Camera Craft a Feature for Amateur

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 60

Camera Craft a Feature for Amateur

By

View Tinder.

[headers of the Otago Witness are invited to submit specimens of their work, and, if they desire it, to seek advice from “ View Finder.” Questions will be answered only in these columns and written replies cannot be sent.]

TONING SOLUTION.

Dear “ View Finder,” —In respect to your article on toning, may I be permitted to state that of all types of blue toners I have used, the following has been found superior to those containing ammonid-citrate of iron: —

Iron perchloride 4 K r Pot. ferricyanide 4gr Acid hydrochloric cone. Bmin Water to 4oz My method of compounding is to dissolve the ferric chlor, in 2oz of water along with the acid, adding the ferricyanide in the remaining portion of the water. The mixture will not keep. After a few minutes iron cyanide may be seen to precipitate, which is not really detrimental to toning, although I prefer to use the toning solution immediately it is mixed, when it is most active. Hoping that the rfbove may be of some use to you.—l am, etc., -S. O. 11. Dunedin, January 11.

The principle of the toning solution you mention is quite sound, that I think you have made a mistake when you say that you use potassium- ferricyanide. ' It is usual to use potassium ferrocyanide. Thanking you for the information. VIEW FINDER.

BREAKING WAVES: A POPULAR

COAST SUBJECT.

When there happens to be a good sea running, and big waves are breaking over the promenade, or on the rocks, everyone on the spot with a camera gets busy. It is the same when long breakers are rolling in along the beach, curling over, and sending a Hood of water far up the sands. Such subjects are certainly tempting to the photographer, and fine pictures are often possible, but by no means always easy to secure. The first thing is to select a spot where the waves are breaking well, fcr there is bound to be a succession of them for some time, and it is only a question of waiting for the best opportunities. It is generally best to try to find a place where the wave has a dark background, for the white foam will show up to better advantage than if taken against the sky, unless the clouds are very heavy. If an ordinary hand camera be used, with rather slow lens and shutter speed, the usual rule for moving objects should be observed; that is, the wave should not be travelling exactly across the line of sight, or it will be badly blurred owing to its rapid motion. If taken coming more or less towards the camera there is not so much risk of this. With a large aperture lens and a fast shutter, almost anything in this line can be attempted. Care must be taken that flying spray does not settle on the lens and so obscure it. Should the camera become at ill damp, it should be opened out on reaching home, and put where it will dry thoroughly. The kind of foreground is important, and it is generally best to include part of the sea. It is seldom satisfactory for the wave to spring into the picture from behind the promenade or a rock. As a rule, it is better to exclude such things as promenades and buildings along -the front, and show only the natural seashore. Grandeur and loneliness are the characteristics to be secured. The exposure is sometimes a matter of considerable difficulty, as often when the sea is at its best for this sort of subject the light is at its worst. It is safe to give .the longest exposure likely to avoid undue blurring of the moving water. If the exposure is too long for this, the water loses its form and becomes “ woollv.”

Over-development of the negative should be avoided, or the white will become too chalky and show no gradations of tone. This is especially the case when the sun happens to he shining on the white foam, while at the same time the dark rocks may be in deep shadow.

BLUR IN PHOTOGRAPHS: RECOGNISING ITS CAUSES.

Photographs are often blurred either wholly or in part, and it is important to know why they should be, so that the cause mav be removed in future. In order to do this. we. must consider what are the different faults which may bring about blurriness, and how they may he identified by the character of the results. There are three causes, any one of which is likely to be met with an ordinary photography:—(l) Movement of the object; (2) movement of the camera; and ■(3.) incorrect focussing. It is-easv, on giving the matter a moment’s thought, to see how any of these causes will affect a photograph, and so to

recognise from any particular print what has caused any blur. In the case of movement of the object, it will only be the moving object itselt which will be blurred, the remaining parts, being stationary, should be clearly defined. Therefore, if this is seen to be the case, it is evidence that the movement of the image on the plate or film was too rapid for the shutter speed used.

-iio.cnient oi the camera is equivalent to movement of every part of the subject. Therefore, if every part of a photograph is blurred it may lie a sign that the camera has moved during the exposure.

If the blurring is due to incorrect focussing, there are two possibilities; the camera may have been extended too little, or it may have been extended too much. If it was extended too little, something more distant than the objecs upon winch the camera was thought to be focussed will appear correctly in locus; while if it was extended too much, something nearer than the object focussed for will be sharpest. There is generally no difficulty, when this is borne in mind, in distinguishing blur due to incorrect focussing from ulur due to other causes. The following simple deductions then can be drawn from any photograph which is not properly sharp. if only the moving object appears blurred, too long an exposure (too slow a shutter) was used for that, particular subject; if the whole of the picture is blurred the camera was moved ; and if there is any stationary object clearly defined, but not that oil which we believed we were focussing, the focussing was incorrect. Many photographers attach greater importance to movement of the object than to movement of the camera. They seem to think that slight movement of the camera when an instantaneous exposure is given is not of importance. In point of iact, however, movement of the camera has a much greater effect than equal movement of the subject. For this reason, for time exposures, the camera must be firmly supported; and for photographs made with a shutter, it must be held as still as possible and the release pressed in such a way as not to tend to move it.

It is only necessary to remember that a photograph, in comparison with the subject, is on a reduced scale, to realise that any movement of an object will also be reduced in scale; whereas any movement of the camera is represented full scale in the photograph. For example, assuming that a moving object is in a photograph one-hundredth the size of the original; if the object' has moved lin during the exposure, that distance will be represented by l-100in in the photograph, and therefore there will be no noticeable blurring of its image. On the other hand, if the camera itself were moved through an inch during the exposure, every part of the image would be shifted an inch on the film or plate; so that a hopelessly blurred photograph would result.—C. S. Parsons, B.Sc., n the Amateur Photographer.

LANTERN SLIDES FROM NEGATIVES.

Lantern-slide making (says W. F. G. in the Amateur Photographer) is a branch of photography which everyone should take up when -once he has surmounted the elementary difficulties of making good negatives. Thanks to the small size of a lantern plate, it is very inexpensive: the emulsion on such plates is sufficiently like that on bromide and gasliight papers, for experience in printing to be helpful; while th e projection of a lantern slide has been rightly described as the finest way of showing the gradations of a good negative. Moreover, the great and growing popularity of sizes smaller than quarter-plate, mean s that lantern slides can almost always now be made by the handier method of contact printing ; while the extended supply of electric current and the introduction of high-powered gasfilled lamps must do much- to popularise the lantern at home. “ For such reasons, then, I would urge photographers who have not already done so, to take up lan-tern-slide making. The outfit needed is of the simplest kind. In the way of apparatus, there is nothing more that need be bought; although a printing frame a little larger than quarter-plate, with a piece of clear glass, is an advantage. The materials are merely a packet of lantern plates with developer and hypo, some binding strips and some black' naner for making the slides. These comprise the entire outfit.

Lantern plates are made in several forms. There are comparatively rapid plates, although these, of course, are far slower than the plates generally used in negative making; these are made to give black-tones only. Then there are slow lantern plates,, which will give black tones with normal exposure and quick development, or warm tones, more or less tending towards red, with prolonged exposure

and a restrained developer. 'There are also lantern plates coated with the same emulsion r.s is used for certain gaslight papers.

Which of these should be chosen by the beginner ’

If he is using successfully a gaslight paper and can get lantern plates of the same emulsion, I advise him to do so. The same developer will do for both, and he will feel a confidence in his material begotten by his experience with the paper. In the alternative he might get some slow lantern plates, and Use the developer which is recommended with them for black tones. This is important; because the principal difficulty the beginner is likely to encounter will be that of deciding correctly how far to carry the development of his lantern slide: and it is much easier to do this when the image is a black one than when it is one of the warmer shades.

Slow or gaslight lantern plates also score because of the freedom with which they can be handled in a comfortable light. It is not wise to use them with an unscreened light, such as one might use in making gaslight prints; or, if this is used, a separate screened light should be provided for judging their density. A yellow waxed paper, which is largely used for wrapping gaslight and other sensitive papers, is what I employ. Two thicknesses of this between plain glass in a darkroom lamp give an evenly-diffused and bright light to which the lantern plate can be freely held up, so that I can see how it is progressing. The ordinary lights in the room are left on ; the darkroom lamp serving just for noting progress. In this way, I can work in all the comfort of gaslight paper printing : and still have a light of a uniform standard, and safe, for watching development. It is much better than trying to do the same thing by the ordinary light of the room, which might fog the lantern plate held up to it, although it will not do so as it lies in the dish some little distance off.

I use backed lantern plates, without exception ; but I admit that this is a counsel of perfection, and that a great many very fine slides are made on unbacked plates. Straightforward development and fixing ! should be relied upon to give a lantern slide of the correct depth and clearness. If the first attempt gives a slide that is too dense, it is much better to make another, than to attempt to put it right by reduction. But some slides can be greatly improved by being given a momentary treatment with a ferricyanide and hypo reducer; it must be only momentary, just enough to give a sparkle to the highest lights of all, and not enough to reduce the density visibly. If the reduction is allowed to go as far as that, the finer gradations in the highlights are almost sure to suffer. Masking is best done with four strips of opaque paper—film pack tabs do excellently—as then the mask can be built up to suit the subject of each slide. By using a printing frame that is larger than the negative, the picture that is to be included can be brought into the middle of the lantern plate, and if the horizon line is not quite square, owing to the camera having been tilted sideways, it can be put right on the slide. The principal enemy of the lanternslide maker is dust—dust on the negative originally, causing 11 pinholes ” which will be black spots on the slide, and dust between the negative and the lantern plate, which may cause white spots or scratches. Neatness and care, however, will reduce, the number of these, and help at the same time to form good habits the effects of which will be seen on our paper prints also.

My advice to everyone who reads.hese notes is to resolve this season to make lantern slides from all his good negatives, and so widen the scope of his work and increase the entertainment and interest to be got from our hobby.