4i2 



RECREATION. 



AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



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

 I 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. 



LANTERN SLIDE MAKING. 

 G. T. Harris, in Western Camera Notes. 

 III. 



Selecting a suitable mask for any par- 

 ticular slide must left to the personal taste 

 of the worker. It is, however, not the sim- 

 ple matter it looks at first sight. Time was 

 when a rigorous conventionality assigned a 

 perfect circle as the only possible shape for 

 a lantern slide mask. Then dome-shaped 

 and cushion-shaped masks began to be seen, 

 until at the present time the decision is left 

 largely to the slide maker. Generally speak- 

 ing, lantern slides should be amenable to the 

 same rules that good taste applies to fram- 

 ing of pictures. The slide mask is, to all 

 intents and purposes, the frame of the pic- 

 ture, and its shape should vary with the sub- 

 ject in the same way that the frame of a 

 picture is made to do. Rectangular open- 

 ings will always be in better taste than the 

 cushion or dome-shaped openings, and their 

 dimensions should be proportioned to the 

 subject, a useful, all around size being a 

 rectangle with an opening 2^8 inches by 2 

 inches. Circles are useful, but of limited ap- 

 plication, though for many scientific sub- 

 jects they are invaluable. Commercial 

 masks are, naturally, of stock sizes, and a 

 well assorted selection of shapes will enable 

 the worker to select one that will suit some 

 subject better than it would another; but 

 not infrequently subjects will present them- 

 selves that demanded a specially cut mask 

 to frame them satisfactorily, and the lantern 

 slide maker must needs become his own 

 mask maker. 



^The quickest and neatest way to make 

 masks of any desired dimensions for odd 

 subjects is to cut strips of varying widths 

 from the best black needle paper. A supply 

 of these strips may be cut for stock of 

 standard widths, say, y 2 an inch, one inch. 

 1% inches, etc. Cut the strips afterward 

 into lengths of 3% inches, the size of the 

 lantern slide. With a supply of these strips, 

 it is easy to make a rectangular opening of 

 any dimension by affixing them to the slide 

 with gum arabic or any other adhesive. A 

 pair of compasses will enable the several 

 strips to be placed equi-distant. so that on 

 completion the opening will be perfectly 

 true. This method is much better in all 

 ways for the amateur mask cutter than at- 

 tempting to cut a rectangular opening in a 

 sheet of paper. 



The masks should be affixed to the film 



side of the slide with a touch or 2 of gum, 

 and then placed under even pressure to be- 

 come set perfectly flat. If when making the 

 slide, the negative is placed in the camera 

 with its film toward the lens, the lantern 

 slide, when looked through with its film to- 

 ward the spectator, will show the subject 

 in its correct position. Before mounting the 

 cover glass with the slide, the title may be 

 neatly printed on the black mask with Chi- 

 nese white, utilizing the right hand end of 

 the mask for the purpose. On placing the 

 slide in the lantern, if the title in Chinese 

 white be placed toward the condenser the 

 picture appears the right way about on the 

 screen. If the title can not be written in 

 white on the mask, owing to the negative 

 being reversed when the slide was made, the 

 slides mustbear white spots to indicate their 

 correct position. 



The cover glass having been cleaned and 

 placed in position on the slide, the slides 

 must be bound with the gummed strips sold 

 for the purpose. Binding a slide is one of 

 those apparently easy photographic opera- 

 tions that is a nuisance until some dexterity 

 has been acquired. Vices, to hold the slide 

 and cover glass firmly together while the 

 gummed strips are being affixed, may be 

 obtained from the dealers, and they probab- 

 ly help the beginner, but later he will cer- 

 tainly find that his fingers are his best 

 friends. 



The gummed strips are sold either cut to 

 the length of the slide, or in sufficient length 

 to bind around the whole of the slide in one 

 operation. For the beginner the divided 

 lengths are the more convenient. Select 4 

 of these strips, dampen the gummed surface 

 with a sponge and place aside a few min- 

 utes, gummed side uppermost, on a piece 

 of thick telt. Take the slide and cover 

 glass between the index finger and the 

 thumb of each hand, and place their lower 

 edges in the center of the gummed strip, a 

 downward pressure on the soft felt surface 

 sufficing to attach the strip firmly to the 

 lower edges of the slide and cover glass. 

 On. being reversed, so that the edges bearing 

 the gummed strip come uppermost the strip 

 can be pressed in. contact with the sides of 

 the slide and cover glass by the forefinger 

 and thumb of each hand. Bind the remain- 

 ing sides of the slide in the same manner. 

 This is the simplest method of binding lan- 

 tern slides. 



To mark lantern slides to facilitate their 

 being placed in the lantern so as to show 

 correctly on the screen, affix 2 white discs 

 of paper to the slide, on the side that gave 

 the subject its correct rendering as regards 

 right and left handedness when viewed as a 

 transparency. Place these discs at the top 

 of the^ slide when it is held upright. If the 

 slide is placed in the lantern with these 

 discs down and toward the condenser, the 



