Evening star. [volume], December 21, 1947, Page B-8, Image 41

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Camera Angl es
By Alexander J. Wedderburn
Curator of Photography, tho Smithsonian Institution
Now that you own a camera the natural inclination will be to load
up and try your hand at photography. On occasion this will work oul
satisfactorily, but as a general rule it is wise to fully understand th<
workings of your camera first.
A complete set of instructions, fully illustrated, is usually packed
with each new camera. A careful study of this data will pay big
dividends jater on wnen yuu me
ready to make the first exposures.
Otherwise, a fumble at the critical
moment will undoubtedly result in
annoyance, embarassment and a
spoiled negative.
Before loading the camera go
through all the motions of taking a
picture until you are perfectly con
fident that you can follow through
from the first turn of the film
winding knob to the final click of
the shutter.
Some Valuable Tips.
Of primary importance to every
photographer is a knowledge of the
relationship of the shutter speed and
lens opening to the type of film that
he is using. Each type of film has
a stated emulsion speed. This speed
rating is a simple indication of the
reaction of the particular film to a
given amount of light. Some films
that are faster than others are
particularly adapted to use under
poor lighting conditions and for
high speed photography. The slower
films are for everyday use under
normal lighting conditions. The best
policy for the beginner is to select
one type of film and stick to it ex
cept under unusual conditions of
lighting or where certain films are
more suitable to a specific need.
Operation of the shutter and dia
nnntmlp Ko nrootiooH
*■ * “ © * * • ~— - <
until it is second nature to set them
quickly and accurately, for upon the
mastery of these operations will de
pend the success or failure of the
pictures that mean most to the
photographer.
At this point the question of de
termining accurate exposure nat
urally arises. This is best and most
simply done with one of the several
types of exposure meters available.
Most commonly used are those that
measure reflected light, those that
measure incident light, a combina
tion of these two, and the extinction
type meter. These will be discussed
as to their relative merits in a
future article.
Other accessories which are de
sirable but not indispensable are
the tripod and the flashgun. To se
cure a picture that is pleasing from
the standpoint of composition and
free from camera movement, the
tripod is a valuable adjunct. This
is particularly true when attempt
ing landscape and architectural
shots. To secure the fine detail
that enhances pictures of this
nature it is necessary that the
diaphragm opening be closed as far
as possible considering the factors
of film speed and available light.
This, of course, will decrease the
amount of light passing through the
lens and require a longer exposure.
At exposures of more than 1/50 sec
ond the danger of camera movement
and a blurring of the negative is
greatly increased if the camera is
hand-held. Considering that the
more effective landscape shots are
made with a cross lighting and a
correspondingly greater length of
exposure, it will bb well to consider
the addition of the tripod to the
/
busy on the big day. And for extra swell snaps—
bring your exposed rolls to us for fine photofinishing.
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! list of accessories. This also holds
true in the case of portrait photog
raphy and in taking still-life pic
; tures.
Insurance Against Disappointment
The flash-gun is an asset at times
when lighting is poor, at night, and
is an excellent shadow chaser in
brilliant sunshine. And when the
baby becomes cross and fretful after
a siege of strong photoflood lights—
turn them off and get some of the
most natural and pleasing baby pic
tures you ever saw with the flash
gun. It must be remembered, how
ever, that the use of the flash-gun
adds still another operation to the
process of readying for the exposure
and it is advisable to put off its use
until proficiency has been achieved
with the camera alone.
In spite of a good camera, lens,
exposure meter and the exercise of
great care, your first attempts at
photography may turn out far from
pleasing. This may be the result of
any one of many reasons, but is
usually the product of nothing more
than inexperience. To overcome
this difficulty for once and all it is
necessary to make a few notes at
the time of each exposure. The
facts necessary to put the finger on
the cause of failure (if equipment
is in good shape) are simply these:
Speed of film, shutter speed, dia
phragm opening and light reading.
Tf vnn nntp these four items after
each exposure it will be relatively
simple to compensate for mistakes
in calculation when making an
other picture under the same condi
tions. Better still, when using new
. equipment it is advisable to use a
roll of film for test purposes only,
shooting the same scenes at differ
ent exposures and comparing the
resulting negatives. In the future
similar scenes made under like con
ditions may then be taken with a
feeling of assurance. This proce
dure will be the best kind of insur
ance against disappointments when
the result of your work really counts.
OES Activities
In Local Chapters
Special notices:
William F. Hunt Chapter—Tues
day, 5:30 p.m., rehearsal at Masonic
Temple.
Bethlehem Chapter —' Tuesday,
Christmas program. Bring toys and
canned food.
Unity Chapter—Friday, reception
for officers and party.
Miriam Chapter—Monday, Christ
mas party.
Federal Chapter — Thursday,
meeting called off.
Good Will Chapter — Friday,
Christmas party and reception for
officers.
Temple Chapter—Monday, initia
tion. Bring toy for Children's Aid
Society.
Lebanon Chapter—Tuesday, 7:30
p.m., Christmas party.
This print, an outsanding example of the Bromoil process, is the work of Joseph Petrocelli
i (1865-1928), internationally famous exponent of the control-process school.
—Photo by the Smithsonian Institution.
—
Amateurs Revive
Older Processes
For Print Control
Photographic control processes,
which fell by the wayside during
the period when speed was the by
word in every darkroom, are coming
back among the amateurs. Each
year more and more prints made
by the older methods are showing
up in the salons and contests.
While it is true that control proc
esses such as carbro, carbon, fresson,
gum, bromoil and bromoil transfer
require a great deal of patience from
the print maker, they are well worth
consideration by the photographer
who is serious enough about his
work to want it to be outstanding
and distinctly individual.
Control printing is a boon to those
who are not entirely satisfied with
the results obtained through the
purely mechanical recording of a
scene on film. Through proper con
trol, objects can be removed from
a scene and the introduction of ad
ditional matter is limited only by
the skill and imagination of the
individual.
For instance, an objectionable tel
ephone pole or fence can be elim
inated in the finished work and
a salon print produced from an oth
erwise faulty composition. Clouds
may be added where an otherwise
excellent negative is spoiled by a
bald sky, and other possibilities are
unlimited.
Lens Care Important
In Gold Weather
With cold weather coming up, care
should be taken to avoid subjecting
the lens of your camera to excessive
temperature changes just before
taking a picture.
Taking the lens out into subfreez
ing temperatures from a heated
house will result in a fogging or a
collection of moisture on the lens
surface. If a picture is taken with
the lens thus obscured, the resulting
image will not be elear.
To be on the safe side, always
check your lens before making the
first pictures on a cold day. Should
fogging exist, wipe the moisture film
away with a piece of lens tissue or,
in an emergency, a soft cloth. Never
clean a lens with your fingers or
with any harsh or abrasive substance.
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Improvising in the Dark Room
The best regulated darkroom will
run out of paper developer on oc
casion. This usually happens on the
week end or at night when it is
impossible to obtain fresh supplies.
If it happens to you, try improvis
ing with some of your film de
veloper.
Although there is definite dis
advantage of slowness in film de
velopers—especially among the fine
grain group—satisfactory results can
be obtained with care and patience.
In using a fine grain developer,
such as DK-20, a normally exposed
print will develop in about five min
utes at 70 degrees with a slightly
warm tone. To avoid the possibility
of chemical fog, an addition of po
tassium bromide is advised. It also
must be remembered that a print
developed in a slow solution will
suffer from light fog if the ordinary
safe light is used. This may be
avoided by developing in total dark
ness for several minutes and there
after using the safe light only occa
sionally to check the development.
An alternate plan is to speed de
velopment time by cutting the
amount of water the formula speci
fies for the regular solution. Addi
tion of two ounces of a 10 per cent
solution of the potassium bromide
for each 32 ounces of developer will
compensate for any tendency of
the paper to fog.
For rich, black tones and faster
development, DK-50 will do a job
similar to your D-72 except for the
longer time in. the tray.
If you do not object to a loss of
contrast in the print, developing
time can be cut further by doubling,
tripling or quadrupling the exposure
of the paper.
These suggestions are not ad
vanced as normal procedure, but
only to be used in an emergency.
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At Christmas
Christmas is a day that calls for
pictures and is a special occasion
justifying the use of color film be
cause of the highly decorative ap
pearance of the home. But with
either color or black and white,
special attention to the type and
sequence of snapshots will provide
a complete pictorial story of the
day, rather than just unrelated pic
tures.
In such a sequence, one might
take pictures of decorating the
home, setting up the tree, hanging
the stockings, the welcoming of
guests on Christmas, the Christmas
dinner and some pictures of gift
opening.
Individually, each provides inter
esting subject material and as a
collection, they provide a vivid re
minder of the high lights of the
day when viewed any time in the
future.
The day is one especially favor
able for candid, unstudied expres
sion by children. The happy con
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receiving makes a. natural back
ground. With modern film, flash
bulbs and flood lights, exposures are
easily made. When using a fire
place background the fire is easily
faked by using a floodlight in the
fireplace, directing its light on the
subjects. Gay wrappings, tree or
naments and a profusion of winter
decoration awaken color possibili
ties.
The alert cameraman will never
lack for picture material with a
house full of children and grownups
concentrating on the spontaneous
activity of the day.
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