January 30, 1909. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
57 
Photography for Garden hovers. 
By the Rev. F. C. Lambert, M.A., F.R.P.S. 
(Continued from fage 4.) 
X.—FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. 
It may not have occurred to many of 
mv readers that the dark dull days are 
no" bar to floral photography, because in 
those cases where we can bring our “sit¬ 
ters " into the house we can dispense with 
■ Old Sol;’ and use artificial light. 
All things considered, I give my vote 
for magnesium ribbon. It is cheap, gives 
a very active (photographic) light, safe, 
and portable. But, on the other hand, 
one has to confess that the burning of 
magnesium ribbon gives off some white 
smoke which presently settles down as a 
very fine, beautifully white powder, which 
does no harm to anything it falls upon, 
but of course it means extra work for the 
housemaid's duster and brush. 
However, this drawback can be very 
easily got over by the simple expedient of 
covering up the chairs and tables close at 
hand with a dust sheet, and putting a 
newspaper on the carpet. If only one or 
two exposures are to be made, one need 
hardly take this trouble, as the white 
dust is really so very slight in quantity. 
Of course, if much of this work is to be 
done, the most convenient arrangement 
is to appropriate some unused room where 
the furniture can be put out of the way 
and covered over with a dust sheet. 
The stand which I previously described 
on p. 409, June 20th, 1908, is a very 
handy form for use, because it can be so 
easily moved about, and also because it 
enables us to use various backgrounds as 
well as a reflector. But, failing that, it 
is a simple matter to pin up a sheet of 
brown or grey paper against the wall to 
serve as a background, and put our 
flowers, etc., on a small table in front of 
the background. A reflector can easily 
be arranged by throwing a sheet or white 
table cloth over a domestic clothes-horse 
or draught screen. If a sheet be not 
available, then a few newspapers can be 
1 
Fig. i. 
pinned together and used, but they are 
not so good as the sheet. 
One point may be noticed in this con¬ 
nection, viz., we can put our table, back¬ 
ground, etc. , in any part of the room, as 
w r e can burn the magnesium anywhere 
we please, and so are quite independent 
of window's, etc., so that in this respect 
we are more free when using artificial 
than when using daylight. 
As regards arranging our picture on 
the ground glass and focussing the 
image, this part of the business can easily 
be done by any artificial light that may 
be most convenient, for example, an 
ordinary gas bracket, paraffin lamp, or 
even a couple of candles. When fine 
Fig. 2. 
focussing is required, and difficulty is ex¬ 
perienced in seeing the image on the 
ground glass, u'e can very easily get over 
that difficulty by cutting out of the ad¬ 
vertisement pages of any newspaper a few r 
bits about 4 inches long by 1 inch wide, 
then folding these in half we can lodge 
them on the leaves or flowers and easily 
see the bold letter printing in black and 
white. 
N.B.-^-Be careful to remove these bits 
of paper before making the exposure. 
From experience I may confess that it is 
a very easy thing to forget to do this 
while thinking of other things. 
You will have noticed that I have men¬ 
tioned a reflector, and will naturally con¬ 
clude that the magnesium ribbon is 
burned at one side of the picture, and that 
the purpose of the reflector is to reflect 
some light on to the shadow side of the 
objects. 
Personally I think one. gets the best 
results in this way, but the placing of the 
Fig: 3. 
reflector requires a little experience lest 
we over-do or under-do the reflected light 
effect. 
At the same time I must mention 
that v r e can dispense wfith a reflector en¬ 
tirely and yet get good results in another 
way, viz., by dividing our magnesium into 
four equal parts, burning three parts on 
one side and the remaining fourth part 
on the opposite side. 
This is a very useful tip to know' as it 
may be the only available method when 
dealing with a group of specimens so 
placed that a reflector is not possible, 
as may easily happen in a greenhouse 
or conservator)'. 
The background should not show very 
strong contrasts w'ith the subject, i.e., 
black or white may be cut out of our list 
in this case, but light, medium, and dark 
grey are all useful. 
The exposure is, of course, the chief 
factor of success or failure. No cast- 
iron rules can be given. But I may quote 
full details of some of my own experi¬ 
ments, and from these the reader can very 
easily work out the exposure for his own 
case. 
There is, however, one rule to be ob¬ 
served, viz., that the light of the burning 
magnesium must not under any circum¬ 
stances be allowed to fall directly on to 
the front glass of the lens. We can 
avoid this either by burning the metal to 
the right or left of the lens, or, if a more 
forward position be desired, then we must 
interpose a piece of cardboard between 
the burning metal and lens, so that no 
direct light falls on the lens. If this pre¬ 
caution be not observed a fogged negative 
is very likely to result. 
I certainly recommend rapid ortho, 
plates, used in conjunction with a suit¬ 
able colour screen, which increases nor¬ 
mal exposure about six times. This, of 
course, means more metal being burned, 
but the cost is small and trouble nil when 
compared with the improved results. 
One can very easily ignite the ribbon 
by holding one end in the tip of a candle 
flame. The hottest (best) part of the 
flame is midway between its top and the 
