PHOTOGRAPHY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1913, Page 15

PHOTOGRAPHY.

rorussTxo. Tn the first lesson I ever bud in photography (writes ~ correspondent of the Newcastle Chronicle'") I remember being told to get my head under the cloth and turn the screw until the image appeared quite sharp on the focussing screen. It was all so gloriously simple, but J have «ince discovered that there is a good deal more to learn in this operation than mainworkers realise. Sharp definition U easily obtained with even a comparative! v cheap lens, especially if it j s ri to P p Pt i down; but successful focussing demands more than sharp definition. Of TOllrv microscopical detail is desirable in .-omc> instances—for example, in ropving architectural topographical work. <4c. but for ordinary landscapes, portraiture, etc it is a decided disadvantage. I have ha<' portraits se.nt to our competitions, where th« background is. say. an ivy-clad or ordinary brick wall, and as much attention appears to have boon paid in getting the latter quite sharp as to the subject proper. Jn such oases the results can never be entirely pleasing, us the attention of .-i spectator is naturally -oncentrated on the sharpest part of the picture; but when it is all equally distinct the effect is lost. One does not want to count the ivy leaves or. the bricks in the wall, as the ease may be, but it would seem that snc.h was the object of the photographer. The sitter i>, of ■•otirsnj the chief object of interest., and should be sharper in definition than either the foreground or background, or in fact any

object that is likely to detract attention: and if the background is a brick wall or anything which does not lend an interns! to tin , picture it would be better to place the sitter at a sufficient distance in front of it in order that it may be made slighllv fuzzy rather than entirely blurred, whirl: is a condition far worse than sharp delinition.

Let us erect the camera beforr a wide expansive landscape which we wish to photograph with, .-iay, some fields in the foreground, trees, or a cottage in the middle distance, and hills in the far distance. We shall lind on focussing that to obtain comparative sharpness over Hie whole it is necessary to stop down very considerably, uiid what is the result V A false idea of distance, and no object of outstanding interest. Assuming that the trees or the cottage in the middle distance forms the principal theme in our picture, let us focus for that in (!)<• first •instance. Now, when it is sharp, we shall observe the fields in the foreground and hills in the background slightly out of focus. We can then stop down uni.il they are ouly sharp enough not to appear blurred, but still not quite slnrp, and the result is a decided improvement pictorially on uniform sharpness, localise the eye is unconsciously centred in the iirst instance on the chief feature of interest, and then travels to the hills behind, which give a. truer idea of their distance. Now, the beginner must not rush from one extreme to the other by making aJI, except the chief object, absolutely blurred, or wo shall nave a result worse than the one we are trying to remedy. It should be understood that focussing is, after all, only a question of degree, and it is possible to bring out the chief feature in a way that all the rest of the picture, while not quite so sharply focussed, is still clearly defined.