The Silver Etching Original Terry Jo Tasche M.Photog Cr.

I have been a portrait photographer since 1982. Although I graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing, and worked for ten years at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and was headnurse on the CCH Burn Unit, I have always been interested in photography.

When our first daughter was born, I enjoyed photographing her. I began studying black-and-white photography and learning how to print in the darkroom. I also wanted to know more about capturing images of people, especially the naturally beautiful little faces of babies and children. I later learned about a special and unique style of black-and-white photography. Through a small group of photographers in the Chicago area, which met every month at the individual photographters' studios, I was introduced to the beauty of this style, and I immediately fell in love with it. It's easy to learn and fun to do. You'll be able to do it, too. With this technique you can consistently produce beautiful heirloom portraits in black-and-white.

The original technique was developed many years ago and is more involved than my execution of it. (It was originally called the "Abrationtone".) To me it was so beautiful that it needed a beautiful name, so I named my interpretation of this portrait style The Silver Etchihg Original©. It's unique and offers a truly one-of-a-kind fine-art print. I find it fun and extremely rewarding to do. Clients often comment that the photographs have the appearance of a pencil sketch. It is the artwork on the photographic print which adds depth to the highlight and shadow areas and gives the finished print a three-dimensional quality. The procedure is actually very easy.

In order to produce a finished Silver Etching Original©, the planning begins at the first conversation with your client. Suggesting that you take a roll of black-and-white film along with the color film is usally appealing to the client. Decisions regarding the clothing and background are made together with the individual to be photographed or with the mother of the child. You may suggest that dark clothing and a dark background go together. With darker clothing I use a hand-painted canvas as the background, either a muted-brown or a purplish-blue background. An overhead 3-foot long, diffused, strip light, placed two feet in front of the background and slightly behind the subject, separates the hair and the clothing from the background.

The light background can be either white-seamless paper, raw canvas or a raw muslin. Pastel or white clothing go beautifully with the light background. Although a light background is the classic approach, a darker background often enhances the appearance of a darker-haired child.

For babies, I like to hang a large piece of silky-looking, white tricot. Bare shoulders and arms show off the soft and delicate baby skin. Cover the disposable diaper with a "real" cloth diaper and use white diaper pins to coordinate with the high-key look. Then place some soft netting under and behind the baby, puffing it up around the baby for a soft vignetting. It's nice to leave the arms and hands a bit exposed and not completely hidden in the netting.

The finished print is printed from an original B/W negative, preferably Kodak's Plus-X film, which I rate at 80 ASA.

A soft, non-contrasty light source is best. The purpose of the soft, diffused lighting is to create even tones which diminish wrinkles or lines on the face. The highlight and shadow detail will be artistically enhanced later on the photographic print itself. As a main light source I use a 3X4 foot Larson soft box placed a little above and as close to the camera as possible. Be sure and keep the main light low enough to add highlights in the eyes which give a brightness and sparkle to the portrait. The main light is set equally to the background and hair lights so that the white background appears truly white. If the main light is too bright and overpowering, the background will appear gray. It may be fun to experiment with different lighting later as you continue in this process.

A silver reflector in front of the subject and below the face will reflect highlights in the bottom of the eyes making the iris of the eye appear crystal clear, especially in blue eyes, and will lighten brown eyes so that the definition of the iris can be seen more clearly. This is a key element of the lighting so that the eyes have a nice bright look with lots of light, life and sparkle.

The fill light, a diffusing umbrella, is placed behind and two to three feet above the camera to provide an overall even lighting to both sides of the subject. The hair light is placed above and a little behind the subject and provides a highlight of separation between the subject and the background and should be equal to the main-light's exposure for brown hair, 1/2 f-stop less for blond hair, and 1/2 f-stop more for dark hair.

The exposure on the background can be equal to or one stop less than the exposure on the subject. I find that either f-5.6 or f-8 is a nice aperture for depth of field providing sharpness in the facial features and softness in the background. The 150 mm lens on the Hasselblad ELX is perfect as a portrait-length lens. The motor advance is helpful. The production of a properly exposed negative is your goal.

The exposure of the negative should be a normal exposure, not over or under exposed. The production of a properly exposed negative is your goal because you'll want the negative to show good midtone, highlight and shadow detail. Overexposure will add too much contrast to the negative. A soft, properly exposed negative will produce a soft portrait, not harsh and contrasty, which will allow you to enhance the highlight and shadow values later on the photographic print with hand artwork.

The ideal negative is the one with the best composition combined with the nicest expression of the subject. A slight smile with bright eyes is the most pleasing because the eyes are wide open and not squeezed partially shut by a big smile. A "Mona Lisa" smile describes it best.

After the negative is selected, send it to an art specialist (PPA has a listing with phone numbers which they will give you if you call .) for negative retouching to soften lines or shadows under the eyes and to remove any distracting emishes on the skin.

When I first learned this technique, the photographic paper of choice was Agfa's Portriga-Rapid, PRN 118, fine-grained matt, grade 2 paper. But Agfa stopped making the graded papers, which worried a lot of us, because we feared that the new multicontrast paper which they began producing would not respond in the same way as the graded papers. However, their new Agfa-Portriga Multicontrast Classic MCC 118 FB, B/W Fiber Base Paper, is equal to the former in allowing you to remove the silver and to add pencil detail. The use of a darkroom filter in the enlarger allows you to choose the correct paper grade for the negative and subject. Usually, grade 2 or 3 works best so that the print is not too contrasty in tone. You may add a texture screen over the paper during exposure. Textureffects of California makes various sizes and textures. To me, they work best on some of the high key portraits. Each subject is different and you may want to try it later as you develop this style.

Kodak's Dektol 1:1 is best for development of the exposed print. Dodge any areas which are too dark, and burn any areas which are too light. Develop the print in 68-70 degree Dektol developer for 1 1/2 minutes, then place in Stop Bath for 30 seconds and then move to the fix (I use Kodak's Rapid Fix) for 5 minutes. For archival quality place the print a second Fix bath for 5 minutes. Finish the process by washing the developed print in a print washer which turns the prints for 60 minutes. I then squeege the print and place it on a screened frame to dry overnight. The next day I straighten the curled prints in the heated mount press for 10-20 seconds.

During the development process I expose several prints with slightly varying times or manipulations, i.e., dodging and burning, which I lightly record on the back of the print in pencil before exposing the paper in my Beseler enlarger. The darkroom's red light aids in being able to see a little while writing, but do not have the red light directly over the paper, enlarger or Dektol pan because it can fog this paper and ruin your work. I keep the light over the Fixer pan, aimed away from the developer and stop bath pans.

I choose the best exposed print and write down the detailed data from the back into a spiral notebook which I keep in the darkroom.

Now the real fun begins--the hand artwork on the print. As you proceed with this step you will see the print change from a relatively flat-looking image to a portrait with depth and dimension.

The supplies you will need are:

--a kneaded eraser
--razor blade
--Ebony jet black extra smooth pencil by Eberhard Faber
--a black Aquarellable pencil for paper, glass, plastic and metal by Stabilo
--a graphite pencil (The Pentalic woodless pencil by Grumbacher works well for this.)
--All are available at the art store.

For adding a little color to the print I use Faber-Castell's Sanguine/#2908 for skin tones, Marshall's photo pencil Ultra Blue for blue eyes, either Marshall's photo pencil "cheek" color for red lips and cheeks, or Kodak's Dry Dye "red" color for the cheek color.

I begin by filling in any catchlight in the pupil with the black Aquarellable pencil by Stabilo, which covers especially well. I place the new catchlight at the correct 11:00 or 1:00 position in the iris. It is made by very gently scratching (etching) the surface of the print with the sharp corner of the razor blade to remove the silver. Removing a little silver opposite the catchlight at about 4:00 or 7:00 gives the appearance of a reflector reflecting in the bottom of the eye and gives the eye a crystal-clear appearance. Continue this process of delicately shaving off the silver on the print to enhance the highlight areas on the cheeks, bridge and tip of the nose and above the eyebrows. Also, the outside lower corners of the mouth need a little accent of specular highlight. The light areas of the angel's touch above the top lip may be lightened slightly, too. You will notice a fine powder of the silver collecting on the razor blade.

I have found that, in order to know exactly where to lighten the print, the best way to "see" the already light areas is to look at the print upside down. Nice portrait lighting creates diffused and specular highlights on certain planes of the face, i.e., on the bridge and tip of the nose, the cheeks, the forehead, the chin, and perhaps under the eyebrows. By accentuating the highlight areas, even in the other parts of the photograph (clothing, fingers, etc.), the portrait seems to come to life.

Likewise, by darkening the shadow areas, the portrait gains a three-dimensional quality, which enhances the two-dimensional medium ( the photographic negative and the photographic paper). The Ebony pencil works beautifully on Agfa's MCC 118 FB paper. Start with the eyes and carefully outline the eye on the top eyelid, and on the lower lid place small dots at the base of each eyelash and then gently smudge the line with your finger. Enhance the eyebrows by lightly making small circles and then smudging them outward. Sharpen the nose by drawing a small line following the top dark area of the nostril. Darken the outer part of the iris with the pencil. Add eyelashes by beginning at the base of the lid and drawing two together which cross at the ends. Make them more in the shape of a "J" than just going straight out. Add shadow to the hollow area under the cheek bone by again lightly drawing small circles and then smudging them with the tip of your finger. Also, accentuate any shadow areas in the arm, fingers and clothing, etc., using the Ebony pencil. An easy way to darken a larger area is to shave off a bit of the graphite pencil over the surface of the print using the razor blade, creating a fine powder on the print. Then rub it into the surface of the print with the tip of your finger. Any area which turns out to be too dark may be erased with the kneabable eraser.

I offer my Silver Etching Originals in 11 X 14 size only which is large enough to do the handwork on and yet small enough to print easily.

Since this is an archival-quality fine art print, use only rag matt and acid-free tape to hinge the print to the back of the matt. For high key portraits I prefer a white 16 X 20 overall mat which matches the white tone of the print, with possibly a light gray under mat. (If it is delivered without a frame, I place it in a black box and wrap the matted print in tissue. ) The hand-finished Husar (Chicago) frame, #575-1 1/2-SM205, which has a soft, pewter-look and mat finish, compliments the Silver Etching Original© beautifully. I searched a long time to find a simple yet elegant frame which shows off the beauty of this black-and-white style. I recommend non-glare glass at the least or conservation glass with UV protection, which is a little more expensive. I do not spray or laminate these archival prints.

To me, part of the beauty of this style is in its simplicity, i.e., one person, close-up, giving the viewer the ability to study the unique facial features, the expression in the eyes and the mystery in the smile. Although that fleeting moment is gone, we as photographers do a valuable service by recording the charm of childhood shown in the face of a child so that the memory of that moment will never fade.

Additional Info--I began taking classes at the Winona Professional School of Photography in 1984, which had just moved to the Chicago area from Indiana. Classes with Don Blair, Gerhard Bakker, Dixie Laval, Bill Worline, Paul Skipworth, and Paul Tumason shaped my portrait style.

For more samples and information and to order Terry's instructional CD, visit her online at www.terrytasche.com.

Terry Jo Tasche
Master of Photography
Photographic Craftsman
Terry Tasche Photography
Chicago, IL 60614
773-528-0548
tt934@aol.com
www.terrytasche.com