CAMERA CRAFT

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 60

CAMERA CRAFT

Ol leduM! JimJ&Mm&leup

By

View Finder.

[ Readers of the Otago H'iijicss 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.]

SURF AND WAVE PHOTOGRAPHY. This is a branch of photography which appeals to many a photographer, and one which has many pitfalls for the beginner. The rush of foaming suif, or waves dashing upon rocks, is indeed an inspiring sight, and one calculated to stir the ambition of the photographer to render in pictorial form. The earl}’ attempts of the beginner in this branch of photography are practically certain to prove disappointing to the critical observer. Practical experience counts for a lot, but a little advice may point out the right way to overcome some of the difficulties. The following suggestions are given to avoid needless mistakes. One common error in this class of work, as in landscapes, is to include too much subject matter. We may be impressed by the large expanse of waves, and by the wide horizon, but in a small print the whole thing is dwarfed and looks very insignificant. It is therefore advisable to include only some small section of the negative. Concentrate upon a small section of the negative, and enlarge it to three or four times its size; the result will bo an attractive picture. In working out a composition one must remember that the subject matter lying in the planes from the foreground to the middle distance are of the greatest importance. A distant wave does not give an impression of force and reality as does a close-up view. In all views of waves a low viewpoint is necessary. If a high viewpoint is chosen the result is unsatisfactory, owing to the flattening of the perspective. An incoming wave caught “ head on ” at the moment of breaking is often very effective, but a series of low breakers from a high viewpoint form too many parallel horizontal lines to be agreeable pictorially. Breakers should be taken on an angle, as a straight beach line cuts the picture in half. With a low viewpoint and the breakers taken on an angle a very effective picture can be made, the foam of the breakers making an excellent foreground pattern. When the subject happens to be a rocky coast with waves breaking over it, the photographer should be careful not to include too big an expanse of dark rocks or cliff, for, owing to the short exposure which the flying spray demands any dark area will be devoid of detail. A single group of rocks or jutting point of shore makes a valuable note of accent which acts as a foil for the lighter tones of the foam. The best plan in taking waves dashing over rocks is to watch several waves break, and thus note the space which the spray occupies. Allow more room on the plate than the area of spray observed. This will give any allowance for variation jn the position or shape in the mass of spray. Attention should be paid to the lighting of the subject. The best light is early morning or evening, providing the sun is not directly behind the photographer. If the sun is too high or directly behind the photographer the lighting js flat and the picture lacks strength. In all pictures of the surf the sky is very important. A bank of grey cloud along the horizon makes a very good background for breaking surf. Flying spray taken against a background of broken clouds is very effective. No difficulty should be experienced in retaining clouds, for the exposure for seascape and clouds are about equal. Apparatus for this kind of work should be simple and compact. The lens should have a covering to protect it against the dampness which exists along the coast. A stand camera is useless. Perhaps the best type of camera is a reflex, fitted with a telephoto lens of the modern type, such as the Teleros. Good work can, however, he done with any simple type of camera. A lens hood is of importance, for without such against-the-light effects cannot Ire secured, owing to the risk of light fog from reflected light. Orthochromatic plates or films should be used, and often a light yellow filter will be fbund useful. With subjects of this nature the aim of the photographer should be to express as vividly as possible the effect of motion in the sea. The exposure should therefore be timed so as to avoid absolute sharpness in the individual drops of flying spray, and yet not so prolonged as to render the foam a woolly mass. On a bright day, with a stop of f/16 to f/22 and an exposure of l-25sec to l-50sec gcod results may be expected if taken in the middle of the morning or afternoon. Of course, extra exposure will be needed if dark, atormy conditions prevail. Development should be carried out with a diluted

developer, which will avoid loss of gradation in the surf. As the camera is likely to get somewhat rough usage in this class of work, a word of advice as to cleaning up after the day’s work should not be out of place. A certain amount of salt spray, if left on any part of. the camera, will quickly form a crust that will spoil both the metal parts and the leather of the camera. All parts should therefore be carefully wiped dry with a soft cloth. A slight application of an oil such as '■ 3-in-l ” to all metal and leather parts will do good. If a little care of this kind is given promptly an outfit can be kept in first-class condition. CLOUD EFFECTS SY PRINTINC-IN. Early in the use of photography for landscape pictorial work the difficulties of securing sky and landscape in the picture were apparent, and amateurs had recourse to printing-in the clouds from another negative. Processes of “ control ” have relegated this method to the background to some extent, but the walls of exhibitions and the reproductions of winning prints show plainly enough that it is very far from obsolete. While not condemning it altogether, it will be well for the photographer to recognise that it is open to objections, and that, if he is to practise it successfully, those objections must be met.

Assuming that we have a sky negative in which the cloud forms arc just what are required for our purpose it does not follow that we can make a success by straightforward double-printing. The sky in the landscape negative may either be so dense as to give a perfectly white area into which to print the clouds, or it may not be so dense, and the sky may therefore take on a slight tint in the course of printing the landscape itself.

If the sky prints out quite white the problem of printing-in the clouds is simplified, but, unfortunately for us, whenever this is the case we may be pretty certain that the landscape part of the negative is also too harsh to give a harmonious print. In other words, a good landscape negative is bound to have a sky which tones down, more or less, in the course of printing the landscape. This means that when we come to print the sky negative we have to do so on a piece of paper which is already somewhat light-fogged, and this must upset the tone x alues of the sky. We are therefore driven to resort to some device for holding back the sky while printing the landscape, ”iid although with some subjects this is comparatively easv, with others it is very difficult. —Absolute Truth Impossible.—

A serious objection which has often been raised to tire printing-in of clouds from a negative taken elsewhere or at another time is that, inasmuch as the forms, ..osition, and lighting of the clouds affect and modify the illumination of every portion of the landscape below, it is impossible in this wav to secure absolute truth to Nature. ‘ The objection would carry more weight if there were any known means of securing sueh truth when the clouds and landscape are photographed together on the same plate, but unfortunately for photography there is not. At the best we can secure only an approximation to such truth, and few will be disposed to deny that sueh approximation can be obtained as closely xx hen printing-in clouds as when gettiim tljem in the negative. The latter method is a guarantee against some of the more glaring errors seen in printed-in skies; but these errors are not inherent in the method, but are due to its use by those xvlio have not learnt to criticise ■ their own work xvith sufficient severity and minuteness.

Assuming that the mere technique of printing-in the clouds has been acquired, the d rections in which incongruities max’ be introduced are fourfold... The clouds may be wrongly illuminated as regards the landscape; they may lx» xx'rong in tone or in a different key; thex’ may be different in character of definition—sharp clouds on a slightly diffused landscape, or vice versa; and they max' be xvron" in perspective, ‘ ° Of these defects the first is very common; examples can be found, even in our leading exhibitions, in the work of wellknown exhibitors. It is one against which the user of cloud negatives must always be on his guard. It could be partly prevented by keeping a register of the point of the compass to xvhich the camera is pointed for landscape and for .cloud, and of the time of year and day when the exposures are made, and taking care that in the two cases these coincide. But anyone who found it neces-

sary to adopt precautions of this kind xvould do stililietter to avoid printing-in clouds altogether, as there xvould still be discrepancies against xvhich these xvould be of no avail. —Harmony in Key.— Clouds out of key with the landscape are not so readily detected unless the defect is very marked. It may be brought about by the cloud negative being over-developed or under-developed, assuming the exposure to have been correct. Even if the negative, itself is correctly developed there is still the opportunity of going astray by printhig in too deeply or not deeply enough; by printing-in on a sky already tinted when the landscape was made, and by unskilful shading. There is no reliable guarantee against this fault; all that can be done is for the photographe- by study of Nature and of pictures training himself to recognise almost instinctively xvhen the sky and landscape harmonise, and learning how to develop and print in so as to get such harmony.

Differences in the character of definition between sky and landscape are easily avoided. It may not always be necessary to avoid them. Unless the cloud forms are very definite in character it is not necessary to render them very definitely. It may often be pictorially justifiable to get them quite soft xvhen the landscape itself is xvell defined, either by the use of a cloud negatix’e xvhich is not very sharp, or by the introduction of one of the recognised methods of securing diffusion in printing or enlarging. —The Perspective of Clouds.— There are two directions in xvhich clouds may differ in perspective from the landscape xvith which they are printed. They may include a different angle, and they may be taken xvith a different vertical direction of the line of sight. Curiously enough, the first of these often gives a better effect than xvhen both clouds and landscape include equal angles, and it lias been pointed out that painters often deliberately include a wider angle in their skies than they xvould think of doing in the landscape itself. Anyone who is in the habit of using a lens of long focus on a small plate can easily satisfy himself by turning the camera towards any effective cloud-group. It is seldom that he can get them on his focussing screen. He xvill almost always need a lens not much, if any, longer in focus than the diagonal of the plate. That is to sax’, for example, the quarter-plate xvorker may like to use an Bin or lOin lens, or even one of still longer focus, for his landscape xvork; but for his clouds the 4jin or sin lens will be more serviceable. —Zenith and Horizon Forms.— While discrepancies of the angle included between clouds and landscapes may be permissible, and even advisable, discrepancies in the tilt of the camera are to be avoided. The most strongly marked cloud forms are often seen high up in the sky; but we must be careful not to tilt up the camera to any great extent to get them. At least this must not be done so as to bring the horizon off the plate. The horizon .should alxvays be included on a cloud negative, and when the coluds are being printed-in the horizon of the cloud negatix’e should coincide, or, at anyrate, approximate to the horizon of the landscape. The clouds to xvhich we look up are altogether different from those seen nearer the horizon. All clouds are actually more or less flat layers of water particles, however rounded and billowy they may appear in certain aspects. Towards the horizon they tend to flatten out in appearance, because we are then looking at them, as it xvere, edgexvays. We ther<s fore never see forms of the same kind in both aspects, and if we tilt up the camera very much to get the cloud forms, and then print-in just above the horizon of the landscape the clouds so obtained the effect xvill be altogether unnatural. Such are the pitfalls xvhen printing clouds into landscapes. We have said nothing .of cloud forms which do not assist the composition, because we have assumed that the photographer has made up hi; mind that he has got such clouds on his negative before thinking of using it,. and the purpose of what has been written is to put him on his guard against allowing any suitability in that respect from tempting him to’ overlook matters xvhich must also be considered. J. M. H., in the Amateur Photographer.