
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
‘A Bird on the plate is worth 2 inthe bag,” 
CAMERA NOTES. 
GS: P. 
A writer in a photo journal says he has 
“made 144 exposures, in all sorts of weath- 
er, on a bicycle, resulting in 141 perfect 
negatives.” Ye godsand little fishes, would 
I could do likewise! 
Still it need not be difficult when you 
come to think of it. You simply set your 
bike up against the fence and fire away 
at it all day. 
I hear there-are photographers in New 
York getting 50 cents a dozen for rough 
little unretouched photographs. Then hu- 
man nature is changing at last. Until now 
a photograph has been an effort to alter 
one’s likeness into a beautiful picture. All 
photographers have had left on their hands 
dozens of negatives that were absolute like- 
nesses, but would not yield beautiful pic- 
tures, and were therefore not acceptable. 
A professional told me he once made a 
negative of a woman of 50 who 
looked every minute of it. He retouched it 
all he could without destroying the like- 
ness, and printed. She would none of it; 
called it horrid, and wanted to sit again. 
He knew he could make no better nega- 
tive, so sent it to a famous photographer, 
and wrote on the package, “Make this 
- woman look 30 and beautiful.” The order 
was filled to the letter; the lady was en- 
raptured, and ordered 4 dozen prints. If 
ladies of uncertain age are now willing to 
accept rough, untouched photographs, we 
need not wait much longer for the mil- 
lennium. — 
Why will amateurs -persist in printing 
pictures the full size of the negative, and 
mounting on the same size card, when in 
Q cases out of 10 they should be cut %, if 
not 2-3 away? Everything not a real ac- 
cessory to a picture detracts more or less 
from it, and should be cut away. Make 
one print full plate size, use judgment and 
trim down to your subject and its neces- 
sary accompaniments; then trim the rest 
of your paper to that size, and save the 
cuttings for small prints. You need 3 or 4 
different size mounts, all smaller than your 
plates. With the extension fronts you can 
avoid some of the usual excess of fore- 
ground by raising the lens. Many ama- 
teurs use the same size plates, paper and 
cards, and mount every picture they make 
full plate size, although they spoil fully half 
of them by so doing. 
The Manhattan Optical Co. has is- 
sued a new and most artistic catalogue. 
Aside from the tempting things it offers 
in the line of good cameras at rare prices, 
it contains handsome pictures illustrating 
the work of its camera. 
407 
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I believe fully % of amateur pictures 
are spoiled by under exposure, and in that 
I agree with Dr. John Nicol. It occurred 
to me that a large per cent. of his criti- 
cisms were based on under-exposure. I 
kept tally, and in 17 cases out of 36 pic- 
tures criticised, the Doctor’s comments 
ran from “much undertimed” to “should 
have had Io times as much exposure.” 
The last seems putting it pretty strong. 
If an exposure that an operator deemed 
sufficiently good to finish and send in for 
criticism, were lengthened Io times, it 
would be an exposure, indeed. 
I needed some new washing pans re- 
cently, and in casting about found some old 
fashioned yellow glazed crockery pie pans, 
holding 32 oz., and costing 5 cents each. 
They are splendid for the purpose. 
Four new cameras are, or will soon be, 
on the market. One, for color photogra- 
phy, is almost-perfect. Another is a re- 
volving panoramic camera that takes an 
extensive landscape at one sweep of the 
lens. The third is a swing front, for rac- 
ing and athletic contests. A fourth is 
called the Cellograph, and with yards of 
film, takes the passing procession at the 
rate of 27 exposures to the second. 
Dirt specks are frequently left on plates 
by dirty chemicals. All amateurs should 
own glass funnels, and filter chemicals 
into their bottles through filter paper, or 
absorbent cotton. 
Rain water, straight from the clouds, 
is the purest water available for photo- 
graphic purposes, having already been fil- 
tered by the sun. Even then every 100 
cubic inches contain 2%4 cubic inches of 
air and gases; to exclude which it should 
be boiled at least an hour, before being 
used to compound chemicals. 
All photographers should have 3 
grades of plates: Snap-shot, for objects 
in motion; medium, where a second or so 
can be given, and slow, where a small 
diaphragm and plenty of time can be 
had. Keep a record book and set down 
every exposure, and when it comes to de- 
veloping sort out the plates. Use nor- 
mal full strength developer on the slow 
plates; add old developer and a little 
water for the medium. 
For snap shots, set back half your de- 
veloper, add 2 to 4 oz. of water and 3 to 5 
drops of bromide (10 per cent. solution), 
and take your time. Ten minutes is not 
too long for a snap shot to develop perfect- 
ly. And in printing, at least 3 brands of 
paper are required. I believe that with 
the old fashioned gelatine paper the best 
possible print can be obtained from any 
sort of negative. Next to it I rank aristo 
platino for all around purposes. It far 
surpasses gelatine in artistic effects, 
