........................The Bromoil technique in short....................... This description of the Bromoil process will be kind of superficial, as I am still a beginner, and far from being an expert. There are sites where the techniques are discussed in detail. Most people that deal with this 100 year old technique, uses special papers as their matrix. One can buy special Bromoil papers. Papers that are not super coated. But also some "modern" papers can be used. Experimentation is the key word here. I have not gotten around to use these papers. They are too difficult for me at this point of time... However, I thought that using liquid emulsion could give me the paper I wanted. When using this emulsion, the papers will not be coated, and therefore they might be suitable. It is a gods gift, this emulsion... It works so well. Well - not all of it. They are all different - and also when it comes to the usefulness in Bromoil. I normally use the english SE1 emulsion, and I love it. But is has proven not good for Bromoil. It can be used, but it is quite hard work... I then found a czeck emulsion. FOMA has made an awesome emulsion. For all the purposes I know of to date.. Beautiful blacks. And not difficult to use. The biggest difference from this and the SE1 is, that the FOMA has to be applied twice.. For using the liquid emulsion: please see my article under the "liquid emulsion" chapter.. ............................The Bromoil technique ........................... The Bromoil technique is about 100 years old now. (1907) It is basically a technique, where one replaces the blacks (the silver) in a photograph with stiff lithographic paint. Usually one is told to make the best possible print first, in the darkroom. I have learned, that using the czeck emulsion, it is better to make a print, that has to be developed in about one minute! (normally one would develop for several minutes to get all the fine nuances in the print.) this means: overexpose and under-develop! that way. you´ll get a more flat image, but this is much easier to bleach, and then make into a bromoil! Using developers and fixers without hardener! (old fashioned fix (slow working fix) is good. NOT the modern quick fixers.) Then it is bleached and tanned with special bleach, and the image disappears….. The bleach contains copper sulphate and potassium dichromate (the latter is the tanning agent) In Denmark the dichromate is considered so poisonous, that a police permit is necessary!! (it is considered a mean chemistry.. bad for almost everything (except photographic processes…) - so great care must be used!) The actual recipes for the bleach can be found lots of places in the net. After a re-fix and rinse, the paper is dried. Then it can be soaked in water, and the gelatine left on the paper will soak up the water, where it can.. In the black areas the gelatine has been tanned so it can't swell. In the highlights the gelatine hasn't been tanned so it soaks the water up. The result is an image in water/gelatine……. The surface water is wiped off and now the paper is ready for the paint. Oil paint and water doesn't go well together. Using a special Bromoil brush or a normal kitchen sponge, the stiffened lithographic paint is applied, using a hopping motion. Where the gelatine is hardened/tanned the oil paint sticks to the paper, but where there is water in the gelatine, the paint will not stick. And it can be "manipulated" to places where it sticks… Slowly an image grows from what at first looked like a mess… When this technique is continued, a "photographic" image will appear. Sometimes with surprisingly many details. The masters of this technique can use many different colours with fantastic results. I think it is the preparation for this technique that hold many people back. But it is not too bad.. it is just a part of the process: a "slow food" photographic process.. Only the process of making the original image has to be done in the darkroom. The rest is done in daylight, and in the summer time, the process can be carried out in the out doors.. Preferably combined with some red wine, and some music..;-)