Velox papers.
For use with Bromide paper, take Nepera Solution, r ounce.
Water, - - -- --- - - 6 ounces.
Do not add Bromide of Potassium, as the correct amount is contained in the solution. The capsules accompanying each package should not be used for developing Bromide paper, as they are intended for use with films and plates. Six ounces of the prepared solution will develop twelve five by seven prints or their equivalent, after which a fresh solution should be pre pared. When Nepera Solution is not obtainable, the following formula should be used : Hot Water, - 8 ounces. Sulphite of Soda, - 264 grains.
Metal, - - - 20 grains. Carbonate of Soda, - 437 grains.
Hydrochinon, - 72 grains. Bromide of Potassium, ro grains.
The above formula should be prepared with Alallinckrodt's desiccated sodas ; if crystals are used, double the quantity of both sulphite and car bonate of soda.
This concentrated developer will keep indefinitely in full bottles well stoppered.
Take in a suitable tray— Concentrated Solution, r ounce. I Water, - - 6 ounces.
This amount is sufficient to develop twelve 5 x 7 prints or their equivalent.
If Bromide prints are fixed in the fixing bath prepared according to the following formula, there will be no evidence of blisters or frilling.
Hyposulphite of Soda, ounces. I Water, i6 ounces.
A fresh fixing bath made up as above, should fix twelve 5 x 7 prints or their equivalent, after which the bath should be discarded.
The prints should remain in the fixing bath for at least fifteen minutes, and should be moved one over the other occasionally to insure even fixing and to avoid staining.
After all prints have remained in the fixing bath for a few minutes, the yellow shade may be removed from the light and the balance of the oper ation continued by ordinary light. Before permitting white light to enter, be sure that any unexposed or undeveloped sheets of the bromide paper have been carefully protected from the light.
After fixing, immerse prints for about ten minutes in a hardening bath composed of water, 16 ozs. ; Alum, i oz. When removed from hardening bath, the prints should be washed for at least one hour in running water, or in at least twelve changes of water, in a tray sufficiently large to permit the water to reach all portions of each print.
Move the prints one over the other occasionally to ensure the full eli mination of the fixing solution.
After the prints have been thoroughly washed, they may be suspended by means of Kodak Push Pins from the edge of a table or shelf. Upon removal, when dry, they will curl but slightly and can be made to lie per fectly flat when required, by moistening the back only and re-drying between blotters under heavy pressure.
Do not use the ordinary commercial blotter as it usually contains a large percentage of hypo and other injurious chemicals.
Avoid also the use of colored blotters and those containing printed matter as both the coloring and printers' ink are apt to impress themselves unpleasantly on the print.