84 



THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



PHOTOGRAPHS WITHOUT SHADOWS. 



A large percentage of the half-tone reproductions from photographs, 



for illustrating Experiment Station Bulletins, are greatly reduced in value 



because of a lack of detail caused by heavy shadows, resulting from the 



use of opaque backgrounds near the objects photographed. To overcome 



this difificulty and to make such 

 pictures of more value to special- 

 ists working in the fields of 

 entomology, botany, and horti- 

 culture, a device, which is the 

 outcome of combining several 

 well-known principles, is here 

 represented. 



Many details can be easily 

 photographed and reproduced 

 by this arrangement which are 

 usually obtained by pen and ink 

 drawings, and the personal equa- 

 tion entering into such work is 

 thus eliminated. 



The salient features of this 

 device are : no shadows, accu- 

 racy of colour values and form ; 

 details a,nd time are saved. All 

 these features are evident from a 

 glance at figure ir, except, per- 

 haps, the saving of time; but 

 after a second thought, this is 

 also obvious, as the objects to 

 be photographed are simply laid 

 on a horizontal plane instead of 

 being fastened to a perpendicu- 

 lar surface. 



Fig. 



Dr. Holland, of Pittsburgh, Pa., a Lepidoptera specialist, on a 

 recent visit to our Station, saw the arrangement and was much pleased 

 by the advantages it offers to any of his plans for obliterating shadows in 

 photographing butterflies and moths. 



Pictures being more easily understood than descriptions, we have 

 made a photograph of the outfit shown in figure lo, and also one showing 

 a butterfly taken with the device, figure ii. 



