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June 1, 1883.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 339 fashion. Surely, if it is worth while producing a good por trait—and we may here say that our visit resulted in a very fair picture indeed, tastefully mounted, and very different from the soiled pictures in the specimen box—it is well worth while also to exhibit work properly. This is not a question of expense; and we should be the last to expect the same fine surroundings, mounts, easels, and frames that one sees in Baker Street or Bond Street. It is a mere matter of system and order combined with good taste. There is no reason on earth why the prints, either in simple frames or without them, should not have been standing on the table ready for inspection at the time of our entrance; and if they had been thus set out, there would have been no necessity for fingering them at all. In any case, the produc tion of a higgeldy piggeldy mass of soiled photographs in this fashion would be enough to cause many a would-be sitter to postpone his visit till another day, One other point. The lack of preparation, and hurry and excuses with which we were met, are apt to beget a want of confidence on the part of a visitor. He begins to think he must be the first that has ever wandered up that staircase ; if it is a sound place of business, why is there not more show of business and a greater look of stability ? Strangers are naturally suspicious, and they are quick at noticing little things, if those little things appear to tell them anything. Meanwhile we decide on our picture, and ask if it can be taken at once. Our energetic friend replies he will be ready as soon as we are, and hastens away to make prepara tion. Somehow, there are plenty of people about the place now ; it is like birds coming back to their nest after being disturbed. “ Ready, sir! ” cries our friend, from without. We follow the voice as well as we can. Instinct leads us into the front, where we find the studio. It is a small one, scarcely twenty feet in length, and is indeed simply a room with papered walls and whitewashed ceiling, with a very large casement sloping upwards. Just in front of the broad casement is a shelf or table, which makes a handy place for printing frames. A lot of vignetted pictures are in course of printing, under the “ nouveau degradateur,” as a simple and apparently effective little shading arrangement is termed ; still, unbounded confidence is evidently not felt for the « degradateur,’' for there were several serrated card shields in use as well. « Would you like a light background or a dark one?” says our friend, with every disposition to oblige. The question is a staggaring one to a non-professional sitter and we laughingly express our inability to choose. He pulls down a dark one decisively, and so cuts off any aimless suggestion on our part, in case we might propose “half-and-half.” It would have been better had there been a shade or canopy over the lens, and if our friend reads this criticism, we think he will do well to adopt such protection, for the white washed ceiling above necessarily reflects rays into his camera. The result of this reflection is very evident in the prints he sends us. His apparatus, otherwise, is not to be found fault with ; the accessories are good and substantial, and we notice the name of Meagher on several well-built cameras. “I will tell you when I expose, remember, so you need not trouble.” He places a small photograph on a stand some distance off to our right to look at, and focusses. Further—a very good idea—he puts a soft cushion behind us on the chair, to support, not the shoulders, but the lower part of the back. “ Now please look at me,” he says. We mildly suggest that we can’t look at the small photo graph and the camera at the same time. " I beg your pardon; well, never mind the photograph ; look at the camera.” We do ; and then our friend goes behind and adjusts the headrest. At that moment the whole vibration from the noisy Strand below enters the back of the head and proceeds down the spine ; instead of maintaining the head quiet, the rest seems all at once to set it shaking. We can feel one omnibus race past the other, and count the Pickford’s vans as they go by—at least, so we imagine. But as our picture turns out sharp enough, there is doubtless more of fancy than of fact in the phenomenon. It is an exposure of but five or six seconds, but our photo grapher gravely timesit with his watch. Then, withdrawing the dark slide, he says: “ Now, if you will wait a minute, 1’11 show you what the portrait is like.” There is much that is pleasant and taking in our photo grapher ; despite the first unpromising appearances, we are rapidly beginning to like him. He is some time in his laboratory—a little piece cut off from the studio—and we have plenty of time to look about us. Two young assistants busy themselves with the print ing, and come and go, changing the frames. A lady looks in now and then, and proceeding to the little parlour, evidently busies herself in puttingout the specimens. Why was she not there before ? “ I shan’t be long,” cries a voice from the laboratory ; “I am only developing.” " Pyro or oxalate? ” we feel inclined to ask ; but we keep silence. “ Now it will look very funny to you,” says our friend, issuing forth,” “but you will bo able to see something.” He wisely brings out a white porcelain slab, which he holds at an angle under the negative, the better to judge of its quality. “ The details are very nice," he says, looking at our face admiringly (he calls them “ detai's,” but he means the crows’-feet under our eyes). It is decidedly a good negative, and we say so. We ask when we can see a proof. “ In two or three days ; or, if you are passing to-morrow and call in, I can show you a print. But I will post you one if you will give me your address.” We repair to the little parlour, and our friend, taking down a ledger, proceeds to write an address we give him. “ Will you have a dozen prints ? ” he asks. “Yes.” “ And will you pay for all of them now ? ” “ Yes.” Probably this had been decided for us already; but whether or no, the matter was put forward very well. Already the little parlour, as we are about to leave it, has put on a better appearance. The heap of cartes and cabinets from the box has been arranged in something like order, but they are still a disreputable lot, and there is not much to make of them. A few little pine-wood stands, or an album—we don’t like albums, but they are better than nothing—would have set off the pictures, and put things ship-shape ; while in arranging them, the dirty and discoloured portraits would have been sorted from the rest. This lack of tact is the more to be deprecated, since otherwise there is much to praise in the modest little studio, our photographer’s unassuming and obliging manner being not the least of these. Next week will appear Studio V.—“With a Business Firm.” RUSSIAN CORRESPONDENCE. Russian Polytechnic al Society. At a recent meeting of the V. Section of the Imperial Russian Polytechnical Society, Mr. D. Ezoutchevski exhibited a very ingenious ebonite shutter of his own con struction, fitted with a spiral spring instead of the eccentric generally adopted, which could be adjusted for different exposures, and in case of accident could be easily replaced by a spare one in less than a minute. To adapt