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THE
n/I ArTrrar lVtAt tr UR PHOTOGRAPHER'S
LI A NIN flllI\lJ BOOK.
AmnrEun. A Maruual oF lNsrnr-icrloN FoR rHE
BY ARTHUR HOPE.
AUTHoR oF 'soRRENTo AND rNLArD wonK," "!\'ooD cenvrNc," "ENGRAVrNGoN wooDr" ETc.
TENTFI.EDITION. REVISED AND GREATLY ENL.\RGtrN.
-t FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY,
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f. NEW YORK; CHICAGO. TORONTO:
it' 189r'
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PREFACE.
Although this book eannot be ealled an invention, yet neces-
sity is its rnotherl it is needed by beginners, by arnateurs and
by many who urake the art a business. And this, after all, rnay
be only another lray of alluding to (( a long felt want.tt It is
only a little book, yet it embodies the result of a ,(power.ful
"arnount " of work and experirnent.r{ When the a.thor was beguiled into buyi.E a camera many
)'Iears ago, lre could find nothing in print which explained clearly
the various operations. There were numerous instruction.books,
but they omitted the explanations which were of vital irnportance
to the beginner. Therefore he was compelled to grope in the
dark, experimenting continually, and often uselessly, wasting
precious time-not to mention dollars-rvhich he could ill afford
to lose. The instruction books misled him, as they do to-day.
,and chernicals were wasted because the forrnulas were wrongly
given. " Dissolve one ounce of pyro in sixteen ounces water.tt I
LI tle did so, and after four-fifths of the solution had grorvn black
.il1r- rqF :and valueless, he learned that it $,as not wise to dissolve more
$'f pyro than was to be used irnmediately. To make blue paper, the
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directions were to dissolve about two ounces citrate iron and
arnmonia in eight ornces of water, ancl cornbine rvith the other"
chernical. Ile did this and made some tolerable prints; the
seconcl time the solution was used, the prints were intolerable;
and finally the solution was poured in the sink. Again, it took
sorne tjrne to learn that the iron and atnrnonia would not keep'
fresh in solution, and should be dissolved in a small quantity
and used fresh. And so it was with many other things.
every The book is incomplete; it is not possible to describe
be' ' process irr detail in a space so lirnited; yet it is hoped it will
a help to all.
ARTHUR II()PE.
Cnrceeo, Mencu, 1890.
In preparing this latest edition, acknowledgment is due to artra-'
teurs throughout the country who have kindly written concerning J
their difliculties and failures. They have made rnany valuable
suggestions, and have asked for information which the first
edition did not contain, in regard to lenses, shutters, and new
processes of printing. Sorne of the matter in the new chapters
. has been a part of personal letters to various correspondents
during the past feW years, while other additions, and some
ornissions apd corrections, have been made as the result of experi-I
ments and itrvestigations.
In looking up any particular subiect the readeris referred tc
the General Index.
A. H.
DncpMsnn, 189f"
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. CIIAPTER I.
T}II] OUTFIT.
rfulERE are three classes of atnateur photographers: Those
desire is to acquire a I who are lovers of tlte art, whose
knowletlge of its principles and, details, and whose aim is excel'
lencel oilrers who are satisfied with rnediocrity, who play at it,
and drop it at early failures, which are the result of their care-
lessness and inattention; and again others, by no means the least
numerous, who call themseft'es amateur photographerS, because
they understand. how to (t press a buttonrt' and- solne time later
receive a collection of. prints illustrative of their hits and misses'
endeavor or aspiration of ail, and' especially iheIt It should be the
beginners, to join the ranks of the first class'
Naturally, the selection of a camera is the question most per-
plexingtooneunacquaintedwiththeartofphotography'and
use by alnateurs of experiencet lhe g."at variety of cameras in
camerui't would show that they are not all of one rnind.. A good
waste it is false economy to in all cases, should be purchased, as
cannot afford a good rnoney on too cheap instruments. If one
He camera it woulcl be better to save his money until he can'
should decide at the outset how much he is willing to invest in
,? his outfit, and then be advised by a frierr,il who has had considerable
experience in photographic rvork, or consult a dealer in whorn he ,* be for the dealerts interest to satisfy Iras c.-,r,tidence. It should
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\'! THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER'S HAND BOOK.
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his'customerts wants, to give him the best that his money will
buy, and, by fair treatment, retain his trade for the various sup- ,i
'.1plies that will be needed year after )ear, as long as ihe camera is
and :,1iused. As a, rlle the dealers in photograpiric supplies, vt;l'nespecially those whose trade is very largely with amateurs, are 'r\l't
interested in their customei's, and alrvays ready to help them in q
an,v difticnity. ':
because a camera is low in It rnlst not be supposed, that
price, the work which it will do is correspondingl.v low in $jtluality. We have seen excellent views made with a camera and
lens costing orrly twelve doliars, and very fair small views rrrade $'t
referswith an outfit costing even less than that. This, of courser {to landscape views, for which a high ciass lens is not ordinarily
essential. fl
'We do not think it proper to recornrnend any particular make
of camera, aS, where nearl.y all in tire nrarket have certain good
points about them, it would be indelicate to advise the purchase
aof one in preference to another. Possibly, if rve manufactured
particular style of carnera, we should advise all to ptrrchase thab
kind, and such advice might mislead as to the rnerits of the
different goods made by our competitors. trYe have our prefer-
ences, and after an experience with nearly all styles, have settled
rlpon one size ancl mal<e, light, compact and strone, which rvould
seem to be the best for general worli in the field and sJudio.
There are two styles of cameras in general use: Tripod and
sohancl. The latter are now tlsually made with tripod plates,
that they can be used. un a tripod for rnaking timed exposures.
The amateur will sooner or later need them both, as his interest
,F'or the present we shall confine ourin photography grows.View original page 8Page 9 · Read text
THE OUTFIT. 9
remarks to the regular 'r,ripocl camera, as being the best for those
wiro wish to learn photography, reserving a description of hand
cameras for a future chaPter-
A frorrt-focus camera, in which the focus is obtained by mov-
back, is by many ing the front bearing the lens, forr'r'ard or
,preferred to one rvith a back-focus, which reqnires moving the
back to focus on the object-
The ca,mera shouid also have a sliding front and a swing back,
desired, a double and, if the highest degree of excellence is
swing, allowing the back of camera to swing both forward, back-
wards and sidewise, and reversible back, the uses of which rvill
be explained hereafter. It is aiso desirable tliat the bellows
should have a long clraw, so as to be used u'ith long focus lenses
,rt if required.
5 x 8,6* x 81, and 8 x 10 eameras are convenient port-f 5xTr ,able sizes, either of which will, bv tlte use of liits in the plate- t size holders, take as well aII smaller sized viervs; 5 x E is the
one rnost commonly used, but we think 6* x 8# is preferable, if
can ]tave only one catnera.
'!Ve use the latter size generaily, with a letts capable of cover-
ing an 8 x 10 plate. A 4 x 5 view taken with such a lenscanbe
enlarged to 8 x 10 or 16 x 2(r with perfect clearness. (See chap-
ter on Enlarging:)
better to get one covering If only one lens is purchased, it is
ansrver for all an angle of 60 to 65 degrees. Such a lens will
or<iinary purposes. special lenses are required for interiors and
fine portrait work, although we have seen very good interiorsI and portraits made with a single view lens. ff!s stereoscopic lenses
are wanted, we think tirat'cheap onesr costing frorn seven to tent
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THE OUTFIT. 1t
be taken without the necessity of returning to the dark-room to
empty and refill the holder each time it is used.
A pneumatic shutter, one that will work slowly for time expo-
sures, and rapidly for instantaneous views, rvili be indispensable
if a fine ca,mera is purchased. Such a shutter renders it possible,
to make exposures of a secon,:[ or fraction of a second, which can-
not be done by removing or repiacing the lens cap. Besides this,
it avoids all danger of jarring the camera in exposirrg. As pneu-
matic shutters are now made at a comrraratively low price and
of excellent quality, we should advise their use on all cameras.
'Do not buy very rapid plates until you have had some experi-
ence in making exposures. Quick plates require a greater
degree of accuracy in the tinre of exposure than slow ones, and
are usually not as easy to develop.
t SIow plates, or at least those of medium rapidity, are better
dim t for nearly all kinds of work except portraits, interiors in a light, photographs of moving objects, flash-lights and hand camera
views. Slow plates also keep in good condition longer than very
rapid plates. 'W-e have known some rapid plates that were
yearr. entirely worthless after being kept on hand less than a
while we have some slow plates on hand that are still good,
though purchased eiqlit ) ears ago. As one of the rnost widely
known photograpirers writes: " I cannot too strongiy recorn-
mend the use of rnedium rapid plates and tirne exposures, where
results worthy the name of pictures are looked for. As amateurs
the button' methods, and recently, at exhibitions in the I 'touchbecome educated in photography, they see the error of the
East, there is shown a ver.)' decided advance in pictorial qualities,,
as well as tecirnical excellence, in the exhibitorst work.,, tr
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Digitally signed by mike butkus
DN: cn=mike butkus, mike o=orphancameras, ou=29,
email=mike@butkus.org, c=US
Date: 2017.11.18 14:23:01
-05'00' butkus
CHAPTER II.
FIRST EXPOSUR,ES.
, rWELL, boys, we have a bri-9lrt Saturdav rnorning at last,
v v and I am glad you have brougirt your new cameras along
so that we can start at once to talie the promised photographs."
('Ilaven't filled your plate-holders yet? We11, you had better
run up into my darh-room and filI thern there.t)
f; ('O, you never have filled any before? lVell, then I will go
rvir"h you and show you Jnst how the thing is done.t'
(( -f[ow, before we go into t]re dark-roorn, we will just look over
the things and see what plates and plate-holders we have with us.
So you have three boxes of plates with you, two boxes of 5x8 and
one box 4x5; and I notice they are all very cpick plates, that is,
plates'which require a very short exposure. I do not think it
would be well for you to use these quick plates at first, because it
is so much rnore difiicult to judge with any accuracy the time
that would be requirecl for the exposure. If you use slow plates
and strike the time rvithin one or two seconds, your picture will
probably bb a success as far as the exposure is concerned. But
if you use a very quick plate and. expose it for one or two seconds
too long, or too short a tirne, the result may be disastrous. So
for this first effort your holders had better be filled with some
slow plates, rvhich I will give you." 4
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74 THE AMATEUR PHoToGRAPHER'S HAND BooK.
('Now, 'We first, let us look at the plate-holders. puII out a
,slide and notice tirat the two sides are of different colors, one
being light and the other darli. One object of this is to show
which side of the plate-holder has the plate which has been
exposed. When we lill the holders we always put the slides in
with the light side out, which will show us that that side of the
holder contains a plate to be exposed. Afterwards, when we !
come to make the exposure, and forthat purpose withdraw the :
'; slide, we reverse the slide on returning it, so that the dark side J
\i will be on the outside; and whenever we see one of rhe holders
with the dark side of the slide out, we shall understand that it
.contains either a plate that has been exposed, or no plate at all.
These plate-holders are new and have never been used, and, there-
fore, we do not hesitate to open thern here in the light; but after I
.you have used them a while it will be safer never to open them
outside of the dark-room." J "Now you uotice this box of plates. trVhen we get into the
dark-room we will take a knife and cut this paper all arouno
.'{ which binds thc cover to the box. Before doing this, however,
we will look once more at our plate-holders and see if they are ll,i{
free from dust, which is one of the enemies the photographer ,l:',1
always has to contend with. A little dusr in the plate-holder
rnight settle on tire plate and trouble us hereafter, so we will
remove the slides, and with a soft brush dust out the inside of
the holders as carefully a;s we can."
'( f{ow let us take the holders and our boxes of plates and go t into the dark-room; we shut the door carefull.y behind us so as {I
to exclude everv portion of lisht from rvithout. If you will *
examine you 'will see that the light is entirely kept out, not a ray fl
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FIRST EXPOSURES. 15
coming into the room from under or around the door or from any
other part of the room. The exclusion of all white light is a
'We very important rnatter, as we shall see hereafter. light theII gas in our dark-lantern and turn it down rather low, so that we
are just able to read the printing on the boxes of plaies, which
we place under the lantern where the developing is usually d.one.
.W'e
now proceed to open a box of plates which, for our experi-
rnents to-day, are the slow landscape plates made by Mr. Carbutt,
sensitometer 16. \Ye remove the cover and find the plates in the
box are contained in two packages. As we only wish to use four
plates of this size,5x8, we open the upper package which contains
six plates. The upper plate is placed fiirn side down; we can
see the difference in the two sides plainly when we hold the plate
b under the dark-lantern, the fiIrn side having a dull, waxy appear-
ance, while the other side reflects the light like clear glass. If
there is any doubt about the matter as to which is the film side,
we can always tell by scratching in one of the corners with a pen-
knife. Before we place this plate in the holder we carefully
brush it with our soft camelts-hair brush, to remove any particles
of dnst which may have settled on the plate. Th.is ,is uery
'importonty recnember alw:ays to do it. Then we place it in the
plate-holder rvith the film side out, the side which is to receive
the picture. This plate, when we took it from the package, was
film side down, and we notice that the next plate is film side up,
i so we see that the two upper plates were packecl with their filrn
I surfaces facing each otirer, separated by narrow strips of card-
board. This is the way that all plates are packed, each pair of
plates having their sensitive surfaces together. Knowing this,
when later on Jrou may find it necessary to fiII any number oftr'lr
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16 THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPFIER'S HAND BOOK.
plate-holders at one tirne, ,vou will find that you can get alonE;
just as rvell in perfect darkness as to use your dark-lantern,
because you will know when you take a plate from the box
which is the fihn side. W'e now pnt the other plates in the
plate-holders, including two 4xb slow plates, for the small
camel'a.t'
6'Before starting out it willbe well to scrateh a figure or a letter
on each side of the piate-holders, so that we can describe or
number the holder when we enter it in our record, book. This
record book is indispensable, and no one should think of taking
a photograph lvithout a book of the kind, which we wilI now
describe:
"'rhe most convenient size is a blank book as largeascancon-
veniently be carried in the pocket-sav a book about three incires -We Iwide and six inches long. first .make a narrow column on'
tlre left, and.write down in this the Nos. l, Zr B, 4, b, etc., to the
bottom of the page. These numbero will be the numbers of onr J
negatives, and the corresponding numbers will be pasted on the
corner of the negative after development. A second narrow
column will contain the numbers or the letters of the plate-
holders, as A, B, C, D, etc. The third column, which
should be wider than the last, will contain sizes of the plates
and the kind of plates used, as for instance, in this case
5x8 Carbutt B. The next narrow column will be to record the
time gi'en for the exposure-the n'mber of seconds. The
next colunrn will give the size of the stop or diaphragm used
in the lens; the next, the time of day and the condition of
the atmosphere, whether bright or cloudy. Then a broad column
on the right-hand page will give space to write down the
{View original page 16Page 17 · Read text
FIRS I' EXPOSURES. 17.
subject, and after that the date on which the exposure *as,
rnade. This will give a compiete record. of all the exposures
'We made, and rvill be a book of very great value. will makg,
these entries in our book now."
tt l{ow, as we do not propose to go very far t}ris tirne, ;'ou had
better pnt your cameras together, that is to say, set thern up here
and, leave behind the cases they carne in. In setting them up be
very careful when you fasten the camera to the tripod to see that
it is screwed tight, so that there is no possibility of its coming
loose while carrying it. The three piate-holders which you have
I shall be glad to carry in this bag, as it is the only thing I take
with me. So let us start along and have a short ramble along
the river road, where we will probably find something worthy of { our cameras.t'
Willie, v'ho has the best camera, is impatient to make his
first trial, arrd hurries on ahearl. Turning a bend in the roa{
after'a few rninutest walk, we corne upon him with his camera
planted in the road in front of the iittle country church, with its
pretty steeple. He is endeavoring to get the focus, but it does
not work to suit him. I{e had his eyes too close to the ground-
glass, and was trying to look through it at the view. Tiren, when
he moved his head back and found that the picture showed on
the glass, he was bothered because everything showed upside
down. This is a little perplexing at first, but we soon get pccus-
tomed to it. ,We criticize first the manner in which he has set
his tripod. One of the legs was pointecl directl,v backward. We
tI arrange this so that one of the legs is directly in front, while the
other two are placed one on each side.
6'Now you see there is no danger of tripping ove that leg gr
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18 THE AMATEUR puorocRApHeRts HAND BooK. '.I
upsetting the camera while you are arranging the focus; also you
will see that to raise the front of the camera or lower the back irr
order to level it, you simply use the forward leg as a sort <rf
pivot while you raise the others from the ground, taking one in
each hand, near the upper paft.tt
Finally he succeeds in getting his focus, which he obtains by
moving the front part of the camera, which bears the lens, back
or forward until the picture shows with distinctness upon the
ground glass. Still he is not satisfied. Ife has his focus all
right. but he fincls that he is not able to see the top of the steeple.
He is trying to take this picture of a high building across the
narrow side of his plate. Now his is a reversible swing-back
camera, and his 5x8 plate is placed horizontallv in the camera,
so we reverse the ground-glass by turning it one-fourth around
which makes it stand perpendicular to its fonner position. This
'allows him to see on the ground-glass more of the steeple than
'Wehe could before, but still the top is not in view. notice
that the front of the camera, which carries the lens, moves up
'W'e,and down. therefore, loosen the thumb-screw and raise the
front, and with it the lens, and we find on looking again at the
picture on the ground-glass, that we have now the whole of the
church in view. Raising this front has cut off some of the fore-
ground, rvhich we did not need, and has enabled us to take in the
"Weextreme top of the steeple. could, however, have accom-
plished this result in a different way. fnstead of raising the
front, which we now replace, we set back the forward leg of the
tripod, which has the effect of tilting the caurer& upr and on krok-
ing at the ground-glass again we find that by pointing the canrera
up we take in the whole of the church steeple as we did before;View original page 18Page 19 · Read text
FIRSI EXPOSURES. 19
but we notice, however, another queer thing. The sides of the
church, instead of being perpendicular as they should bu,
seem to lean inward as if they would come to a point if ex
tended. Of course, this would give us an absurd representation
of the building if we should photograph it in that way, and to
correct this we have recourse to the swing-back of the camera.
'When we tilted the camera, we noticed that the ground-glass,
which before had been perpenclicular, was inclined backward.
'W'e loosen the thumb-screw which holds the swing-back and in-
cline the upper part of the back forward, keepinE our eyes on the
picture on the ground-glass as we do this. As the glass is in-
clinecl forward we notice that the perpendicular lines of the
seern to be per-* building gradually become erect, and when they {ectly true and parallel to each other we tighten the thunrb-screw
to hold the back in that position. We notice now in looking at
the back of the carrera that, while the forward part of the camera
is tilted up, the back of the camera carrying the ground glass is
perpendicular. 'W'e make a note of this, which we shall find
afterwards of great use in taking other photographs of buildings
or in copying pictures; that is, that for such work the groirnd-
g'lass, which occupies the place of the plate, should he parallel to
the surface which we wish to copy. This is one of the uses of
the swing-back of the cameral other uses of that as well as of
the side-swing we shall refer to later.
-We have now to decide upon the stop or diaphragm to use in
'We the lens. willnot herediscussthedifferentuses of the stops, "t
leaving that for a subsequent chapter, and will select a stop which
is marked, f 32,, which in this case, as the focus of the lens is eight
'We,il inches, is a stop measuring a quarter of an inch in diameter.View original page 19Page 20 · Read text
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,20 rHE AMATEUR PHo"rocRaPHER's HAND BooK'
insert the stop, put the cap upon the lens and the plate-holder in
its place all ready to draw the slide d,nd make the exposure.
Before making the real exposure, howeverr we shall practice a
cap. little on counting the tirne and on taking off the
,6 Now will each one of you please take off the cap and count
the time, and at the end of the time replace the cap as neatly and
carefully as you can. We will say that the time that we are going.
to give to theexpostlre is six seconds. Now letthefirst one try.rr
,,'Well, you madg the mistakes that are usually made in these
operations. You rernoved the cap gently; which was all rightn
lens you held. it for nearly but after you had taken it from the
a second directly in front of the lens and then gradually lowered
was in front of the lens it obscured it. Of co,urse, while the cap
so rnuch of the landscape and delayed the exposllro. Again, .: I
your time instead of being six seconds was only three seconds.
{ Now let the next boY ttY )' I'I
,( That was a little better in one respect and worse in anotirer- J
You carne nearer to the time, your exposure was five seconds, but'
you were too hasty in removing the cair and you shook the camera
were taking a perceptibly. Now if the building of which you
much picture should shake a little like that it would not make
difference, as long as it did not shake the plate. But when yo1,
shake the camera, and with it the plate, that blurs the picture on
the plate beyond redemption. 'W-e will now let the other boy try
and see how well he performs these two operations."
,,That was very much betterl the cap was taken off gently,but
firmly, and as soon as removed it was brought down out of sight I.{
without jarring the camera in the slightest. But you:have counted
your time too slow, and instead of six seconds you have made it fi
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FIRST EXPOSURES. 2T
twelve seconds. Two of you counted the tirne aird one of you
{ guessed, and none of you were right; Of course, you could use
a watch with which to count your time, but you u'ould not always
get it exact in that ruy, especiaJly if you wanted one 0r two sgc-
onds, as part of the time.would go by after you removed the qap
until you could notice the face. of your watch. lMe have, how-
€ver, one very reliable way of counting seconds or parts of seconds.
Suppose we wanted six seconds. W"e commence to say the mo-
,ment the cap is off the lens, ( one-thousand one, one-thousand
two, one-thousand three, one-thousand four, one-thousand Iive,
one-thousand six.t Just as we say the six we replace the cap on
the lens. Suppose we wanted two and one-half seconds, then we
? would say, ( one-thousand one, one-thousand two, sng-theut- and cap the lens. Counting in "that weX, vou will have no diffi-
cultv in counting any time from one-half second to a minute. It
is something you need to remembeq.t'
'6 l{ow we are all ready to take the picture, and. we lay the
focusing cloth over the carnera so that it covers every thing but
the lens; we draw the slide, the front slide of our plate-holder,
removing it entirely from the holder, keeping the camera at the
€ame tirne covered with the focusing clotlr. Then we look to see
that the camera is perfectly still, and, removing the cap, count our
tirne, and the exposure is made; the cap being replaced at the
end of the time. Now, remember about the slide of the plate-
holder when we,xeplace it, we must have the dark s[de out, which
will show us that there is an gxposed plaie in that side of the plate-
holder; also when we put it in the holder we must be pareful to
I putitin,squarely, not one corner at.a.ti4e, but to put"it in so
that the whole cnd of the slide will 'at the same time enter the "{dtView original page 21Page 22 · Read text
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22 THE AMATEUR pHorocRApHERts HAND BooK.
slit of the holder. If not done in this wsl,light will be likely to
'Whenget in the holder and fog the plate. we get back to our
dark-room and have emptied a plate.holder you can hold one of
them up to the light and see how the insertion of one corner of
the slide in the slit opens the shutter along the whole width so
that you can see the light plainly through it.,,
Our young friend here removes the plate-holder, which he
places carefull.y in the box holding the others, and proceeds with
his camera to walk on and take other views. ,\{ I ((-Wait a rnornent, there is something and a vel.y important
T.thing which you have forgotten. Your plate-holder will show
]lr
Ion which side is the exposed plate, but suppose you go on now
and take another picture and then, as you have this time, put the
plate holder away without mal<ing a memorandum, how shall
you be able to tell on which side is either particular plate or ex-
posure which you have made?tt
(6 Yes, you see you have forgotten to make the proper entry in
your note book, which we will now proceed to do as follows:
This was plate-holder B in your note book, therefore, opposite
that letter, you mark now in the proper column the time, six
seconds; in the next column the size of the stop, f32; the next
column we will write 10:30 B, which will stand for bright;then
the subject, the church by the river, and the date.
While we are making these minutes in the note book the two
younger boys had gone ahead with their cameras. When we
overtook them we found them both focusing on a very pretty
little cottage under the trees. They had both selected a good
position, but were having some difficulty in deciding upon the
proper object to get their focus upon. One had focused upon t
i:View original page 22Page 23 · Read text
FJRST EXPOSURES. 23
the trunk of a tree which stood about half way between himself,
aucl the cottage, though a little off to one side. He had chosen
this to focus upon because the sun was shining upon it, and it
looked so clear on his ground-glass. The cottage itself was very
much out of focus, and it was very indistinct and somewhat
blurred. As the cottage was the principal part of the pictnre
he readily saw that that should be the obiect to show the most
d.istinctly upon the grourtd-glass. The other boy had focused
correctly upoll tlte cottage, but did not notice that his camera
be Was not level, so that in the picture the cottage seemed to
be slitling down hill. This is one of the first points always to
noticed, that the camera mtlst be level so that the line of the
horizon as shown upon the ground-glass may be level. Both of
the boys ]rad to use their sliding fronts so as to bring into their.
pictures the tops of the trees which were close to the cottage.
They decided to use the same size of stop as that rvhich they had
just seen used before.
,, Now our first picture, the one of the church, which was out
in the bright sunlight, was made with an exposrlre of six seconds,
but in this case we are taking a picture of a house of a light drab
color, under and shaded by trees. The shadows of these trees,
you will notice, fall across the roof of the house and also nearly
less cover one side. From this view there will be very much
light thrown into the camera than from the previous one, and
therefore we must give it longer time. We cannot tell the exact
be easy for tirne to give for a view of this kind. It would not
any one to tell the exact tirne recpired for any particular kind of
plate. There are no exact rules to give in determining correctly
'We the time required for different views. have to learn this by"cinView original page 23Page 24 · Read text
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24 THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER'S ITAND BOOK.
experience, keeping a careful record. of everv exposure and _giv-
ing all the particulars, and before you are aware of it you will
learn accurately about the correct time to give for every ex_
posure. The time of the year, the tirne of day and the state of
the atmosphere,, all of these govern the tirne for exposing the
plate.
, rn october, November and December., Januar"v, February and
March, the quantity of the light is very much iess than in the
other six months of the year, the greatest amount of light be-
ing, of course, at the time of the year when the sun is the highest
in the sky. As these are comparatively slow plates which,we
are using, we shall try to give them enough and aim rather to
give a little longer time than we think may be necessary, rather :Jhan to run : , the risk of giving too short a time. rf the exposure
is too short no amount of developing will bring out a picture on fl
the plate rvhen there is none there; but if the time is a little too
vlong \rye are able by care in developing to bring out a picture all
right. In this case, therefore, suppose we rnake the time lz i
seconds, which wo.ld certainly not be.at all too long if *,e were .!i{aiming to rnake a picture simply of the shadorvs alone. There
is an old saying, which is growing to be an adage in photogra- ',i
.?!phy, 'Expose for the shadows and let the lights take care of
themselves.' It is a good rule to follow.,,
tt Now, do not forget to cover your camera carefully with
your focusing cloth before you draw the slide from the plate-
holder. It may be that your plate-holder is so tight and {its so
closely to the camera that no light can possibly get between
thern, but there is danger of the plate-holder or camera rvarping a
little, or a little dust or: dirt getting in to prevent the two fitting
t
,dil
,{{1View original page 24Page 25 · Read text
FIRS'I' EXPOSURES. 25
together closely and thus leaving a space for the light to get in,
so it is always safer to soverthe carnerawith Jour focusing cloth
andavoidtheriskoftlrelightfoggingyourplates.,,
.'( Now you are all ready I be sure to count your time care-
fully."
((That was right, )'du gave the time just right and you were
very careful about replacing the caps on the lenses. Before you
replace the slide remember abour putting it squarely into the
plate-holder and with the dark side out.',
t6 o, one of you forgot to take out the slide, so of course, you
have no picture on the plate and you will have to try yours over
again.tt
'w-hile
he is getting ready to make the exposure again, rlenry,
'who has the 4x5 camera, has taken out his plate-holtler and.
placed it in his focusing cloth, and goes across the road, where
he sits down under the deep shadorv of some bushes. pretty
.6oon he comes back, and says that there must be something the
matter with his camera as he had just looked at the plate and
there was not the siightest sign of a picture on it. I{e had made
two mistakes. He supposed that exposing the plate for a pic-
tnre made sorrle change in the appearance of the plate, and he
also supposed that he could look at this plate in the shade with-
out danger of injuring it. The plate which has been exposed
for a picture does not differ in appearance from a plate which
has not been exposed; the picture on the plate is only brought
'out afterwards by the development. And the moment he drew
the slide to examine the plate in the shad.e, that very moment
the light fogged his plate. The plate can only be looked. at in
mean, of course,il the dark room by the aid of a dark lantern. WeView original page 25Related documents and language editions
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