A bromoil is a hand-made ink-gelatin photographic image. Each print is inked individually, by hand, using brushes and sponges.

The first step is the creation of a densely-printed traditional black-and-white silver-gelatin print. Through a series of chemical applications, the silver is bleached from the print and all that remains is the gelatin used to bind the silver to the paper. The gelatin, barely visible as a pale-greenish ghost-image on the otherwise empty paper, holds the image intact. After soaking the bleached image in water, hard ink is then stippled onto the surface through a series of brush applications. The ink clings to the gelatin with the same density as the original silver, thus mimicking the photograph. The resulting image is a soft, hand-created likeness˜an ink re-painting of the original photograph.

The first bromoils were created in 1907. The process reached its peak of popularity during the 1930s, the hey-day of the pictorialists. After World War II, realism took over photography and bromoils all but disappeared from the art form. A small bromoil revival is currently underway as part of the alternative photographic process movement.