Photographic Amusements Part 2

A bra.s.s frame is first constructed, and any wire worker will execute this so as to hold the six or eight pictures. The transparencies are made, cut down to the size and shape required and fitted in; then ground gla.s.s of the same size and shape is fitted, small bra.s.s tabs at the back being used to keep them in their places behind the transparency. The gla.s.ses should not fit too tightly in the bra.s.s frames or, on expanding by the heat, they will crack.

A hall lamp can be treated in the same way, the colored gla.s.s removed and photographic transparencies subst.i.tuted. Photos on gla.s.s can in the same way be used for a variety of other purposes, such as fire screens, candle shades, etc.

Next look up your stock of prints, sc.r.a.ps, waste prints, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.]

Often from a large, spoilt picture you can get a neat little bit about a couple of inches square or less; look up all these and from them a photographic chess-board can be made. Our ill.u.s.tration in Fig. 24 is intended to show what is meant, although our artist has not been happy in the selection of his material to represent photographic views and portraits. First mark out a square the size you wish the chess-board to be. Divide it into sixty-four squares and draw a neat border round it. Thirty-two of the squares are then neatly pasted over with selected photographs as varied as possible in subjects. Sixteen are fitted one way and sixteen the other. Our ill.u.s.tration is incorrect in this respect. The sixteen pictures should be placed the right way on the sixteen squares nearest to each player. When the photographs have all been pasted on and dried the whole is sized and varnished. If, however, it is desired to preserve this photographic chess-board, and at the same time to use it frequently, a better plan is to cover over with a gla.s.s plate and bind all round the edges to prevent dust from entering.

In a similar way a neat card table can be manufactured. Fig. 25 is intended to ill.u.s.trate the top of the table covered with photographs and protected by a gla.s.s plate.

A little consideration will no doubt give various other similar ideas to the reader.

Those who can work the carbon process successfully have it in their power to transfer photographs in various colors to all kinds of supports, to wood for instance. The panels of a door can be very considerably improved by the insertion of photographs on fine grain wood, varnished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25.]

Pictures can in this manner be transferred to plates, china and ornaments of every description.

Various methods of printing on silk and various fabrics have from time to time been given. Perhaps the best for our purpose is the primuline process, as various colored images can be produced, with but little trouble, on all kinds of material. A description of the process will be found in another part of this work. (See Page 39.)

These the amateur can hand over to his better half or female relations, who with the natural feminine abilities will produce all sorts of pretty artistic articles for decorating the room.

We are well aware that we have by no means enumerated one half of the various means in which photography can be employed for decorating the house, but hope at least to have given the reader some idea of what its capabilities are.

LEAF PRINTS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26.--LEAF PRINT. BY T. GAFFIELD.]

Nothing can exceed the beauty of form and structure of the leaves of different plants. Ruskin observes: "Leaves take all kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them. Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, sinuated; in whirls, in tufts, in spires, in wreaths; endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same, from footstalk to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness and take delight in outstripping our wonder." Photography has placed in our hands a simple method of preserving facsimiles of their ever varying shapes that will last long after the leaf has died and crumbled to dust. Although the discovery of the darkening action of silver chloride when exposed to light was discovered by Scheele as far back as 1777, little was apparently known of the possibilities attending the discovery until 1839, when Fox Talbot read a paper on "A Method of Photogenic Drawing," in which he described various experiments that could be made with paper coated with this substance, and showed many pictures of leaves, ferns, and pieces of lace which he had obtained.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27.--LEAF PRINT. BY T. GAFFIELD.]

The ill.u.s.trations which we reproduce herewith are reproductions from leaf prints made by Mr. Thomas Gaffield, who has made quite a study of this fascinating pastime. In a little work ent.i.tled "Photographic Leaf Prints," published in 1869, he describes his method. The leaves and ferns are first selected and pressed between the leaves of a book.

They must not be dried, as in that state they do not so readily permit the light to pa.s.s through and the delicate structure of the leaf would not be reproduced. They should therefore only be pressed sufficiently to allow the excess of moisture to be extracted. A sheet of gla.s.s is put into the printing frame and the leaves artistically arranged. When the arrangement is satisfactory the leaves are attached to the gla.s.s with a little mucilage to prevent them from slipping out of their places. A sheet of sensitive paper, alb.u.men, gaslight, or platinum is then inserted, the frame closed up and exposed to the light until a very dark print is obtained. The time required in printing must be found by practice; it will, of course, differ according to the intensity of the light. It is a good plan to employ an actinometer to judge the correct exposure. It is not possible to open the frame, as a double or blurred picture would result. The halves should be exposed sufficiently long to enable the light to penetrate through them and give a distinct image of the veins and structure.

When the printing is completed the paper is removed and toned and fixed in the usual manner. If platinotype or gaslight paper is used, this, of course, requires development. The resulting picture gives us a light impression of the leaves on a dark background, but if so desired, the print thus obtained can be used as a negative. It can be made transparent with wax or vaseline, and prints obtained from it giving a dark image on a white ground. It is difficult to say which picture is the more beautiful. We give ill.u.s.trations of pictures of both kinds. (Figs. 26 and 27.)

Naturally enough, the beauty of these pictures lies in the careful selection and arrangement of the leaves. Those which are too thick should not be used. Delicate ones, showing all the veins by transmitted light, are the most suitable. They can be arranged artistically, in any shape or form. We prefer, however, a life-like arrangement to the construction of various shapes and designs.

TO MAKE A PEN AND INK SKETCH FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

By the following method anyone can, without any knowledge of drawing, produce from a photograph a pen and ink sketch suitable for reproduction as an ill.u.s.tration. From the negative a silver print is made on alb.u.men or gelatine or collodion paper. This is fixed without toning in a solution of hyposulphite of soda. It must then be thoroughly washed to remove all traces of hypo, and when dry, the outlines of the photograph are traced over with a fine pen and a waterproof ink, obtainable at any artist's material store. If the photographer possesses a little knowledge of drawing, some of the shading can also be attempted. When the ink is dry the picture is immersed in a saturated solution of bichloride of mercury (poison) when the photograph will disappear, leaving the outline sketch intact.

The picture is again well washed and dried. Newspaper sketches are often made from photographs in this manner, a zincotype being quickly produced from the drawing. Gaslight paper can also be used.

PHOTOGRAPHS ON SILK.

Photographs can be very effectively printed upon silk, satin, or other fabrics. There are several methods of accomplishing this. A simple one is the following:[2] The silk best suited for the purpose is that known as Chinese silk, and this is first washed in warm water with plentiful lather of soap, then rinse in hot water, and gradually cool until the final washing water is quite cold. Next prepare the following solutions: Tannin, 4 parts; distilled water, 100 parts.

Sodium chloride, 4 parts; arrowroot, 4 parts; acetic acid, 12 parts; distilled water, 100 parts.

[2] From the "Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Photography," by the author.

The arrowroot is mixed up into a paste with a little of the distilled water, and the remainder added boiling hot, with the acid and the salt previously dissolved in it. When the solution is quite clear the tannin solution is added, and the whole allowed to get fairly cool.

The silk is then immersed for about three minutes, being kept under without air in the folds, and then hung up to dry, or stretched out with pins on a flat board. The material is then sensitized by brushing over with the following solution: Silver nitrate, 12 parts; distilled water, 100 parts; nitric acid, 2 drops to every 3 ounces. Other methods of sensitizing are by immersing in or floating on the silver solution. After sensitizing, the material is dried by pinning on to a board to keep flat. It is then cut up as required, and printed behind the negative. Every care must be taken in printing to keep the material flat, and without wrinkles or folds. It must also be kept quite straight; otherwise, the image will be distorted. Printing is carried on in the same manner as with printing-out paper. It is then washed and toned in any toning bath. The sulphocyanide gives the best action. Fix in a 10 per cent. solution of hyposulphite of soda for ten minutes; wash and dry spontaneously. When just damp, it is ironed out flat with a not over-heated iron. Black tones can be obtained with a platinum toning bath, or with the uranium and gold toning bath, made up as follows: Gold chloride, 1 part; uranium nitrate, 1 part.

Dissolved and neutralized with sodium carbonate, and then added to sodium chloride, 16 parts; sodium acetate, 16 parts; sodium phosphate, 16 parts; distilled water, 4,000 parts.

Very effective results may be made by printing with wide white margins, obtained by exposing with a non-actinic mask.

Another method is the following: Ammonium chloride, 100 grains; Iceland moss, 60 grains; water (boiling), 20 ounces.

When nearly cold this is filtered, and the silk immersed in it for about fifteen minutes. To sensitize, immerse the silk in a 20 grain solution of silver nitrate for about sixteen minutes. The silver solution should be rather acid.

Or immerse the silk in water, 1 ounce; sodium chloride, 5 grains; gelatine, 5 grains. When dry, float for thirty seconds on a 50 grain solution of silver nitrate. Dry, slightly overprint and tone in the following bath: Gold chloride, 4 grains; sodium acetate, 2 drachms; water, 29 ounces. Keep twenty-four hours before using. Fix for twenty minutes in hypo, 4 ounces to the pint of water.

PHOTOGRAPHING A CATASTROPHE.

On this page we reproduce a curious photograph by M. Bracq, which appeared some time ago in the _Photo Gazette_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: By M. Bracq. From Photo Gazette. FIG. 28.--A CATASTROPHE.]

Despite all the terrible catastrophe which it represents, carrying pictures along with him in his fall, the subject has not experienced the least uneasiness, not even so much as will certainly be felt by our readers at the sight of the tumble represented.

The mode of operating in this case is very simple and we are indebted to _La Nature_ for the description of the method employed by M. Bracq.

The photographic apparatus being suspended at a few yards from the floor of the room, in such a way as to render the ground-gla.s.s horizontal (say between the two sides of a double ladder--a combination that permits of easy focusing and putting the plates in place), there is spread upon the floor a piece of wall paper, about 6 feet in length by 5 feet in width, at the bottom of which a wainscot has been drawn. A ladder, a few pictures, a statuette, and a bottle are so arranged as to give an observer the illusion of the wall of a room, that of a dining room for instance. A hammer, some nails, etc., are placed at the proper points. Finally, a 5 feet by 2-1/2 feet board, to which a piece of carpet, a cardboard plate, etc., have been attached, is placed under the foot of a chair, which then seems to rest upon this false floor at right angles with that of the room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29.]

Everything being ready, the operator lies down quietly in the midst of these objects, a.s.sumes a frightened expression, and waits until the shutter announces to him that he can leave his not very painful position. This evidently is merely an example that our readers will be able to modify and vary at their will.