Photographic Amusements Part 10

The camera must on no account be moved between the exposures, nor the focus changed. After making the first exposure the correct focus for the second is obtained by moving the subject backward or forward until an exact focus is secured, and not by moving the camera or ground gla.s.s. The whole apparatus should be painted a dead black.

When the attachment is in place it will be noted on the ground gla.s.s that while the strip B is just one-half the size of the opening in A, it does not cut off just one-half of the ground gla.s.s, a line drawn through the center of which shows that a s.p.a.ce in the center of the plate about one-half an inch in width receives a double exposure, but this is not apparent in the finished negative. The figure should be posed as near the center of the plate as possible in each instance.

This apparatus, as described, is only available for making two figures. By making B narrower, or one-third of the width of the opening in A, three figures may be made, using each time a separate piece to cover up that portion of the plate exposed, and by changing the form of B to that shown in Fig. 95, four positions can be secured.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 95.]

Val Starnes describes[8] another and still simpler method. He says: Take a light card, mount and carefully cut from it a disc that will fit snugly inside the rim of the hood of your lens, resting against the circular interior shoulder (Fig. 96). Cut from this, in a straight, true line, a small segment (Fig. 97). The exact amount to cut off you can determine by slowly thrusting with one hand a card with a straight edge across the lens hood, looking the while at the ground gla.s.s; when the shadow has crept _almost_ to the center of the focusing screen, hold the card firmly in place and notice how much of the circle of the hood is covered by it: cut from your disc a segment corresponding to the amount _left uncovered_. Don't let the shadow creep _quite_ to the center of the ground gla.s.s, for you might go the least bit beyond, and an unexposed strip would result. Now paint your disc a dull black; loosen the hood of your lens on its threads, so that it will revolve easily and freely, and you are ready for business.

[8] "American Annual for 1895."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 96.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 97.]

Get your focus and then place disc in hood of lens, straight edge perpendicular (Fig. 98). Cover lens with cap or shutter; insert plate-holder and draw slide; pose your figure _directly in front of uncovered portion of lens_; expose. Next, without touching disc, slide, or anything but the hood, gently revolve the hood on its threads one-half turn (Fig. 99), and pose your figure on opposite side; expose. The trick's accomplished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 98.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 99.]

Another arrangement devised by Mr. Frank A. Gilmore, of Auburn, R. I., is shown in Fig. 100.

A black-lined box is fitted to the front of a camera. The front of the box is closed by two doors. On opening one door a picture may be taken on one side of the plate; on closing this door and opening the other, the other half of the plate is ready for exposure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 100.--CAMERA FITTED WITH ARRANGEMENT FOR DUPLEX PHOTOGRAPHY.]

The subject poses in one position and is photographed with one door open, care being taken to bring the figure within the proper area of the negative. The finder enables this detail to be attended to. Then the door is closed, the other is opened and the second exposure for the other half of the plate is made with the subject in the other position. It is not necessary to touch the plate-holder between the exposures. The cover is withdrawn, the one door is opened and the shutter is sprung. The doors are then changed and the shutter is sprung a second time. Time exposures are rather risky, as involving danger of shaking. A picture made by Mr. Gilmore will be found on the next page.

[Ill.u.s.tration: By F. A. Gilmore. From _Scientific American_. FIG.

101.--SPARRING WITH HIMSELF]

DOUBLE EXPOSURES.

[Ill.u.s.tration: By C. A. Bates. FIG. 102.--RESULTS OF A DOUBLE EXPOSURE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1894, by W. J. Demorest. FIG. 103.--RESULT OF A DOUBLE EXPOSURE.]

Amateurs often obtain unexpected results from carelessness in exposing their plates. Some very amusing pictures can, however, be obtained by making two different exposures on one plate. The subject should, of course, be of a very different nature. Our ill.u.s.trations, Figs. 102-3, are examples. In making these it is necessary to give a very short exposure in each case, about one-half the amount that would be ordinarily required. The negative must be carefully developed, using plenty of restrainer. Similar effects can, of course, be obtained by printing from two different negatives, but the results are, as a rule, inferior.

COMICAL PORTRAITS.

If the photographer be skilled in drawing he can make some laughable pictures that will amuse his friends by drawing a sketch of a comical body without a head, as shown in Fig. 104; a photograph of anyone is then cut out and the head pasted on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 104.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 105.--THE TWO-HEADED MAN. BY IVAN SOKOLOFF.]

THE TWO-HEADED MAN.

This picture shows a variation of the theme ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 94, and is a type of doublet usually avoided by amateurs, who prefer to have one figure complete and shown in two positions. The monster is an amusing variation and will be new to most people. The subject sits in the same spot for both exposures, except that he bends his head and shoulders first to one side and then to the other. It is advisable to keep the background very simple, otherwise objects on the wall may show through the head, as in some of the spirit photography methods given on previous pages.

DUPLICATORS AND TRIPLICATORS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 106.--MOUNTINGS FOR TRIPLICATORS.]

While doubles are well known to many amateurs, the making of three exposures of one subject on a single plate is not so common. Mr. Chas.

A. Barnard has furnished particulars of his method of making the pictures shown in Figs. 107 and 108. Fig. 106 shows two methods of mounting the attachment in front of the camera lens, one being designed to slip over, while the other screws into the lens barrel, the front of which is often fitted with a screw thread. Fig. 109 shows the stops which slide in this mounting; in making them, first mark on each the position of the center of the lens by measuring up from the stud which holds the stop in place. Draw your circles for stops with this as a centre, and as large as diameter of lens. Leaf A is used for the sides of the triplicator, reversing between the exposures. With an inch circle, the width of this is 0.2 inch. The edges should be filed down as thin as possible without nicking. Leaf B is for the centre exposure of the triplicator, and the slot is 0.012 inch wide and 1 inch long. Leaf C is the duplicator stop, its width being 0.3 inch. Leaves D1 and D2 are for top and bottom exposures of a vertical double, and are the same size as C. The proportions might have to be slightly varied for some other lens, in all these cases. A triplicate exposure is made as follows. First focus, using the whole lens, at any stop, and determine the limits of your picture s.p.a.ces. As the leeway is small, do not get the figures too large. Pose the model in the centre, stop down till properly lighted, and note the stop and mark edges of view on ground gla.s.s. Focus on model at one side, stop down till edge blends into edge of previous view, and note stop. Do the same in third position. This may take some time, and a chair may be used instead of a model. Finally, put in the plate and make the three exposures, giving four times the exposures ordinarily required for the same stops. The order is immaterial. Stops recommended for a 3-1/4 5-1/2 camera are as follows: For a horizontal doublet, leaf C, U. S. 16; for a vertical doublet, leaf D1, U. S. 54, leaf D2, U. S.

40; for a horizontal triplet, leaf A, U. S. 16, leaf B, U. S. 90; for a vertical triplet (leaves not shown in drawing), leaf A for top, U.

S. 32; for bottom, U. S. 20, leaf B, U. S. 90. Vertical pictures are extremely difficult to figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 107.--TRIPLICATE EXPOSURE. BY CHARLES A. BARNARD.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 108.--FARM WORK (TRIPLICATE EXPOSURE). BY CHARLES A. BARNARD.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 109.--STOPS FOR DUPLICATORS AND TRIPLICATOR.]

PICTURES WITH EYES WHICH OPEN AND CLOSE.

To make a photograph with this peculiarity, it is necessary to make two exposures of a head in exactly the same position, one with the eyes closed and the other with them open. Two positives are made from the two negatives and bound in contact by means of lantern slide binders, so that the outlines coincide. If they are now held in front of a flickering lamp or match flame, the combined portrait will be seen to rapidly open and close its eyes, giving a very weird effect.

This effect depends upon the fact that the human eye receives impressions slowly and has a tendency to judge that a motion is uniform, when rapidly varying phases of it are seen. The flickering flame, moving sideways, shows first one and then the other of the two images, which are separated by the thickness of the gla.s.s. The same effect can be produced by sliding the pictures slightly sideways on each other, but the perfection of the illusion will depend somewhat on the regularity of the movement, and the flame method is better. If the two pictures are printed on one piece of paper, the combined image may show the same illusion.

PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOKPLATES.

We have all of us seen and many of us have made collections of those attractive little bits of paper so frequently stuck on the front cover of a book to designate its ownership. Invented almost contemporaneously with the first printed books, they have been designed and engraved by artists of the highest standing and used by the world's greatest men and women. Who would not be proud to own a book containing a bookplate made by Albrecht Durer or Paul Revere, or one whose bookplate proved it had belonged to George Washington or Theodore Roosevelt, irrespective of the great money value of such items?