The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 11.1867
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1867
• 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-id1780948042-186700008
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18670000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18670000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

28 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [January 18, 1867. yet it must be admitted that he had a happy knack of saying the right thing in the right place ; and the broad range of knowledge o’er which he traversed has given an ever lasting value to his writings. In his eloquent tale of Rasselas he elaborately enumerates the qualifications requisite in the manufacture of a genuine poet. Rasselas listens with strained attention to the formidable description, until, overwhelmed with the vastness of knowledge said to be necessary, he exclaims, “ Enough ! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be a poet.” Leaving Rasselas to digest his astonishment as best he can, I now turn my thoughts photographicwards, and in this my intro ductory chapter to a series of papers which I hope to present to my friends during the present now budding year, I shall endeavour to improve on the lesson suggested by the array of information imparted to the convinced Rasselas. Appending a slight alteration to suit present purposes, I write, in the strongest of italics, the first pair of descriptive sentences spoken in the hearing of Rasselas: To a photo grapher nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful must be familiar to his imagination. He must hold frequent converse with nature, and study her in her every mood. He should understand the difference between good and indifferent in art efforts. He must be qualified to distinguish well-applied art from art made visible by stiff over-straining. He should • study meteor ology, and physical science generally. He should be familiar with the different orders of architecture, and be well up in decimals and fractions. He must possess an ample knowledge of the world, and not be ashamed to rene w the intuitive perceptions of character he probably possessed in his early youth. He should never fail of reading a daily newspaper; be well up in all new fashions, and able to converse well on every topic, from the unpalatable subject of church ritualism to the last new things in comic songs. He should be a perambulating chronological list of remark able events, and understand a little about medicine ; be able to prescribe a remedy for nervousness, or a soothing syrup for troublesome babies. He should be an expert in all kinds of mechanical operations, from the driving of a nail to the patching of a dark slide. He should at all times do his best to bring credit on the art he practises; and to do so efficiently he must transcribe nature naturally. He must banish incongruities, study art rules, cultivate a re fined taste, make himself thoroughly conversant with the chemical principles involved in photographic manipula tions, and, finally, he should exercise unlimited patience, use clean plates, and preserve a clear conscience, and I promise the fortunate possessor of the list of requisites I have enumerated an enviable position on the pinnacle of fame. I should experience no difficulty were I inclined to para phrase still further ; but methinks I hear my reader exclaim, in the words of Rasselas, “Enough! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be a photographer.” My reader, do not be discouraged. In spite of the array of accomplishments that must bo crammed into the head of a poet, the world has produced very decent poets who would never have been worshipped verse-makers had not much of the required knowledge been intuitively acquired. And I doubt not but the world will yet have scattered o’er its vast expanse numberless works of true art produced by the hands of photographers whose genius will serve in lieu of supernatural powers. As far as mechanical appliances and a knowledge of manipulation go, but little is left to be desired. In the knowledge of art, the cultivation of correct tastes, the acquisition of scientific ken,—in these, I fear, that with but few exceptions, we are sadly deficient. During the past few months I have corresponded with a large number of photographers residing in various quarters of the United Kingdom. Many specimens of work have been sent to me. To their honour be it recorded, soft, clean, and brilliant pictures characterize those productions. Yet, in the majority of examples sent to me, the art element is rendered conspicuous by its absence ; while the numerous applications I receive, asking aid in a variety of chemical difficulties, convince me that an extended knowledge of photographic chemistry is much to be desired. It has therefore occurred to my mind that a series of progressive lessons in chemistry, as it applies more particularly to pho tography, if written in a plain and popular style, which will amuse rather than weary the student, would prove a boon to that numerous class of photographers who would study chemistry if they only knew how to commence the work; for I am convinced that, as a rule, photographers are anxious to improve, and would spare no pains to acquire the highest range of excellence in their productions. Encouraged by the opinion I hold, I willingly undertake the duty of supplying my brethren photographic with the required information in a rudimentary and pleasing form; and I trust to find some genial spirit, who is competent to undertake the work, willing to follow suite with a series of intelligible papers on art culture. I say “ intelligible,” as I feel bound honestly to observe, that hitherto the articles on art subjects which have appeared from time to time in the pages of the journals devoted to photography have been too fragmentary or too difficult to be of much use to the parties for whose instruction they were written. The most learned treatises are composed of simple alphabetical characters ; and, be it remembered, the writers of those books were obliged to plod through those characters long before they were capable of composing essays. Milk for babes, and plain, intelligible instruction where' the student is to seek knowledge without the aid of a master. To such I would repeat, Do not despair. The highest mount which soars above the drifting mist is composed of atoms. The proudest intellect now existing accumulated knowledge by very slow degrees ; and if my readers would only so deter mine, the year 1867 would be indeed a profitable one to photography. ON THE PRESERVATION, RESTORATION, AND PERFECTING OF NEGATIVES. BY WM. ENGLAND.* The subject of the paper I have the honour of reading before you this evening I shall divide into three parts First, the preservation of negatives ; secondly, the cleaning and restoring of old negatives ; and, thirdly, reducing the over-intensity of negatives after having been varnished, or increasing the intensity of varnished negatives if found necessary. It must often be a source of regret to many photographers to discover from time to time the partial or entire destruction of valuable negatives of eminent men, or of scenes that have passed away, never to be replaced. I am afraid that, unless some attention be given to this subject, future generations will see but little of the productions of this; and perhaps, for the credit of photography, it would not be regretted that much that is unworthy of preservation should pass away. But photography has also produced much that is worthy of preservation, and much that will be of as great, if not greater, interest to future generations than to the present. What priceless treasures now would be negatives of the great men whose names are inscribed in history’s page, and with whose features we are familiar only through the delineations painters have left us 1 In considering the best means of preserving negatives, the question arises as to which is the best varnish to use. As yet we are not in possession of any that answers all the require ments of the case, namely, a varnish that will perfectly protect the film against atmospheric influence, and at the same time be sufficiently hard to withstand the wear imposed by long periods of printing. The varnishes at present employed in a short time become rotten, and lose their powers of expanding and contracting with the plate, the consequence of which is a splitting of the film. Mr. Claudet called attention to this subject some years ago, and also to a very ingenious method of filling the cracks with * Read before the Photographic Society, January 8th, 1867.