First Steps In Photography | by J. C. H. Wallsgrove

The new edition has been more profusely illustrated with drawings lettered in such a manner that they may be easily connected with the text. From this cause it has been necessary to practically re-write the whole work. This feature should be of great assistance to the reader, as it renders the descriptions so much clearer. The drawings have been made without any intention of illustrating any special make of apparatus, but to explain the structural arrangements and to show the principles underlying the various movements. The aim of this little book is to state in a concise and simple way the simple truths in the practice of photography. As the worker progresses and it becomes necessary to make "Second Steps," it cannot be better done than by consulting a specialized work treating only upon the subject on which he is desirous of obtaining information.

Chapters

1. Preface To Fourth Edition
   "First Steps In Photography By J. C. H. Wallsgrove, Medallist In Practical Photography And Chemistry, Exhibitor At Royal Photographic Society's And Other Leading Exhibitions, Author Of "Plain Talks With Beginners," And "The Photographic Department - Its Inception And Management," "Photo-Prelims," ..."
2. Chapter I. The Camera. Stand - Hand - Folder
   "Photography depends upon the effects of light on various chemicals sensitive to its action. Some means are required for the proper control of the light, in order that it may be entirely excluded from the sensitive surface, until such a time that, all things being ready, it may be admitted..."
3. The Stand Camera
   "As its name implies, is for use upon a stand or tripod, and is really the most satisfactory form to use for most purposes in photographic practice. Fig. 2 gives a general view of the stand camera most frequently met with. Fig. 3 is an outline sketch, by means of which it will be possible to more ..."
4. The Hand Camera
   "The hand camera, as suggested by its name, is one for easy manipulation when held in the hand, but it requires some amount of practice to keep it quite steady beyond a fraction of a second; the pulsation of the body, breathing, and nervous excitement will cause the camera to jerk, and blurred pic..."
5. The Reflex Camera
   "Amongst high-class cameras the variety known as the "Reflex" is at the present time increasing in popularity, but is a somewhat expensive instrument. Its leading feature is an enlarged reflected image of objects in front of the lens; the image being received upon a mirror set at an angle ..."
6. How To Use The Reflex Camera
   "The hood, A, which is collapsible and lies secured by its covering door, is opened out and made rigid by the stays. The door of the lens chamber is opened and the cap removed from the lens. On looking down the hood the image of objects in front of the lens will be seen in the focussing screen, C...."
7. The Folding Hand Camera
   "Fig. 17 illustrates the external appearance of the folding camera. This class of camera is more especially arranged for use with films rolled upon spools. Most makes, however, are so made that adapters for glass plates can be readily attached. These adapters are provided with ground-glass focussi..."
8. Chapter II. The Lens. Lenses - Diaphragm - Shutters
   "Fig. 21 gives the general appearance of the. lens-mount. The centre portion is called the "Tube" and the end upon which the cap or shutter fits, the "Hood." The lens proper, Fig. 22, is the glass through which the image of any object in front of it passes to be received upon the focussing screen...."
9. The Diaphragm
   "This uneven definition is overcome by using a diaphragm or stop, to cut off the marginal rays, A A, giving a much clearer image and greater depth of focus; this, however, necessitates a much longer exposure. There are three kinds of diaphragms, Fig. 24, the "Iris," A, the "Waterhouse," B, and the..."
10. Apertures
    "The fullest working aperture or opening varies in different lenses according to their construction. High-class, flat-field lenses frequently used on the best hand cameras have a working aperture of what is termed f/5.5 or f/6, but the greatest number of lenses have their fullest working aperture ..."
11. Chapter III. The Sensitive Material. Plates - Films - Papers
    "It was mentioned in the opening chapter that the whole scheme of photography depends upon the effect of light on chemicals sensitive to its action. This action varies according to the colour of the light. White light is composed of several colours blended together, violet, indigo, blue, g..."
12. The Dark-Room Group
    "The bromide of silver is thoroughly mixed with a thick solution of gelatine to form what is technically known as the "Emulsion"; this is evenly spread upon glass to make plates and upon celluloid for films. Plates Plates are made in several degrees of sensitiveness, the most com..."
13. The Daylight Group. The Gelatino-Chloride Printing-Out Paper (Shortly Called P.O.P.)
    "The emulsion in this case is prepared by mixing silver citro-chloride with solution of gelatine. The sensitiveness of P.O.P. is not nearly so great as that of bromide papers, and requires exposing to daylight for some time to properly print out. This variety of P.O.P. is in most frequent use and ..."
14. Chapter IV. Photographic Chemicals
    "Descriptive Notes The chemicals required by the amateur for use in ordinary photographic practice are not numerous. The following descriptive notes will be found useful for reference. The solutions into which they enter will be described in the various sections under which they fall.</p..."
15. Chapter V. Dark-Room. Arrangement - Light - Water
    "This is the room in which the handling of the plate, film or bromide paper is done. It is not actually dark, but is suitably lighted with red or orange light according to the sensitiveness of the material being handled. The fitting out of such a room depends upon the means and accommodation at th..."
16. Source Of Suitable Light
    "Daylight If the room is on the shady side of the house - or its window is not subjected to too much direct sunlight - daylight properly filtered through coloured glass or fabric may be used as the illuminant for the workroom and will be safe for handling plates, as in loading the camera..."
17. Water
    "Where it is possible to bring the water from the main supply of the house to a tap immediately over the developing sink, it will be found very convenient. This, however, is not often possible, and the next best thing is to have a covered tank placed in such a position that it may be readily fille..."
18. Chapter VI. First Principles In The Artistic Treatment Of The Photograph
    "Principality - Tone Rendering - Orthochromatic Plates - Colour Photography This chapter should be carefully read, but its full value will possibly be more fully appreciated when some progress in photographic practice has been made. The desire may then arise to produce more thoughtful wo..."
19. Principality
    "There should be one special or chief object to claim attention. This is called the "Motif" It does not necessarily follow that it should consist simply of one person or thing only, but if more than one they should be brought together or grouped to form one item of interest, which will command fir..."
20. Tone Rendering
    "Colour Values The correct rendering of colour by tones should have careful consideration. The term tone here must not be confounded with the same term used in P.O.P. toning. It really means the suggestion of colour by means of varying depths of deposits in the picture. Blue photographs ..."
21. Chapter VII. Practical Work
    "Filling The Camera - Arranging The Apparatus - Exposure All the operations in the early stages of photography are carried out with the intention of producing what is called "The Negative" on the plate or film. The negative - see Frontispiece No. I - shows a reversal of the relative ligh..."
22. Filling The Camera
    "The first thing to do is to load the camera with plates or films. This must be done in the dark-room, except in the case of daylight-loading cameras. Light the dark-room lamp and leave it open for a short time, as previously suggested under "The Dark-Room." Put up the window-shutter, close the do..."
23. The Exposure
    "The exposure is the most critical operation in photographic procedure, so much depends upon it. Its length is governed by four things. 1. Quality of light. 2. Class of subject ("Open" or "Shut-in"). 3. Speed of plate. 4. Size of stop or diaphragm opening. W..."
24. Chapter VIII. Developers And Development
    "Making The Solutions - Chemical Actions - Bringing Out And Fixing The Image After a plate has been exposed it should be taken to the dark-room for development. Before describing this operation the developing solutions shall be explained. The Developing Solutions Consis..."
25. Chemical Actions
    "The reducing chemicals in the developing solutions vary in their action upon the haloid salts in the emulsion on the plate or film, and negatives of slightly different colours result. Hydroquinone is a somewhat slow worker. It builds up density, giving plucky blackish negatives whi..."
26. Chemical Actions. Continued
    "Factorial Development Some workers find it useful to work to a factor. This depends upon the time at which the image first shows itself after the plate has been placed in the developing solution. Thus, supposing the image appears in just 1/2 a minute, the complete development of the ima..."
27. The Development Of Films
    "Rollable and other films are developed in precisely the same way as a plate. A strip of rollable film of six or twelve exposures may be developed at one time, provided the exposures have been nearly the same so far as quality of light at time of exposing and the length of exposure are concerned. ..."
28. Machine Development
    "There is new apparatus arranged for the development of films in the strip, and the work may be performed in an ordinary room and not necessarily in a dark-room. The apparatus consists of a wooden cabinet fitted up inside with mechanism, by which the film is wound off its spool into a light-tight ..."
29. Chapter IX. After-Treatment Of The Negative
    "Reduction - Intensification - Mechanical Sometimes the negative, from causes already mentioned, may not be quite up to printing standard and may require slight modification, either from over-denseness by reduction, or building up from being thin and flat by intensification. These operat..."
30. Intensification
    "If from under-exposure or insufficient development a negative is obtained that is weak in contrast and gives a hazy-looking print, matters may often be improved by intensification. The mercuric-chloride and ammonia intensifier will be considered first. The negative is soaked in water to soften th..."
31. Mechanical After-Treatment
    "By Paper The printing quality of a negative may also be assisted by mechanical means, as coating the back with "matt varnish" or paper (either tracing paper or Papier Mineral) and working upon these with lead pencil. The varnish is applied by pouring a portion on the centre of the glass..."
32. Chapter X. Printing And Toning
    "Print-Out Papers The print is made from the negative and forms the POSITIVE. Gelatino-Chloride Print-Out Paper, Or P.O.P Will receive first consideration. This paper belongs to the "Daylight" group of sensitive materials, as it can be handled with safety in weak daylig..."
33. "Surfacing" The Print
    "A highly-glazed surface may be given to a P.O.P. print by pressing it down upon a piece of polished plate-glass by means of a squeegee (Fig. 44.) The glass must be first thoroughly cleaned, and when quite dry should be rubbed over with French chalk; this is wiped off, and the glass finally rubbed..."
34. Chapter XI. Printing And Developing
    "Bromide - Platinum - And Carbon Papers. Bromide Paper This paper belongs to the dark-room group of sensitive materials. They are, however, not quite so sensitive as plates, and can be safely handled in yellow or orange light. Winter daylight is of very weak activity, and printin..."
35. Gaslight Papers
    "These are really a variety of slow bromide papers. They require a much longer exposure, but develop up much more quickly. Therefore, it is possible to handle them in very subdued artificial light in an ordinary room, and not necessarily in a dark-room - as a precaution the filling of the printing..."
36. Toning Bromides
    "The normal colour of bromide papers is black and white. The matt surface paper gives an effect very similar to platinum paper. The colour of the sensitive surface may, however, be changed by toning. Red This is obtained by using the ordinary uranium intensifying bath, given on p..."
37. Platinotype Paper
    "This beautiful process is frequently regarded by those who have not tried it as an expensive and difficult one. With care, it may not necessarily be so. A certain amount of judgment is required when printing to know exactly when to stop; this comes with practice, and if the worker will only perse..."
38. Carbon Printing
    "The carbon and platinotype processes are regarded as the most permanent of all the photographic printing processes. Carbon admits of a long range of colours, as black, brown, purple, red, and green. It depends for its effect upon the action of light on gelatine sensitized by immersion in ..."
39. Chapter XII. Trimming And Mounting
    "Selection - Trimming - Mounting - Mounts Much ultimate success of the photograph depends upon careful and judicious trimming. The operation in its simplest form consists of merely cutting away the white edges surrounding the print, produced by the rebate of the printing-frame sh..."
40. Trimming
    "A piece of plate-glass or zinc about 12 or 18 inches square, a cutting-knife and cutting-shape are required for the operation of trimming. An old negative from which the film has been washed off often suffices for a cutting-shape or guide for the knife. A shoemaker's knife is useful; it must have..."
41. Mounting
    "The print is laid face downwards on a piece of clean paper. It should be kept down by pressure of the fingers of the left hand, so placed that the margins shall not turn in. The mountant is first applied to the margins, so that they will become soft and lie flat, and is afterwards well brushed in..."
42. Chapter XIII. Enlargement Making
    "By Daylight - By Artificial Light - Transparencies This may be done in one or two ways, either by daylight or artificial. The enlargement may be made either from a small negative direct upon bromide paper, or by making an enlarged negative and printing in the ordinary way upon any of th..."
43. The Daylight-Enlarging Camera
    "In this the same principle is involved, only, being self-contained, no window arrangement is necessary. Fig. 49 represents a section of the apparatus. It consists of two chambers, one large and one small. The negative is placed in the opening at the end of the small one at A; the end B of the lar..."
44. Enlarging By Artificial Light
    "This is usually done by means of a lantern, as shown in Fig. 50. The system consists of a lantern, A, for the illuminant, a condenser, B, a carrier for the negative at C, and a camera-like arrangement, D, with the lens, E. The illuminant may be ordinary paraffin or incandescent gas, In either cas..."
45. Enlarged Negatives
    "Enlarged negatives may be made in two ways, either by making a small transparency (or positive on glass) and enlarging up directly from it on the large plate, or by making a large transparency from the small negative, and from the transparency a large negative by contact. For the small tr..."
46. Chapter XIV. Lantern-Slide Making. By Contact - By Reduction - Finishing
    "Lantern plates may be bought to give either warm or cold tones. The size of the lantern plate is 3 1/4 inches square, therefore it is somewhat smaller lengthways than a quarter-plate; but it frequently happens that the sacrificing of this odd inch when working with a quarter-plate negative does n..."
47. Lantern-Slide Making By Contact
    "Supposing, then, a quarter-plate negative is to be printed from, it is laid in the printing-frame in the usual way, and upon it a lantern plate; care should be taken not to scratch the one with the other. Hold up the frame so that the light from the dark-room lamp may pass through it. Carefully m..."
48. Lantern-Slide Making By Reduction
    "When a lantern slide is required from a negative larger than a quarter-plate, it must be done by reduction. This operation may be regarded as just the reverse of making an enlarged positive. The negative is placed in the opening of the window-shutter and the camera is brought some distance along ..."
49. Lantern-Slide Making. Finishing The Slide
    "When the plate has been developed, fixed, washed and perfectly dried, it must be bound up with a piece of thin glass to form a cover and protect it from damage. Before binding, the slide should be made perfectly dry by gently warming. A piece of lanternslide binding sufficiently long to g..."