The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 29.1885
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1885
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-188500006
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18850000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18850000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Bemerkung: Seite I-II fehlen in der Vorlage. Paginierfehler: Seite 160 als Seite 144 gezählt.
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

APRIL 3, 1885.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS 221 PHOTOGRAPHY AT A FANCY DRESS BALL— MY SYSTEM OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING. BY w. BARRY. " In aid of the medical charities of the town.” So ran the bill which our local knight of the paste-brush was decorat ing blank walls with in the town of Hull, iu spite of the legend “ Bill-stickers beware.” I was seized with a charitable impulse. I can augment the funds of the charities by handing over part of the proceeds, and thus smother any idea of possibly losing caste expressed in the remark, “ Barry is so slack that he seeks custom at such a side chance as a fancy dress ball.” I made my terms as follows:—I would attend at the rooms and photograph all that so wished, providing that the committee would provide a private room as a studio, I to charge the guests five shillings for admission thereto ; give one sitting, supply three cabinet copies of each person so paying, and hand over half the proceeds to the fund, of course. Such an advantageous bargain was at once closed with, and I had two days for preparation. So now, what will be more interesting to the reader than how were the pictures got, which have earned this eulogium from our Editor, “The lighting is so good that the artificial illumination is not apparent to the observer,” 1 will endeavour to tell. I bad in my possession a Moule’s photogen, or lamp. There is nothing in its shape or con struction which contributes to success ; it is merely, as it were, a glass box to confine fumes evolved from the burn ing composition which emils the light. Any shape will do—mine is hexagon —only let it be broad and high at the top, so as to give plenty of air space. An elongated street lamp describes it exactly. The composition is made as follows: — Saltpetre ... ... ... 18 pounds Sulphur 5 ,, Realgar ... ... ... 3} ,, Crush and mix; this will suffice for sixty or seventy ex posures. I admit I felt a little nervous about my results, and gave the lighting great thought, and consulted dame nature a good deal; but, ml desperandum. So packing a cab with the lamp, several lengths of tin tube to fit on the lamp top and convey the fumes into the open air, also the tin of pyrotechnic composition, I and my joiner took possession, and surveyed the scene of operations. Here is a plan of the room. A, door; B, window; C, fireplace with gas bracket over ; D, a closet, with gas bracket in; no window. To this bracket we at once screwed an Edwards’ lamp, which consists of an argand gas burner, ruby chimney, and cap. Two glass panels in door were covered with brown paper, the door shut, and here “ presto ! ” was the most convenient daik room wherein to change the plates, possible, and close to the camera. Three or four more journeys of the cab, and a background, head-rests, and other impedimenta of the photographic art, or rather necessaries, began to give the room a studio-like appearance. The room was thirteen or fourteen feet high, and I wished to fix an eight-burner gas star light, to illuminate the room and to pose and focus by ; for of course the actinic light from lamp is only on during exposure of the plate. A piece of scantling was fixed over the fire-place, across the room, about eight feet high, and the star light fixed pendant in the centre; a piece of tubing laid along the scantling being slipped on the bracket over the fire-place to convey the gas, and this difficulty was mastered. The next diffi culty was not got over so easy ; it cropped up on two legs, and consisted of the “man in charge.” Our hammering had brought him up, and ditto his ire ; he entered as if he expected to see the walls denuded of plaster, and bristling with a perfect chevaux-de-Jrlse of nails. “ Why, what’s, what’s all this about?” he breathlessly asked (he had left most of his puff on the stairs). We humbly explained. “ Never knew such a thing in my life ; never been men tioned to me; you cannot go on.” We expostulated, and explained all our fittings were merely wedged; we had a modicum of sense left to know that nails would not be agreeable in the walls. “ No, you must stop,” continued our wet blanket. But we stuck to our vantage of nine points of the law ; so at length, he went iu quest of the next official second in rank. My hopes rose; the two entered; more explanation, and, after much debate, shaking of head, stroking of chin, &c., consent to continue was given, with the final dictum of “ Don’t damage the carpet.” Probably he had the sloppy wet process in his mind’s eye. We assured him all would be well, and—exit both. Thus, after losing half an hour, the clouds rolled by, and we proceeded to cover a larg stretcher, seven feet by four feet, with tissue paper, supe ported by strings stretched across the frame, as the sheet were small. We next unrolled a large piece of white sheeting, and fixed wires across the room to carry this sheeting over - the sitter’s head, and to hang down to the floor on each side, the background forming the ba k of the alcove thus made. To coin a word, I have called the alcove, or canopy, “ Barry’s cot; ” for this cot is the peculiarity and origi nality of my system of artificial lighting. I think I may presume to say original, for I have never seen it adopted, or even hinted at. The course of my commune with dame Nature which suggested it was as follows :— The sun is the source of all light called daylight, which represents my lamp. If this sun’s light was not diffused by the attributes of our atmosphere—viz., clouds and mist intervening, and being shone on and through, diffused and reflected in innumerable directions, and reflected and re flected again and again, ad infinitum—if all this did not take place in the action of Nature, we should have sharp illumination and direct cast shadows, as is known to be the case on the surface of the moon, which is destitute of atmosphere, and consequently of clouds. Thus we should have the appearance of every object around us depicted as in the majority of artificially-lighted photographs. Here was the difficulty. I had the source of light sufficiently actinic, but which needed to be broken up, reflected, and reflected backwards and forwards, across and across, ad infinitum, all of which is summed up in the phrase perfect diffusion. As all know, the naked light is useless to pro duce a pleasing and correct portrait; it has been used with a tissue paper screen in front. This is well. I so use it, but the mistake is made in using a small reflector to throw the light up on to the shaded side of the sitter’s face ; the result is, the model is cross-lighted, the eyes squint, and the face resembles nothing so much as a corpse ; but by smrounding the sitter, top and sides, with a thin re flecting material, you artificially fulfil the whole condition of daylight, for, what are the clouds but a gigantic sur rounding of a transparent reflective medium, which, with the sun as the light giver, lights all things soft and pleasant? My system imitates all this in miniature. Eventually our room or studio, when ready for action, stood thus. A is the sitter, enveloped top and sides with thin white sheet-