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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 397 Uhe P9qotographir Elehs, Sugust 20, 1880. PHOTOGRAPHY IN AND OUT OF THE STUDIO. POTOGRAPHIC Enamels—A PHOTOGRAPIIC Action. Photographic Enamels.—It is a pity that photographers do not turn their attention more to vitrified photographs than they do. As Mr. II. N. White pointed out in a paper read some three months ago before the Bristol and West of England Society, the first-class dealers in porcelain are beginning to supply meterial, yet in all England the photo graphers who will undertake the work scarcely amount to a dozen. The secrecy which surrounded M. Lafon de Camarsac’s process, the earliest in the field, probably gave to photographic enamels a mystery which deterred many from experimenting ; but now that excellent porcelain pictures have been exhibited by workers other than M. de Camarsac, there is no reason why photographers generally should not interest themselves in their production. Since Mr. White read his paper, which contained a fairly complete account of all that bad been done by previous workers, a new process has been patented by M. Lemary, of Paris, which differs in many material points from those already in use, and for which he claims the power of ensuring absolutely the colour which the artist wishes to produce. Hitherto, it is stated, perfect results have been difficult to obtain, mainly because the photographic process destroys the balance of the colour fluxes, which can never be restored with certainty. Hence the colours adhere but slightly or not at all to the porcelain or earthernware, and there is a partial or entire absence of glaze and development of colour which are essential to the good appearance of the photograph. In fact, if the balance of the fluxes be destroyed by the operation, and if at certain parts tints due to more or less fusible oxides be added, a portion of the photograph will be destroyed at some parts, and changed at others, and the colour will not be developed at all at certain places. The object, then, of the invention is first to restore to the colour the balance of the fluxes, and secondly to modulate thecolours by the photograph instead of covering tho latter with the colour. This is sought to be carried out in the first instance by pouring upon a carefully- cleaned glass plate tho following sensitized composition, the relative proportions being varied according to the season:— Manna, 10 grammes (151 grains) ; dextrine, 5 grammes (77 grains), dissolved in distilled water, 40 cubic centi metres (617 grains). Bichromate of potash, dissolved to saturation in distilled water, 60 cubic centimetres (926 grains). After the plate is coated it is dried by heat, exposed in a printing frame under a positive, and deve loped in the dark room with pure oxides, that is to say, without fluxes, of cobalt and iron mixed with a little yellow for porcelain, and grey colour for earthenwaro. Tho flux for the colour to be employed is finely ground by means of a muller with pure glycerine, and then diluted until sufficiently liquid, and this mixture is then added to 100 grammes of normal collodion at 1 per cent., shaken up in a bottle, and filtered through a fine cloth. After having poured tho above composition on the plate, and allowed tho collodion the necessary time to dry, the plate is first dipped in water, and then in a bath of carbonate of soda at from 25 to 30 per cent., and then again washed in plain water, after which tho film, which separates readily from the glass, is transferred (with tho collodion side upper most) on to a sheet of prepared paper. This paper is pre pared in the following manner:—Dissolve over a slow fire a quantity of virgin wax—spermaceti, stearine, or other analogous substance—in about three times its weight of spirits of turpentine, or other spirit or oils. After the composition is sufficiently cooled, it is rubbed with a pad as evenly as possible upon the white paper until sufficiently coated. Upon this coated surface the film before mentioned is, on leaving tho water, to bo floated or deposited with tho collo dion side uppermost, and after draining it is to bo pressed between two sheets of blotting-paper, and when nearly dry a thin coat of spirit of turpentine is applied with a flat brush; it is then dried in the air or by a gentle heat. The photograph has now the appearance of an ordinary paper print except that it has not the same tint, and when dry it is coloured to the ordinary ceramic colours, and allowed to evaporate afresh even in the open air or at a gentle heat. The photograph can now be transferred to the surface to be ornamented, for which purpose the surface is first heated, and then receives a coat of fat spirit of turpentine at the part where the photograph is to be applied. The photograph when the turpentine has set is applied with heat and made to adhere well at all parts, after which the paper can be readily peeled off. The porcelain or earthenware is then dried well, and fired in an ordinary muffle. Mr. Lemary has also a modification of the above process to which we may allude at some future time. .4 Photographic Action.—“ Fit for the fire,” is the opinion expressed by the Editor of the Appleby and Kirkby Stephen Herald upon some photographs which have recently been the subject of litigation at the Appleby County Court; while the plaintiff in the action, who desired that the photographer might refund the money paid for the pic tures, said they were “ wretchedly unartistic.” Seeing that the plaintiff was a schoolmaster, we can only wonder that lie should have been led into using such an “ unar tistic ” expression; but it is not with the words so much as their meaning that we wish to deal. We gave our readers an account of the action last week taken from the Penrith Observer, and not the Herald, but the latter has now been forwarded us with copies of the pictures which led to the dispute, with a request that wo, too, may express an opinion. It is rather late in the day to do so, seeing that beyond those above quoted, the judge at the County Court has also made known his ideas upon the subject. We may, however, be permitted to point out in the first place, touching the Herald's opinion, that a picture may be a very good one, and yet serve as a “ pot-boiler ”; while as to the charge of being “ unartistic,” it is difficult to see how a group of fifty-four boys and girls and teachers com pressed into a carte picture could be otherwise. The charge made for taking the pictures was to be at the rate of six shillings a dozen, this to include the cost of taking the negative, and, under the circumstances, one would hardly expect very grand productions. But to resume. Tho photographer showed his specimens, and the school master approved them, paying eighteen shillings for three dozen prints. A negative was taken, and the copies supplied. The dispute now arose. The schoolmaster said the pictures were bad ; the photographer • contended they were good. The former wanted his money back ; the latter would not refund it. The photographer supported his case with the plea that the plaintiff had actually seen the negative, and approved it. “I don’t think they are so bad for out-door photographs," said the judge; and we say tho same, after a careful examination of the prints. They arc not so good, we frankly admit, as pictures which, no doubt, Mr. Robinson, of Tunbridge Wells, would turn out; but, then, Mr. Robinson and his peers want more than six shillings a dozen for their pictures. Again, com pared to half-a-dozen specimens sent, the group holds its own very well, and when we say that the faces of forty out of the fifty children are really very sharply defined—to say nothing of a row of hobnailed boots, in which you might count the nails—most photographers would say that the result is certainly fair work for a carte lens to do. In the end, as we know, the judge gave a verdict for the photo grapher. “ He thought the plaintiff unreasonable; the likenesses were reasonably good for out-door photo graphy.” We congratulate the photographer on the verdict, and also upon his good fortune in having a judge to try the case who knew something of the capacity of lenses, and was not ignorant of the differences between indoor and out-door portraiture,