Hints on Photography.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 20, 14 May 1913, Page 38

Hints on Photography.

What Shall I Take and How Shall I Take It?

By

S. H. PRYOR.

I HAVE read these photo pages every week since they started. I know the exposure table almost by heart: I understand all about F 8 and Ell. and about wide and narrow angle lenses. I’m a dab hand at developing’ and my prints are clean and bright and free from stains. But somehow I am disappointed with the results. There is something wrong with the way I take them. They are good photographs, but poor pictures—not nearly as good a.s those .Jim showed me the other day, though my technique is better than his. The truth is that Jim is an observant person, and knows what to take ami when to take it, whereas you only know how to do it ami just snap at anything that comes along, without considering its aspect and it« lighting. You may, however. take some consolation from the fact that all photographers are disap pointed with their work, especially at first. It takes a good long time to realise that the chief attraction in land and seascapes is colour. Take colour away, and only outline remains. I’nfortunately the photographer has to work without the charm of colour, and has to think in monochrome. The successful man is he who is able to dissociate colour from his mind altogether while he arranges the times and lighting of Ins picture in such a way as to make a pleasing whole. Each picture should have a definite purpose: lines should lead more or less in one direction, separate incidents or objects must not vie with each other in importance, the foreground should be well considered, and the final print trimmed down so as to exclude objects not absolutely necessary to tin* picture. All these factors may look a little discouraging at first sight, but the worker can go a long way towards converting hies prints into pictures by carefully considering the point from which the view is taken, and the way in which the subject is lighted. Let us take an example or two. Let us go for a walk up to the top of Mt. Eden, and consider these two points. First of all.

The Point of View. No. L- We wish to fake a general view showing the Channel down towards Coromandel, with Rangitoto and the Heads somewhere about the middle of the picture, ami the harbour and Parnell at our feet. The exposure tabi ' tells us that one-hundredth of a eeconu at F 8 is about right, but as our lens is not a particularly good one we will stop down to Ell. and give a one-fiftieth, or to Flfi at a one-twenty-fifth, which is still better. It is two o’clock in the afternoon, the sun is shining, and there are masses of white cloud in the sky. We will go right up to the Beacon, and face the harbour. We find that a clump of trees partly covers Rangitoto. also that they nearly cover two interesting points at Orakei. As we are not concentrating upon any one particular object or scheme, it is just as well to include these two points in our picture. By moving to the left and a few yards back along the road we find that we can get the trees so far to the right that Rangitoto looks imposing, that the two points show well into the picture, and that the trees break a long slop? of uninteresting distance; while a gap in the rim of the crater opens out the tre*s in the Domain, and a ridge covers up a lot of unnecessary houses. All this is called choosing the point of view, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is all-important. Another point with regard to this view. Observe how the water cuts up the picture into three distinct parts, each having nothing to say to the other. We have Great Barrier. The Heads. Rangitoto. and the coast on the top. then a long streak of white water, which, in the print, will be .simply a long white dividing line, then Parnell and the ridge of the crater below. How much more inviting this will be with yachts and a vessel or two, while the smoke of a passing steamer curls upwards and covers up a part of the long, straight line of coast from the Heads to Waiheke. A figure or two on the ridge looking seawards would also help matters.

No. 2.—Now, let us leave this view’, and go down the mountain along the road, keeping to the right, with our eyes open for pictures. At the corner, by the first seat under some trees, there is a view which is hard to beat in an afternoon light. Stop twenty yards before you come to the seat which will he on your left. There is a low bank on the right, with a few small bushes. The road curls away a little to the right, then to the left, and is made beautiful by patches of light coming through the trees. The road leads to a belt of pine trees a little to the left of the picture, and unconsciously the eye is led on to two spires in the distance which stand out against a gleam of white light on the harbour. Here, again, the point of view will make or mar the picture, "fry it. Stand a little to the right si le of the road at a point where two low bushes occupy the bank. Get the right side of tin* road about an inch from the right side of the plate, so as to include mese two bushes. If the high bush is chosen (the third one), it will occupy nearly half the plate, the greater part of which we require for the pines and the distance. The whole idea of this picture in this light is a vista. The seat on the left, the slope on the right, the road winding down ito the pine trees, and the pines leading on to the spires. There should be figures on the seat looking into the picture, not into the camera, and the whole should be surmounted by a suitable cloud. This cloud should also be a distant one. not a mass high up in the sky, or it will unconsciously take the eye away from the essence of the view—the distant spires. No. 3. —Continuing our walk down the road, with the pines on our left, we come to a white gate, the short-cut to the foot of the mountain. It is now’ about 4 o'clock. Stop. Stand in the middle of the road with the sun on your right, and notice a large low-spreading tree, the lower branches of which gleam with light and arch over a small path which leads to the pines. The pines are throwing long shadows across the grass. What more would one have unless it be a childish figure or two clad in white, abou 25 paces along the path. Here again the view-point is all-important. If we stand right under the tree near the trunk we find that it is impossible to get the whole in focus, as the arch is near and the trees distant, and it is getting too late to use a small stop requiring a lengthy exposure because of the breeze and the children. If we stand nearer the gate, the tree trunk will divide the picture into two; then, again, the trunk is badly lighted, and will print a black mass however much we may try and dodge it. Besides that, the road runs away out of the picture, and quarrels with the path for precedence. Manoeuvre the camera so as to avoid the tree trunk on the right and the road on the left—stop down to Ell. and give one second. One cannot emphasise this matter of the point of view’ too vigorously. There is generally one aspect of a subject more interesting than the rest, there is always something important to be included, and something unnecessary to be left out, one point from which to take the photograph and fifty from which it must be left alone. Lighting. Much the same may be said about lighting. This is quite as important to the photographer as the point of view. I do not mean the amount of light, hut the wav the picture is lighted, the direction of the light, the effect the light has upon the object or scene to be photographed. Take our example. 'No. 1 : The view from the top of Mount Eden. In the morning it will be lighted from the right. The trees in the foreground will be a black mass. The points at Orakei will throw heavy shadows which will cover up their white beaches. There will be an unpleasant glare on the water near the edge of the plate, and the Exhibition buildings will be an ugly white spot hang in the middle of the plate. At noon things will be better. The trees will have lighted edges, the Orakei points will explain themselves, and the white streak will be a broad patch o f gleaming water somewhere near the middle where the harbour is broadest, adding considerably to the importance of Rangitoto. The fact of the sun Im** ing in the lens will not matter, as it is well overhead. Shade it with a hat, or vour hand* or the sheath of the dark slide. If the sun does not give a bright gleam to the water, wait a minute

or two till a heavy cloud comes along and throws a heavy shadow on the water, or a gust of wind breaks up its surface. The best time to take this view is about 3 o clock, with the wind anywhere hut in the west. The lighting eti’ects are then very beautiful, and the whole scene free from city smoke. The afternoon is also the time for No. 2. At any other time of day the road is just a road, the trees are evenly lighted, and the spires hardly noticeable. No. 3 is entirely out of the question, till 4 o’clock. It is then that the lower branches of the trees catch the light, converting an ordinary roadside scene into something that may reasonably be termed a picture. Amateurs are invited to send in their prints, which will be accepted for publication if considered suitable by the editor. They will be paid for at the rate of 2/6 each up to and for whole plates. All such prints should be of general interest, should be printed on glossy paper, unmounted, with title or description attached, and must be addressed to aS'. H. Pryor, c/o “The Weekly Graphic,” Auckland. Readers may also have their negatives and prints criticisedand he will supply a report upon them, for a fee of 1/ each, which will include return postage.