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FEBRUARY 20, 1880. | THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 93 Cabinet. Promenade. Carte and Boudoir. even 1 .1,0 ,++1-1 - ", . mostelrectlve,andthepro finished result-how, even at the last moment, he will a large variety of articfes. . . 1:1+1, mArA foreoronnd. nr chanon hv nnnqilinc c . • . add a little more foreground, or change, by unnailing his canvas, the proportions of his picture, and this in such a slight degree as to be almost invisible to the outsider. All this only goes to show how impossible it is to be bound down slavishly to certain set proportions. In fact, to be held fettered by laws like those of the Medes and Persians, “which change not, neither can they be altered,” is dis agreeable alike both to painters and photographers. all time. Velasquez, Vandyke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough—these are names indeed. The light of their genius still illumines the path of the artist, bo he painter or photographer. All these great painters adopted for their full-length portraits about the same proportions. This will be found to be as nearly as possible a square an J a half, about the proportion of the “ carte ” and the “ boudoir.” The “ cabinet ’’ will be about a square and a quarter, whilst the new " promenade ” size is about a double square. I have arranged these sizes here as a guide to the eye.* charming effects in the ornamentation of silvered glass. Caskets and mirrors decorated by this method are really most effective, and the process can evidently be applied to ‘ " . A sheet or plate of glass is first silvered on one of its surfaces ; this silvered surface is then coated with bitumen, and when the film of that to thin semi-transparent paper. He takes a negative printed on a pellicle, which is capable of being used on either side. This negative must not have been varnished, or, if it has been so treated, the varnish must be again removed. He immerses the plate in water with the collodion side upwards, and lays over it a sheet of tissue paper which has been previously coated with a very thin film of gelatine. The two surfaces having been brought into contact, one over the other, and lifted together out of the water, all bubbles or excess of moisture are removed by the application of the squeegee. The whole is now allowed to dry thoroughly, and the sharp point of a pen knife is passed round the edge of the plate, when, if a corner be lifted, the negative is easily stripped off the glass, and is found to be transferred to the paper. Of course, if the glass has been rubbed with talc, the transfer is effected with much greater ease and safety. It is but fair to point out that Mr. Woodbury described the same method of proceeding some years ago, and that several persons have practised it, and I only mention it now because I think it is still capable of being employed with advantage. M. Guerry's Pneumatic Shutter.—At the same meeting, M. Guerry submitted a new pneumatic shutter arranged so as to open and shut in the interior of the camera. An arrangement of this kind has been in use in England for some time, but the difference between the shutter of M. Guerry and that of the English inventor is, that in the former a stopcock is placed close to the bulb or ball, by means of which the shutter can be kept open during the whole time of the pose.* I am not aware whether the pneumatic shutter enjoys an extended use in England, but certainly in France it is scarcely known at all. My own opinion is that its general employment would mark a great advance in photographic portraiture. Since gela- tino-bromide plates have come into fashion, and the time of exposure has been so much reduced, the use of a quickly closing and opening shutter possesses great ad vantage. With an arrangement of this kind, the sitter never knows the exact moment when the impression is taken. The use of this apparatus is therefore calculated to effect a great improvement in portrait photography from an artistic point of view. Photography Applied to the Ornamentation of Looking Glasses aud Mirrors.—Every new industrial application of photography possesses great interest for me. The particular one which M. Leclerc exhibited realizes most ject of proportion in the photographic portrait, for I feel much may still be said. Those who have watched the painter at his work know how fastidious he is even in the minutest detail which may affect the Now if, in imagination, we fill in the blank frame with the portrait, we shall admit that each in its way is good. For the full-length nothing can be better than the carte or boudoir opening; but attempt to fill it in with the bust only, and want of fitness in the proportion will at once be apparent. Either there will be room left above and below, or the shoulders will be cut off at the sides. If we essay to fill in a full-length standing portrait in the cabi net opening, we shall immediately feel the unoccupied and useless space at the sides ; but for the bust Or sitting half length it will perfectly satisfy the eye. The “promenade” will be found very taking to pour tray the queen of fashion daintily arrayed, and the present fashion for female attire particularly lends itself to this kind of portrait; but for the lesser half of humanity it can scarcely be considered a suitable proportion ; and should crinoline ever once more be in the ascendant, a large proportion of the skirt will have to be left to the imagina tion, or the picture taken twice, to satisfy all the require ments. On another occasion I hope to take up again this sub- FRENCH CORRESPONDENCE. TRANSFER or NEGATIVES to Semi-Transparent Paper— New Pneumatic Shutter—PHOTOGRAPMIC Ornamenta tion of Silvered Glass—Easy Method of Silvering Glass—Some Observations on Gelatine Emulsions— Intaglio Engbavino on Copper by a PHOroGRAPIIIO FRocE88—Woodbury's Patent Gelatine Process. Negatives Transferred from Glass to Thin Paper.—At the last meeting of the Photographic Society of France, M. Londe exhibited some negatives transferred from glass • In cutting the blocks, Xos. 1 and 2 have been made slightly too short, but photograpners MUI at once notice this error. substance is dry, it is exposed to the light behind either a negative or a positive plate, on which the design is rendered either in line or stippling. When the exposure is sufficient, the parts of the bitumen not attacked by the light are dissolved out by spirit of lavender, or by ben- zine, or by any other solvent of that substance. By this means parts of the silvered surface are left bare. The glass plate is then passed into dilute nitric acid to dissolve the silver, and when this etching (if I may call it so) has been accomplished, the glass will be left quite bare in all the parts that have not been acted on by light. By applying, now, a coloured varnish to the back of the plate, the picture is obtained standing nut of the silvered ground on the looking-glass itself. If the colours, applied to those parts of the glass that have been rendered bare, are skilfully disposed, the effect is elegant and rich in the extreme. 'This appears to me to be a very perfect method of producing negatives of which the blacks are absolutely opaque, for the light is quite unable to penetrate a film of silver coated with varnish. We have, therefore, a very • The Cadett shutter has, of course, a similar arrangement.—ED. P.N.