Soft Effects In Enlarging.

[The facility and economy making portrait prints by enlargement are advantages of a system which is growing in favour, and which has a further claim to the notice of photographers namely, the opportunity which it affords of producing a portrait of diffused definition from a negative of the ordinary character. This is a point which receives special emphasis in some notes on enlarging which we reprint below from "Camera Craft." Their author, Mr. J. Walter Doubleday, describes the particular form of device which he employs in breaking up to a pleasant degree the definition in the negative. EDS. B.J.]
Bromide enlarging is steadily growing in favour, even more rapidly than would be the case were only those workers taking it up who are changing from the formerly popular view camera sizes to the present more convenient small type of cameras. I know a number of professionals who are making all their portrait work through the enlarging lantern, not alone for the purpose of securing larger prints than the negatives they care to make, but for the control and speed that the process permits. They have, of course, some- what modified their apparatus, by eliminating such parts as serve mainly to give a large range as to size, and by adding other fitments that increase rapidity of production.
I have mentioned thin, not as an introduction to the subject of apparatus, which I shall avoid, but as a means of suggesting the recognized simplicity and advantage of making prints in this way. Enlarging apparatus is of such varied form' depending upon the light available, the requirements of the user, and to some extent the pane M well, that space does not permit me to do the subject justice if I am to record a few of the things I have learned about the actual production of bromide enlargements, things common to the work, irrespective of the form of apparatus used. Enlarging on bromide paper is quite simple, the apparatus required is not complicated, and the results have the highest endorsement of our best professionals and our leading exhibitors.
The negative best suited for enlarging is one that is soft, yet brilliant. But it must be brilliant. The kind of softness that "results from full development of an over-exposed plate or film, soft- ness combined with thickness, will not give a good enlargement. Slight fog or veiling of the image is also detrimental, and one must not assume that because such a negative will make a good contact print it should produce a good enlargement. This is a common mistake. The reason for the difference lies in the different action of the light. When the light is projected through such a negative in enlarging, there is a scattering of light from all portions is of the silver deposit, and when there is even a slight deposit where it should not be, as in the case of fog or thickness, poor results must follow. In contact printing there is not this scattering of light and not the same ill effect produced. One should strive for brilliancy with softness, and the use of a lens shade, particularly in the case of our rather short hooded and large aperture instigates, will do much in that direction. A safe dark-room light and a clean working developer will also heap.
The strength of the light used in making the enlargements also has much to do with the quality of the negative best suited to the n' requirements. Or rather, one can, by selecting a certain form of light, accommodate the process to negatives of quite different quality. The thin, fully exposed, yet under-developed negatives that some professionals affect, can be made to produce good enlargements only by using a rather weak tight, such as an oil burner or gas jet produces, strong, contrast} - negatives require a strong light; and negatives carrying much retouching are beat enlarged with well diffused daylight or a strong artificial light, like the arc, with ground glass between it and the condenser. The use of a soft-focus lens is also moat advisable in such cases.
The truth of the matter is, she best plan is to find oat, by experience, just what kind of negative is best suited to one's individual equipment, and then make negatives as near that standard as possible It is quite obvious that only a worker with an extensive output to produce could equip himself with sporrans employing varying strengths of light as suggested above. A compromise, to grades of paper offered; the range, since the introduction of the on-called chloride papers, with a speed some where between that of regular bromide and the gaslight papers, ranking this power of selection a valuable asset.
I suppose I should attempt to go into same detail on this latter point, bat while the mage is so wide, it is yet somewhat variable in different localities, and little would be achieved. At leant, little compared to what the individual worker can best find out for himself by a very few experiments based upon the quality of the negative in hand and the maker's description of the various papers available in his case.
The exposure is the most troublesome factor of the entire proems, but this has lost its terror to a great extent since the advent of developing papers. In the days of printing out papers, with their visible image to serve as a guide, the correct timing of a bromide enlargement screed to be much more of an achievement than was actually the ones The best plan, in my animation, is to take such negative, as made, and give it Bomber that expresses something in the form of a ratio, something that will give an easily handled factor from which to figure the exposure in enlarging to any size. This can be done by making n correctly timed contact print on developing paper and noting the time, the time serving as the factor number. It is, of course, quite necessary that these factor numbers most all be determined under exactly the same conditions. A standard brand of paper must be used, one having little or no variation in speed, and the light and distance used in malting the print mutt also be uniform.
If all one's negatives bear on their edge the number of second’s exposure required to produce a correctly timed print on, say. Regular Velox, exposed to a cluster of four thirty-two candlepower Mazda lamps at a distance of sixteen inches, little difficulty would be experienced in determining the correct exposure for any one of them for any size of enlargement, after a few experiments had been made. There would be a fixed relationship between these factor numbers and the number of seconds required for enlarging to different sixes, sad the relationship could be easily determined by an experiment or two. One might find that the exposure required for a two time allurement, or enlargement to a certain commonly used size, was one and one-half times the exposure number established by the making of the contact print on developing paper. He then has but to read off the umber on the margin of one of his negatives, multiply it by one and one-half, and he has the correct exposure for an enlargement of the designated size, providing that lens stop, strength of light, and grade of paper remain constant. If any of these are varied, proper allowance is easily matte. A larger for smaller stop decreases or increases exposure in the same ratio as in regular work; the difference in the speed of the papers used is determined by experiment, sod of coarse one's light is practicably constant except daylight is employed In this letter case an inclinometer can be used to determine the variation from the normal, if any. Practically all of the annuals carry a table giving the relative exposures for different degrees of enlargement, and 1 hardly need to occupy spare with a repetition of one of them here. Soft effects in enlargements are sometimes quite desirable, and we know of several forms that are making quite an enviable reputation on their bromide enlarging by using the legs pronounced effect secured with the soft-focus lens employed for all their work. But all obtainable sharpness is often desirable, and we must be prepared to secure this last before we can regulate the amount of diffusion to our liking. Some workers find it very difficult to secure a satisfactory degree of sharpness, even from a negative that is undeniably sharp, and we will therefore take up a few of the possible causes for their difficulty. First, there is often an unsuspected lack of accordance between the chemical and the visual image projected by some lights, particularly the enclosed are. Where this is the case, the variation must be determined by trial and allowance made for it in focusing. While the difference varies slightly with the size of enlargement, only the general difference need be considered and made up except where an unusually large stop is being employed. Where a condenser is used, failure to adjust the position of the light for different sires of enlargement will also cause lack of sharpness. The light should be so placed it is lathe focus of the condenser for revs of light from the caser; in other words, the cone of light, after passing through the is, should come to a point small enough to pass through the stop of the lens. The distance of the light back of the condenser for different positions of the lens which last means different size of enlargement, can be determined by focusing through a negative upon the easel for the desired size, then removing the negative and observing the distribution of the illumination as the position of the light is changed. Another frequently unsuspected causal of unhappiness is the use of the rising and falling, or the cross front, in bringing the image in the desired position on the easel. The centre of the lens, of the negative, the condensers and the light, should al be in a line and not oat of centre with each other. It is also obvious that the lens carrying front of the camera or enlarging lantern must be in a plane parallel with that of the other elements, or this cent ring of the lens cannot be achieved. Dirt on the lens or vibration of some part of the apparatus during exposure is detrimental, and the bromide paper should lie perfectly flat against so as to receive the image in the plane of critical sharpness.
Soft effects are, as I have said, frequently the most desirable, both for pictorial and other reasons. A hard, black mass with a harp outline, is much more objectionable than one with a softer edging, as any landscape worker can testify, if he has given the matter any thought. In portraiture, the breaking up of all suggestion of hard lines is almost sure to result in improvement. With the soft-focus lenses some moat planting results are secured, and it might be wail to point out that different makes of these lenses give somewhat different result*. The worker will, if buying a lens of this type, do well to try more than one and decide for himself which beet suite his requirements. Bolting silk, stretched on a frame and interposed about three or four inches in front of the paper on the easel daring all or a part of the exposure, is a quite common method of securing a breaking up of the image. The distance from the paper regulates the amount of breaking up achieved, and this distance again depends upon the distance of the paper from the lens. A more delicate softening is secured by using two thicknesses of chiffon to face a cap placed on the lens.
In my own practice the mount on the lens is fitted with a wire frame in which a movable slide is held close against the front hood, This slide is a piece of cigar-box wood about three times as long as it is wide, the width being sufficient to well cover the front of the lane. The centre of this slide is left solid, but a circular opening, large enough to permit free passage of light to the lane, is cut is each end. One of these openings is covered with two thicknesses of the chiffon material and the other with a piece of yellow glass, both let into the wood so as to be flush with the surface. With the centre of this elide in front of the lens, the cap is on; with the yellow screen in positioning, the paper on the easel is in safe light while being adjusted in position; and, with the chiffon section in front of the lens, my soft enlargements are exposed. One could make the slide longer and include an unscreened opening, but in practice I found that lifting the slide out of the wire frame was less liable to shake the lens than trying to move it along in the proper position.
Even more important control of the results ill enlarging can be secured by shading different portions of the image during exposure; or rattier, during a portion of the exposure. A piece of cardboard, an old mount, preferably of a dark colour and roughly torn to the desired outline, serves at the shading medium and is to be interposed between the lens and the easel, or at least, some little distance from the paper. This .should is kept in motion during the time it is being used, in order to further avoid a too sharp outline, the length of time it is interposed being proportioned to the entire exposure in accordance with the amount of holding back it is thought desirable. It is obvious that where the part to be held back comes fully within the boundaries of negative, this plan will not avail. One can then resort to a piece of the card torn roughly to the desired shape and fastened to the end of a piece of stout were; an ordinary lady's hatpin answering admirably. Another plat is to attach the .shading piece to the centre of a piece of glass and use this last as a support to enable it to be gently moved about so as to shade the part intended. Variations of these suggestions will suggest themselves to the worker and enable him quite rapidly to acquire the knack of exercising most beneficial control of nearly all his enlarging work. In fact, it will be found that practically every negative from which an enlargement is required is amenable to treatment of some kind along this line.
I might point out that availing one self of these possibilities makes it advisable to increase somewhat the exposure time, and this last is best done by some other means than decreasing the size of the stop. The most practical method is to introduce one or more sheets of ground glass in front of the light employed. Using a slower paper may not give one just the effect desired different speeds of paper printing differently, and decreasing the stop affects the illumination where a condenser is used and sometimes introduces granularity in other cases, even resulting in an enlarged image of the ground glass diffuser behind the negative being recorded upon the enlargement

J. WALTER DOUBLEDAY.

An Easy Method Of Silvering Mirrors.

         Morison silvering is an operation which is avoided by most photographers as a process in which the successes are few and for the favored. After several failures with the tartaric acid sugar reducing agent for silvering glass, the present writer cast about him for some simpler and more rough and ready method of preparing a reflector for his camera. It has long beam known that it is possible to produce silver minors by the use of formalin as a reducer. The method, however, has not come into practical use because the deposit of silver is usually so granular that it will rob of the glass upon the least touch. The following formula provides a means of silvering glass and ether substances with ease and rapidity, and the process is a fascinating one to watch.

STOCK SOLUTIONS.
Stock Silver.

Silver nitrate………………………45grs. 3gms
Distilled water…………………….10ozs. 300c.c.s

Stock Formalin.

Formalin (40 p.c. Formaldehyde)....1oz. 45gms.
Distilled water…………………….10ozs. 450c.c.s.
Methyl Violet dye…………………10grs. 1gm.
Thaw solutions improve on keeping.

         The following quantities are sufficient for 20 square inches of glass allowing for waste silver being deposited on the dish and elsewhere.
         Take 3 ozs. (90c.c.s.) of the stock silver solution and add 10 per cent, ammonia solution drop by drop (a fountain pen tiller is heady for this), shaking the mixture after each addition. The mixture first becomes turbid, and then gradually clears. When dear, atop adding ammonia. A slight excess of ammonia is not detrimental. In another receptacle poor out 3 drachmas (11 c.c.s.) of the stock formalin solution.

The Silvering Process.

         Take the piece of glass it is intended to silver, and clean it well with whiting and water, or by any other method that may in favored, and rinse it under the tap, swabbing the surfaces with cotton wool. Now rub the wet face of the glass with another piece of cotton wool which has been soaked in the following priming solution:

Tin Protochloride (Stannous Chloride) 26 grs. 1gm.
Water ………………………………….10 ozs. 200 c.c.s.

         Ordinary tap water will do. This solution should be thrown away when done with.
Rinse the glass under the tap and wipe it with a piece of cotton woo) which has been dipped in distilled water.
         Place the glees face up in a developing dish which has previously been cleaned with nitric acid and rinsed with distilled water. The next operation is to add the formalin to the ammoniosilver mixture, and immediately pour into the dish, and to rock the dish well.
         The silver begins to deposit at once on the primed surface, the solution becoming darker after a short time, and then slowly clearing. After from one to two minutes the solution reaches its maximum clearness, the by-products of the reaction forming into little grannies. At this point ran tsp water into the dish and lift the mirror out and rinse it, finally swabbing with a soft piece of wet cotton wool.
         Allow the mirror to drain for a minute or two, and remove any drops of water from the surface by lightly touching them with a piece of blotting paper. After half an hour or so the mirror should be quite dry and ready for burnishing.

Finishing the Mirror.

         When dry, the mirror should have a brilliant surface, with a slight yellowish tarnish, which must be removed by polishing if the front of the mirror is to be used as a reflector.
         For polishing and burnishing the surface, take a piece of a couple of inches square, or, failing this, a piece of really soft cotton rag, and tie it round^ a plug of cotton wool, to as to form a medium soft pad. Keep this in an old plate-box with some rouge. The rouge may be bought at a chemist's, or in some households purloined from the feminine dressing-table. Jeweler’s rouge is sometimes too coarse. The wash-leather pad should be lightly charged with the rouge.
         Warm the mirror and the pad slightly so as to be sure that no moisture is present, and then lightly rub the surface with rapid small circular motion. The mirror will take a brilliant polish and is then ready for use.

General Consideration.

         Practically speaking, the hotter the glass 'before applying the silvering solution, the whiter and more granular the resulting mirror will be. Cold solutions produce quite a good deposit, which is dark in colour on the surface, but which takes a brilliant white polish. The best temperature is about 70 to 80 F. It is a good plan to have the glass a few degrees warmer than the solutions. This can be accomplished by immersing the glass in tepid distilled water for a few moments before silvering.
         Celluloid may be easily silvered by exactly following the procedure as for glass.
Mirrors may 'be silvered face down if desired. It is a question more of convenience than actual merit.
         Silver may be prevented from depositing on unwanted parts by painting those portions with Vaseline or celluloid varnish previous to priming with the tin solution.
         Spent solutions are hardly worth saving, even when there is a quantity. Most of the silver in the solution comes down as actual mirror surface.
Methyl violet dye has the property of keeping the surface of the mirror brilliant and unclouded. Its action is analogous to that of bromide in a developer. It may be omitted if not available.
         The priming bath gives a much more adherent coating. It also has the property of attracting most of the silver to the working surface, instead of too generously distributing it on the sides, and bottom of the dish. It is supposed that a silicate of tin is formed on the surface of the glass. This, however, cannot 'be the case with celluloid or other non-glass surfaces.
         The cost of silvering 20 square inches of glass, reckoning silver nitrate at 4s. per oz., is about 2d. As failures cost as much as successes, it is a good plan to practice on small pieces of glass before attempting a larger surface. One has, for example, to learn how to clean glass properly.
         Well boiled-water can in most districts be used instead of distilled water.
         As a protection against oxidation, the mirror may be varnished with celluloid varnish. The coating of varnish should not be too thin or it will dry with a smoky surface. No other varnish is suitable for the purpose, because silver reacts with most gums, etc. It is, however, easy to resilver a mirror when the surface is worn away by repeated republishing that in most oases it is hardly worth while to decrease the efficiency of the reflecting surface by varnishing it.
         Measures, beakers, and dishes should be cleaned after us& with strong nitric acid, or the remnants of silver will give trouble when the vessels are used for other purposes.

JAMES GRAHAM.

National Development.

There are many ideas as to what is the correct way of developing a negative, and the exponents of each claim that theirs is the true and only way. There is no accepted standard for goodness in a negative, which is perhaps a good thing, for its absence allows of individuality in the finished result, although this must not be confused with "fluking," which is what happens when an operator aims at one effect and obtains quite another, which he is astute enough to put forward as a premeditated piece of work. The clever photographer is the man who starts with a definite idea for a picture and by skilled technique realizes it in a print. To do this one must have perfect control of exposure and development. The best lighted figure may be made either hard or flat by incorrect exposure, while a correctly exposed plate may be made to yield a thin soft image or a dense harsh one by injudicious development.
To ensure even quality it is very necessary to keep to one brand, and preferably one grade of plate. The best technician in the world could not produce a dozen negatives of even quality from twelve plates of different makes and rapid ties even if all had received an equivalent exposure. Plates vary greatly in the time taken for development and in the appearance of the image before fixing. A common way of judging the progress of development is to look for a trace of the image on the back of the plate. This can only be done if one brand of plate is in use, and then only to a limited extent, as this method is quite upset by variations in the thickness of the emulsion coating. While upon this subject it may be useful to correct an error sometimes made, which is, that when the image is clearly visible on the back of the film, the utmost density which the plate will give has been obtained. We had a case under our notice some few months ago where the operator proposed to change his plates, because, although he developed them right through to the back, the images were always thin. On our suggestion he allowed some plates to remain in the developer for three minutes longer than others, which he fixed at 3 usual times, and was convinced by the difference in density that his development had always been carried on for too short a time.
One of the old errors was that the best results could only be obtained by what was known as "tentative development." This meant starting the development with a minimum of alkali, which was gradually added as needed. There was some reason for this when ammonia was used as the alkali, as volatilization rapidly reduced activity of the solution, and fresh ammonia was needed to complete development. When the fixed alkalies in the form of the carbonate of soda and potash came into general use the “working up" by adding small quantities of alkali to the developer fell into disuse, although a few old-fashioned workers still practice it.
It is not our purpose to recommend any particular developing agent as superior to the others. Some developers have the reputation of giving thin images and others plucky ones, but this is largely a question of dilution and temperature. Next to exposure, this decides the possibilities of the negative, coney’s length of development with any given solution. With normal exposures short development gives a thin flat negative and development gives the maximum of density and contrast. Between these extremes the operator must choose for himself. All non-staining developers, such as am idol, hydroquinone, and many others yield a negative of which the printing quality is due to reduced silver only, but pyro behaves differently, the silver image being reinforced by the "pyro stain." It is generally acknowledged that a pyro-developed negative will usually give a more brilliant print than one of apparently similar density, but free from stain. This is due to the fact that the stain is deposited in proportion to the density of the image, and is not uniform all over the plate. If such a negative be dissolved away, by using Farmer's reducer, it will be that a thin brownish-yellow image remains.
One of the commonest errors in development is to over- develop under-exposed plates, and to under-develop over- exposed ones This is caused in the first place by the desired to force out all possible detail in the shadows, the result being that the high lights are made so dense that any shadow detail is lost in the necessary depth of printing. In the second case the over-exposed plate is under- developed because the whole surface of the film quickly blackens, and the operator fears that the detail will become buried. This is quite wrong; the proper course is to develop for the full normal time, and to dissolve away the fog with the ferri-cyanide reducer. It may be noted here that it is of little or no avail to add bromide to the developer after the image is well out; to be effective, bromide should be added to the developer before pouring on the plate.
The degree of dilution of the developer has an important effect upon the negative. A weak solution can be used until all the details of an under-exposed plate are brought out, without obtaining too much intensity in the high-lights. Concentrated solutions give the maximum of contrast, especially when a little bromide is used in addition.
Too prolonged development will give a general chemical fog, and an excess of alkali often added in cases of under- exposure has the same effect. A disagreeable colour, not quite a fog, is caused by putting plates developed with am idol or metol direct into the fixing bath without rinsing. With pyro the fixing bath rapidly becomes discolored, but with the non-stain developers a large quantity of solution can be carried over into the fixing bath without altering the colour very much.

Assistants Notes: Specialization and Efficiency.

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EX CATHEDRA: Enemy Cameras; Cycle Portraits; Gaslight Enlarging; Quality of V.P. Negative; Transferred Bromides.

Enemy Cameras.

We are glad to see that our contemporary, "The Photographic Dealer," is actively interesting it self to put a stop to a species of trading with the enemy which, though small in amount, is nevertheless quite indefensible. It appears that in Cologne and other places in the occupied portion of Germany cameras of German make can be bought at not a very much higher price than that before the war, yet one which at the greatly depressed value of the German mark enables the buyer to dispose of the camera at a good profit on bringing it to London. It is stated that dealers in London are being asked to purchase these instruments. The Photographic Dealers' Association has taken the matter up, and it may be hoped that prompt measures will be taken to see that this illicit trading is speedily topped. There can be no objection to Arm y officers in the occupied country buying such photographic supplies as they want from the only available sources, namely, the German dealers, but the practice of snatching a paltry profit by bringing the cameras to London for sale is one which surely should be immediately prohibited by the authorities on their notice being drawn to it.

Cycle Portraits.

We were recently shown a most artistic portrait photograph of a feminine client of a professional friend. The lady was riding her bicycle along a delightful stretch of country road. The portrait was a really delightful piece of work, and showed to perfection the poise of the head, the easy carriage of the rider, together with the perfect grace with which some women have learnt to cycle. This is an idea that might be well worth following up, for if well done a portrait of this kind should be a good business bringer, and is far in advance of the portrait in which a stationary cycle "ridden" in the studio. The real thing offers no special difficulties in the way of making a satisfactory picture, nor need the operator think that a reflex is essential. A good hand-camera is desirable, but the picture to which we refer was made with an ordinary field camera. In this case the picture was focused on the ground glass, the cyclist being requested to stand on a certain spot marked with a couple of smallish stones. She then retired, and rode slowly towards the camera for the exposure to be made. It will be found best, if possible, to make the actual exposure while the cyclist is free-wheeling, in order to lessen movement as much as may be, and for this, in order to obtain the best effect, the pedals should be horizontal or at the "quarter to three," the correct free-wheeling position. Rapid exposures are not needed; a 25th of a second at f.8 on a bright day with fast plates will be found to give a good negative. There is no reason why this plan should not be applied to male customers as well, for many persons of both sexes lend themselves when cycling to most graceful and pleasing poses.

Gaslight Enlarging.

The trade enlarger, whose work lies not only in the enlarging of negatives of reasonably decent quality such as he obtains from professional photographers, but also those of the quite unskilled amateur, has reason to ignore the advice which is sometimes given, namely, that the speed of modern bromide paper renders the use of a very high-power source of light unnecessary. It is quite true that the practice of some enlargers of keeping an oil lamp for the enlargement of particularly weak negatives on to bromide paper is one which contributes to a greatly improved result; but, on the other hand, a great deal more can be done if a high-power light such as an arc is available, and the enlargement made on one of the extra-slow gaslight papers, such as Cyko or New Kodura. The degree of brilliancy which in this way is obtained in an enlargement from an utterly miserable negative requires to be seen to be believed, and we have known of enlargers denying the making of such results except by the production of a new negative. The amateur enlarger can obtain them with his customary apparatus if he is prepared to let exposures run to as long as half an hour, but for commercial work a light of the power of an arc or mercury vapour is, of course, a necessity.

Quality of V.P. Negative.

Now that there is an ever-increasing tendency on the part of Press, commercial and professional photographers and serious amateurs the use of vest-pocket cameras, many are finding that their technique is decidedly faulty. It is certainly easier for the less skilful to make technically perfect 12 by 10 negatives than to produce an equally good result from a vest-pocket size negative via enlarging. The ideal result depends mainly upon the worker knowing what kind of negative to aim for. The general tendency makes these negatives too dense, and if this is the case of course the enlarging process will be found to make harsh contrasts all the harsher, and to lose the fine tonal qualities of the negative. It would be a good plan for the photographer who contemplates using a miniature camera as a supplementary instrument to make half a dozen exposures by the aid of the meter taking care that these are on the full side and develop them so that each is a lightly further developed than the previous use. A bet of enlargements from the negatives will show exactly what is required. Great care is needed to prevent mechanical drainage such as acratches, etc., and we favour the tank and time method of dealing with the exposures made with vest-pocket cameras. Grain must also be avoided but with a suitable developer used fairly diluted this ought never to prove troublesome.

Transferred Bromides.

Now that bromide paper is the almost universal printing medium with many photographers more attention might with profit be given to the transfer variety which if carefully used may be the means of imparting an individual and artistic expression to photographer work. We can recall a case recently in a large exhibition where considerable attention was attracted by a picture upon one of these papers. The whole effect was most original and uncommon. The other day we noticed some cabinet-sized per traits upon quite large mounts in a certain photospheres show-case. Examination revealed the fact that they were originally made upon one of these papers and transferred to the mounting paper. A delicate tint was worked in round each print with water-colour, thus imparting a most delightful finish. This offers a considerable saving over the plan sometimes adopted of making the prints upon large sheets of paper and carefully masking off the picture, while the result is to all intents and purposes the same. That the picture is reversed by the transferring has never to our mind been a serious objection to the process, as the average sitter would quite fail to notice it, but if the operator's intention is to use the process in carrying out some definite scheme the plate may be put into the elide, glass side to the lens, and the slight difference allowed for when focusing. The back of the plate should be carefully cleaned, and the film protected from abrasion by the metal dividing plate of the slide. For this there is nothing better than a piece of card covered with black velvet cloth.

The Photographers' Assistant.

        The masters plead inefficiency as excuse for low wages, and bewail the Jack of good assistants.
        The assistant pleads lack of means and absence of encouragement as excuse for inefficiency. Which is right?
        The position of the average assistant in the average photographic business has been in the part anything but an enviable one from any point of view. He is expected to handle successfully a large range of materials which are sensitive to many influences, often in circumstances and with apparatus that are in them handicaps to the production of good work. The knowledge and skill required to cope with the never ceasing stream of technical problems are perhaps greater than in any other craft, not only because of the existence of those problems, but also because the photographic business is not 10 sharply sub-divided into its many branches, and an assistant may be called upon at any time to do work of a kind quite outside his Ordinary job, and is expected to produce results equal to those of a man whose regular practice it is.
        That roughly suggests what is expected of the assistant as regards hi work. Usually he is required also to keep an appearance above that of a wage-earner, such as a mill-hand, letterpress printer, or bricklayer, and to cultivate the affability of speech and manner which is perhaps the principal asset of the successful doctor or lawyer. The dark-rooms in which many assistants spend nearly a third of their lives and most of the hours of daylight often are little better as regards health or comfort than the workrooms of many yean ago described so vividly by Charles Kingsley in "Alton Locke."
        So that compared with other crafts, quite apart from the rate of wage, photography exacts more, and offers less. That the average rate of pay, and consequently the social position, of the photographer's assistant, is comparatively very low is a fact, obvious and admitted. What are the natural consequences of this?
        I think that assistants may be divided broadly into two classes. The first class has caught the fascination which undoubtedly exists in photography for anyone with average intelligence and a little imagination. If to these qualities the assistant adds ambition he usually becomes the master-man eventually, but the business knowledge essential to success is not easily gained during the assistant period. The second class, by far the larger one, and probably still more increased by war recruits to the business, comprises those who are by nature slack, unintelligent, or unambitious, and those for whom the handicaps and discouragements incidental to the struggle for success in such an exacting calling have proved too great.
        The worker who has struggled to efficiency in spate of the many difficulties in his path still finds that adequate reward is not easy to get. He may have worked for a low wage for the chance of getting special experience, but the last rate of pay earned is still too often taken as the measure of a man's value. Many employers, far too many, are imbued with the idea that if they only advertise and back, advertise and sack, often enough they will eventually secure for the inefficient's wage either one of the skilled men willing to work for little money to increase his experience, or one of the disappointed ones for still less. The result is that the latter either recover a bit of their ambition or sink entirely to the level of the man who only just enough and that hardly wells enough, to earn his salt. The ambitious man very quickly picks up what he wants to learn and moves on, so that this type of employer is seldom suited for long. Another type of employer has greatly increased of late years in the shape of the "company shops," which turn out large quantities of inferior work by semiskilled workpeople on the "factory" principle. The wages offered by these firms to inefficient are often much higher than those paid by firms of standing to expert assistants.
        I have tried to show that the conditions fostered by employers tend to discourage a man from becoming efficient, besides offering him little reward if he overcomes the difficulties, often needless and stupid, placed in the way of his improving his ability. That there is "plenty of room at the top" is not true of photography, for there are always vacancies for those willing to accept a low wage; but a man who has made a study of his business and knows his real ability is often turned down in favor of one who will work for a little less money. It does not seem to occur to the average employer that the careful and conscientious worker can easily save the extra pay he asks, both in time and material as well as in quality of output. Yet we find the employers continually bewailing the difficulty of finding efficient assistants!
        Make the life of a really good assistant worth living, by giving him tools and material that will be a pleasure to work with, in clean and healthy workrooms, and pay him a wage that will permit him to have a decent home that he can take a pride in, as well as to have a hobby or two and the time to enjoy them in, and there will very soon be an army of assistants making themselves efficient. A few employers have rebased this, and find it pays them well to pay their staff well.
        Among those about to return from the Army employers will be looking for experienced assistants. Let me tell employers of a spirit that they may expect to find in these men, which I have noticed spreading among all ranks during the past year or more. It is a. spirit of antagonism to injustice, and is perhaps a sort of reaction against the harsh "militarism" and so-called "discipline" of the Army. It is not rebellious or antagonistic to authority, but men have been taken out of their ruts, and have been living a life summarized by "look after you, for no one else will." Living hugger-mugger with men of all classes, Jack finds out that he's as good as his master, and often better. This has resulted in a spirit of camaraderie flavored with independence, which shows itself outwardly among the men by willing work so long as those in authority do not "come it," and by obvious resentment and often by obstructionist methods if they do. Per contra officers and N.C.O.s find it pay better to recognize this new spirit, which has replaced the old "shirk while he isn't looking" idea and there is increased mutual confidence and respect. Men are told, as recruits, that the Army can tame even lions, but it has gone further, and is taming even sergeant-majors.
        This new feeling of self-reliance and impatience with injustice, if it can show itself so strongly in the most autocratic institution we have, is not likely to be shed when the khaki is left behind.

D. CHARLES.

Progress Of Pictorial Photography.

A booklet of which we have recently been the recipients contains an interesting review of the present tendencies in pictorial. Photography in the shape of an interview with Mr. Clarence H. White, one of the prominent exponents of art-through the Medium of the camera in the United States, and the director of a school of photography founded for the purpose of providing systematic instruction in this branch of work. It is not so many years ago that Mr. White appeared before the British photographic public is one of the young men enthusiastic in establishing altogether new ideals and new forms in pictorial photography. The American school, as it was then styled, came in for a large measure of derision, but it has been easy to taco its influence in the exhibitions of pictorial work during the past ten or fifteen years. Equally there has been observed some abandonment in the more extreme features which characterise the early work of these American pioneers; and therefore it is interesting to have Mr. White's conspectus of a stage of progress in which he has taken a notable share. EDS. " B.J "]



“Mr. White, I want to ask you whether you think that pictorial photography has made substantial, or any, progress in America caring the past year? “
«I believe that pictorial photography is progressing, but its progress is not to be expressed in terms of a year. Pictorial photography is expressed more or less in terms of epochs. My observation is that there has been a big growth in well, I cannot say exactly in a year, but in the last four or five years. I may say hat this grows is evident even in places remote and in places there we once heard practically nothing of pictorial photography out find now large group, of very active and earnest workers, most if them producing very high-class work."
"What has been the influence pictorial Photographers of American on photography during the past year? »
“The influence has been one of substantial encouragement. For One thing we have sent to various museums, important exhibitions If photographs. Here is a little incident that came to me a few lies ago that might help to answer your question. A young woman, a member of our organization, was in the Cleveland Art Museum. While she was in the room where our photographs were being shown she saw the director approach with an English artist, and she overheard this conversation. Ashe passed the door the director asked the artist to go in with him and see the exhibition of photographs. The artist protested that he did not care to go in and that he did not believe in it, and that he did not think there was anything in pictorial photography. The director quietly insisted on his going in, saying that he felt very decidedly that there was more real enthusiasm manifested in this exhibition of photographs than there was in a group of etchings that was shown in another room. This is significant of a change of attitude toward photography as an art, and there are about sixteen different museums in which this state of things is being revealed. I have in mind the Newark Museum. They had a collection of these photographs displayed in a most beautiful way in the Newark Public Library, and along with it they showed copies of all known magazines devoted to the subject, with portfolios representing examples of the work of photographers in Europe, and a person who came to view these pictures could then turn to these magazines or portfolios and study them."
“What effect would you say war conditions have had on pictorial Photography? »
“In America the effect on pictorial photography has been, I would say, rather to dampen enthusiasm or to discourage it. There has been a feeling that all activities should be directly connected with the war, and that photography should share in this; that pictorial photography should be devoted to placarding the war or the spirit of the war a sort of war propaganda, rather than purely pictorial work. Abroad, one of the interesting things I have nosed in connection with the catalogue of the Royal Photographic Society exhibition, the oldest photographic organization in the world and the most important one, is that the exhibition reveals very little of war-time activities. They are showing pictorial photographs, technical photographs, Auto chromes, and every branch of photography. The pictorial section had no particular bear the war nor had the Auto chrome or the scientific section. The selection of forty-nine prints loaned by members of the British Military Service formed the only contribution directly pertaining to the war. In the advertisements in this catalogue there was practically no reference to the war and an advertisement of a photographic school in connection with the Regent Street Polytechnic contained no mention "of a war course, but did mention conspicuously their pictorial work."
«Has any development along the lines of what we might call cubistic art got into pictorial photography?”
«Yes, it has gotten into photography to a slight extent, but I am loth to call it cubism or any similar ism. The development of modern art. I think, is in the direction of construction and construction picture construction applies to photography as definitely as it apples to painting and other art. Indeed, a great feeling of the need of this has expressed itself in connection with photography."
"What do you mean by the ' construction ' of a picture? Anything different from the rules of composition as usually understood by artists”
“The rules of composition as usually understood have been too narrow. We might say there are no rules but there are certain fundamentals. These fundamentals have been made to apply in a great variety of ways. Take this print, for instance (Mr. White took up a photograph showing some peculiar architectural effect) here is a little of what we might call cubism in modern photography
We first look at it, and we get pleasure from the play of light and dark n the object. It produces a sense of satisfaction to the eye, and yet when we examine it more closely we feel that the artist has violated the roles of what might be called composition. We must construct oar rules of composition from examples rather than make the construction that is demanded by our art out of formal rules."
“Can commercial or professional photography assimilate pictorial principles? »
«I believe commercial or professional photography should be pictorial. Pictorial photography is (imply a name applied to photography that really has, or should have, construction and expression.”
«Has colour photography a future? Has the Auto chrome a future? "
«I feel that the Auto chrome has already demonstrated its position and the colour print will eventually take a definite position. Processes will be simplified in much a way that it can be used more successfully by the amateur, and the amateur’s work and enthusiasm are necessary to its development."
“Has platinum paper been in the market during the past year?"
«Black platinum paper practically disappeared from the market, but sepia platinum paper has been obtainable."
“What is the best substitute for platinum paper?"
"The Barmen Journal or Photography a recognized technical publication devoted to photography, has said that printing de lure should be done on platinum or palladium, which are absolutely permanent papers. Carbon is also in be clawed with these as permanent There is no real substitute for these papers, and I trust that they will eventually be again available "
"What do you think of the bromide papers made on Japan tissue?'
“I think they have produced very beautiful results."
"Is bromide paper the best available paper of the future for pictorial effects?"
"Bromide prints are most beautiful, and the quality of some bromide prints that we see is such that it is difficult to distinguish them from platinum, which is surely the greatest compliment we can pay them."
"Can the bromoil process ever be used except by expert workers with a gift of patience?"
"I find that the bromoil process is often used by people who are not experts, but amateurs with a desire to achieve a good photographic result. To be an expert, of course, would help very materially in producing this result. There are very few expert bromoil printers."
"Has the ' gum print ' passed? If so, what has taken its place as a medium of expression for workers who think they have something to express that is beyond straight photography? "
"I think the ' gum print' has not passed and is not likely to, but to become really of greater interest as time goes on."
"Are as many gum prints' seen in exhibitions now as formerly? »
“No. The reason. I think, is that some of the best workers in the medium are not interested particularly in showing their work in exhibition”
Mr. White here turned to some choice gum prints that were hanging on the walls and pointed out their good points.
"Is carbon paper now used to any extent? »
“Carbon paper is still available, and is still used, but not so much by the commercial photographers, and is probably a little less by the pastoralists because of the introduction of new processes like oil and bromoil ; but many workers have continued to new, and still use it with admirable results”
"Has ' home photography ' had any growth in popularity during the year? »
«Probably the greatest development of photography is in home photography or home-portraiture. During the lat five or six years practically every professional obliged to introduce home portraiture.
"Have there been any notable inventions in photography during the year? »
“I want to make a confession the inventions in photography are not of so much me as the development of the inventions that are still to be perfected.”
“Has the so-called» fuzzy school ' made any converts during the year, or is the tendency to go back to sharp, or sharper, prints? »
“I don’t think there is a tendency to go back to sharp or a sharper print but there has been, or there is getting to be, a better understanding of the loft focus lens."
“Has the pictorial school of photography had any influence on what may be called the chief field of photography, in its larger aspects, at present the moving-picture drama? »
«I feel that probably there pictorial photography has it greatest influence. We furl very 1 few serious film producers who do not study very carefully the construction of their pictures and the lighting of them, together with the proper motion-picture appeal the appeal of the acting They are really looking for all expressions of light and varieties of focus that the pictorial photographer has been interested in.''
"It is said that D. O. Hill, the Scotch artist, who for a while practiced photography with genuinely pictorial results, used paper negatives. Was his success due in any measure to this fact? "
"I don't think it handicapped him and in many instances I feel that it contributed to the simplification of his portraits."
"Do you recommend the use of colour filters in pictorial work? »
“I do”
“Do you recommend fast or slow plates for pictorial work? What about films ' "
"I would prefer to use whenever possible, a slow plate. Films eventually. I believe, will be the only thing used, though not necessarily film packs or roll films."
"Do you mean that the glass plate will be discarded and cut most be used! Is not the fact that most practical (photographers and a great advantage in Ming plates? '
“Of course the advantage of the glass plate is that it is easier to handle out a good thick celluloid film is almost as easy to handle and these films are mainly filed. They are not breakable (and they are being made now in all the various emulsions. Their great advantage is in their lack of weight and their non-halation qualities. A great many photographers use burdened -with plates and the filing and adoring o( them become a .big problem."
“Have any improvements in cameras been made during the year!”
"As I see it cameras have been improved in the direction of the need of the pictorial photographer in that they have longer bellows extension and larger front-boards and are constructed for stability.
As the photographer is working more and more in the open, this is necessary."
“What kind of a camera do you recommend for pictorial works?'
“Personally I feel that every photographer should first learn to photograph with a view camera. As his work develops he finds that it is a matter of getting his inspiration from incidents of life rather than building up his compositions in front of a view camera. Here is where the reflex camera is a great help.''
“Then you recommend the reflex type of camera for serious pictorial work? »
"Yes, I do."
“Would you fit type of camera with a soft-focus lens?”
“Yes, and also with an anastigmatic"
"Have any new lenses been put on the market in 1918? »
“Nose that I know of."
"What do you think of the use of the soft-focus lens generally in pictorial work? »
"I think if pictorial photography were suddenly robbed of the with focus lens it would be a catastrophe."
"Can the same results be secured with the anastigmatic lens by throwing it slightly out of focus?’
"No, for the results obtained with the soft-focus lens are due to its construction."
"What size camera do yon recommend for pictorial work? »
"I think the tendency of the pictorial worker has been to use too large a view camera. It has been demonstrated that size does not determine the artistic value of a picture. I would recommend a camera that is not a burden to the person using it."
"Do you recommend workers to make enlargements from a small sized negative for exhibition purposes? And, if so, what size enlargement do you prefer? "
"I should feel that the work above 11 x 14 is a mistake generally, And that a picture can be just as beautiful and in the long run more beautiful when it is kept within the dimensions of the whole plate ' 6½ x 8½ ins."
“Do you recommend the working up of negatives for pictorial effect?”
“My preference is for photographs that have not been worked up. but if a man in successful in doing this to the extent of losing sight of the manipulation in the compacted picture I see no reason why it should not be done, and I think it has been done with success by some good workers."
“Do you object generally, to manipulation or ' dodging ' of prints or negatives as tending to produce hybrid results?"
"I feel that the practice of doctoring negatives is a bail one, but to achieve a result, if it is well done, it may be justifiable."
"What is the mind approved fashion of mounting prints this year!”
"The most approved fashion is the one that was established many years ago in the presentation of etchings and engravings a white or slightly towel mat sometimes with a ' countersunk centre.' "
“Do you think that an ambitious amateur who desires to do good work can best improve his methods by studying exhibitions, or by studying books on art aim composition? "
“I should say that the by the broke on art and composition are of little value without the exhibitions and that if worked together the book is made more valuable by the exhibition and the exhibition more valuable by the look but the combination is absolutely necessary to achieve result. The tendency very often is that in continued study of books or an exhibition rather satisfies the worker, and he does not devote himself to his own problems of creative work."
"What is the greatest, weakness in the work of the young photographer and how can he best overcome it? "
"I think the greatest weakness of the young worker is the lack of something to express. He is too much interested in the photo- graph for the sake of the photograph alone that is, in the medium or in the taking of the photograph itself. The photograph should is press something."
"Just what do you mean, Mr. White, by 'expressing some thing’? "
"You get down to a very important point. The expression in a photograph may come from what we might call the design of the photograph or the distribution of light and dark to produce a visual sensation, just as a fine rug or piece of lace gives us a satisfaction in design, an expression in design. We can also introduce that into the making of a portrait, and embody not only a representation of the person's features, but create at the same time an interesting design or a better distribution of the parts of a portrait to make it convincing and definite."
"Do you mean that an amateur should go out into the fields with a preconceived idea of finding something to express, of making a pattern or doing something ' original ‘? "
"He should go out into the fields with an open eye and open mind to be moved to an expression of his appreciation of pattern, his appreciation of tone, of values, etc. Let him leave the mind open, and that will tell him what to express. He gets his inspiration from Nature, and he contributes to Nature just so much as he has of knowledge of photography, knowledge of composition, knowledge of tone values he expresses himself that way. I do not believe he should go with a preconceived idea of what he is going to get. He should be moved by his subject. If he is not, he will become blind to the most beautiful aspects of Nature. That is the interesting thing of Nature; the changing light and shadow arc never twice the same. The light is continually changing, and he has combinations and variations that a man with a preconceived idea will miss, and in photography that is the most impressive thing that it can record those subtleties."
"Do you recommend workers to send only new photographs to the exhibitions? In other words, should a worker try to get new subjects continually, or send his older, and perhaps better, work in more limited amount?"
"It would be better to send his older work and keep the new photographs- at home until he has studied them carefully."
"Do you regard photography as giving fair scope to the art impulse in people who have that impulse but are -unable to devote their time to painting, etching, or other graphic art?»
"The question really expresses the idea that photography is supposed to be taken up when they cannot do the other thing, which I feel is a mistake. Photography is an expression, not necessarily as important or vital as the others, but it is an expression, and it can be used along with the others as 'well .as alone."
"In other words, you feel that photography islands on its own merits? »
"I feel that it stands on its own merits absolutely."
"What, in your opinion, is -the distinction between an amateur and a professional photographer? »
"I think the distinction between the amateur and professional photographer is difficult to draw. The greatest distinction that I can see is when the word amateur is applied so that it reveals the love of the amateur for his 'work rather than the sense of the duties involved in it. That is what the amateur gets out of the work; the professional's aim is too often .what the can get out of it in the sale of his products."
"Can the pictorial photographer make a living in America under present conditions, or is the photographer who wishes to make a fair income to be recommended to confine himself to so-called 'com aerial ' or 'professional' work?"
“Being a pictorial photographer does not necessarily prevent this making a living. The pictorial photographer, if he is a good one, is naturally concerned -more in .producing a result than in marketing the result; and as a consequence sometimes he suffers. The pictorial photographer in reality ought to be a financial success, for the tendency is strongly toward the development of the work in that direction."
“Will the ending of the war have a favorable effect on 'the future of pictorial photography and on the pictorial photographers of America? »
"I should say very decidedly yes. It will naturally liberate a great many repressed spirits, and the very liberation will express it self by bringing the worker in closer touch with nature, and the results will show this. I feel that the development after the war is going to be in the direction of art expression. As a specific instance, my own ton, which was sick and tired of photography in general, has manifested greater interest in ft since he has been in the Army in
France, through coming in contact with the old chateaux and the interesting art treasures that are has seen. He has developed a greater respect not only for art, but for photography; and this angle instance has doubtless been repeated in thousands of cases on the part of oar soldiers in France."