The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 12.1868
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1868
• 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-id1780948042-186800009
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18680000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18680000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

250 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [May 22, 1868. face at the time. There is your image as though a diminish ing glass had perpetuated the reflection, only without colour. But what a hand I Surely you have not got such a huge fist ? No; you happened to thrust it forward before the plane of the picture, and hence it has been taken under a different angle. You don't like to present a portrait with such a fist to the fair one to whom you have offered your hand, and you hesitate, though the likeness is so striking. M. Claudet perceives your embarrassment, and, anticipating the objection, says: “ Let us try again, if you please and the operation is repeated—ay, and a third time, if any accidental failure renders it necessary. Should you prefer it, a friend may share the operation, and, at the same moment, both phizzes will be transferred to the plate. We saw a loving couple taken in this way—nay, even groups of three ; you may have a whole family enclosed in a couple of miniatures. The small size of the heads does not diminish the likeness; you might have a set of shirt-studs ornamented with portraits of your friends. roctedings of Sucieties, South London Photographic Society. The ordinary meeting was held in the City of London College on the evening of Thursday, May 14th, Mr. T. Sebastian Davis in the chair. The minutes of a previous meeting were read and confirmed, Mr. Henderson exhibited some exceedingly fine enamels which he had produced by a process which he has recently dis covered. The results were exceedingly fine. Mr. Wharton Simpson exhibited some examples of Marion's “ Vitrified India-Rubber Sheet,” which he explained did not, on examination, appear to be india-rubber. It was, most pro bably, made in the same way as Herr Grune’s “ leather collo dion,” made from collodion containing castor oil. He also ex hibited some of a similar pellicle made by Mr. Woodbury, which was at the same time treated with iodized collodion, excited, and a preservative applied, forming, in fact, a dry collo dion plate without glass. He also showed a negative produced on such a dry plate. After some conversation on the subject, The Chairman called attention to some fine examples of Mr. Rejlander’s photography, consisting of the seven studies taken when he was producing the negative from which the pre sentation print of the Society, “ A Night in London,” was printed. It illustrated that in working out a good idea several attempts might be necessary before the highest result could be obtained. He also called attention to three charming studies from life by Mr. Eejlander, one of which was an admirable head, after the style of Guido’s Beatrice Cenci. No paper having been provided, in response to the Chairman’s invitation to any member to introduce a subject of conversa tion, Mr. Rejlander said he had often seen articles in which the advantages of clear glass in the shadows of a negative were claimed. He thought there was danger in aiming at this, unless much judgment were used. In a portrait with a dark background, it was a good rule to avoid having the deepest shadows in the figure as deep as the background, whilst with a light background they must of course be deeper. The effect of the shadows, being holes in which you could look through and see the background, should be carefully avoided. A negative with all the shadows represented by bare glass would not possess much gradation ; a good picture should only have a very sparing amount of pure black or white. A desultory conversation on the subject followed, and on the question whether a picture was better for the entire absence of any points of pure white. After which, Mr. Simpson showed a number of Mons. Adam-Salomon’s prints unmounted or finished in any way, to illustrate the amount of touching in the finished prints. They were much admired, and a general acknowledgment was made that touch ing was rarely needed, the photography being exceedingly per fect, and the pictures singularly full of half-tone and model- ling: The Chairman announced that the presentation print would be ready for issue at the next meeting. The proceedings then terminated. Ourxesponence. MR. ENGLAND’S PROCESS. Sir,—While perusing a recent number of one of the jour nals I was surprised to find that the application of nitrate of silver as a sensitizer to the collodio-albumen film was attributed to Mr. England. This, sir, is not correct; for that fact was discovered by me in the summer of 1858, and the process laid before the North London Society on the 26th of June in the same year, and subsequently embodied in a paper which I read before the London Society, at King’s College, on the 4th of December, 1860. Now, sir, I do not wish in the least to charge Mr. England with taking to himself that which he believes to be another’s; and therefore the only reason I can assign for so old a photo grapher not knowing that such a process did exist is, that while Mr. England gave his mind entirely to wet-plate photography, myself and others were engaged in endeavouring to discover a dry plate process available in the field, and certain in its results. One word with regard to the keeping properties of the plate. If you finish it at once, the sooner it is exposed the better; but 1 would recommend that the film should be allowed to dry after the albumen has been washed off; because, in this state, it will keep any length of time, and it can be rendered sensitive at any time by redipping in the nitrate bath, or a solution of nitrate of silver poured over the plate, taking care to well wash afterwards.—I am sir, yours, &c., J. RYLEY, M.D. 48, Gibson Square, Islington, May 14, 1868. HONEY PROCESS. Dear Sir,—For the benefit of your readers who may not have seen the early numbers of the Photographic News, I repeat the process, strongly recommending it to keep for any time within six or eight hours. When your plate is ready for the carrier, pour over it a solution of honey ; pour off; again pour on from the opposite corner a fresh quantity. The second lot may be used for the first coating of next plate. Exposure not more than three to four seconds more than the wet plate. Develop with either iron or pyro (caution : beware of too much intensity in the sky). Flood the plate with developer. When detail is nearly out, add 2 to 3 m. of silver solution, wash, fix hypo, wash. To make the honey solution, buy the country honey, which in season may be purchased from lOd. to Is. 4d per lb. Take 1 ounce by weight, add 2 ounces of distilled water, filter through cotton wool, neutralize with drops of a 10-m. solution of liquor ammonia. When neutral, add 1 or? m. of a 10-m. solution of nitric acid. I believe the whole secret of the process lies in neutralizing and acidifying the honey, to get good clear results. If for keeping longer, wash the plates after they come from the bath before applying the honey, and report progress.— Yours respectfully, S. SULPHOCYANIDE TONING. Dear Sir,—I have for some time used the sulphocyanide of ammonium for toning, but from the first three or four lots of prints I toned in that way I perceive, that with all its advantages (and they are many), one great objection was the tendency they had to lose their purity in the whites. In some few cases, of course, this effect is an improvement; but in prints from negatives which have those delicate half-tones that all photographs ought to have, it deteriorates much from their beauty if the whites are not pure. To obtain my prints free from that defect, I wash them in the ordinary way, and then put them for a few minutes —or until I see them clear in the whites—into the following bath:— Acetate of soda 4 drachms Carbonate of soda 10 grains Water 20 ounces Chloride of gold 2 grains. After taking them from this bath, just give them ono wash, and proceed in the ordinary way with the sulphocyanide. I enclose two prints from the same negative—one toned with I the sulpho bath only, and the other in the way I have described-