riLOTUGRAPHY 



559 



Other warm tones. Slides can either be made 

 by contact or by reduction. The beginner 

 should try the contact method first, and so 

 learn to develop and fix up his slides. Ad- 

 vice is sometimes given to use at first one 

 make of plate, one developer, one source of 

 light, one distance from the light, one nega- 

 tive and one whole dozen of plates on that 

 one negative; the results carefully examined 

 will teach the beginner more than a dozen 

 articles. The effect of increasing exposures, 

 and longer or shorter periods of develop- 

 ment will be clearly shown, and if you do not 

 trust your own judgment as to which is the 

 best plate, you can ask a friend who knows 

 more about it. With that as your standard 

 you can go ahead with your other negatives. 

 In making slides by contact, you proceed 

 just as you would if you were printing velox 

 paper, only you must work in a dark-room 

 in which you can have plenty of red or yel- 

 low light. The slide being only 3 T 4M inches, 

 you will, in all probability, only be able to 

 take in part of your negative, but it is sel- 

 dom that a print from a negative cannot be 

 cut down considerably, and so we pick out 

 the most important bit in the negative and 

 place the slide, film down, on the film side of 

 the negative, in an ordinary printing frame 

 and proceed to make the exposure by gas- 

 light, magnesium ribbon, etc. The exposure 

 will vary, of course, according to the nega- 

 tive and also according to the tone we want 

 to get, warm tones requiring a longer expos- 

 ure. Of developers there are so many that 

 we, will simply say, follow the directions of 

 the plate maker, at first. He knows best what 

 will give good results with his plates. After- 

 wards, when you know all about it, you can 

 compound your own formula. Work the tray 

 during development and carry develop- 

 ment usually further than is desired in the 

 finished plate, as the slide reduces somewhat 

 in the fixing-bath. An acid fixing-bath 

 should be used, and the plate left in it fully 

 five minutes after it is cleared. Wipe off the 

 film carefully with a wad of cotton after 

 thorough washing, and place away to dry, as 

 with a negative. When the slide is dry, it 

 must be bound up with a cover glass and a 

 mask. Masks for lantern-slides can be bought 

 in different shapes or they can be made out 

 of black or some other paper which will keep 

 out the light. The pictures should only oc- 

 cupy a part of the slide, and with the 'mask 

 you can cut off all that you do not think nec- 

 essary to the picture. The mask is placed on 

 the film side, and on that is laid the cover 

 glass, a clean piece of glass the size of the 

 slide. The three are bound together at the 

 edges by paper binding strips, in a manner 

 similar to the passe-partout frame. These 

 strips are glued on one side and only need 

 wetting to make them stick. Your spoiled 

 lantern slides — and you will have plenty of 

 them, especially as you grow more particular 



with your slides — will serve as cover glass 

 when the emulsion has been cleaned off. 



The making of a lantern-slide by reduc- 

 tion in the camera is very easy, and the fol- 

 lowing method, given by an amateur, will 

 prove useful to many who wish to make 

 slides from 4x5, and larger negatives: 



Some people use daylight; I don't. I always 

 use magnesium ribbon, because one can be more 

 sure of the exposure, and also in that one is 

 independent of daylight and can work anywhere 

 and at any time. 



To make a lantern slide in the camera fright- 

 ens a good many people, but it is easy enough. 

 The negative has merely to be supported at the 

 level of the lens and the image focused the right 

 size. I always use a piece of card much larger 

 than the negative, and in this I cut a hole that will 

 just take the negative and fasten it in by two bits of 

 rubber plaster. 



I don't want to give anyone a free advertisement, 

 but this rubber plaster I find the most convenient 

 thing in the dark room. I buy it in io-yard rolls, 

 ^2 -inch in width, and use it for no end of things 

 besides cut fingers. It will fasten up a plate box, a 

 crack in the dark room lantern glass, fasten nega- 

 tives in the printing frame, or a color screen inside 

 the camera. When I use part of a cartridge of roll- 

 able film, I very frequently cut off the exposed film 

 and then stick the remainder down with the rubber 

 plaster, for it requires no heat, and sticKS firmly and 

 well with gentle presstire. 



Well, as I said, four little pieces of this plaster 

 fix the negative in the hole in the card; the card is 

 clipped between two piles of plate boxes, and stands 

 upright on the table, the camera is supported on a 

 wooden box so that the lens is opposite the centre of 

 the negative. 



There is just one other little dodge I adopt, and 

 that is the hole in the card is always cut just a 

 trifle smaller than the negative so as to cover up 

 the clear rebate. If this is not done, the light creeps 

 round this and gives halation .and fog on the slide. 

 Behind the negative, at a distance of four inches, is 

 supported a big sheet of ground glass, and behind 

 this I burn the magnesium ribbon, keeping it con- 

 stantly on the move so as to ensure equal illumina- 

 tion. 



I described last week how to find the distances for 

 reducing or copying, and the two things are synony- 

 mous, so that I need not explain again how to do 

 this. 



Some people tell you to cover up the space be- 

 tween the negative and the lens, but I don't trouble 

 about this, and never find any trouble from not 

 doing so, doubtless because the card is so large that 

 the lens receives no extraneous light. 



On the ground glass of the camera I mark a 3%- 

 inch square; this is the regulation lantern slide size, 

 and when focusing I temporarily fix a mask to the 

 glass and see that all the picture that I want falls 

 within it, and centrally. 



It is impossible to say exactly what length of mag- 

 nesium ribbon should be used, because it differs 

 with each negative and the make of the lantern plate, 

 but the beginner should start with six inches and 

 then develop the plate, and he can tell from the time 

 the image takes to appear whether the slide is under 

 or over exposed. At least, I know that if the image 

 is not well up in thirty seconds, I must look out for 

 under exposure, and I generally cure this by making 

 another one at once. 



MAKING AN ALBUM 

 It matters little how skilful the amateur 

 may become in making good negatives and 

 getting out good prints, final success or fail- 

 ure will depend in large measure on how 

 tastefully they are mounted and arranged. 

 People still exist who have not yet found 



