Topic: "Faking the negative"

[Indofunk]

http://petapixel.com/2015/12/01/this-1907-article-describes-how-photos-were-faked-a-century-ago/

I almost want to try the onion paper (rice paper?) and pencil method. Sounds like a lot of work, though, and definitely not a 35mm job Maybe not even 6x6 6x12 maybe?

[Francois]

This definitely only for glass plates as far as I can see.
I know some of the 4x5 sheet film has a retouching base that is slightly rough to capture the lead pencil or ink...
Ink was used to either outline objects (like in old catalogs) or to isolate completely parts of the image.

One thing's for sure, using lead pencil to adjust shadows can be much easier than doing some very precise dodging...
This was also often done on paper negatives.

[Terry]

Satish: onion-skin paper was (and probably still is) a common wood-pulp paper with, I think, a high cotton rag content that was very very thin and had a crinkly texture not unlike the skin of an onion.  It was used as an interleaf together with carbon paper to make copies when you were typing.  I expect it was used for other things too--like tracing images the way this article describes.

[Francois]

I still have a big pile of it from my grandma. She used it as tracing paper... much thinner than vellum and mine has a yellow tint to it (though it's probably just from being probably 50 years old)