The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 7.1863
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1863
• 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-id1780948042-186300004
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18630000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18630000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. Vol. VII. No. 277.—December 24, 18 63. CONTENTS. PAGE Photographs in Printing Ink 613 On the comparative Value of the Daguerreotype, Collodiotype and Calotype Photographic results (as regards Portraiture) in point of Beauty, Permanence, &c. By James Ewing ... 613 The Birth of an Art. By Godfrey Turner 615 Light 616 Correspondence—The alleged Early Photographs—Electric Light PAGE for Portraiture—The Tannin Process : Is it slow or rapid? — Southwell .Ordish 617 Photographic Notes and Queries—Glass Rooms 618 Talk in the Studio 618 To Correspondents 618 Photographs Registered during the past Week 618 PHOTOGRAPHS IN PRINTING INK. Mr. Pouncy continues to progress in perfecting his last carbon process. He has recently given a practical form to a most important improvement. In our first notice of the results, we stated that the chief drawback consisted in a somewhat unsatisfactory colour, and in the necessity for using a thin transparent paper, which materially detracted the artistic effect of the finished picture. In both these respects considerable improvement has been made. In our earliest experiments with the prepared paper, we found that much of the dingy olive tint which seemed to pervade the blacks and half-tones could be avoided, if the transparent print were mounted on a paper possessing a very delicately pale tint of pink. This seemed to change the W'hole tone of the picture, without suggesting the presence of colour in the lights. We suggested this improvement to Mr. Pouncy ; but, at the same time, expressed a conviction that a method of transferring the print from the thin trans parent paper, necessary for its production, on to a more suit able ground, would be the most desirable improvement. In the recent specimens we have received, he has combined both these improvements, and the pictures, card portraits,are barely distinguishable from silver prints. In order to render the transfer easy, a slight modification in the preparation of the paper has been necessary, and ex perimentalists wishing to obtain such a result should, in ordering paper, expressly state that it is required for the transferring process. The printing operations arc the same as those already described in our pages. The completed print is then attached, the inked side downwards, to the mount of delicate pink, with some adhesive material not readily softened again by moisture. The best substance is still a question for experiment. When firmly attached and dry, the surface is sponged gently, the thin transparent paper at once becomes detached, and may be lifted away, leaving on the mount a perfect impression in printing ink, with every gradation of half-tone possessed by the negative. At present there is some difficulty in procuring the suitable mounts, and it is necessary, to secure the best tint, to use paper for the transfer, mounting this subsequently upon cards in the usual manner. The steady perseverance and skill with which Mr. Pouncy devotes himself to overcoming obstacles, and improving his process are worthy of all praise, and we hope his efforts will be eventually crowned with the success they deserve. ON THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE DAGUER REOTYPE, COLLODIOTYPE, AND CALOTYPE PHOTOGRAPHIC RESULTS (AS REGARDS POR TRAITURE) IN POINT OF BEAUTY, PERMA NENCE, &c. BY JAMES EWING.* In looking over the exciting history of photography—from the last great act of instantaniety (viz., the making of a ’ Head at a Meeting of the Glasgow Photographic Association, Nov. 11th, 1863. picture in the 1-36th part of a second) to the time when the greatest minds of the period were delighted with the phenomenon of the darkening of lunar caustic or horn silver ; or, further back still, to the accidental moment, fraught with one of the greatest wonders of the future,—that quiet oen in which Porta, the artist, discovered the inverted picture of the outside scene on his darkened studio wall,—that which led to the construction of the camera obscura, and first awakened the desire to obtain on its whitened sheet the images which the light reflected—we find the engrossing desire steadily maintained through the whole of the archives was “ how to attain the image of man.” Wedgwood and Davy were delighted with the results they obtained on simple nitrated and chloridefl papers, and glowed with enthusiasm when showing their friends, by the dull light of a taper, negative pictures of opaque or semi transparent subjects. That was in the year 1803; and already had the desire begun to assume a pract ical form, for we find at that date, exactly sixty years ago, a paper published in the “ J ournal of the Transactions of the Royal Institution,” by Wedgwood,with observations by Davy, entitled “An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and of Making Profiles by the Agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver.” Here already was an attempt to cut out the black profiles of the day, without the assistance of the camera, by reversing the colour of the profile, having it white on a field of black. The camera was adapted to give subjects from nature, but the chlorided paper was found too insensitive to make pictures by reflection ; yet the great Davy succeeded in making images by means of the solar microscope. Thus, long before the time of Mr. Talbot, chlorided paper was used in the same manner as it is used in the solar camera of the present day. Niepce followed up by placing his resinized surfaces in the camera, and obtaining faint images of architectural and natural subjects; but as yet man had not graced the photo genic tablet through the medium of the camera. About this period, however, the magician Iodine was raised from the laboratory of nature to work the spells of photography. The artist Daguerre summoned this geni of the camera to his aid ; and soon after, to the astonished world, he made the invisible to become apparent, and produced the wonderful sun picture ! Yet the 'optical apparatus was far from admitting of a portrayal of the lord of creation ; and it was in 1840 that a gentleman in New York, by using a lens of larger aperture and shorter focus, succeeded in obtaining the first portrait in Daguerreotype. Lucky fellow he must have been, to be the first whom the loving sunbeam condescended to enshrine in mirrored memory! Thus, at length, the charm was broken. That man was the first to mark a new epoch in portraiture, more beautiful and more truthful, but, alas ! less permanent, than its canvas ancestor. It would thus appear that the art was considered incom plete till it properly represented “ the human face divine ”— that last and finishing work of an Almighty Artist. Por traiture, then, is one of the great branches of the art; and