Show I COURSE IN FOR AMATEURS NOTES AND HINTS TOR FORi AMATEURS URS BY F DUNDAS TODD Notes and hints Well the average man is in need of ofa a whole lot of them but the problem Is which particular ones does he need most at the present moment The field of photography is isa isa a abig big one and some particular phase of it may be brought under his notice to today today today day that may not interest him the least little bit and yet a month later he lie might be willing to give consider considerable considerable able to have the information placed laced in iii his hand Again I do not believe much in giving hints I much prefer speak speaking speaking speaking ing plainly and telling how to do certain certain certin tain tin things On the other hand a gen general general eral test like this a man if he feels like it getting in a few body bod blows on matters that do not justify just Y a special article For instance I should like Uke to get after the average amateur photographer photographer photographer on his craze for what he dignifies dignifies fies flea with the title of experimenting He buys a camera camelS to make pictures but before he has had it a month one would think his sole aim in life was to become an expert eq ert photographic chem chemist chemIst 1st He exposes plates no longer to have a record of something that inter interested interested ested him but that he may have a necessary necessary necessary essary adjunct in trying a new devel developer developer developer oper He makes prints to experiment with a new brand of paper or a new toning bath He thinks he talks he dreams about his experiments and hon lion estly believes that some someday day he is going to hit unon a combination that will automatically produce fine pictures As Asa a matter master of fact he is wandering In a perfect bog and is doomed to stay there until he dies photographically or until somebody lifts him out and seats him on firm ground Now among my readers there are certain ertain to be thou thousands thousands thousands sands of this type and I 1 want to hand handout handout handout out to them a few old facts In order or er to bring them to their photographic Dh senses I think there is more stupid nonsense talked about developers than anything else Thousands upon thousands claim as a result of experiments that they can work wonders by b modifying the developing solution and talk wisely I about saving this plate platO and that th t plate I I by their skill and judgment Rubbish Their experiments x erh are not worth the price of the water used in making them In experimental work the rule is one variation at a time all other fac factors factors tors tore being constant So when a man exposes a a plate today on a snow scene and develops with one chemical he introduces a large number of variations lighting length of exposure temper temperature temperature temperature of solutions and duration of de development development development How can any sane man draw definite conclusions from such a mixture as this Of recent years a few fewa a very few men have devoted much time and thought to this problem m and their conclusions are now in the hands of the public for its consideration As a matter pf pi fact they the find given a certain certain tain tam exposure on a plate that it is real really really really ly immaterial what particular devel developer l oper is used whether pyro pyre metal hy or anything else if the negatives be all brought to the same density So much then for hoping to underexposures or overexposures ures urea by the Ute use of a certain developer They h hee e also proved that once de development t i ban as started it is utterly im impossible impossible possible to modify the final result by tinkering With the developer deelo er So all this talk of saving ving an n overexposed plate by the addition of this that or the theother theother theother other thing is pure nonsense if devel devet development has bas started 1 Before the condi condition condition condition tion of the exposure e ie is discovered They do however say that modification is possible to a limited jf if the error of exposure Is known before develop ment meat has been begun But it requires a man to be a scientific expert to know exactly what to do to get the effect he in a case of overexposure ov n and expert or not lie he cannot make any im improvement improvement improvement provement in a case caso of underexposure With the average Rye rage man the only modification modIfication cation possible is in the duration of de development development the principle being that pro prolonged prolonged prolonged longed Immersion in the solution tends to give negatives while fl flat t negatives are got by b curtailing the thc th time In the bath He was a shrew observer who many man long years ago remarked that the character of a negative was determined the moment the shutter was closed clo ed I think I 1 have said enough to demonstrate that hia his fooling around with developers is a 1 very unprofitable occupation for any thinking individual The formula recommended by the is quite good enough for forme me for I know he has In his employ highly trained chemists and that they have made hundreds of systematic st matic ex cx experiments before recommending particular combination that comes with the plates On the other hand I would be just as content to take any of the readymade solutions supplied in the stores if It I were certain they were com corn compounded compounded pounded of pure chemicals The technical side of photography is becoming every day more and more an exact science and print after print is brought under the domain of law la In my early photographic phot days dayn I 1 was vas as assured assured assured I had to feel the correct ex cx exposure exposure and that if I went a little wrong I could compensate in develop development development development ment I 1 never yet in all alt my photo photographic photographic photographic graphic life felt the exposure or any other kind of exposure but I 1 soon lOon found myself calculating it from irom my past experience Exposure is as much a matter of natural law as are tir ar arI I the combining principles of chernic s si i and there is no excuse for tor hap b hazard when making a picture I 1 need I not say one word about my own tables which are probably well known to many of my readers I might talk experiments in intoning intoning intoning toning baths and with brands of pa IO paper i iper per as freely as a I have talked talk d about developing de but hilt I 1 shall content myself with suggesting one particular line It Itis ItI Itis is this have every evet e ery lath bath from the first I washing cashing water nater to the last at exactly the same temperature say 65 der d de e r grees One on eo of the finest finet printers P f inters I 1 know assures me that this is the secret of her success There is no po guesswork at atY any Y stage but absolutely uniform con Wa Every bath just 65 66 6 degrees the same strength of toning solution every time tune just the same number of prints in each quantity of water and kept there for just so many minutes I by the clock And the same thing in bath The results r are prints of a beautifully even purple tone that I have haver hover seen seen surpassed If you yoo bought a camera c mera to make maIte pic plc pictures pictures tures please stay by your original in intention intention intention Anybody can learn the ordin ordinary ordinary ordinary ary routine of photography in three months but It takes a lifetime to learn I to mak pictures Here is a magnificent field for experiment think of or It Itan itan 1 an occupation for life and a pleas pleasant pleasant pleasant ant one at that Every exposure expo ure a problem problem problem lem I mave made many thousands in my my life Ute but I never found the condi conditions exactly the same in any two of them There was always something dif different different l I ferent that had to be figured on and andI I I I you all understand the pleasure theM the I It 1 LJ I I I is in meeting a difficulty and by ingen ingenuity ingenuity ingenuity II surmounting it And that reminds me mae that I 1 have a aI little trouble of my own on hand h nd just I now Five vears years aeo airo o I saw saw Niagara for the first time My friends thought they were fine but they did not please me You Ton all know the average picture of Niagara beautiful effects of water but miserable rendering of foliage and rock black smudges nothing more The next summer I tried with matic plates and und a color screen I saw some improvement nent but still the same ji I miserable ejects ts in leaves and stone j The next time I 1 went to JI left mv my camera C nU At home hom It be beC C I was indifferent but simply be because because because cause I had not solved d a problem that stared me in the face f tf and was in my mind almost every everyday day y I knew it was wan within the power of plates to give me the effect I wanted pro provided provided provided vided I got the right kind of color screen Now as I 1 have h ve hinted merely i ito to go out and try different color screens on different dUl ent landscapes is no noway noway way to experiment lIm but it was necessary necessary necessary sary to get a ft very definite scientific i t idea of what I wanted and just as ex exact exact exact act a means of proving when I 1 had got ot rot the right answer It has taken me five years to t collect the data I 1 wanted and I 1 am now making the apparatus for my experiments I 1 expect to have havethe havethe the answer to my problem before b fore I 1 make a single exposure on a natural subject I tell you U this just to il II illustrate lustrate how completely every phase of technical photography falls faU Bunder under the laws Jaws of science by individuals individual ignorant or of o even ven the elementary principles of science are aref worthless f But it is different in the realms of art The purpose of a picture is to give pleasure and if it does that for even five minutes it has fulfilled its mission Its maker has made something worth making even although within a week he may have learned a little more And Andl so on always happy over over a picture to today today day clay seeing its imperfections tomorrow but with pleasure for there is the sat satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction l of something attempted sOmething done always aJ a little more learned always a little more to be bened learned lerned ned All along I have tried to impress my i readers with the idea id a that a camera has no brains but brains have been ex cx expended expended upon it Often do I take up a anew anew anew new instrument and for half an hour houra admire a the brain n power displayed in the mechanical ingenuity it exhibits even in little details And then my equanimity I is upset by getting half a dozen let letters letters letters asking askin me m which is the best cam camera era ert Any Anyone one of orthe the instruments on the market today selling at 15 would have len ben b n considered wonderful value for forthe forthe forthe the money a dozen years ago at al almost almost almost most ten times the price And yet ret peo I I j pie le keep on thinking they must get 1 finer tools in order to make finer pic pie pictures tures tools tool s are undoubtedly good g od odI I am fond of them myself but every I outfit on the market today is a fine tool and any one who cannot make makeI fine work with it must blame himself I and not the instrument I have in my day made a few a very ery few good pho photographs phoI photographs I and nearly all of them were made with a cheap nameless French Frenchi j i lens One of them I 1 submit as the only i illustration this week with the remark i I that I spent three months thinking about it in a general way and three I weeks in a very special way before I Imade Imade Imade made the attempt i concludes co s the ilie Course in Photography hy No examinations will be beset beset beset set in this th course |