Editorial Notes

E TAKE pleasure in printing this month an excellent picture by Mrs. Anne A. Kreuter, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, a new reader of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES. It is entitled "The Freight Handlers," and was made on a bright, sunny day, in August, by an exposure of one-fifth of a second, about four o'clock. in the afternoon, with the diaphragm wide open. The print was made on Azo "E" Paper.

The other picture is the initial letter illustration to this note, entitled, "The Harbor," which was made on a cloudy day in June, at about half past three, with f32 stop.

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HE accompanying full page illustration is by our old friend and associate, G. Watmough Webster. It shows Hawarden Castle, in Wales, the beautiful seat of Lord Gladstone, made famous by the great Gladstone, his father, and England's Premier for so many years and terms. Mr. Webster writes as follows about the fine picture: "The picture was taken the day the present young Lord Gladstone, the great Gladstone's grandson, you know, became of age. I should have liked it without the tents; but they are not very conspicuous, and I could not dynamite them without being found out."

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HE recent prominence occupied by the oil and bromoil processes shows how great a need there is for more sound education in the first principles of art among the would-be pictorial photographers. In certain quarters it has long been the custom to sneer at such phrases as "laws of composition," etc. But the weighty words of Sir Joshua Reynolds still hold good where, in his first discourse, 1769, he says: "Every opportunity, therefore, should be taken to discountenance that false and vulgar opinion that rules are the fetters of genius. They are fetters only to men of no genius." These words happily receive striking confirmation in the brilliant address of M. R. Demachy only a few weeks ago in connection with his masterly oneman show at the Royal Photographic Society, entitled, "Three years' experience with oil printing."

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HE pregnant words of Demachy, whose work is not unknown to readers of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES, are well worth quoting: "Many people will tell you there are no rules in art. Of course, there are no rules by which a work of art may be constructed in the same way as a house may be built. Neither are there rules in art similar to the arbitrary rules of hockey or football, the breaking of which calls forth the whistle of the umpire simply because a rule has been invented, accepted, and broken. But if you examine a number of masterpieces of the most opposite schools, ancient and modern, you will notice that certain combinations of lines and certain juxtapositions of light and shade are always to be found there, while certain others are always absent, or, to speak more truly, avoided. This peculiarity is not of one school; it is of all schools and of all ages. When a painter reproaches his pupil with having introduced into his background accents of greater importance than those he has placed on the face of his model, the master does not accuse his pupil of having infringed regulation number so-and-so. He is simply calling his attention to the fact that he has inverted the natural state of affairs, and that, accordingly, his background will appear to come further forward than his foreground-an impossible effect. It is so for every art principle which we may or may not call an art. Principles of linear and atmospheric perspective, of tone values, etc., are all founded on practical experience."

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T THE Royal Photographic Society in London last month, Professor R. W. Wood delivered the lecture in memory of J. Traill Taylor, who was for so many years editor of The British Journal of Photography, and for a number of years was editor-in-chief of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES. He gave a general account of his remarkable discoveries in connection with the infra red and ultra violet rays which lie outside the region of human vision, showing numerous photographs thereby obtained, not the least interesting being certain pictures of the moon taken by means of a quartz lens coated with a thin layer of silver, which transmitted ultra violet rays but blocked out all visible rays. These pictures revealed a large mass of some hitherto unseen dark object adjoining one of the brightest craters. One naturally suggests a cast shadow, but this cannot be the explanation, because all the other ultra violet ray pictures show terrestrial objects as being devoid of shadow even in brilliant sunlight. It is of interest to record that with a lens working at, say, f8, infra red pictures of summer landscapes like moonlit or snowclad scenes were obtained with an exposure of about ten minutes in brilliant midday sunshine.

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ROM time to time the beginner asks the question as to where he can obtain a typical negative whose density contrasts are suitable for this or that particular printing process, so that he can regard this negative

as his standard when developing. That very laudable desire may far better be met by making for himself such a negative rather than by loan or purchase. Let him select a subject showing a moderate, but not excessive, measure of light and shade contrast, and expose, say, half a dozen plates upon it in good light-preferably in sunlight, with the sun to his right or left, taking care that the exposure is just, but only just, sufficient for the nearest dark part of any importance in the pictue. It now only remains to give each of these six plates different lengths of time in the same developer. For this purpose one can hardly do better than use Rodinal, of strength, let us say, 20 or 25 minims per ounce. At a temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or "thereabouts," the first of the six exposures might be developed for three minutes, the next for four minutes, and the others for five, seven, ten, and fifteen minutes. respectively. If now all six negatives are printed so as to get the best possible result with the chosen printing paper, one can easily see which of the six negatives best suits that particular printing process. A set of half a dozen such negatives would be well worth their trivial cost and trouble, as they would come in again and again for testing each new process (enlarging, lanternslide making, etc.), with which their possessor wishes to make sound practical acquaintance. It should be understood that while Rodinal is mentioned by way of example, any other non-staining developer might be employed.

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HE size of the moon (or sun) in pictorial photography-like the head of King Charles-is a topic apparently destined to recur at fairly frequent intervals in photographic gatherings. The latest phase of the question has just been mooted in connection with a photograph of the sun or moon setting behind some trees, and exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society, of London. It is well known that custom has sanctioned a moderate degree of exaggeration in the size of the sun or moon's disc as a kind of conventional aid in suggesting brightness. Now, roughly put, the diameter of the moon is, say, 2,000 miles, and her distance from the earth, say, 230,000 miles. In other words, we may say that she subtends an angle of something like half a degree. If, then, our photograph is to keep within reasonable distance of accuracy, the diameter of the moon's disc should be viewed not nearer than a hundred times this diameter. In the photograph in question the moon's diameter is between 3 inches and 4 inches. So that if we put it at 31⁄2 inches we should view it at about ten yards' distance. But at this distance the picture in question would appear insignificant on account of its size, for at such a distance the normal eye would anticipate a picture of not less than 6 feet along its shorter side. It is important to remember, when attempting moonlight-cloud effects in photography by under-exposing clouds in sunlight, that the wafer moon will at once betray its spurious origin if too large, as, indeed, it nearly always is. Allowing a good measure of artistic license, one may say that for a print designed to be viewed at 3 feet distance the diameter of the disc should not perceptibly exceed 3 inch in diameter, or, say, 8 inch for each foot between the picture and spectator.

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HE interest recently attracted to the various forms of color photography has in turn revived interest in the hand-coloring of monochrome prints on P.O.P., bromide, and other similar papers. For this purpose various liquid colors are sold by photographic dealers, but ordinary water colors (tube or pan) may be used. The following constitute a good palette: cobalt, indigo, viridian, middle cadmium, gamboge, raw and burnt sienna, raw and burnt umber, rose carmine, and, supplementary, emerald green, Indian yellow, vermilion, brown madder, vandyke brown. They should be used with water in which is dissolved a little gum arabic-i.e., a teaspoonful of the solid gum to 4 ounces of warm water. To this should be added one drop of carbolic acid, to prevent the gum water going mouldy. Preference should always be given to transparent colors, and their application should be in thin washes. To attempt a deep color in one wash is to seek trouble, for the result is almost sure to look streaky. The matt surface papers take the color more kindly than do the glossy surfaces. In the latter case the print is quite likely to refuse to take the water-color wash at all evenly without previous preparation. This may be done by brushing it over with a teaspoonful of water to which has been added two or three drops of prepared ox gall, obtainable at artists' supply stores, or one may use a half-and-half mixture of alcohol and water. Both these treatments are designed to remove a kind of greasiness which so often accompanies a smooth gelatine surface. It is, therefore, important, as far as possible, to avoid touching the face of the prints with the fingers. Before applying the color the print is well soaked in cold water, and the surface dried by laying it on a sheet of blotting paper, and gently dabbing its face with a ball of soft fluffless rag. The print is allowed to remain on the sheet of wet blotting paper, which keeps it supple and damp. Any accidental excess of color wash must be quickly taken up by dabbing with clean and dry blotting paper.

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VERYONE nowadays knows that the cinematograph pictures are taken by separate brief exposures following each other to the tune of thirty or forty per second. But this type of so-called "instantaneous photography" becomes a snail's pace compared with some work recently done in connection with the flight of insects by M. Lucien Bull, of Paris, whose method and apparatus are described by Dr. Gradenwitz in a recent issue of Knowledge. Very briefly stated, the apparatus consists of a cylinder about one foot in diameter, around which is wrapped a film of, say, 3 feet in length. Instead of using an opening and closing shutter, M. Bull employs electric apparatus, which produces a series of separate electric sparks of great brilliancy and brief duration, following each other in rapid succession say a couple of thousand per second, each separate spark producing a separate silhouette picture on a portion of the rapidly rotating film. The speed of the series of sparks is gauged by the vibration note, which is said to resemble that of a

violin. As glass absorbs certain rays of light, the stationary lenses casting the image on the rotating film are made of quartz or calcite, both of which substances are more transparent to the valuable light rays than glass. To get over the confusion of position or direction of movement of the insects, due to the picture being in silhouette, M. Bull takes his pictures in stereoscopic pairs. The insect is held in the required position till all is ready, and then liberated, when it naturally flies towards the light. By a reflector and ground glass, the observer can select the precise instant of taking the insect in free flight. Time is recorded by means of a tuning fork. In the case of a dragon-fly, whose speed is comparatively slow, the period of wing vibration was observed to be one thirty-fifth of a second, and in this brief period a large number of separate photographs can be taken. It is anticipated that this research work may help in solving some of the present-day aviation problems.

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AWO other very interesting and beautiful illustrations come to us from a friend from over the seas. Mons. Godry, of Lantheuil, par Cruelly, Calvados, France, who is a subscriber to THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES, sends us the accompanying pictures, both made on his beautiful estate in France. The half-page illustration combines in a delightful way, an attrative figure group, with a pleasing setting and background of woods. The smaller picture shows the same lovely figures, at nearer range, subordinating the landscape to an appropriate and pleasing background. We shall hope to hear from our friend Godry again.