Make your pictures sing!

Front matter

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Chapter Five —Negative Development .59

Negative Tone Separation. Classification of Subjects. Time and Gamma Tables. Notes on the Time Gamma Tables. Formulas for Developers Recom¬ mended in the Gamma Infinity Tables. Developing Roll Films. Fine Grain Development. Developing Extremely Long Scale Subjects. Developing Pro¬ cedure. Testing New Developers. Experiments in Developing.

Chapter Six —Selection of Negative Stock .84

Negative Tone Separation. Contrast and the Selection of Negative Stock. Testing New Films. Color and Emphasis. The Theory of Color Mixture. The Color Sensitivity of Film Stock. Film and Filter Selection Table. Some Prac¬ tical Applications. Questionnaire on Color. Answers to Questionnaire on Color. Experiments with Film Stock.

Foreword

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK

This is not just another book on photography. It would be an entire waste of time to rehash what has been in print for many years. Yet in spite of all that has been written, the perfection of technique is still the chief worry of most photographers.

If the average photographer were not hampered with the details of technique his pictures would improve immeasurably. He would concentrate on pictures themselves, confident of his own ability to cope with any scene and any subject. Unhampered by technical de¬ tails his imagination would have full play and, therefore, his work would be less imitative than it is today.

It is easy enough to operate the camera to make some sort of record of any scene toward which the camera is pointed. It is another thing to make the camera record the scene the way in which the photographer requires it.

The purpose of this book is to clear away the confusions and prejudices that stand in the way of the photographer’s making the camera do his own will, for the camera can make many different records of the same scene. Curves, equations and logarithms are all very well in their proper place but the masters of photography make their pictures with cameras and films, not with logarithms.

There is not a graph, logarithm or H and D curve here but the facts and figures are explained with a series of experiments following each chapter to drive home these facts. The experiments are the practice necessary to make these facts part of the photographer’s usable knowledge.

If the photographer will perform these simple experiments he will realize the part played by each of the important features in making a picture. Development, for example, will no longer be all important, for the other equally important factors that influence negative quality will also be understood and properly respected. The photographic process will be viewed as the result of a number of balancing features rather than as a series of separate unrelated individual steps.

To the photographer whose goal is the perfection of technique, so that any photographic subject can be properly handled without guesswork and consequent uncertainty, this book will be a guide.

The title “Make Your Pictures Sing” comes from the expression used by photographers and photo-engravers in describing a tech¬ nically perfect piece of work.

Paul Louis Hexter, A.R.P.S.

March 1940 Cleveland, Ohio.

Chapter One PHOTOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATIONS

There are two general schools of thought in photography—the Purist and the Pictorialist. The Purist believes once the shutter is snapped the process is photo-mechanical and manual manipulation is a violation of the medium. To him the technical part of photog¬ raphy is standardized to such an extent that it permits little control any time after the picture has been taken. Pictorialists on the other hand make little effort to standardize any of their procedures. They insert so much flexibility into the process that it sometimes seems that their pictures are created after they have the negative just because a pleasing arrangement happens to he found.

The adherents of the extreme views of these schools make the mistake of stressing the way in which the photographic process is used, rather than looking toward pictures which can be produced by photography. Edward Weston stops a lens down to f:256 for the ultimate in depth of field and contact-prints all his pictures. (Fig. 1.) His methods, however, have little to do with the value of his pictures, for others work the same way and produce nothing. Leonard Misonne makes sharp negatives but purposely diffuses them, printing in the oil process. (Fig. 2.) Diffusion and the oil process are only tools with which he works. In themselves they do not make his pictures. It is the pictures which must be the ultimate aim of the photographer, not the methods by which they are produced.

In painting Claude Monet believed that outline in nature was an illusion appearing only when one color is placed adjacent to another.

‘Juniper,” Tenaya Lake, 1937

Edward Weston

Therefore, he painted in this fashion. (Fig. 3.) Other painters, such as Matisse, believe that form is best suggested through outline, place their line on the canvas and paint around it. (Fig. 4.) Both Monet and Matisse are men of recognized genius hut it is the finished canvas which is the masterpiece, not the particular way in which they applied their paint.

Just as Monet and Matisse work with a blank canvas, a few tubes of color and some brushes to produce widely different paintings, so Edward Weston and Leonard Misonne use a light-tight box, several lenses and an assortment of film to produce photographs which are just as far apart. Both strive for the production of a negative which will register all the subtle tone gradations of the subject, although their presentation of the subject is widely different.

Here is the end toward which the technique of photography must be directed . . . the registering of the maximum number of subtle tone gradations in every subject. This is where photography is so superior to every other form of art, and, therefore, it is the end toward which the technical part of photography must be directed.

THE PURPOSE OF TECHNIQUE

The keystone of perfect photographic technique is standardiza¬ tion. The entire technical process should be looked upon as a series of unchangeable mechanical operations, always performed in the same manner and always giving predetermined results. These steps can be punctuated here and there with flexible means of control for the creative purpose of emphasis, selection and exaggeration. The flexibility, however, must never interfere with the standardization of procedure. It is obvious that with constant change of film stock, a new developer every week, and the search for the chimerical camera that always takes good pictures, consistent results are impossible.

In a chemical laboratory complicated experiments are carried out by holding all the steps in the experiments rigidly constant and admitting only one variable at a time. As the work continues the variables that effect the results favorably become standard procedure and eventully the experiment is carried through from beginning to end with predetermined knowledge of a successful conclusion.

The technique of the photographic process is such a laboratory experiment. The technique must be conceived so that all the vari-

“Sa/e Temps”

Leonard Misonne

“Antibes” Claude Monet

Courtesy Cleveland Museum of Art ables are fully controlled, and preconceived results can be obtained for every picture. Subject, exposure, film stock, development and printing methods must all be standardized and held rigidly the same. It is utter nonsense to change any one part of the photographic process unless all the other parts have been held constant.

The production of fine photographs depends entirely upon the subjection of all technical operations to matter-of-fact routine pro¬ cedure so that all efforts can he placed on the far more difficult problem . . . the picture. The photographer who has standardized his procedure and knows his technique will turn out good work with almost any camera, any film, and any developer. These are only the tools with which he works and are to him as brushes are to a painter. Technique by itself means nothing ... it is only the foundation upon which the building is constructed. Technique never has been and never will be an end in itself.

“GirZ with Green Eyes” Henri Matisse

TECHNIQUE AND CREATIVE WORK

The camera is a small mechanical machine for the recording of actuality and nowhere is the domination of the machine over man more in evidence. If we continue to let this machine dominate us we will worship the mechanized product of the camera. If, on the other hand, we dominate the machine, we will use its fundamental qualities to create pictures, to express our thoughts and feelings, and to create beauty. Great things will be done by the camera if man runs the machine but never if the machine runs man.

Many workers in photography become so involved in the perfec¬ tion of their technique they forget creative work entirely. Perfection of technique is the essential requirement of creative work in the fullness of the photographic medium but it is a means toward an end only, not the end in itself. To reach perfection in technique must be the goal for everyone but after it has been reached all efforts must be concentrated on creative work.

Photography is a fine art. In the future it will be recognized as a great art, for photographers will use the camera to do great things. Painting has taken 600 years to achieve its present status and the minds of some of the most brilliant men in the past centuries con¬ tributed to it. Today men like Moholy-Nagy believe that painting in the tradition of the past has outlived its usefulness to our civilization primarily because of the development of photography. Photography will not require 600 years to arrive but it will require men of genius just as painting has done.

Chapter Two NOTES ON EQUIPMENT

Every photographer collects a miscellaneous assortment of photo¬ graphic accessories in his efforts to improve his work. Many of these gadgets are discarded shortly after they are acquired. While good pictures can be taken with almost any piece of equipment, some equipment lends itself more readily to certain types of work.

Photographic equipment should be accumulated slowly with full comprehension of the uses and limitations of each separate article. It is much better to buy equipment knowing that it will be constantly used, than to spend more than is necessary assuming that some day it might be useful. Purchase only what will be regularly used and save the balance for something that will be needed in the future. Above all, remember it is not the particular camera, or the particular lens that makes the pictures. It is the knowledge of pictures, what they are, and how to make them that counts.

THE STUDIO

A studio of some sort should be available for any serious indoor work. The minimum requirements are a room with a nine-foot ceiling, a white wall area ten feet wide at one end, and clear working space in front of this wall for a distance of at least fifteen feet. Double these dimensions make an ideal studio with freedom and ease of working assured on all occasions.

The family living room can always be commandeered as a studio, if necessary, and a portable white background can be used. The background can be made from a white window shade of suitable

“Nude”

Hollywood Coffin in use.

width. A studio of this kind, however, entails much furniture moving for every picture and is a general nuisance to everyone, including the photographer.

Two accessories for posing are of great value in portraiture. The old-fashioned piano stool that can be raised or lowered by turning the seat around makes an ideal posing bench. As there is no back support, the subject assumes an erect position on being seated and once a pose is taken turning from side to side at the direction of the photographer is easily accomplished without breaking the pose.

The other accessory is known as a Hollywood Coffin. This is a box six feet long, eighteen inches wide, and thirty inches high made from three-fourths inch stock, painted white. The box need not be closed in on the back or bottom which makes it lighter and easier to move around. It is used as a posing platform, a posing bench, or as an accessory in composition. (Figs. 5 and 6.)

CAMERAS

The ideal camera for studio work is a reflex. There is a real advantage in having the image on the ground glass up to the moment of taking the picture and the niceties of composition, as well as the appearance of the subject, are easy to observe. There is no particular point in using a reflex larger than 3 *4 x 4^4 f° r this work.

Ordinary cameras with ground glass backs for focusing should be avoided because the insertion of film holders before the exposure is distracting to both the model and the photographer. The less the photographer fusses with his equipment, the more he can concen¬ trate on the picture at hand.

In studio portraiture exposures will range from one-tenth to one-half second which requires the placement of the camera on a firm, vibrationless tripod. The best tripod will be the cheapest in the long run for any slight vibration will ruin the finest picture. Any loss of definition in a correctly processed negative, when enlarged, is usually due to a slight vibration from an insecure tripod.

There are two aids to sharpness in portraiture with a reflex that can be used to great advantage. Reflex cameras usually show the slowest shutter speed at one-tenth second. Exposures as slow as onefourth second are made by setting the curtain at open and pressing the mirror lever. The mirror is thrown out of the way and the curtain closes at the same time. Operating a reflex in this manner often causes vibration. Therefore, a detachable, before-the-lens shutter, operated by a cable release is much to be preferred for slow portrait exposures.

Another aid to sharpness with a reflex is a magnifying glass for critical focusing. Measure the distance between the top of the hood and the ground glass and subtract two inches. Purchase a spectacle lens of roughly this focal length.* The lens can be attached to the temple of a cheap spectacle frame, the temple cut off at the proper distance, and the upper end bent to form a small hook that can be hung in one corner of the reflex hood. Critical focusing is easily checked on any part of the image with this glass just before the picture is taken.

For outdoor work the 3^ x4^ reflex camera is too bulky, too heavy, and reflex focusing is a detriment rather than an asset. When a lens is stopped down to f: 16 there is not much of an image on the ground glass with which to focus. Focusing with the lens wide open and then stopping down is quite awkward. Therefore, the smaller roll film cameras are preferred. The ideal combination is to have a 3% x 4% reflex for studio work and a smaller camera for outdoor work.

The only disadvantage of the roll film camera is the inability to use film other than that with which the camera is loaded. Having a reflex available, along with a roll film camera gives complete flexi¬ bility in equipment and enables the larger camera to be used when a change in film stock is indicated.

CUT FILM , ROLL FILM, OR FILM PACKS

The film pack is the most convenient and easiest form in which to use film. It takes but a second to put a new pack in place and successive films are changed with a minimum of commotion, a dis¬ tinct advantage when working rapidly, as in portraiture. Roll film is next in convenience and has the advantage of being obtainable

* The focal length of a spectacle lens is measured in diopters. To change the focal length in inches into diopters, divide the number of inches into 40. Thus a five inch lens would have a focal length or 8 diopters.

almost anywhere, an advantage appreciated when travelling in outof-the-way places.

Cut film is the least convenient to use because it must be loaded individually in the dark room in single or multiple cut film holders. This is an annoying nuisance when a lot of work is to be done unless one has an assistant to perform this sort of drudgery. The advantage of cut film, however, is in the much wider variety of emulsions available than in either roll film or film pack, as well as the fact that individual shots can be made without going into the dark room with an unfinished pack or roll.

The easiest procedure is to use film pack or roll film for all regular work and cut film when special emulsions or one or two shots are required. If film packs are purchased 12 at a time the cost is about the same as single boxes of cut film.

RULING THE GROUND GLASS

The advantage of the reflex camera is that the image is always visible on the ground glass up to the minute of exposure. Most ground glasses on reflex cameras, particularly on those cameras with revolving backs, have a larger area than the actual picture size. This causes confusion when the composition of the picture is arranged according to the ground glass, as the area of the negative is actually less. Therefore, it is advisable to rule guide lines on the ground glass limiting the picture area to the size that will be included on the negative.

As a matter of fact it is advisable to rule the ground glass with an area slightly less than will be reproduced on the negative. This will enable further refinement and arrangement of composition on the enlarging easel. With a 3 % x 4% negative, the actual picture size is 3 x 4. A satisfactory area to rule on the ground glass in this case is 2% x 3%. Additional rulings which aid in composition and alignment are made by dividing the area into thirds and ruling diagonal lines. (Fig. 7.)

The ground glass is easily removed from the reflex hood and the rulings made with a lead pencil on the ground side of the glass. Care should be taken to replace the ground glass with the ground side face down as it was originally found.

EXPOSURE METERS

An exposure meter of the photoelectric cell type is as essential to own as the camera itself. The photographer who guesses at proper exposure based on experience tables, or his own estimate of bright¬ ness is a waster of film on a large scale. No eye can approach the accuracy of a photoelectric cell in gauging the amount of light re¬ flected by any subject, or part of a subject.

In modern photography which places the tone range of the subject on a definite portion of the negative scale, exposure must be extremely accurate. This can be done most conveniently by using an exposure meter of the photoelectric cell type. The scales on these instruments giving the relation between exposure time and dia¬ phragm setting save much mental labor and prevent the possibility of error through inaccurate calculation. The use of an exposure meter is not an admission of photographic incompetence but, on the contrary, is the only intelligent approach to the entire subject of exposure.

THE DARK ROOM

Dark rooms are much like the title of the motion picture, “Gold Is Where You Find It.” Fortunate indeed is the photographer who can have one built to specification instead of utilizing an unused basement room. Many good ideas on dark rooms will be found in

“How To Build & Equip a Modern Darkroom” by Barrett & Wykoff.

The double door, common to the commercial photographer’s dark room, is no longer necessary. Any ordinary door can be weather stripped and made completely light-tight. Any windows in the room can be fitted with an inside hinged shutter which is also made light¬ tight by weather stripping. (Fig. 8.)

If possible there should be two water outlets for cold and hot water and one of these outlets should be fitted with a mixer faucet enabling the temperature of the water to be controlled. If any wiring can be done, arrange each safe light on a separate switch and control all of them from one place. Put enough base plugs at bench height for all apparatus so that continuous plugging in and out is not necessary.

The most convenient place for the contact printer is mounted flush with the work bench. (Fig. 9.) Iron brackets strong enough to hold it firmly in place can be obtained at any hardware store. Mount¬ ing the printer in this fashion gets it out of the way when it is not in use, yet at the same time it is always ready. The space under the printer is just right to keep a five-gallon bottle of distilled water in a carboy frame so it is easily poured.

Plan as much shelving space as possible. No matter how much shelving is in any given darkroom, it is never too much. For cover¬ ing floors and counters waxed asphalt tile is best. Black linoleum is second best. Alongside the sink a slate counter slab is a great con¬ venience. The day of painting the darkroom black is gone. An attractive light gray chemical-proof enamel which will not be injured by acids, alkalis or photographic chemicals is manufactured by the Arco Company, Cleveland, Ohio, or Los Angeles, California, and sold under the name of “Chemox.”

No more than three days after I had moved into a new darkroom which I had constructed (Fig. 8), a budding young photographer called on me. After looking over a number of prints and carefully inspecting the new darkroom he said, “Now if I had a place like that I could really do fine things too.”

The work he had seen, however, was from a make-shift basement darkroom similar to thousands of others all over the country. Not a picture had been made in the new room. Darkrooms do not make pictures.

Chapter Three LENSES, FOCAL LENGTH AND PERSPECTIVE

The modern craving for speed has been exploited by the manu¬ facturer of lenses as well as the manufacturers of automobiles. It comes from John Q. Public’s belief that speed and efficiency are cause and effect; which they undoubtedly are, but within certain limits.

On September 16, 1938, Captain George E. T. Eyston drove his “Thunderbolt” racer over the salt flats at Bonneville, Utah, at a speed of 357.5 miles per hour. This is faster than any automobile had ever been driven before and faster than most people have any desire to go in an automobile. Reaching this speed meant a complete change of tires after every run. This is speed but at the expense of many tires.

The modern ultra-speed lens is also an example of great speed but at the expense of other factors. The untutored photographic public believes the best lens is the fastest lens. They reason: the best is always the most expensive; fast lenses are most expensive; there¬ fore, fast lenses are the best. The mistake is in the premise that the best is always the most expensive. It is not always true.

In considering the purchase of a lens, remember no lens manu¬ facturer, as yet, has ever claimed that picture quality improves with the speed of the lens. Just as an automobile after a certain point loses efficiency with increased speed, so do lenses. Users of high speed lenses stop them down for most pictures and, although an f:2 lens and an f :6.3 lens of the same focal length when stopped down to the same stop are theoretically equivalent, the fast lens will often have a tendency to lose definition at the smaller stops.

The disadvantages of speed lenses are excessive cost, some loss of definition at smaller stops, and limited depth of field when used wide open. The only advantage is speed if you ever need it. Good pic¬ tures, however, are seldom taken with insufficient light, even with fast lenses.

That speed lenses have a hahit of losing definition at certain stops is not generally known and it is always advisable to test the definition of every lens at all stops, before it is purchased. This test is easily made by arranging a series of books which have titles printed on their covers, across a long table or Hollywood Coffin, with the titles fairly well in line. (Fig. 10.) Place the camera as close as possible and focus on the middle book. Make an exposure at each aperture, increasing the exposure, of course, as the lens is stopped down. An examination of the hook titles on the negatives will show at which stops definition is lost and those stops should not be used with that lens. The test made in Figure 10 proved definition at f: 16 and f :22 was not so good as fill. The other stops were all satisfactory. So stops f: 16 and f:22 should not be used with that lens.

FOCAL LENGTH IN PORTRAITURE

The old time professional portrait photographer always used the longest focal length lens and the largest aperture his pocketbook could stand. Portraits were taken with the narrow plane of the eyes and mouth in sharp focus but every other plane out of focus. In¬ creasing fuzziness back from the sharp plane of the eyes and mouth was supposed to create the illusion of depth. Usually all it accom¬ plished was to fuzz up the ears so they looked like bits of old cloth tacked on each side of the head.

Modern portrait negatives require the entire image in sharp focus and the illusion of depth is secured by emphasis on modeling rather than by out of focus planes. (Frontispiece.) As a lens is stopped down the plane in front of the lens in which every object is sharp, widens out. In working, the lens is stopped down to f :8, avoiding the lack of sharpness caused by insufficient width of the sharp plane in front of the camera.

As long as the focal length of the lens permits a large head to be taken with the camera no nearer than four feet from the subject, no unavoidable distortion will occur. In a studio of the dimensions given, a lens for 3]^ x4% reflex work should have a focal length of 6l/ 2 to 7 inches and does not need an aperture larger than f:6.3 or f :6.8. The focal length for portraiture should be roughly 25% more than the diagonal of the film size. While this focal length is recom¬ mended for studio work, it will be equally applicable to all outdoor work.

As far as better “drawing” and freedom from distorition in long focal length lenses is concerned, this is entirely a matter of the work¬ ing distance from the subject, not a special property of the lens. Perspective depends entirely on where the lens is placed, not on the focal length or angle of view. A 6 ^/ 2 " lens for a 3*4 x 4^4 camera would be placed at the same distance from the subject as a 15" lens on an 8 x 10 camera. These are fairly long focal length lenses.

PERSPECTIVE

The painter in constructing his picture is a builder. Starting with a blank canvas, he adds line by line and area by area, creating his picture so that all lines harmonize with other lines, all areas har¬ monize with other areas, and all elements properly relate in size to the canvas and to each other. Thus painting is an addition process. If in nature the proportions are not right for the picture size, the painter changes them.

The photographer with his mechanism for recording actuality always finds the elements of nature haphazardly arranged. His is no step by step process of adding elements to other elements and fitting them nicely into a given space. The elements are there before his camera. Unimportant, undesirable details must be recorded along with desirable, important elements. Picture making for the photog¬ rapher is primarily a matter of simplification, reducing a given scene to its important elements and eliminating all inconsequential and interfering details. It is a process of subtraction.

Once a photograph has been taken, the photographer has no means of altering the forms that make up his picture. The control processes give him a means of changing emphasis among the forms but the forms themselves are unalterably fixed at the time of ex¬ posure. While the photographer cannot transpose objects in the scene confronting him, he can change apparent space relations and size relations between objects one behind the other. He can propor¬ tion the size of his objects to fit best into the area of the film. He can keep a central object the same size and include either more or less background, or he can keep the background the same and change the size of the central object. These changes are made by varying the focal length of the lens, changing the point of view, or both, and may exert an important influence on the arrangement of any picture.

The photographic perspective, or the real and apparent size relation between objects is determined by:

(1) True perspective. The distance from the lens to the sub¬ ject determines the size relation of objects one behind the other.

(2) Apparent perspective. The angle of view of the lens has the apparent effect of changing space relations of objects by changing the apparent distance from the camera.

The easiest way to understand these relationships is by illustra¬ tion.

The Camera is 4 1 / 2 Feet from First Decanter.

TRUE PERSPECTIVE

The Camera is 9 l / 2 Feet from First Decanter.

The camera is 9 l / 2 f eet from the first decanter but a longer focal length lens was used. Comparing the rela¬ tive size of the decanters with Figure 12 the perspec¬ tive is identical. Apparently, however, the picture was taken from the same place as Figure 11.