Printmaking and photo upload

Editor's Notes

• #12: Intagliare = to cut into
• #33: The first permanent photograph (later accidentally destroyed) was an image produced in 1822 by the French inventor Joseph NicéphoreNiépce. His photographs were produced on a polished pewter plate covered with a petroleum derivative called bitumen of Judea. View from the Window at Le Gras (La cour du domaine du Gras) was the first successful permanent photograph, created by NicéphoreNiépce in 1826 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes.Niépce captured the photo with a camera obscurafocused onto a sheet of 20 × 25 cm oil-treated bitumen. As a result of the 8-hour exposure, sunlight illuminates the buildings on both sides.
• #36: STEP I:  PREPARING THE PLATE (20 to 25 minutes)By far the most time consuming and labor intensive of the five-step process. 1)   Remove a plate from the plate box (a). 2)   If not pre-crimped in manufacture, use plate bender (b) to turn down edges. This takes less than a minute. Perfectly flat plates (c) were produced in the early years. Later, they were pre-bent at the edges (d) to aid insertion in a plate vice (i). 3)   Remove buffing stick (e) from storage or warming box (f). Only one  shown  in this illustration, but each polishing agent gets its own buffer. 4)   Vigorously scour the crimped plate (d) with powdered rotten stone (not illustrated) to remove surface imperfections. 5)   Rub chalk rouge (g) on deerskin side of buffing stick (e). 6)   Much more common was powdered rouge (h). Sprinkle on buffing stick and rub powder into surface of the hide (e). 7)   Install plate in Benedict’s plate holder (i), one of many gadgets sold commercially for securing the plate while buffing. 8)   The entire assembly is clamped onto a wooden table vise (j). The vise is fastened to the table or bench. Now polish or buff the plate (always in the horizontal direction of what will be the finished image) for about 20 minutes to get a perfect mirror finish. The use of a treadle driven buffing wheel could measurably shorten the time of this step. 9)   Lime from these bottles (k) is used to bed or cradle the bromine in the bottom of the glass tray which is inside the second coating box (n). 10)   Insert buffed plate (m), face down in the sliding cover which is double the length of the box, and slide the plate into position over box containing iodine (l). When the plate turns light yellow, (usually about 15 to 25 seconds) remove from this box. The iodine stays good for years when kept in its sealed coating box so it is always ready to be used. 11)   Move the plate (m) to the bromine box (n) and slide into position for approximately 5 to 10 seconds till the plate turns rose colored. When this takes over 15 seconds, the bromine (or quick stuff) has weakened and a pinch more should be added to freshen up the existing chemical. It will then stay potent for months. 12)   Now in darkness, return plate to the iodine box (l) for a few seconds. This completes the coating, and you now have a properly sensitized plate. 13)  Insert polished and sensitized plate in a plateholder(o) and close dark-slide, (shown partially open in this illustration).14) All polishing except for the quick final buff of the plate with lampblack (not illustrated) is done in advance so the sitter can enter the studio and receive a  finished likeness in less than thirty minutes! STEP II:  TAKING THE EXPOSURE (2 to 8 minutes)1)   Place the camera (a) on a tripod, (see Illustration Page 1). 2)   Open trap doors (b) and (c) on top of camera . 3)   Remove lens cap (d) from front of lens (e). 4)   Insert the ground viewing glass (f) in open slot on camera top. 5)   Focus lens (e) and compose your subject in its frame until you are satisfied. This usually takes more time than the actual exposure. Lightly replace lens cap (d). 6)   Remove the viewing glass (f) from camera (a) and replace with the loaded plateholder(g) with dark-slide (h) in down position. (Though in the illustrated detail of this layout, an extra plateholder(g&h) is displayed partially drawn up in order to show the polished and sensitized daguerreotype plate’s position (i) within the plateholder(g). 7)   With the plateholder in the camera, pull up the dark-slide as far as possible (h2), then remove and replace the lens cap (d), using it as the shutter. Normally indoors with good light this takes from ten to twenty seconds though most operators advertised much quicker exposure times to lure the gullable. If the advertising were to be believed, there would have been no need for headstands (see Illustration, Item 4). 8)   Drop the dark-slide (h2) to secure the exposed plate from any further light and remove the plateholder from the camera.