First attempts at Bromoil

Since I've had a lot of time at home recently I've been able to experiment a little with my photographic processes. For a few years now I've been interested in getting into Bromoil printing and within the last couple of weeks I've assembled everything needed, including lithographic ink and brushes, as well as the bleaching chemicals required.

A brief explanation of the Bromoil process is in order. A bromoil print starts out its life as an ordinary black and white print. Some B+W papers are more receptive to bromoil than others. Once the initial print is developed and fixed, it is allowed to dry overnight. With many papers it's helpful to 'super dry' the paper using a hair dryer or holding the print over an oven burner for 30 seconds or so. This ensures that the last of the moisture is drawn out of the paper.

The print is then soaked in water again for around 10 minutes and then placed in a bleach and tanning bath for 10 minutes with constant agitation. This bleaches out the black and white image and at the same time tans the gelatin proportional to the print density. Once bleached and tanned the print is now known as a 'matrix'. The matrix is then fixed for 5 minutes, or 1 minute if an ammonium thiosulfate fixer (rapid fix) is used. It is then washed for 30 minutes to remove every trace of the fixer from the fibers of the print, and again allowed to air dry.

When the matrix has dried (again the action of superdrying it should be applied here) it is placed into a tray of water to soak for between 10 and 15 minutes. Upon removal from the water, the matrix is wiped down to remove every trace of surface water. Soaking in the water causes the gelatin to swell in proportion to the tone, so in very light areas the gelatin swells and the water retained by the swelling repels the ink (oil based) when it is applied. Inking is accomplished with a stiff lithography ink and is built up in layers to gain density in darker areas of the print.

I inked 4 matrices today and will be posting the other 3 when I'm sure the ink is completely dry, but I wanted to post one, flaws and all.

Bodie, CA in Bromoil

While I can see many areas of the print where I've got things to learn, I think this bromoil process is one of the most enjoyable and creative processes in photography. Due to the hand-made nature of the print, no two will ever be alike, giving each print a uniqueness similar to oil paintings.