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23 and ten seconds, i.e., one plate received an exposure of 180 times the other. I may mention one point in connection with long exposures that I have occasionally noticed, but which may possibly be more common than I imagine. It is that the images of bright windows are sometimes visible on the film before development, the image appearing as a grey patch on a white ground. As a general rule, sunlight shining direct on the subject is bad, though occasionally excellent effects may be obtained this way. These effects, however, in my experi ence are not under the photographer’s control, and the more usual result is that patches of abnormal density appear on the negative which produce on the print white patches devoid of detail. Of sunlight, provided it be not directly on the subject, one cannot have too much. It increases the amount of reflected light, and consequently reduces the blackness of the shadows, and tends to prevent those violent contrasts which are so common in interiors. At one time I was troubled by occasional patches of fog on the negative, which always appeared in the vicinity of a window and close to the edge of the plate, and the cause of which was not discoverable for some time. I eventually traced it to the image of a bright window, half of which was included in the picture, and half of which was outside the picture, being reflected from the square edge of the woodwork of the camera surrounding the plate on to the plate itself. The square edge being bevelled off so as to prevent reflected light from it falling on to the place, effectually disposed of the difficulty. With reference to the use of wide-angle lenses for interior work, two things, I take it, are certain; firstly, that they should be absolutely avoided for general work, and secondly, that they are absolutely necessary on occasion. Many amateurs have only two lenses, one of which may be regarded as a “ general purposes ” lens of moderately long focal length, the other being probably a wide angle of very pronounced type. If an amateur so equipped commence interior work, he will very speedily find that, in many cases, his long-focus lens will not take in enough, and, having only one other lens, he is com pelled to use that, with the result that he gets most un pleasing and exaggerated perspective in his pictures. For this reason, a series of lenses of different focal lengths is invaluable, and enables one to avoid using the most W. A. ones, except on very special occasions. A series of lenses is also a necessity if any large amount of work is to be done. Everyone knows how the composition of any sub ject changes by simply moving the point of view a few yards, and in interior photography, owing to the confined positions, and the fact that the different planes of the subject are at such varying distances from the point of view, this fact becomes of the greatest importance. A foot or two either way will so alter the composition of a picture as practically to make it an entirely different one. It is, therefore, necessary to be able to select the exact spot where you wish to place your camera, and then to have a lens which will, from that spot, include just as much as you want to get in your picture. The widest angle lens I use is a nine-inch one, which gives an angle of sixty-seven degrees on a twelve-inch plate. This angle, though a very moderate one compared to that included by many wide-angle lenses in common use, undoubtedly gives, under certain circumstances, unpleasing perspective, and it is one that I only use on exceptional occasions. The angle that it includes is, I think, the extreme limit that should be employed, and a view that could not be taken, except by using a still wider angle lens, would give such violent perspective that it would be better not to take it at all. There is a difference in the effect on the eye of the perspective when using a wide-angle lens, according to whether the picture is an oblong or an upright one. In the former case, especially in such cases as a nave or choir, where a row of arches is to be found on either side of the picture, the tendency of the lens to cause unpleasant perspective is greatly increased, whilst, in the latter case, the exaggeration, though produced by precisely the same lens, does not appear to be so noticeable to the eye. This would appear to be recognised by artists, as, from an in spection of etchings or engravings of interiors, it will be seen that care is always taken with an oblong picture to avoid anything approaching to exaggerated perspective, whilst with upright ones the angle of view included is frequently so great that it could only be obtained in photography by the use of an abnormally wide-angle lens. I have brought here to show you a levelling tripod top, which I have found for interior work to be quite the most useful piece of apparatus in my possession. Everyone knows the trouble and loss of time caused by the necessity of accurately levelling the camera for interiors, and the shifts that have to be gone to in certain cases where it is difficult to find a firm footing for the tripod legs. With this top levelling becomes a matter of a few seconds, and the legs, having been once fixed in convenient resting places, need not be touched again. On smooth-tiled floors, and in confined situations where it is a matter of considerable difficulty to find any place at all for the tripod legs, this is a point of considerable importance. For getting the ground glass vertical and horizontal, I have found nothing to equal a circular spirit level. The method of ruling lines on the ground glass, and then get ting the subject vertical by means of these, is one that does not commend itself to me. It is a method that can only be used with comfort when the subject is very well lit, and the lens is one of large aperture. With dark subjects, and with lenses working at f/16 or f/20 at their full aperture, the image on the ground glass becomes so dark as to make the method a most tedious one, and, on occasion, the subject is shrouded in such obscurity that it simply becomes a physical impossibility to see the lines on the glass at all; lastly, in all old buildings, the pillars, more frequently than not, are not vertical themselves, and are, consequently, most unsafe guides to go by. I have also here a view meter which has the advantage of enabling you to see your picture with all the surround ing objects cut off, thereby enabling you to get a much better idea of the composition ; and it also enables you, by altering the position of the draw-tube, to ascertain exactly what lens you will want to use to include any given view. The most practical advantage of this is that, whilst your camera is taking one view, you are able, at your leisure, to study the composition of the next one you intend to take, and select with the greatest care the exact spot from which to take it. Development is a subject which I propose to treat like exposures, and say nothing about. It is just as necessary to vary the proportions of your developer for interiors as for anything else. This much I may say, though, that I suppose everyone has what he regards as his normal deve loper for ordinary out-door work, and which he varies as
