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PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING
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PHOTOGRAPHIC See also:PRINTING APPARATUS For See also:ordinary printing purposes pressure frames, with or without See also:glass fronts, are used for holding the negative and sensitive See also:paper in See also:close contact during exposure to See also:light. They are fitted with hinged backs enabling the progress of the printing to be seen. The pressure is usually given with springs or with screws or wedges acting on the back. They are made in different kinds shown in the dealers' catalogues. For copying large tracings and See also:engineers' drawings by the cyanotype and similar processes large glazed frames are used, mounted on a stand with See also:axle, so that they may be easily turned over for refilling or fixed at a suitable See also:angle to the light. The pressure is given by an elastic See also:cushion or vacuum arrangement, by which See also:air is pumped out from under an indiarubber See also:sheet covering the back of the See also:frame, thus securing a perfectly See also:uniform pressure of about 14 lb to the square See also:inch without See also:strain on the front glass. Such frames are also useful for various photo-See also:mechanical printing processes with large negatives or See also:metal plates. For rapid printing of See also:post-card and other negatives up to 82 X 62 in. a handy and See also:simple apparatus the " Rapide " has been brought out, consisting of a See also:lantern fitted for oil, See also:gas or electric light, with a sloping front, in which a See also:special printing frame is fixed and arranged so that the prints can be rapidly exposed one after another (B. J. A. 1909), p. 691. In another See also:form arrangements are made for exposing a large number of printing frames on a suit-able stand, in one or two tiers See also:round a central arc See also:lamp, which may be provided, as in the " See also:Westminster " revolving printing frame, with a shade to protect the eyes of the operator when examining the prints or changing the frames. For printing tracings, &c., in See also:long rolls, See also:cylinder and rotatory See also:machines of various types are used, so that the tracing and sensitive paper may be See also:drawn together at a regulated See also:speed in close contact round a glass cylindrical See also:surface within which electric arc or See also:mercury vapour lamps See also:supply the source of light. Several machines of this See also:kind are described in Eder's Jahrbuch for 1908, also in the patent records and photographic See also:journals. raphy "; See also:Photography Annuals (1891 to 1899) ; Photographic See also:Journal Ph. Journ.) • See also:Year Books of Photography to 1907. Lenses and See also:Optics: C. See also:Beck and A. See also:Andrews, Photographic Lenses (6th ed.); W K. See also:Burton, Optics for Photographers (1891); R. S. See also:Cole, A See also:Treatise on Photographic Optics (1899) ; T. R. See also:Dallmeyer, Telephotography (1899) ; J. A. Hodges, Photographic Lenses (1895) ; See also:Captain Houdaille, Sur une mithode d'essai scientifique et pratique See also:des objectifs photographiques (1894) ; G. L. See also: W. See also:Piper, A First See also:Book of the See also:Lens (1901); Dr M. von Rohr, Theorie and Geschichte des photographischen Objectivs (1899), a most valuable theoretical and See also:historical See also:summary of photographic optics and its literature; Hans See also:Schmidt, Das See also:Fern-Objectiv em Portrdt- Architectur- and Landschaftsf ache (1898); Dr H. Schroeder, See also:Die Elemente
der photographischen Optik (1891); J. T. See also: B. See also:Coventry, The Technics of the Hand See also:Camera (1901), the working principles of lenses, shutters, &c., for instantaneous exposures are treated mathematically and practically; L. See also:David, Die Moment-Photographie (1898); G. de See also:Chapel d'Espinassoux, Traite pratique de la determination du temps de pose (189o) ; Dr R. Krugener, Die Hand Camera and ihre Anwendung See also:fur die Moment-Photographie (1898) ; A. Londe, La Photographie instantanee, theorie et pratique (3rd ed., 1897) ; F. W. Pilditch, Drop-Shutter Photography (1896) ; A. de la See also:Baume Pluvinel, Le Temps de pose (189o) ; A. See also:Watkins, The Watkins See also:Manual of Exposure and Development (4th ed., 1908). The See also:Practical Photographer, No. 8 (1904), " Hand Camera See also:Work." The " Photo-Miniature Series," No. 3 (1899), Hand Camera Work; No. 37 (1902), Film Photography; No. 56 (1903), The Hurter and See also:Driffield See also:System; No. 76 (1906), The Hand Camera; No. 77 (1907), See also:Focal See also:Plane Photography.
Colour Photography: Agenda Lumiere, La Photographic des couleurs et See also:les plaques aulochromes (1909); G. E. See also: See also:Konig, Natural Colour Photography (trans. by E. J. See also:Wall (1906) ; Die Autochrom Photographie and die verwandten Dreifarbenraster-verfahren (1908). (J. WA.)
. III.—PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Pictorial photography differs from other branches of photo-graphic practice in the See also:motive by which it is prompted. Employing the same methods and tools, it seeks to use photographic processes as a means of See also:personal See also:artistic expression. Thus in the See also:early days of See also:Fox See also:Talbot's calotype, about 1846, David Octavius See also: . . . I do not consider that the whole of the subject should be what is called `in See also:focus'; on the contrary, I See also:hale found in many, in-stances that the See also:object is better obtained by the whole subject being a little out of focus." The See also:doctrine has been persistently repeated ever since, but only within the last See also:decade of the 19th See also:century was the suppression or See also:diffusion of focus received by photographers generally with anything better than ridicule or contempt, because it was unorthodox. O. G. Rejlander, Mrs Julia See also:Margaret See also:Cameron, H. P. See also:Robinson, and others, by See also:precept or practice, strove against such photographic conventions as had arisen out of those technical exigencies to which pictorial qualities were so often sacrificed. As See also:late as 1868, in the Manual of Photographic Manipulation, by See also:Lake See also:Price, the old See also:advice to arrange a See also:group of persons in See also:crescent form, so as to adapt the subject to the See also:curve of the See also: P. Robinson, who died in See also:February 1901, and, but for a brief period about the year 1875, was one of the most prolific " picture makers." Inspired by Rejlander, of whom he was a contemporary, Robinson will perhaps be best remembered by his earlier advocacy of See also:combination printing. As early as 1855 See also:Berwick and See also:Annan exhibited a photograph which was the result of printing from more than one negative, a figure from one plate being cunningly introduced into a landscape See also:print from another. Then came from Rejlander " The Two Ways of See also:Life," in which, with wonderful ingenuity, See also:thirty different negatives were combined. Robinson followed, and between 1858 and 1887 exhibited numerous examples of combination-printing, one of the most popular and fairly typical examples being " Carolling " (see Plate II), which received a See also:medal in the See also:exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society in 1887.
Though in this combination-printing one may perhaps perceive the germ of incentive towards the See also:production of special effects not seen in the See also:original, yet the practice was not destined to become very popular, for even in the most capable hands there remains the difficulty, if not impossibility, of fitting a portion of one negative into a print from another and still preserving true relative tonality, and even true proportion. Skilfully produced, eminently popular in See also:character though " Carolling " may be, such errors are not absent. Of this combination-printing Dr P. H. See also:Emerson has said: " See also:Cloud printing is the simplest form of combination-printing, and the only one admissible when we are considering artistic work. Rejlander, however, in the early days of photography, tried to make pictures by combination-printing. This See also:process is really what many of us practised in the nursery, that is, cutting out figures and pasting them into See also: With all the care in the See also:world the very best artist living could not do this satisfactorily. Nature is so subtle that it is impossible to do this sort of patchwork and represent her. Even if the greater truths be registered, the lesser truths, still important, cannot be obtained, and the softness of outline is easily lost. The relation of the figure to the landscape can never be truly represented in this manner, for all subtle modelling of the See also:contour of the figure is lost." Pictorial photography received a large See also:accession of votaries in consequence of the greater facilities offered by the introduction of the gelatino-bromide, or dry-plate, process, which, although dating from 188o, did not notably affect photographic communities until some years afterwards; and although irnprovement in appliances and See also:instruments had little to do with the advance of the pictorial See also:side of photography, yet, indirectly at least, the dry-plate and the platinotype printing process have had an undoubted effect. The former gave enormously increased facility, and dispensed with tedious manipulations and chemical knowledge, while its increased light-sensitiveness decreased the limitations as to subjects and effects. The platinotype process was discovered in 1874—188o by W. See also:Willis, who employed his chemical skill and knowledge to give the world a printing process more likely than the hitherto prevalent. See also:silver papers to satisfy artistic requirements. Up to 1882 but few outdoor photographers had ventured to run See also:counter to the general dictum that photographs should only be taken during See also:sunshine or See also:good See also:bright light, and unquestioning consent would have been given everywhere to the proposition that it would be absurd to work when anything like See also:fog or atmospheric haze was See also:present. Isochromatic plates, introduced for the purpose of equalizing the actinic See also:power of various colour luminosities, and so rendering See also:colours in correct relative value, were recommended by one writer, who applauded their supposed See also:advantage of enabling the photographer to photograph distance without any See also:suggestion of See also:atmosphere. That evening or See also:morning haze might enhance the beauty of a landscape, or that the See also:mystery of See also:half-concealment might itself be beautiful, does not seem to have occurred to the photographer, who had become infatuated by the exquisite clearness and sharpness which, with a minimum of labour, he was able to achieve. It is therefore interesting to See also:note one of the first photographic successes which See also:broke away from this convention, just as Rejlander's Solar Club group defied the See also:formula of arranging human figures like the tiers of an See also:amphitheatre. William M'Leish, of See also:Darlington, a Scottish gardener who had taken to photography, and who seems to have been less under the influence, or it may have been that he was ignorant, of the old dicta, sent to the Royal Photographic Society's Exhibition in 1882 a photograph entitled " Misty Morning on the See also:Wear," a very beautiful view of See also:Durham See also:Cathedral as seen through the mist from across the See also:river. The See also:judges, although they that year awarded eleven medals, passed this by; but appreciation came from outside, for newspaper critics, and practically all those who were not blinded by See also:prejudice and conventionality, declared it to be the photograph of the year. The exhibitions immediately succeeding revealed numerous imitators of M'Leish, and both figure and landscape work began to be shown in which there was See also:evidence of greater freedom and originality. Meanwhile the Photographic Society of Great Britain had drifted away from its artistic starting-point, and had become chiefly absorbed in purely scientific and technical subjects. But the general apathy which existed in respect of the artistic aspirations of some workers was the forerunner of a period of See also:renaissance which was to end in lifting the pictorial side of photography into a greatly improved position. In 1886 Dr P. H. Emerson read before the Camera Club a paper on " Naturalistic Photography," which served as an introduction to the publication (1887) of his book under that See also:title. Unquestionably this book struck a powerful See also:blow at the many conventionalities which had grown up in the practice of photography; the chief doctrines set forth being the differentiation of focus in different planes, a more See also:complete recognition and truer rendering of " See also:tone," a kind of truthful See also:impressionism derived from a close study and general acquaintance of nature, and a generally higher and more intellectual See also:standard. After the publication of a second edition in 1889 Dr Emerson publicly renounced the views he had published, by issuing in See also:January of 1891 a bitterly worded, See also:black-bordered pamphlet, entitled The See also:Death of Naturalistic Photography. But the thoughts which the book had stirred were not to be stilled by its withdrawal. Towards the end of the same year the conflict which within the Photographic Society had become apparent as between the pictorial enthusiasts and the older school, culminated in connexion with some matters respecting the See also:hanging of certain photographs at the exhibition of that year; and a number of prominent members resigned their membership as a protest against the lack of sympathy and the insufficient manlier in which pictorial work was represented and encouraged. This See also:secession was to prove the most important event in the See also:history of that See also:branch of photography. The secessionists being among the most popular contributors to the See also:annual exhibition gathered round them numerous sympathizers. In the following year they formed themselves into a brotherhood called " Tb Linked See also:Ring," and in 1893 held their first " Photographic See also:Salon," at the See also:Dudley See also:Gallery, Piccadilly. The most noteworthy of the early adherents attracted to the new See also:body was See also: By the artistic worker it is claimed that the lens and camera are but the tools, and the negative the preliminary See also:sketch or study, the final print See also:standing to him in the same relation as the finished See also:painting does to the artist. In the production of the print various means of personally controlling the formation of the See also:image have been resorted to. Thus the local development of platinotype by means of glycerine has its champions, but it seems to have been little used, its resuscitation being chiefly due to two or three prominent workers in New See also:York. Here should also be mentioned the revival in 1898 of rough-surface printing papers, chiefly those sensitized with silver, the roughest texture See also:drawing papers being employed to break up the excessive sharpness of the photographic image, and by the superficial inequalities introducing the effect Aroused into greater activity by these events, the Royal Photographic Society began to pay more See also:attention to what had now become the more popular phase. At subsequent exhibitions the technical and scientific work was hung separately from the " See also:Art See also:Section," and a See also:separate set of judges was elected for each section. It became the custom to allot by far the greater amount of space to the " artistic "; and later, artists were elected as judges, by way of encouraging those who were devoted to the pictorial side to send in for exhibition. In the autumn of 1900 the New Gallery was secured, and a comprehensive exhibition of all phases of photography was held. It is interesting to note that as a distinct See also:movement pictorial photography is essentially of See also:British origin, and this is shown by the manner in which organized photographic bodies in See also:Vienna, See also:Brussels, See also:Paris, St See also:Petersburg, See also:Florence and other See also:European cities, as well as in See also:Philadelphia, See also:Chicago, &c., following the example of See also:London, held exhibitions on exactly similar lines to those of the London Photographic Salon, and invited known British exhibitors to contribute. The See also:international character of the " Linked Ring " encouraged an interchange of See also:works between British and See also:foreign exhibitors, with the result that the productions of certain See also:French, See also:Austrian and See also:American photographers are perfectly See also:familiar in Great Britain. This, in the year 1900, led to a very remarkable cult calling itself " The New American School," which had a powerful influence on contemporaries in Great Britain. of luminousness to over-dark shadows and variety to See also:blank whites. The almost forgotten process of Pouncy, and of Poitevin, now known as the See also:gum bichromate process, was rehabilitated in 1894 by M. Rouille Ladeveze expressly to meet the needs of the pictorial worker. Perhaps the best results that have been achieved by it are those of M. See also:Robert Demachy of Paris, though many See also:English workers have used it with remarkable success. In it paper of any kind may be selected as the support. The power of the operator to modify the printed image to almost any extent, even to introducing and eliminating lights and shadows, and in other ways to depart widely from the image given by the negative, depends upon the fact that the coating of gum and pigment (which, being bichromatized, becomes insoluble in proportion as it is acted upon by light) holds the pigment but imperfectly, and yields it up upon a vigorous application of See also:water. According, therefore, to its application or retention, the operator can lighten or deepen in tone any portion. Numberless See also:variations of other methods, such as See also:brush development and local toning or stopping, have been suggested with the same object. Other workers have shown that by dexterously shutting off and admitting the light to various parts of the negative whilst printing, the disposition of the lights and shades in the print can be modified to so great an extent as to alter the general contour of the See also:scene. Examples of an original unaltered print, and one which has been thus modified, are shown in the accompanying plate. Portions are shaded in by allowing the light to have See also:access to the print, either through the negative—in which See also:case the image with all its details, prints more deeply—or by removing the negative, when the See also:action of the light is to flatten and suppress both detail and contrast. Latterly some few have resorted to extensive working on the negative, both on the back and on the film; drawing by hand is practised on the film to render too prominent features less obtrusive, and See also:objects in the background are merged by an intricacy of lines and See also:cross-hatching. Many of the results are very pleasing, although one hesitates to justify the means, however good the end. On the other hand, to exclaim for purity of method and the exclusion of extraneous See also:aids is very like setting up an arbitrary standard no less unreasonable than those conventions against which pictorial photography has so long striven. (A. H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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