238 



RECREATION. 



AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY 



" For sport the lens is better than the gun. " 

 / wish to make this department of the utmost 

 use to amateurs. I shall, therefore, be glad to 

 answer any questions and to print any items sent 

 me by practical amateurs relating to their experi- 

 ence in photography. 



UNDER EXPOSED PORTRAITS. 



The commonest defect in amateur por- 

 trait work is under exposure, emphasized 

 as it often is by over development. It is by- 

 no means unknown even in professional 

 work, and there is no branch of photog- 

 raphy in which it is more detrimental. 

 Hard, chalky faces, and other results which 

 the photographer who knows his business 

 would desire to suppress, are emphasized. 

 Exaggerated freckles and wrinkles and 

 often deep, bronzed shadows, absolutely 

 without detail, are its most evident mani- 

 festations. In the train of these come in- 

 creased work and often impossible de- 

 mands from the retoucher; and following 

 from the hardness of the negatives are 

 double tones in the prints, giving blue, 

 washed-out high lights and red shadows. 



A strong effect of lighting, sometimes 

 known as a Rembrandt effect, is thought to 

 be obtained by deficient lighting rather than 

 by ample illumination suitably distributed. 

 However powerful the result is to be, how- 

 ever much it is desired to suppress scattered 

 high lights and to concentrate the brightest 

 tones in one spot, this should be done as 

 far as possible by adding light where it is 

 wanted rather than by cutting it down. 

 Whatever the result aimed at it should be 

 obtained with the greatest quantity of light 

 that will give it, that the exposure on the 

 sitter may be at once full and short. Wheth- 

 er the effect desired be the softest which 

 will give a satisfactory print, or the strong- 

 est that the printing paper will render, the 

 negative should be a fully exposed one, and 

 the result should be obtained by distribution 

 of the light, not by its diminution. 



One of the causes of under exposure in 

 the case of many portraits is the use of a 

 room or studio in which the glass is not so 

 clean as it can be made. It is surprising 

 how rapidly glass will become dirty, es- 

 pecially in large towns; but the extent to 

 which dirty glass prolongs the exposure 

 over the time which suffices when the glass 

 is at its cleanest is even more surprising. 

 A quantity of dirt will necessitate doubling 

 the exposure, as an experiment will soon 

 show. The moral of this is to see that this 

 increase is never required. 



The nature of subjects in many cases is 

 such that a short and yet full exposure is 

 difficult. Under such circumstances every- 

 thing that can help to increase the light 

 should be used. Dark woodwork about the 



studio should be avoided; it absorbs light 

 that might be usefully employed in making 

 negatives. If at any time for any tempo- 

 rary purpose the light woodwork is a hin- 

 drance, it can be screened off. The paint 

 should not merely be light to the eye, but 

 light to the dry plate also. No trace of a 

 red or yellow tinge should be used in it. 

 Green is as bad or worse. Blue, slate, 

 grey or white should be used as far as pos- 

 sible. 



Amateurs should use the fastest plates 

 they can for portrait work, not only be- 

 cause the makeshift studios within which 

 they are most likely to work are never so 

 well lighted as a professional's studio 

 should be, but because amateurs probably 

 will not have so fast a lens as a portrait 

 lens. For work in ordinary rooms ortho- 

 chromatic plates will almost always give 

 better exposed results than ordinary plates 

 of the same general rapidity. — Photography. 



SEVERAL ANSWERS. 

 I notice that J. E. Bates, Spokane, Wash- 

 ington, writes he had trouble with Cyko 

 paper blistering. I have had similar ex- 

 perience and have found that the trouble 

 is in the hypo. If Mr. Bates will mix 

 his hypo according to the following for- 

 mula he will have no trouble : 



Hypo, powdered 13 ounces 



Water 64 ounces 



Add- the following solution: 



Water 5 ounces 



Sodium sulphite, powdered.... % ounce 



Acetic acid, No. 8 3 ounces 



Alum, powdered Yz ounce 



I should think that if Mr. Bates held his 

 printing frame close enough to the light 

 to blister the emulsion, the paper would 

 be overprinted in the time it would take 

 to get the glass warm enough to produce 

 a blister. I have tried the same package 

 of Cyko with plain hypo and with this 

 other hypo. It would blister every time 

 in plain hypo but never in the other. This 

 hypo is equally good for plates and Velox 

 or Solio paper and will always remain 

 clear. 



If A. M. P., Clifton, N. J., -will get a 

 4x5 plate camera, either Premo, Poco, 

 Korona or Century it would be as good 

 as he would probably ever need. I have a 

 friend who has a Century, 4x5, Model 12, 

 and it is the best camera I ever saw. I 

 have another friend who is trying to get 

 one through Recreation. He took 12 sub- 

 scriptions in 3 days. A. M. P. might do 

 the same and be money in. 



I should like to know if any of Recrea- 

 tion's readers have tried Argo paper made 

 at Argo Park, Rochester, N. Y. It is fully 

 as good as either Velox or Cyko and is 

 cheaper. Their Metalotype is fine for 



