FIVE MINUTE TALK ON DEVELOPING AND PRINTING.

BY J. A. HAYES.

OWADAYS' no amateur photographer who has passed beyond the snapshot stage and has his eyes open expects to find a camera that will serve equally well for all the diversified subjects that come his way. The field is too large and the science of photography is no exception to the rules which govern the trend towards specializing that obtains when an art has passed from its infancy. The man who has sized up the situation equips himself with at least three cameras, say a small film, a 4x 5 plate and a larger plate camera. The tendency seems to be towards moderation in the size of cameras and in the increasing popularity of the small film camera fitted with an anastigmat so that enlargements can be made which equal the results obtained by the more cumbersome and more expensive plate apparatus above 61⁄2 x 81⁄2 inches.

Speaking about specializing reminds us of the revival in the use of tank development. We say "revival" advisedly for it had been in use long before the present craze. I don't mean to disparage the use of plate tank development; there are too many satisfied users to stand up as one man and call me to account, but I rise to remark as in the case of the purchase of cameras that tank development occupies a niche of its own, and that it cannot entirely usurp the place of the tray. If your wife were baking I'm inclined to think that she would not entrust the angel cake or the charlotte russes to take their chances with the batch of biscuits in the same oven, at the same "time and temperature." Indeed I know many amateurs who would not come within seeing distance of a tank. But this is the other extreme. In this connection let me suggest a developing table which I think will prove as useful to my fellow-craftsmen as it has been to myself. Cut out a square opening in your table or bench, insert a piece of red or clear glass, and put a red electric bulb underneath. Now buy clear glass trays and you can inspect your negatives in the bath without touching them. This is not to be sniffed at, especially in hot weather. I use 8 x 10 trays and develop four 4 x 5 plates at once, inserting each at intervals and withdrawing them when sufficiently developed so that no two plates are calling for particular attention at the logical moment. When questioned about my method of development I defend myself by claiming the "eclectic" system as my choice so that I avoid friction with both schools.

Another stunt which amateurs ought to take advantage of is the drying of negatives with alcohol and artificial heat. Swab off the excess of water, pour alcohol, remove excess, and hold over a jet or Welsbach burner, or set up a row of negatives and let an electric fan blow the heat against them. I have dried 5 x 7 plates this way in twenty minutes and it is remarkable how much

heat they can take without melting the film. In fact the film gets as hard almost as the glass itself. This quick drying stunt is often desirable when one wants to print the same afternoon that exposure is made.

Have you ever been "up against" a big job of postal cards and looked wistfully at your printing frame and then at the clock? My advice is "Punch's." Don't! I pitied a friend of mine the other day when he confessed that he had printed four thousand postal cards before an arc light, with the aid of two printing frames, passing each back in turn to a boy who filled and unloaded them. I told him to get an old box and to insert his negative in a hole cut in one side or bottom, lay box down on bench, with negative horizontal, place an electric bulb in box directly beneath negative, and put a pack of cards on his left and an empty box to receive printed cards on his right, feeding the cards one by one which are exposed a given time for a given strength of developer, which of course, must be preserved for developing the whole batch from that negative. Don't mind about the light. With a little practice you can place a card and hold it there with your hand and withdraw it, picking it up by one corner which is bent up a trifle, without danger of making a “fuzzygraph" of it. In case the light is too weak or the negative too dense use two electric lamps instead of one. If you are compelled to use gas have the box at such an angle that the heat won't crack the negative.

Here is another printing machine which I have never seen or heard suggested anywhere, but which can hold its own with the most expensive. This one is made to accommodate postcards. Make a box whose inside measurement will be 334 inches wide, 51⁄2 inches long, and 4 inches deep. It may be minus one end and top cover. Now stand up on closed end and we shall call the other opening (that is the "top cover" side), the face of box. If your negative measures 34 x 51⁄2 it may set flush in this face, if not it may be attached with the aid of an improvised frame,-say an old printing frame. Now cut a 1⁄2 inch board, 3% x 54, to which attach two spiral compression springs long enough to push board close to negative when the whole is inserted in box. In front of negative place an electric bulb or gas jet and insert a pack of cards so that they fit snugly against negative, all face forward, under pressure of springs. It may be necessary to shield light away from top of box so that cards will not be fogged when withdrawing them from box. This can be done with a cardboard mask. A test having been made as to time and developer turn on light and watch your timepiece. At the proper time withdraw the exposed card in front. This operation throws into place another card much like the rings which the children grasp from the arm extending to a caroussel. It will be necessary to relieve the pressure with the right hand on the top of cards while the left s engaged in withdrawing exposed card.

POSTCARDS

NEGATIVE,

If conditions call for a short exposure a mask may be interposed before the negative, but I should recommend moving light away a little. For speed this printer is unique. Now if you know a little about electricity, and the wise ones find that they have to know a little of everything nowadays to get along, cut in series with your lamp a thermostatic flasher which can be bought for half a dollar or less and adjust flasher so that it will be synchronized with time of exposure, say five seconds. This means five seconds of light and five seconds of darkness which latter time will give sufficient opportunity to withdraw card and be ready for next exposure. This means 360 cards per hour and all timed accurately without using a watch. The light or lights can be so regulated that you can make the exposure to suit conditions, but experience shows that five seconds is quite long enough to wait between flashes. With a little ingenuity almost any difficulty can be overcome. I have been waiting to see a machine using this idea that will be entirely mechanical in its operation, doing away with personal attention. The flasher idea can be used equally well for hand printing.

Now for development. Let us suppose you have several hundred printed cards and you have foreseen as warned above that your developer is made up in the same proportion as that with which the test was made. Put a liberal supply of developer into a deep enameled baking pan (trays are too shallow to work comfortably), say about four inches of solution. Don't be stingy with your bromide of potash it is a sine qua non. Take a dozen cards and insert in bath one at a time taking time to "shiver" each one to avoid air bubbles and letting them fall to bottom of tray face down. When the last one has been put in "updump" the whole pack of cards and then as they build up pick them out in one, two, three order, passing each to left hand and placing each in hypo alum and acid solution, avoiding air bells here, too. A little practice will show just how many you can safely handle in developer at a time. If you enjoy seeing the image come up you have a cure for sore eyes here. Don't be afraid of prints farther down developing faster than the upper one since they have all had an equal exposure. I advise preparing a bath sufficiently large to develop the whole batch of cards at one seance rather than to be over sparing of solution or to attempt to boost up a stained bath with soda or bromide.

You will suspect that in speaking of doing work in such large quantities that I address this article to professionals, but I assure you that an amateur does not become professional by working for money alone; on the other hand no amateur brings discredit on himself by seeking to pay his expenses or by making his hobby self-supporting. When a man makes a picture that people want to buy he feels as if he is making progress in his art and if he has learned anything by reason of his experience he will do well by unselfishly disclosing these helps to his fellow-craftsmen and then aiming higher still.

FIGURE COMPOSITION.

BY SIDNEY ALLAN.

With Thirteen Illustrations and Four Diagrams.-Composition of Three or More Figures.-Headlines and Juxtaposition.-Photographic Difficulties. -A New Departure.

CHAPTER XII.

E HAVE now come to the final discussion. Those of my readers, who have not merely read but studied my papers and practically experimented with the principles I wished to convey, will be by this time familiar with what I consider the essentials of landscape and figure composition. I have very little more to add and this last paper will be largely a review of all the varied elements. of composition as applied to the accompanying illustrations.

Composition of three figures or more is largely a repetition or juxtaposition of shapes. We have repetition for instance in Figs. 129 and 136; juxtaposition in a decided fashion in Figs. 130, 131, and 132; a combination of both in Fig. 138.

Special attention should be devoted to the headline of Diag. 51. It becomes more complicated with a larger number of figures. It is either angular in tendency or curved. The Japanese artists were particularly careful as in everything pertaining to linear composition. In the three Yeddo street scenes of Shunsho we have the three forms of Diag. 53. The first one has an Oriental flavor. Our artists seldom use it. They prefer a line as in a, Diag. 54. The other two are in common use, particularly the third as seen in Fig. 136. The curved headlines, Diag. 55, are perhaps more graceful. The top one is probably the most common. Kelmer has used it in his "Two Steins," Fig. 129. The second is used by Eickemeyer, "The Dance," Fig. 138, which although made years ago can still claim of being one of the best photographic figure compositions. There should be a certain sweep and easy flow to these lines. If they are awkward the whole composition will look awkward.

Diag. 56 shows the triangular headline which is only possible in decorative designs like Abbot Thayer's "Caritas," Fig. 133. In diagram 54 I have tried to show the principle of juxtaposition. The figures are generally divided into one single figure (or two) and a group which contains the rest of the figures.

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