Edward M. Estabrooke

“ The Magic, or, more properly, the Projecting lantern, is an optical instrument, consisting of a case of wood or metal, enclosing a lamp or other illuminating agent, the light of which being gathered and condensed by a suitable condensing lens, and directed upon a small transparent picture, so powerfully illuminates it that its image, brilliantly lighted and greatly magnified, may be projected upon a distant screen by means of an objective—a combination of lenses in a tube—similar or identical in construction with a photographic portrait lens. ”

“ To produce a transparency by wet collodion, a camera is required the body of which will be capable of extending to twice the focus of the lens, although a still further extension is desirable. The reason for this lies in the fact that when making a transparency the same size as the negative, the sensitive plate must be withdrawn from the lens to the extent of precisely twice the solar focus. It occasionally happens that it is desirable to make the image in the transparency on a scale a little larger than that in the negative. ”

“ There has long been a demand on the part of the public for a Camera that would at once embrace these most necessary requirements—portability, compactness and strength, combined with beauty and accuracy of working. ”

“ The shortening of the time of exposure for sittings in the studio from one-tenth to one-twentieth of the time required for the old wet plate process, at its best, has rendered the dry plate such a power in the hands of the photographer as to have caused it to be almost universally adopted in the studios of this country, and has practically displaced the wet process in the field and for all out-door photography. ”

“ Any ordinary cabinet card makes a neat mount of convenient size, upon which may be written the name of the object or specimen objective and magnification employed, and any other matter referring to print or negative which may be necessary to note.
A carefully kept note-book is a most important aid to the worker in photo-micrography, and it should contain all his failures and successes alike. Notes should be made of the specimen objective, magnification, exposure, plate and developer, which, carefully studied, will almost certainly enable him to secure a success with each exposure. ”

“ By no other method or process can the amateur succeed in producing pictures of p213 equal excellence, with the same outlay of time and skill, which is a peculiarly fortunate circumstance, as the tendency among amateurs at this time is to form themselves into clubs and societies for the exchange of their most beautiful and successful efforts as picture makers. And an exchange in the form of a transparency enables the receiver to command all other styles of pictures, through the negative that may be produced from it. ”

“ ANTHONY'S RAPID DRY PLATE LENS
THE PLATYSCOPE LENS
Of a higher class is THE PLATYSCOPE LENS, which is a rectilinear or perfectly corrected lens of great working rapidity, and is well suited for all the requirements of the amateur; and as to price, it holds a middle place and next to the DALLMEYER'S RAPID RECTILINEAR LENS, which is the most perfect instrument at present known to the profession, and is almost universally used by professional out-door photographers and by all amateurs who care to produce the finest possible work. ”

“ All professional photographers practice the silver printing process with more or less of success, as they bestow care and intelligence in the working and are zealous for the reputation of their work.
The proper handling of a negative by the printer requires as much study and skill on his part as does the posing and lighting of the subject in the studio; and the printing room should be as replete with every convenience for forwarding and improving the operations therein conducted, as any other department of the establishment. ”

“ We do not assert that a properly constructed camera for the special purpose of making transparencies is an absolute necessity, seeing that a light framework erected in front of the camera, and with which it need not be connected with a bellows body, will suffice, but the great convenience of a camera expressly for the purpose cannot be overrated. ”

“ Actinism may then be considered as the fundamental principle, on which photography is based, and its power is exerted in forming the image on the sensitized plate in the Camera, as well as subsequently in forming or causing the impression on the sensitized paper exposed to the light beneath the negative. ”

“ Examine the lens every morning to see if the glasses are at all dimmed by damp or dust, and if so, use the chamois. You must not expect good work from lenses whose surfaces are in any way dimmed.
Study your lens with care, and learn all its good and weak points, and so enable yourself to take every advantage of instrument, light and pose in making a sitting.
CAMERA BOXES.
The camera box and lens in the hands of the competent photographer are what the brush and colors may be in the hands of the portrait painter. ”

“ A solution of chloride of platinum gives a tone which is very permanent. It is essential when using either gold or platinum that the toning solution be weak.
It is possible, however, so to develop a collodion transparency as to obtain a rich purple black tone without any after toning. The addition of a few drops of a saturated solution of citric acid per ounce of developer effects this, but as it checks development at the same time, the proportion of protosulphate of iron must be increased to such an extent as to impart energy to the developer. ”

“ It will be noticed in all the foregoing formulæ that the matter of greatest uncertainty is the exposure of the plate; you never can tell if your plate is properly exposed until you begin to develop, and then if your picture flashes out at once it is too late to correct by modifying the developer.
The theory of development is that the pyro is the developing agent and gives the strength.
The soda, or ammonia, as the case may be, gives the detail. The bromide is a restrainer, and to a certain extent will correct over-exposure. ”

“ The amateur, in order to succeed in producing high class work, should possess himself of one of Anthony's duplicating and copying cameras, so that he may be enabled to avail himself of both methods of work; that is to say, by the camera and by contact printing, as by the latter method he is restricted to the range and size of his negatives, while by aid of the camera he is enabled to copy all kinds of pictures to acceptable sizes, p214 and he can make his transparencies of equal size with his negative, or vary the size to suit the requirements of the case. ”

“ FIXING SOLUTION.
The solvent most generally used for fixing or clearing positives is cyanide of potassium.
By the term "fixing" is meant the dissolving from the collodion film all the iodide of silver not acted on by the developer; the remaining portion of the silver is in a metallic state and constitutes the image; the cyanide very readily dissolves the iodide, but acts very slowly on the metallic silver. ”

“ Return the plate to the dish and let the development proceed until the image sinks well into the film and you see nothing very clearly as it lies but the blacks.
Time is necessary in this process to secure enough intensity, and this stage is the most difficult in the process, there being no means by which to judge with any degree of certainty the density of the image before you. It is better then to proceed too far than not far enough, as a slow printing negative is far better than one that is too thin and weak. ”

“ Most of us, no doubt, have experienced the desire, as our machines have passed some pretty and specially picturesque bits of scenery, to take away with us some memory, to be recalled at some future time, of what we were then passing by. ”

“ If the dark room is lighted by a window, it should be glazed with dark red orange glass, and if the exposure is toward the sun, it should be shaded with a green or ruby colored shade on a spring roller. If the sun never shines in the window, the shade is not necessary.
If the room is lighted by artificial light, the best way is to cut an opening in the wall or partition at the most convenient place, make a frame to fit or cover this opening, that will raise or slide, glaze it with red orange glass. ”

“ TONING THE PRINTS.
A toning solution is composed of chloride of gold in water with enough carbonate of soda to make it slightly alkaline, and a pinch of common salt. The action of toning is merely the deposition upon the metallic silver in the print of a certain minute quantity of metallic gold from the solution, which deposit causes the change of color that may be seen while the toning is taking place. ”

“ The development of a negative is nothing more than the deposition of metallic silver in a state of fine sub-division upon a base of the same metal, which is the image latent in the collodion film after exposure in the camera. And it is supposed that the finer the deposit p34 secured in the development the better will be the chemical effect and printing quality of the resulting negative. Therefore, the use of organic bodies in the developer is supposed to effect or induce a finer deposit. ”

“ This is called chromatic aberration, because the colored rays do not all converge to the same focus; thus the image seen through them is surrounded by a fringe or border of color.
Single lenses lack the power of producing a straight image of a straight object; the image will have the curve of the lens through which the light passes to form it; a double convex lens will give a greater curve than a plano-convex. This is called spherical aberration. ”

“ That the thousands who formerly practiced photography in the fields, as an amusement and recreation, took great delight in it and found it to be an extremely fascinating pursuit, there can be no denial. ”

“ The amateur should procure his trays of a size suitable for the largest plate he uses, and should have two or more on hand always for developing purposes. These dishes are also suitable for the clearing and fixing solutions; but for these solutions the upright bath dish and dipper are better for several reasons; first, because there is less evaporation; second, all sediment sinks to the bottom, and the solution is always clean; and last, but not least, they take up less room. ”

“ Amateur photographers, male and female, may be found during the season at the summer resorts by the sea or at the breezy mountain house; wherever the well-to-do citizen takes his family for rest and recreation during the "dog days," there will the tripod be set up and the Camera will record the topography of the vicinity.
For every one of these thousands of amateurs there p142 is something to learn before he or she can succeed in producing a picture; to know how to make a photograph never comes by intuition, but must be acquired by study and practical experiment. ”

“ For some years past the little folks, babies and infants, have become a large part of the most profitable clientage of the photo studio, and much attention has been bestowed on the furniture and accessories suitable for them and their pictures. Among such, the QUEEN ANNE CHILD'S LOUNGE is a novelty itself, indispensable to any photographic studio; the opening between seat and back is an advantage for posing children. ”

“ The forms of lenses which are corrected for chromatic and spherical aberration will be seen in Fig. 5.
FIG. 5.
These lenses are termed achromatic, and, although each is formed of two kinds of glass, they are sealed together so as to be practically one lens.
Every manufacturer of portrait or view lenses, uses the six forms shown in the diagram (Fig. 2) , in some manner peculiar to himself, but of the six, four will be found in every combination in general use, varied in radii, construction and dimension, according to the use for which they are intended. ”