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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. EDITED BT T- C- HEPWORTH, F-C.S. Vol. XXXV. No. 11 ^.—September 11, 1891. CONTENTS. PAGE A New Method of Photographing Flowers 633 Photography in Germany. By Hermann E. Gunther 634 Hand-Camera Work. By Xanthus Smith 635 The Albumen Process. By P. C. 636 Photographic Chemistry. By Prof. R. Meldola 638 Notes 640 Photography as an Aid to Illustrative and Pictorial Art. By W.H. Jobbins 643 PAO® The International Photographic Exhibition at Glasgow 641 On Some Conditions affecting Reversal of the Photographic Image. By Henry Sutton 645 Royal Cornwall Poly technic Exhibition: Photographic Depart ment 646 Patent Intelligence 647 Proceedings of Societies 647 Answers to Correspondents 648 A NEW METHOD OF PHOTOGRAPHING FLOWERS. The average photographer, like most other ambitious persons, is constantly sighing after fresh worlds to conquer, and, after the fashion of human nature, is prone to forget or overlook the opportunities for study which are within reach of his hand. Some will be constantly complaining that they have not time or means to get to foreign climes, and that this country does not afford scope enough for their talents. On this plea many will settle down into the common rut of every-day bread-and-butter existence, and will never attempt to produce a picture which is not of the com mon second-class studio type. Others never seem to care to picture anything which is not brought to them, and which they are obliged to do simply because they do not like to throw an order away. Some of them will actually refuse work for their camera if it entail a little extra trouble, or a slight deviation from the beaten track. This neglect to encourage business is not so rampant as it was before the inroad of the amateur. That indefatigable gentleman—who can do anything, from making a transparency to enlarging a head to life size—has at least taught the profession that they must not rest upon their oars, but must pull hard unless they would be left quite behind in the race. It is, then, to the interest of the modem photo grapher that he should do his best to strike out into fresh lines, and should look around him and think in what new direction he can work. If he have the opportunity of visiting one or two of the numerous exhibitions of photographs which are now so common, he will do well to study the various kinds of pictures there shown, and he will generally be able to learn what to avoid rather than what to follow. But in one sense he will do well to avoid that which is technically good. What we mean is that at all these exhibitions there is a plethora of simple landscape, portrait, and latterly a large number of “instantaneous studies,” as they are called, added to which will be a goodly number | of snap-shots due to hand-cameras. These subjects are getting tiresome by reason of their monotony. Can we not look around and find some description of subject which is not photographed quite so often ? Our search will not be a very protracted one, for we soon see that flowers have been almost wholly neglected by photographers, while at the same time they offer a wide field for successful work. It may at once be conceded that flowers, although coming under the head of still life, are not easy things to photograph. First we have the colour difficulty. This has been surmounted to a great extent by using colour-sensitive plates; and even when such plates are not procurable, the colour difficulty can be made to disappear almost entirely by use of a yellow screen and ordinary plates, taking care to stop down the lens and to give a very liberal exposure. Another difficulty, and a serious one, is the impossibility of getting the flowers into one plane, particularly when the subject photographed is actually growing. There are sure to be some vagrant stems which will insist upon thrusting themselves too near to or too far from the lens. Such wanderers from the right path can often be secured by black threads, which are quite invisible in the picture. Indeed, in photographing such flowers as orchids in situ in their glass house, it becomes absolutely neces sary to be armed with black thread, hammer, and tacks, so that the long stems of the plants may be brought under some kind of subjection. Cut flowers in vases make most beautiful pictures, as Mr. Stevens, who has won so many medals for such studies, has long ago proved to everybody. But in this case the flowers are, of course, under the control of the photographer, and he can get contrast of light and shade, as well as of position, without any hindrance. The same remark applies to bouquets, when the photo grapher is occasionally asked to take a picture of a bride’s bouquet after he has photographed a wedding party. Such a bunch of flowers can be presented to wards the lens, and the subject will be comparatively in the same plane.