81 



Groupes of plants, shrubs, trees and vegetation 

 pictures are of course taken in their native haunts. 



Large individuals may be taken in the same way, 

 providing the surroundings contrast enough with the 

 different parts of the plant, so as to show up well in 

 the picture. 



Plant pictures should have artistic effects, but not 

 at the cost of definition and detail, for they must show 

 the searching eye of the botanist the very pubescense 

 on stem and leaves. In order to obtain such definition, 

 the smallest diaphragm or opening of the lens is used, 

 which then requires a time exposure to sufficiently 

 effect the sensitized plate. 



In out-door work, therefor, it is necessary that the 

 atmosphere should be perfectly calm, for the least 

 motion of the plant will blurr the picture. As a 

 perfectly calm day however is a rare thing, a chance 

 exposure, made during the temporary lull of the wind, 

 w^ill usually succeed. 



Small plants and parts of plants are best taken to 

 the operators studio or a convenient place, where thev 

 can be posed in front of a white, black or shaded screen 

 as the case may require. Care must be taken to allow 

 enough space between subject and screen to avoid the 

 casting of shadows on the latter. 



Photographing a plant in a comparatively large 

 size, necessitates a close focus, allowing but a small 

 depth of perspective. In this case bushy plants, twigs 

 and branches present a great difficulty, for these parts 

 must be brought as much as possible into a plane 

 parallel to the lens, in order to prevent them from ap- 

 pearing out of focus. 



A soft diffused light is almost imperative for taking 

 plant pictures in order to avoid deep shadows, which 

 efface detail. 



The various tints of the vegetable kingdom offer 

 many problems tt) photography, as different colors 

 affect the ordinary sensitized plate with different 



