PAGE 269 Looks like the D. T's. but it isn't. Mr. R. W. Goodspeed, 130 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass.. made it with his camera. Read about it in his letter on this page. The negative is placed upon the mask and centered, the other plate is then bound together with two rubber bands at each end, and the whole thing is placed in the camera, a 3% x 5% Premo, and placed against the opening in the illuminating box. The easel is just a piece of white bristol board with a backing of corrugated board that is fastened to the wall. Upon this easel I pin the Bromide paper. The accompanying diagram shows what the outfit looks like when completed. Should the above prove interesting to any reader who is somewhat like myself regarding constructive ability, and should he desire to know anything further regarding the abovementioned apparatus, I shall be glad to try and answer anything that he may care to ask, but let me warn you beforehand that I am just a beginner in the realms of photography, my experience being of only a few months' duration. So kindly ask for just the things pertaining to the machine, and enclose stamped envelope for reply. List and approximate cost of all things going into the make-up of my enlarger: White Pine Stain. Crackfiller $0.25 .15 .15 5.00 2.20 Extension Cord and Socket..... 1.50 $9.25 *Any camera or kodak can be used provided you can place the negative in or near the back, and the length of focus is long enough to permit the various sizes of desired enlargements to be carefully focussed. (Editor's Note.-Mr. Lane's address is 1615 Clinton Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.) HOW HE DID IT My Dear Editor: 130 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass., I inclose a print showing part of the Mechanics Building, Boston. This photo does not show the terrible results of the Germans with their aeroplanes dropping bombs in their passage over the city, nor does it show damage done with their big guns, for, as we know, they are not waging war over here and never will, we hope, but the aforesaid photo does show the result of being careless and allowing a perfectly good negative to dry over a very hot radiator. I thought this might interest other readers of The A. P. W. Sincerely, R. W. GOODSPEED. Bromide prints which are to be sulphidetoned must be fully fixed, otherwise on application of the sulphide dark stains, which are quite incurable, will manifest themselves. In fact, a solution of sodium sulphide applied to the finished and washed print is a test of complete fixation. Of great importance is thorough washing of a print, as if any trace of hypo is left in the print it forms with the bleaching bath a reducing solution. This usually shows itself by the tone being unpleasantly yellow, and the shadows feeble, but in bad cases the image may be visibly and irregularly weakened. PAGE 270 PHOTOGRAPHER'S WEEKLY READER'S CRITICISM No. 118 WINNING CRITICISM In the judgment of a picture the three elements that contribute to the success of a picture must be considered, viz., lighting, technique, and composition. The lighting is fine for this kind of a picture. The technique too is all that could be desired, as the snow has all the appearance of the beautiful and the trees are rendered as trees and not as mere black streaks. But the material for an excellent composition is spoiled by the division of interest between the structure in the background and the fence, which tends to lead the eye out of instead of into the picture, which it would do if it could be made to curve the other way. The dark portion of tree trunk in lower left hand corner should be touched out of the negative. This is one of the very few pictures that could not be benefitted by trimming.-W. E. Ogden, R. 1, Wallingford, Ky. It would have helped to place the emphasis more definitely in the right-hand portion had Mr. Hayden, as suggested by Mr. Hickman below, made a path in the foreground snow. -Editor. FROM OTHER CRITICISMS Mr. Hayden has made a mistake, common to nearly all amateurs, by trying to include too much in his picture. The secret of artistic work is simplicity. The two prominent features of the picture are too nearly equal in interest. The line of the fence leads the eye toward the right to nothing. The house stands by itself on the left. The eye jumps awkwardly from one to the other. One of the two should be subordinated. If the road is the principal objective the highlight on the roof of house is jarring and out of place. By covering the house with a finger or bit of paper, the picture seems to draw together. If, however, the house is the objective, the camera should have been placed farther over to the right (?), in order to subordinate the roadway and fence. As it stands the picture could be improved by trimming a quarter of an inch from the left and bottom.-Lewis A. Harlow, 36 Belcher Circle, East Milton, Mass. The composition of "Winter Splendor," is well arranged and the general effect is very pleasing. The charm of the freshly fallen snow and the naked branches against the dull sky is well brought out. The relative values of snow and sky are good. If a later hour in the day had been chosen, with a corresponding increase of exposure. the pleasing shadow effect would have been heightened and the quality of the snow in the foreground improved. It would be an advantage to trim off the objectionable tree trunk at the left and also the rock at the right, since they add nothing to the pictorial effect of the print.-K. F. Chamberlain, Cornwall, Conn. The criticism print by Mr. Hayden seems to prove that a ray filter can be successfully dispensed with in snow pictures. However, Mr. Hayden was fortunate in catching the trees and bushes covered with snow. My luck is usually to find it all on the ground. The rendering of the snow on the trees is very good but the foreground is a blank monotonous mass. The only relief is in the "He Stopped to Have His Picture Took" By Joseph K. Irvine, Data: 20 Kodak Jr.. Honorable Commend very weak shadows. This weakness is caused Mr. Hayden could have shown the fore- The triangular section of a tree-trunk at the lower left hand corner should be trimmed away or blocked out.-Wilfred Hickman. I have just a word to say about a magazine WINNING ANSWER TO QUESTION What is the function of condensers in en- Condensers are used to distribute the light from the artificial illuminants used in enlarging lanterns evenly over the negative. They consist usually of two plano-convex lenses mounted with the convex surfaces touching and the plane surfaces parallel. A ground glass is sometimes used with them, but for convenience in focussing only. sers themselves are quite capable of doing the The condenwork. No condensers are needed with the daylight enlarging apparatus. Even lighting is easily secured by means of the 45° reflector. artificial light, too, of more than average With strength, the condensers may be eliminated, as the loss of light which diffusion through ground glass entails may not seriously affect the time of exposure. The Kodak Enlarging outfit, recently put on the market, has no condenser. For enlarging from large plates it is evident that extremely bulky condensing lenses would be required. The Cooper-Hewitt people, whose mercury vapor lamps are well known, have recently introduced a new type tube in the form of an M; very little diffusion is required with this, and it may be used for the largest plates likely to be worked. Another way is to put up a 45° reflector to intercept the rays from arc or thousand-watt PHOTOGRAPHER'S WEEKLY he admits, and adding, "it is composed of horizontal lines and it is superfluous." Isn't that reason enough for objecting? We might ask, when is a background not a background? For this particular picture, Mr. Baxter himself gives the best answer. I am sorry Mr. Baxter's nerves have been so affected, but as one who has criticised, and been criticised, I do not agree with him that there has been a continuous diet of knocks. I believe the critics have been quite fair. I have not always agreed with everything each one has said, but now that other criticisms besides the winning one are published, no one person's opinion can be considered as final. The critics invariably agree on the main faults of a picture, differing only in minor details. I am sure the readers have benefited by these criticisms, especially the cameraists whose pictures have been placed at he tender mercy of the "jovial crew of hammer artists," to quote Mr. Baxter. Pardon me for taking up your time, but I could not let Mr. Baxter go unanswered. Perhaps others feel the same way. Yours very truly, JASPER SPOCK. (One of several letters of similar import. -Ed.) A TAP CONNECTION A good connection between the sink tap and a rubber tube leading to print washers, etc., may be made with two of the anti-splash filters for taps (sold at 5c each). These slip easily on to each other and form a watertight connection. One is put permanently on the tap, and the other fixed permanently by its exit end to the rubber tube, which can be done very easily with a twist of wire. When the washer is to be used, the anti-splash on the tube is simply slipped on to the one on the tap. Incidentally, the double wire gauze with which they are fitted does a certain amount of filtering, and rids the water of any solid impurities. A washer, which works admirably, can be extemporized out of any big basin by taking a piece of thin muslin or net, standing the basin in the middle of it in the sink with the prints in it, and drawing up the edges of the muslin all round till it fits the edge of the basin, and tying it round the tap. A little arrangement will show the best position for a small stream of water from the tap to fall so as to give a constant circulation to the water, and so keep the prints apart and moving. allows the water to flow away, but prevents the prints from washing out of the vessel. The muslin PHOTOGRAPHER'S WEEKLY PAGE 273 I Local Manipulation" F the human mind would only stay If uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, doubly so lies the head of the poor amateur photographer in these opening days of spring, when the scales of winter are dropping from his eyes but the habits of winter have him still in thrall. I want to get up and go. I want to break away from this eternal grind, this grubbing after a few small peanuts. I want to take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, where, with cares forgot and perhaps a camera slung over my shoulders, I may follow the trail through regions all unknown. It is so different from the way I felt a few short weeks ago. Then I was plugging along and feeling quite contented, surveying the accomplishments of the day with a sense of pride and satisfaction, and planning out some more accomplishments like them with coldblooded common sense. Everything fitted together in a plan that looked delightful. But now the whole business is a bore. I wish I were quit of it. I am fed up with myself and feel like a larva that is sick of being a larva and is already wishing to be a moth. Not that I see any prospect of becoming a moth or a butterfly or anything like that. But I wish I had wings. And I wish there were a river of Lethe in our backyard where I could take a dip and forget the past and the present and be a different person for a while. I have a friend who spent three years as a naturalist in the Rockies, packing his grub and stuff and going off into the wild country for three whole months at a time. I should like to be doing that. The trouble with me is that I am too much civilized. And I know too much. My head is full of a lot of stuff that isn't worth the shelf-room. And it is worth much less than that in spring-spring with the mud dried up, and the wild-flowers peeping out, and the robins and bluebirds here, and the soft evening air. What does all this civilized stuff amount to when the spring begins to stir? Sometimes the soldier boy thinks that his lot is hard, but don't tell me. comes along and that restless spirit gets going When the spring inside you, you realize that there isn't very much we work for which is really big enough for a man to give his life to. The big things are not things that take place in offices and scheming brains. These are pretty small, the best of them, and the big things are the great elemental truths and facts and forces, and the soldier is the man who has them for his life. He can be contented when the spring comes round. It's the soul of us that cries out in the spring. And to us who know the pleasures of the camera it cries out just a little stronger, for hiking about in the open in pursuit of pictures has kept us just a little less dried up, a little more susceptible to the abiding beauties of the natural world. We are more likely to feel the pull of spring-nature's annual protest against a mechanical civilization. We are more alive to that ancient saying, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" The soul of us-that is it. The soul of us is crying out against starvation. And we have an advantage, too. When other restive creatures feel this discontent, theirs, for the most part, must be but a vague and formless yearning, while for us there is a measure of peace and renovation in a camera ramble. O camera carissima, what souls thou saveth! The Intensifer. Don't forget to send us your personal fellow readers. ,, |