_Apparatus and chemicals for development._—The development of the plates
or films after exposure in the camera requires practice and experience
in order to secure the best results. Instructions for development
are sent out with all commercial plates or papers, but many failures
would certainly result from attempting to work by these without some
preliminary practice at home. As plates, &c., will keep after exposure
(if well protected from damp) for 18 months, or longer if properly
packed, it is not, of course, necessary to develop them _en route_,
although if the traveller possess sufficient skill, and if ample
water-supply and other facilities can be secured, it will be advantageous
for many reasons to do so. On a long journey, when the temperature is
not too high, use of convenient resting-places may be made to develop
from time to time a few plates selected from the whole, both as tests
for exposure and as proof that all the apparatus is in order. The
following list comprises all that is absolutely required for developing
8 or 10 dozen gelatine plates:—Three papier-mâché dishes, two 3-ounce
glass measures, three 6-ounce bottles, containing strong solutions of
pyrogallic acid preserved with potassium meta-bisulphite, potassium
bromide, and sodium carbonate respectively, 1 lb. hyposulphite of soda,
and ¼ lb. alum, both in crystals, 4 or 5 feet of india-rubber tubing and
a spring clip, to make a syphon for a water supply from a jug or can, a
basin or tub to serve as a sink, a folding rack for draining the plates.
There are several convenient new developing agents in the market:
Hydro-Kinone, Eikonogen, Glycin, Metol, Rodinal, and Amidol. Some of
these were made and named in Germany, they are no longer procurable under
their German names. English manufacturers are however making substitutes
quite as good under new names, and these can be obtained from the
dealers. Many of them can be obtained in compressed form.
The traveller is recommended for advanced study of photography, such
works as Instructions in Photography by Sir Wm. Abney, The Science and
Art of Photography by Chapman Jones, and The Manual of Photographic
Exposure and Development by Alfred Watkins, which may be had from any
photographic dealer’s.
The aim of the traveller-photographer should be the production of good
_negatives_. It often requires years of study on the part of professional
operators (with advantages impossible to the traveller) before thoroughly
good negatives are habitually produced; and it must not be supposed that
a person taking up photography for the first time, in a few hurried
moments before departure on a journey, will attain other than very
unsatisfactory results.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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