CAMERA HINTS.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3802, 31 August 1936, Page 6

CAMERA HINTS.

FOR AMATEURS I “SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER.” Summertime is snapshot time in these camera-minded days, but here are some things to remember. Above everything, remember to wind on your film immediately you have taken a picture. Sometimes if you forget to do this, the result may be funny, but more often it is extremely annoying.

Remember to keep the camera steady when making exposures; squeeze the shutter lever gently up or down. That "sandstorm effect” is all very well if you are faking a desert scene, but if the picture is unintelligible, there is not much value in. it. One of the secrets of fclearcut outline is the steady camera. Remember not to get too close to your subject. Those enormous feet and outsize legs are nearly always due to this particular bogey.

By all means load your camera yourself, but remember to read the instructions carefully. If you get light on the film, every picture will be spoilt even before you begin. Insert the spool into the camera without unrolling it. It should be put into the end opposite the winding key. In other words, if you have just removed a used film from your camera, you must first take out the empty spool from, which this was unwound and change if over to the other side. Unroll the new spool a little way until you are able to thread the point-, ed end of the red paper into the empty spool; slip this into place; wind on two turns until the paper is tight, and then close the camera. Now continue winding until the first number appears. Remember when unloading your camera that you must wind the film right to the end. Take care to see that it is tightly wound round the spool. If it is at all loose, put your thumb bn the end of the paper and wind the handle until it tightens up. Then remove it and stick it down according to the printed directions. The red paper should be folded on the dotted line. This makes it much easier for the roll of film to be unwound before developing.

Remember to put your camera down in a safe place. Don’t leave it lying about on the ground, especially on sand.

Modem shutters can stand up to most things, but sand and dust are apt to put them out of action. Remember to keep your lenses clean, but don’t wipe them with rough material. The glass of a lens is comparatively soft. A starched handkerchief could easily scratch it. Keep a piece of old and well-washed linen for cleaning purposes. Remember that it is possible to take good pictures with the sun in practically any position. Don’t onlytake pictures with the sun directly behind you. This is the most uninteresting kind of lighting. Remember the importance of shadows.

Remember to' shade the lens from the light, but don’t let your hand get in the way. Many a good snapshot has been spoilt by an enormous thumb protruding from above. Remember to keep the camera level when photographing buildings—don’t tilt it unless you are deliberately trying for a “new angle.” A tilted camera will give the effect that all vertical lines of the building are conversing towards the top. It looks as if the buildings were falling backwards.

Try and remember and take interesting pictures. Remember that if something is interesting to you for personal reasons, it can be made an attractive picture for everyone if taken cleverly. Remember that you have got such a thing as imagination. Although as a nation we take over 128,000,000 snapshots every year, and only 3.1 per cent, of these are technical failures, artistically we are a long way behind amateur photographers on the Continent. If you have a Kodak make it your business to understand the use of all the gadgets. By all means buy such things as portrait attachments, pocket optipods and filters, but make sure you know how to use them.