SOME PRACTICAL JOTTINGS.

BY W. H. WARNER.

IN writing a first paper for a new journal and a new set of readers, a crowd of feelings arise in the mind. You fear that what you write may give offence, or may not be rightly understood: you hope that the journal you are writing for may succeed, and that its officers are those in whom confidence may be placed, who, always at their post, are influenced by the belief that, in all phases of life," every man" should “do his duty."

I have a few words to say about photographic failures. We all know that, as a rule, " failures belong to the many, success to the few." But it is by a careful study of failures and their causes that we turn them into successes. One common cause of failure with most photographers arises

from a want of

CLEANLINESS.

The foundation of a good picture is a chemically clean plate; too much care cannot be bestowed upon this most essential point. All your chemical knowledge, and manual dexterity, all your labour in posing, lighting, and composition, will have been thrown away, if the cleaning of your plate has not been carefully attended to. The most simple things are often the best for this purpose; glass plates when procured from the warehouse are often marked with soap, and are always more or less contaminated with grease of some sort. Wash them carefully, therefore, one by one, in a weak solution of nitric acid and water, rinse them thoroughly under a tap, set them up to drain on a rack used exclusively for this purpose, and then dry and polish with a cloth and plenty of "elbow grease." Many advocate the use of cleaning solution composed of the best rouge, alcohol, ammonia, and water, or tripoli instead of rouge, but the above plan, although very simple, I have found to answer the purpose, and it lessens the amount of weight to be carried when in the field, away from home.

It was observed to me, by a maker of apparatus, the other day, that some things when sent to him for repair "seemed to last no time-they were all stained and eaten up with the silver; while others would send apparatus which had been used much longer, and was then in a condition which would last for years."

BATHS.

Of baths I would remark, that glass is the only substance worth trusting your solution in; and, if for travelling, the addition of a pure India-rubber top, with Hare's new screw arrangement for attaching it, is all-sufficient. Let it always be kept clean inside and out.

It is often difficult, after working, to get the hands clean readily and quickly without the use of poisonous compounds, such as cyanide and iodide of potassium, used either separately or in conjunction; the same may be effected by rinsing the hands a few times in a strong solution of sea-salt-Tidman's if you like-the chlorine contained therein immediately acting on the silver, makes it white, when it may be removed with sand or pumice-stone. If allowed to remain for the light and sum to act upon it, it will become of a dirty violet colour, which, however, rapidly wears off.

CAMERA.

The most convenient size of camera to work with is the whole plate; there are many subjects which are best treated upright, and in this case you have abundant room. Let everything be of the best make, this is quite compatible now-a-days with moderate prices.

TENTS.

In tents, there are so many now offered to the public

If used for the body, it will render it less liable to cold and rheumatic affections, and be greatly invigorating. A strong solution of it applied externally to the throat, if sore, will sometimes remove the affection.-W. H. W.

that it is difficult to say which is the best; some are for holding all the apparatus, the operator included, if desired, and the weight be not objected to; others are to be carried on the back; some are made of brown paper, some of wood, some of calico, some of wood and calico combined. My tent, of which I may perhaps some day give you a sketch, is a modification of one well known as Rouch's Edward's. I sit down to it, and last season when out I found it most comfortable. It is not expensive, and will bear any amount of knocking about. N.B. it won't contain the operator.

WARMING THE STUDIO.

These

Gas-stoves, cast-iron stoves, open and closed, are often used for heating our studios, setting aside coal, which is but seldom used for this purpose, as it chokes up the fluc by its deposit of soot. Coke gives intense heat, is cheap, and very excellent for some purposes where ventilation is abundant, such as for drying - rooms, &c., in new buildings, but for all photographic purposes, it should be avoided. Gas stoves, which give off deleterious fumes, may be met in another way; have them constructed of sheet-iron or copper. will give off a much larger amount of heat than cast-iron ones, and at the top have a pipe leading up through the ceiling into the roof; thus the oxidised carbon will pass off into the air without damage. Best of all, especially for printing-houses, is heating by means of hot water; you get rid of all dust and dirt, you destroy the enemy sulphur; you can, during the cold winter months, keep your toning box and washing baths up to a nice temperature, and you can always insure a constant supply of fresh, pure air.

VENTILATION.

The fumes of collodion, &c., can be kept out of the operating room by a ventilator of perforated zinc, covered with yellow calico, being placed below the sink into which you develop.

LENS.

It is a wrong thing, in my opinion, for a man to pin his faith upon one particular lens maker, or one particular lens. Amongst opticians, as in all other trades, we have some men excelling in one way, others in another. A lens that will make a good landscape will not make a good portrait, the conditions under which you require it to work are wholly opposed to each other; in the one case, you have an abundance of light, in the other you have often but a modicum, to be directed as you see fit, oftentimes not derived from the very best source, and, from its coming only in one direction, always more or less (except in exceptional cases, such as after rain or hard frost, in large towns especially) impregnated with either our enemy sulphur, or our volatile friend ammonia; when these two enter into partnership, we get a cold, raw, damp feeling, which seems to penetrate to our very bones, and which really is the cause of rheumatic affections. But this is wandering from my subject. It greatly depends upon the particular branch you intend to pursue, as to what lens will be most suitable; I am not addressing myself to the profes sional only. In his case he must have at his command (if he desires success) lenses of different focal lengths, to suit the varied subjects that may be thrown in his waylenses from four inches focal length up to fourteen inches, single, compound, and triple, wide angle, and otherwise. It would be invidious in me to recommend any particular maker; but the lenses most suited to the amateur in landscape and architectural work would be the triplet, and the single aplanatic, the first of seven inches focal length, the latter of nine inches; if stereoscopic pictures be desired, angle lenses ought only to be used on special occasions, the singles of either Ross, Dallmeyer, or 'Grub. Wideand for special work. In these are offered to us the wide angle and rectilinear of Dallmeyer, and the doublet of Ross. All are valuable lenses in their places. (To be continued.)

As announced, this week's four examples are from the studio of M. Adam Salomon, sketched, as the preceding half-dozen were, by Mr. H. Rafter. The reader will have remarked, probably, that there is no particular display of originality in these posings. They are easy, natural, and unaffected, but by no means unfamiliar. The dominant character of this eminent photographer's artistic work is due, to my thinking, to the perfection of their

On the occasion of our visit, the artist gave the position by first assuming it himself, and, after we had taken our seat, proceeded in a quiet, masterly manner to arrange the drapery and surroundings, fastidious to a fault in regard to the minutest details, talking all the while to divert the attention of his sitter. Long training and experience as a sculptor have given M. Salomon much judgment and knowledge in the arrangement of light, position, &c. The lens used was a double combination portrait, by Hermagis, carefully selected, after trial, from six others by the same maker; no diaphragm was used, and in three sittings, exposures varied from eighteen to thirty seconds, according to strength of light. The collodion film, previous to development, appeared semiopaque, creamy, neither very thick nor thin, indicating a full proportion of iodising, with probably a liberal supply of bromide.

but brought out a full, dense image, requiring but little intensification, which latter was secured by the addition of a modicum of silver to the developer, and applied in one case before washing or fixing; in another, after both operations were concluded. The plates were not fixed in a bath, but held in the hand while a solution of cyanide was poured over them, which acted with energy, cleaning off everything like tendency to deposit on the shadows. The result in each case was a negative yielding prints without retouching, with characteristic brilliancy-a marked feature of all M. Salomon's work, visible alike in negatives and prints, being the granulated, flesh-like texture of the skin, closely resembling fine India-ink stippling. His mode of operating varies but slightly from that in everyday use by photographers in all parts of the world, the essential points of difference being due not so much to peculiarities of manipulation, as perfect taste in the pose, incomparable skill in lighting-three-fourths of the picture being in shadow, with concentration of light on the face and hands, strong, pure lights, resulting from full exposure and slow development, with deep, transparent shadows, and the finest attainable gradations of half-tone and detail.

Well spoken, Brother Bolton; and I can echo your sentiments most heartily. Your 10 by 8 camera, with the dozen plates, and the fine day, recall to my memory some of the pleasantest hours of the last twenty years of a life which has had perhaps as much enjoyment as that of most men's. Often and often have I sallied forth from my little cot in Jersey, armed with a camera of that exact size, and four dry plates (not twelve), and a stately tripod, and a bottle of Bass in each coat pocket, and a packet of sandwiches, and with a friend to help carry the paraphernalia. Then we would go tramping along in the broad sunshine, and the bracing sea-breeze, until the romantic bay was reached in which the views were to be taken, the spot having been reconnoitered beforehand, and the exact time noted for taking each of the four views. Then came the exposure-first, perhaps, of two of the plates in the morning light, after which would follow a scramble, and then a header from some ledge of rock into the green crystal wave, and then a pic-nic off the ale and sandwiches in some sheltered nook. By this time it was mid-day perhaps, and the other two plates would have to be exposed, say at two or three o'clock, so the interval was amusingly filled up by gossip over European politics, or, better still, with racy anecdotes from my friend about the Kangaroos, cockatoos, and savages of Australia, or the wild boors and Maories of New Zealand; or of authors, actors, artists, &c., whom he had known in the old country -for, poor fellow, he had been one of those rolling stones which, so far from acquiring any moss, had become as polished and rounded as a billiard-ball, and had been about as much knocked about. He has now left Jersey, and the last I heard of him was as a rolling stone through the Southern States, in the capacity of artist and contributor to one of Cassell's publications. Then would follow an hour's sprawl upon the dry grass, face upwards towards the zenith, watching the drifting clouds, like Rousseau on his back in his skiff; and then the exposure of the other two plates; after which the load of traps would be shouldered again, and we would trudge home and develop before partaking of tea-dinner at seven. A tiring day, on the whole, but, as Mr. Bolton suggests, a happy one— ay, one of the happiest days in life.

But, after all, that was photography made easy. Let me recall to mind some of my earlier photographic campaignsin Rome, for instance-before collodion was known or heard of in the art, and when calotype was all the rage. Ten by eight! Such a size was thought ridiculous in those days; nothing would then suit my taste an inch smaller than a whole sheet of Canson paper; and four of such negatives

used to be taken in a day. That was indeed enjoyment; for everyone knows that, after all is said and done, the pleasure of taking a negative varies as the square of its linear dimensions, and the cube of the amount of fag which it involves. Let the reader, then, picture me to himself in the Roman forum, before the arch of Titus, or Constantine, or Severus, or the Temple of Concord. or the column of Phocas, carrying in one hand a monstrous double slide, and in the other a sturdy tripod, and accompanied by a man named Serafino (a black, dirty, grinning, goodnatured rascal, who I am positive picked my pocket on two occasions when my head was under the black cloth, or rather curtain), carrying on his head a monstrous box, open at one end, and having a pill-box at the other, cemented to the front, and containing a deep meniscus spectacle-glass, and a minute hole in the lid opposite, for a diaphragm. And then the exposure of one hour, and the development with the Buckle niop, and the fixing in a tray. That was enjoyment, if you like; and I think it even beats Mr. Bolton's conception of perfect happiness in this world. I have several of these monster negatives still, and fine examples they are of perfectly straight lines, equal illumination, and universally bad definition.

But what was this to the feats of my friend Colonel Ross at Cintra, with a camera for papers four feet by three, a ream of which was made expressely for him by Messrs. Hollingworth, at a cost of £80! His was a camera, if you like. My Roman box (from Suscipi in the Corso) was a pigmy to it. A human torso could have been put into mine, but many a time have I seen the gallant colonel get. inside his camera bodily. Fancy what his enjoyment must have been, with his six orderlies to carry his apparatus.

Bisson brothers, again. Think of their eight large views forming, when united, a complete panorama from the summit of Mont Blanc! What a grand conception, was it not? Think of their fifty guides, and their baths, and tents, and chemicals, hauled up to the summit of the mountain, three miles perpendicular above the level of the sea! It did not pay; but only think what their enjoyment must have been. To make it perfect, nothing was wanted but a panoramic lens and curved glasses; or, better still, one flat plate twenty feet long, and Mr. Johnson's pantascopic camera, with its pendulum and clockwork. Then the fifty guides, and the brave brothers, and all the hangers-on might have been taken fifty times over, forming fifty different groups in the same picture!

What a descent from all this grandeur to the poor little pocket camera, which Obenreizer or Vendale might have carried, and which might have ended in making them the best of friends! Can I really be in earnest in recommending such an instrument, after all the enjoyment which I have myself experienced in taking large negatives, and all the enjoyment which others have found, and the immortal renown which they have gained, in doing likewise? Can I be serious in what I propose in these articles, or is it not all a joke, and a mere writing against space?

I am indeed quite serious; but let me not be misunder stood. The subjects which I recommend to be taken in the small instrument are not, strictly speaking, views, but studies; nor do I believe the method suitable for professional work. At any rate, let the amateurs try first, and see what they can make of it. That it is eminently suitable for amateur work and for studies, such as will no doubt illustrate this journal in the Photographic Wanderings, I am perfectly convinced; and as the result of much experience in landscape photography, both upon paper and glass, I strongly advise artists and amateurs to take it up. They will fill their portfolios very quickly with really charming "bits," and photography will appear in a new light, and prove a fresh pleasure. Besides, there is no necessity to give up other methods, and work exclusively in the way which I propose. Employ your 10 and 8 camera, or any other large size, for views, by all means; but on every country walk and excursion take with you also the pocket camera and walking-stick tripod, and the little bromised plates, for such studies as may turn up.

And bear in mind this very important point, that it is in such studies that photography comes out strongest, whilst in views it rather breaks down. A photographic view, strictly speaking, is rarely a picture. A view generally comprehends too much for the camera. I do not mean in width of angle, but in subject. A view should embrace the natural clouds and animated figures; and, above all things, it should be Turnerian in its light and shade, and should reproduce air, and space, and motion. In the present state of photography all this is extremely difficult; while in any state of photography, however advanced, it could only be by a very rare combination of happy accidents that a view such as artists delight in, and succeed perfectly in delineating, could be presented to the camera. Photographic views are, as a rule, failures; but photographic studies are not. If the reader doubt this, let him look over a series of copies of Turner's England and Wales, photographed by the Misses Bertollacci, and compare them with an equal number of the best photographic views. Is there not a poetry in the former which the latter rarely possess? But photographic studies of landscape are quite another matter, and these have a poetry of their own, and a peculiar charm which may defy all the power of the artist to imitate. It is in studies that photography comes out strong, and there its true value and interest will chiefly be found.

It is too late now to begin to discuss in the present article the details of the bromised collodion process, but I may take the opportunity of alluding to some important facts in connection with it which I have lately learnt from Major Russell. He has just received from Mr. Griffiths, an amateur of Birmingham, some very charming specimens, taken by that gentleman, during the past summer, by the process in question. I will quote the major's own words. They are as follows:

:

"I have received from Mr. Griffiths some stereoscopic transparencies taken upon bromide and tannin plates last summer. Nine are sea views, all taken on two consecutive days. It seems to me that the subjects are at least as well rendered as in any specimens which I have seen by the wet process. In two points I think that these pictures have rarely or never been excelled, if equalled ; while sky, waves, and spray, are well rendered, rocks in the foreground (I believe dark-coloured) are sufficiently exposed, and show plenty of detail; and again, the whole pictures, at all distances, are in unusually good focus, showing that the apertures were smaller than those often used for similar subjects."

Now, is not the above highly important? for, take note, these pictures are three inches square, they are instantaneous, they are in good focus everywhere, and they exhibit the dark details of rocks at the same time as the motion of the waves of the sea. These studies might have been taken singly in a pocket camera, and enlarged to the size of the sylvan scene which I before alluded to. they not surely be beautiful if printed in that way? Does not the reader long to have one of such studies now before him? Would not the sight of it fill his mind with plea

Would

sant memories of old ocean, and the "music of his roar?". The Major adds,—

"Mr. Griffiths considers that the exposure of all the sea views was about one-fifteenth of a second. That he does

not under-estimate is evident from the great sharpness, in one, of the spars of a steamer going, at right angles, about ten miles an hour. A slide marked "Orme's Head,' makes a capital picture; the waves are breaking heavily into a little bay full of large rocks, and beyond, a bold rocky headland projects into the middle of the picture. The rocks are particularly soft and full of detail. I do not recollect ever seeing land so well exposed in so short a time with so good definition. In two pictures spray is represented as dashed up and falling close to the camera; in one going up about twenty feet high, quite out of the picture. Other slides represent clouds, breaking waves, and rocks, extremely well. There is one view of a water

fall containing figures, rocks, and much foliage, which is soft and well rendered. A view of Ilfracombe is a bold rocky landscape, with buildings in the middle distance, distant hills, and natural sky and clouds, all well defined. In combined softness, brightness, and vigour, it would not be easy to find a picture to excel this one. It had an exposure of fifteen seconds, in the evening, in October, and was developed a fortnight afterwards. All the transparencies show good and careful manipulation. They are remarkably free from spots and other defects."

Respecting the lens used, what the Major says is important to know. They were taken with Dallmeyer's single lens (his deep meniscus), 4ins. focus; the stop for the sea views one tenth the focal length, say half-inch : and that for the others, one-thirteenth the focal length. The reader will bear this in mind, because by-and-by I shall recommend the deep meniscus for the opera-glass camera. Any little distortion which it produced may be rectified in the copying camera.

Mr. Griffiths himself says, "I have been extremely well satisfied with the bromide process this season; for though I have exposed many plates, I have hardly had a single failure, except from the camera moving, and a few spoiled by dust in my preservative boxes. I am quite delighted with the process, because I can feel sure of nine pictures out of ten (of course this does not apply to instantaneous exposures, but I have had scarcely any failures, even with these, that would not have occurred to any plate)."

Now, after this, am I not justified in strongly recommending the above process as the best of any, particularly as the plates may be developed with clean fingers? An I a wild enthusiast in recommending a pocket camera and this magnificent process of Major Russell's; or is there not in my advice the most perfect common sense? What can be done with a 10 by 8 camera to compare for an instant with these little pictures of waves, and sky, and Apart from all question of size, rock, by Mr. Griffiths? is there not a charm in instantaneous work, and does it not open quite a new and a most interesting field to the photographer? Do not then let us hang back, and cling much better is to be had, by means of which such glorious to our old methods and instruments when a new thing so studies can be produced. I appeal to all my brother contributors to this journal, to think this matter over in an impartial spirit, and aid me in my endeavour to place a good and useful novelty before its readers.

As for Mr. Bolton's remarks about printing-viz., "As long as a photographer prefers to travel untrammelled with baggage, and in lieu thereof to toil in the dark and confined space of his enlarging room, &c.," this is what I would reply. I would suggest that only one or two enlarged prints should be taken from a negative, and these the best that it will yield, for the artist's own p rtfolio. Let him not toil at printing. That has all along been a grand mistake. If a large number of prints from any particular study should be required, take a negative from an enlarged proof, and print from that in the usual way.

numbers of proofs by wet collodion, one at a time; and There would, of course, be great toil in printing large what is even worse than toil, there would be injury to the health. It seems to me very important not to introduce collodion in any form into printing on a large scale. The carbon-printing on a large scale. On this point I can same objection, I fear, exists to the use of benzol in speak feelingly, having had sometimes to superintend the application of India-rubber solution to my patent albumenised paper, for Messrs. Lampray and Co.

(To be continued.)

Mr. Francis Eliot has proposed a renewed trial of eyanide of potassium for reducing over-printed proofs, and removing silver from the whites, and suggests its use in aqueous solution mixed with a proportion of one-fourth or one-eighth of methylated spirit.

THE MONK

[Engraved by Graphotype

THE MONK.

LAKE PRICE ranks amongst the first of our artist photographers, and has the honour of having done as much as any of our best practical and theoretical men, to win public recognition of the art-claims of photography. When the photograph-from which we this week publish a sketch by Mr. Rafter-was executed, it took the entire art-world by surprise; a beautifully finished woodcut of it appeared in the Illustrated London News, with an article expressing delight and wonder at its beauty as a photograph, and as a work of art. In those days Lake Price stood almost alone as the representative of art photography.

Recorded facts serve as much to the advancement of the sciences as theories; we must not therefore be much surprised at seeing, collected with much care, a multiplicity of experiments, which, at first sight, appear only curious, but the whole of which, taken together, may in reality serve to establish theories, and consequently to give the explanation of a great number of isolated facts.-M. Arago.

It is something that a gallery of contemporaneous photographic portraits of unimpeachable fidelity may be purchased for as many shillings as guineas used to be expended on Houbraken's heads, or on Lodge; and it is a higher feeling than any prompted by the caprice of fashion, or by a vulgar curiosity, which interests us all in the living form and features of men of renown.Saturday Review.

The practical part of art cannot proceed far without being aided by the critical; the mind must know, or the hand cannot advance.-E. V. Rippingille.

There was such an air of sturdy independence, something so unusual and quaint about the man, that I regarded him with considerable interest. He was dirty, ragged, ill looking, but he was not cringing nor defiant, as men of the vagrant class commonly are. Calm, self-possessed, and self-complacent, he evidently regarded me neither with fear nor favour-rather as an inferior than as his superior. I contined the conversation by asking-" Out of work ?" He nodded.

"How long?" I again inquired.
"Since I was born."
"Born ?"