Tricks of the "War Photographer 



How a remarkable "air" battle is staged thousands 

 of miles from any battle-field — in New York! 



By J. A. McManus 



BIFF — Bang — Boom — Crack — Crash — 

 or any other words that convey the 

 impression of bursting bombs, the 

 hum of many aeroplane motors and propel- 

 lers, the sounds of big 

 "Archibalds" sending 

 forth their messages of 

 death and destruction, 

 the echo upon echo of 

 the boom of bursting of 

 big shells — it's all there 

 in the accompanying 

 photograph "War in the 

 Air." Is it not? 



A quiet photo- 

 graphers' dark-room, 

 some stories above the 

 noise and bustle of New 

 York's beehive, an en- 

 larging camera, some en- 

 larging paper, size 1 1x14, 

 a collection of negatives, 

 (Picture No. 3, shown at 

 Numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6) 

 photograph of a balloon that was set on 

 fire at Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., by Daredevil 

 Rodman Law, and which really looks like 

 a bomb explosion; (Picture No. 7, which is 

 a close-up photograph of an Allied aero- 

 plane, shown also at 

 8 on the following 

 page) ; two photo- 

 graphs of aeroplanes 

 in air. Number 10 be- 

 ing the same as Num- 

 ber 9, but thrown 

 out of focus slightly; 

 a cloud scene taken 

 over New York; a 

 fund of imagination; 

 a sense of proportion ; 

 unlimited patience — 

 result, a composite 

 picture that looks 

 remarkably like a 

 real air-battle photo- 

 graph. 



The secret behind 

 it all is in the right 

 timing of the 

 exposure of each 



Photograph of a balloon that was 

 set on fire at Sheepshead Bay, New 

 York, by Rodman Law. It is used 

 to represent a bomb explosion 



A close-up photograph of an aeroplane 

 belonging to the Allies. The same picture 

 is used again and again but differently 

 focused and in various positions 



350 



negative and in the fact that once a spot 

 on the enlarging paper is fully exposed, 

 you cannot expose on it again; but, if 

 the first exposure is just a little under- 

 timed, and the second 

 a little under also, both 

 exposures will blend to- 

 gether when put through 

 the developer and fixing 

 bath. 



Before the actual ex- 

 posures were made, a 

 sheet of white paper of 

 the same size as enlarg- 

 ing paper, was placed on 

 an enlarging board. The 

 different negatives, with 

 the exception of the 

 cloud negative, were 

 thrown on it through an 

 enlarging camera, and 

 the relative sizes and 

 positions were plainly 

 marked out on it, as they 

 appear in the accompanying illustrations. 

 Numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6 (on picture on 

 following page) are exposures of the same 

 negative through a ragged hole in a sheet 

 of paper held between the light from the 

 lens of the camera 

 and the paper on 

 the enlarging board. 

 This exposure is 

 called "vignetting." 

 The paper used 

 was large enough 

 to block out all 

 light from the 

 rest of the enlarging 

 paper and was 

 moved with a cir- 

 cular motion around 

 the spot exposed 

 to prevent the 

 edges of the hole 

 from showing in de- 

 veloping. The differ- 

 ent positions of the 

 same negative were 

 obtained by turning 

 the paper on the 



