Berenice Abbott - A Guide To Better Photography-Crown (1941) PDF

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A GUIDE TO
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A GUIDE TO
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BERENICE ABBOTT
CROWN PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1941, BY CROWN PUBLISHERS
Third Printing, May 1945
This book has been manufactured in

accordance with paper conservation
orders of the War Production Board.
PKINTKD IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY J. J. LITTLE ft IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK
Liable oj ônienh
^
1. What is Photography?
^
2. What Camera Shall I Use?
1^
3. What Else Do I Need?
^^
4. A Point of View
97
^'
5. Do Your Own Processing
^'•
Planning Your Darkroom
•
6.
^*
7. Developing the Negative
8. Printing the Negative
Analyzing the Photograph
^^
9.
The Lens 5"
10. Learning to See:
"^
11. Learning to See: Swings
'^2
12. Know Your Materials
^^
13. Problems of Exposure
^^
14. Use and Misuse of Filters
15. Composition
^^^
16. Enlarging
17. The Art of Printing

^
1^^
18. Finishing the Photograph
^^^
19. Presentation
^^^
20. Portraiture
1^^
21. The Miniature Camera
"^^^
22. Action: Flash
^^^
23. Color Photography
1^'^
24. "Straight" Photography
1^^
25. Documentary Photography
1'^^
26. Standards for Photography
^'^^
Bibliography
^'^^
Index
Syzlcknowled^meni
I acknowledge gratefully the help of all those who have made this
book possible^ including photographers who have generously provided ex-
amples of their work for illustration and publishers who have allowed me
to quote from books on the history, technic and philosophy of photography.
I wish to thank the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern
Art for permission to reproduce photographs from their collections, and the
latter for permission to quote from its publications. Thanks are also due
various organizations, especially RCA, Westinghouse, Eastman, DeardorfF,
Life, and Fortune. Individuals who have been most helpful are Beaumont
Newhall, curator of the department of photography of the Museum of Mod-
ern Art; Ansel Adams, its vice-chairman; and Willard D. Morgan, editor
of numerous photographic publications. To Elizabeth McCausland, my

warm thanks for invaluable assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.
Berenice Abbott
SlLustrations
iirai
Following Page 6
1. NIGHT VIEW Berenice Abbott
la. CANYON: BROADWAY AND EXCHANGE PLACE .. Berenice Abbott
2. FOOTBALL BEING KICKED Dr. Charles M. Slack
3. LOLA MONTEZ Southworth and Hawes
4. BOATING ON THE HUDSON Margaret Bourke-White
5. HINDENBURG DISASTER
6. SAN FRANCISCO FIRE, 1906 Arnold Genthe
7. TIME OUT FOR BEER Berenice Abbott
8. HEYMANN'S BUTCHER SHOP Berenice Abbott
9. PARIS WITHOUT SIGNS
10. STATUE OF LIBERTY Berenice Abbott
11. MICHIGAN PATRIARCH WiUiam Vandivert
12. OLD WOIMAN'S HANDS, 1936 Russell Lee
13. STOCK EXCHANGE: I Berenice Abbott
14. STOCK EXCHANGE: II Berenice Abbott
15. FLAGELLATION Barbara Morgan
Following Page 38
16. BABY Gay Dillon
17. HANDS OF JEAN COCTEAU Berenice Abbott
17. BUDDY Berenice Abbott
18. TRESTLE BRIDGE Matthew Brady
19. MICROPHOTOGRAPH
19. MICROPHOTOGRAPH
19. ELECTRONICS Berenice Abbott
20. A NEWHAVEN SAILOR David Octavius Hill
21. JOE GOULD Berenice Abbott
22. JOHN WATTS Berenice Abbott
23. CABRIOLET Eugene Atget
24. A RUSHY SHORE, 1886 P. H. Emerson
25. PEACE: AN ELLIS ISLAND MADONNA, 1905 Lewis W. Hine
26. MANHATTAN SKYLINE Berenice Abbott
27. FIGHT ! Consuelo Kanaga
28. BURNETT HOUSE, LEXINGTON, MO Gay Dillon
29. CITY LANDSCAPE Berenice Abbott
30. EYES OF AUDREY McMAHON Berenice Abbott
31. TRIAMAPRO CAMERA
Following Page 70
32. BATTERY CHICKENS Berenice Abbott
33. JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO Berenice Abbott
34. FAMILY PORTRAIT Ansel Adams
35. TREE ROOTS Eugene Atget
36. HUDSON RIVER VALLEY Margaret Bourke-White
37. AGROBIOLOGY Bernice Abbot
38. BARN NEAR PULASKI, TENN., 1935 Berenice Abbott
vU
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
39. COUNTRY ROAD Eugene Atget

40. ORPHAN Lewis W. Hine
41. BETHLEHEM, PA., 1936 Walker Evans
42. THE GAÎBLER: MONTE CARLO, 1938 . Lisette Model
43. EUGENE ATGET: PARIS, 1927 Berenice Abbott
44. PUCK Berenice Abbott
44. EXCHANGE PLACE Berenice Abbott
45. TAKING HOME WORK: EAST SIDE, 1909 Lewis W. Hine
46. ADVERTISING ART Leo Aarons
47. TENANCINGO, MEXICO, 1933 Paul Strand
Following Page 102

48. DUNES AT OCEANO, CALIFORNIA, 1936 Edward Weston
49. ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 1932 Berenice Abbott
50. MOTHER BIRD FEEDING HER YOUNG Eliot Porter
51. TOM Gay Dillon
51. TOM Gay Dillon
52. CHILD IN SURF Ansel Adams
53. ARTIST AT WORK Max Yavno
54. JAMES JOYCE: PARIS, 1928 Berenice Abbott
55. JULES JANIN Nadar
56. EUGENE DELACROIX (1798-1863) Nadar
57. PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Berenice Abbott
58. PORTRAIT OF A WRITER Berenice Abbott
59. NEAR THE BATTERY Ansel Adams
60. SEA FOOD, MOMMA? Gladys BelloS
61. SMOKE EATERS Jess Strait
62. CELEBRATION Barbara Morgan
63. TRINITY CHURCHYARD Berenice Abbott
Following Page 150

64. ART CLASS Berenice Abbott
65. ICECREAM CONE W. Arthur Evans
66. ANCIENT RUINS IN THE CANON DE CHELLE,
NEW MEXICO, 1873 T. H. O'SuUivan
67. CHILD AT PLAY Henri Cartier-Bresson
67. ANGELS John Heartfield
68. THIS SUCH A FRIENDLY TOWN
IS Lewis W. Hine
69. "DESOLATION AND HORRORS OF POVERTY" Max Yavno
70. "TRESORS ET MISERES": ST. CLOUD Eugene Atget
71. CUP OF COFFEE BREAKING Harold E. Edgerton
and K. J. Germeshausen
72. LEPTOSPIRA CANICOLA
A GUIDE TO
CyfJeHer &Jkoio^raJDk^
1. What is Photography?
PHOTOGRAPHY is a new way of seeing, a new way of making pictures,

made possible by the fact that light produces a chemical reaction on silver
salts. Light reflected from real objects in nature is registered with many
variations by applying this principle. Film (with silver salts in emulsion)
is placed in the camera (a lighttight box) and light is admitted through the
shutter (a light-controlling device.) The record of the original image may
then be reproduced many times. But there is much more than this simple
chemical and mechanical procedure to photography. During its century
of life, it has been called "photogenic drawing," "the pencil of nature,"
"sun painting," "sun pictures," "shadow catching," all variants of its literal
meaning (from the Greek) of "drawing with light." But photography is not
only drawing with light, though light is the indispensable agent of its being.
It is modeling or sculpturing with light, to reproduce the plastic form of
natural objects. It is painting with light, to create the subtle tones of colors
in nature. The synthesis of these eflfects evolves photography's uniquely
photogenic character.
Photography's new way of making pictures has been put to a thousand
uses, so that today its new kind of pictures serve a multitude of purposes.
Photography celebrates themes infinitely more varied than those celebrated
by old ways of picture-making. From X-ray photographs made at 1/30,000
of a second and step-by-step photographs of a brain operation to the soaring
heights of aerial photographs mapping China's Great Wall, photography has
widened the visual world to an extent unimagined by the exploring intelli-
gence of fifteenth century picture-makers, i.e., painters and graphic artists.

The widening has been not only by invention —knowledge of X-rays, strobo-
scope, higher powered lenses —but
by the application of human thought
also
and feeling to photography. Seeing the unseen is not only a matter of ma-
1
2 A GUIDE TO BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY
chine and high speed flash; it is a matter of the imagination, of seeing

what the human eye has been too lazy or too blind to see before.
The new picture, the photograph, has evolved a new creative vision.
In the fifteenth century, vanishing perspective was developed to express the
Renaissance feeling of vast seas to be charted, its diminishing distance a
visual equivalent of psychological wonder. In the twentieth century, per-
spective is no longer a convention of geographical exploration; it is a reality
of optics. It is a reality, moreover, susceptible to varied interpretations, as
the photographer chooses. If distortion suits his purpose, he may distort. If
he wishes the lens' vision to equate the eye's, he may correct distortion. The
option permits him to accept psychological familiarity or to reject it, if
thereby he intensifies his picture's emotional impact.

Photography's subtle yet seemingly simple character partly explains its
universal appeal. Roots strike deeper, however, to wellsprings of individual

endeavor and interest. Why do Americans spend more than a hundred
million dollars a year on photography? Because photography is a useful
science, an expressive art, a pictorial language with countless applications.
This explains the professionals. But they are only a handful of the 15,000,-
000 estimated to use cameras in the United States. Hobby, recreation,
adjunct to another profession, these reasons account for photography's
tremendous popularity. The answer is: photography is fun.
The hunger for beauty, for self-expression, is age-old. Dance cere-
monials of communal peoples are a form of mankind's search for beauty.
The painting on velvet taught in female seminaries a century ago (now
highly prized by collectors) expressed a similar desire. In our time, men
and women gratify their artistic sense by turning to photography, newest of
the arts and perhaps most responsive to the age's spirit. What is beauty?
How does the average man see it? Through the ages, humanity has made
images, memorials, souvenirs, to commemorate loved ones. During the past
hundred years, photography has produced millions of portraits, ranging
from masterpieces by Hill and Nadar to snapshots taken at Coney Island
or Pike's Peak on a No. 120 roll film. Indeed, according to Taft's estimate
inPhotography and the American Scene, between 15,000,000 and 20,000,-
000 daguerreotypes were made in the United States during the period of
the daguerreotype's greatest popularity. The souvenir, the sentimental rec-
ord, is not an inferior order of the creative impulse; it feeds on the deepest
WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY? 3
springs of human emotion and memory. The album of Civil War days,
with its fading tintypes of boys who never came back, was such an expres-
sion. Steichen's classic portrait of the elder Morgan represents the other
end of the scale. Both kinds of portrait, from the souvenir to the master-
piece, recite valuable truths about the past.
Visual remembrance of past happy times is an equally real desire.
Cruises, motor trips, weekend outings, of holiday mood, are no small part
of recollected recreation and pleasure. To make and keep a record of them
is the motive of hundreds of thousands of photographers. But beyond these
motives, there is that deeper need for self-expression. In every human being,
there are capacities for creative action. Often circumstances of life do not
allow them to develop fully. Reality of work may be monotonous and dull,
because it does not allow imagination and initiative to flower. Even the
fortunate mortal who has found a perfect marriage between job and creative
ability may find that his work goes better if he has change and relief. This
need of human beings is almost as deep-seated as their need for air to
breatlie and food to eat.
The fact that you are reading this book shows that for you photography
is a creative outlet. The fact, indeed, that you are doing photography at all
proves it. But for whatever reason you are interested in photography and
however you became interested, there is always a day of reckoning. Since
the census does not take statistics of photographers, as it does of the photo-
graphic industry, it is impossible to say accurately how many of the 15,000,-
000 simply jumped into the vast sea of photography and learned to swim
to save their lives. It is safe, however, to guess probably nine-tenths. With
what results? If you are satisfied to click the shutter and accept what the
comer drugstore photofinishing department hands back, then we don't need
to go into the question. But if blurred, tilted, light-struck, underexposed
negatives and prints do not give you the creative "lift" you seek, then you
have come up against the reality of photography. At this moment in your
life as one of the 15,000,000, you either throw away your camera and
take to Chinese checkers, or you have a little heart-to-heart talk with your-
self.
Whatever you want to do in photography — rise to professional status,

add it to your profession as in medicine, architecture, writing and painting
or simply fulfill the hunger for beauty — you are now at a crucial point.
A spiritual inventory is in order; for you will photograph better, more
creatively, more happily, if you take the trouble to learn how. Contrary to
the idea of many, photography is not an involuntary reflex, like the heart's
beating or the lungs' breathing. It is the product of centuries of scientific
investigation, culminating in the creation of a machine and a method with
unique capacities for making pictures. But only when the machine and the
method are guided by a human being can the photograph be made. In the
widest sense, human intelligence creates photography. To make a photo-
graph expressive of what you feel and think is a cumulative experience.
Learning how involves all the creative faculties. After that, wider use of
skill becomes increasingly rewarding.
But, How can I learn how?, you may ask. The answer is: by mastering
the photographic process step by step. When you have sufficient technical
knowledge to broaden your application, then the adventure of photography
veally begins.
s
2. What Camera Shall I Use?
WHEN you buy a camera, you plunge into a wilderness. From the $1 box
camera to the $300 Contax, the name of cameras is legion. Variety is

necessary; but it adds to chaos. To be sure, no one camera can do every-
thing; but multiplicity of makes on the market makes choice difficult.
Therefore, before buying a camera, analyze what kind of photographs you

want to make.
Photography is the most protean of arts. It ranges from snapshots of
family and friends, pets and trips, to serious scientific studies; from aerial
mapping to candid shots in night clubs; from microphotography to photo-
murals. But photography did not come by its universal character in a
mechanical manner. "Load, aim, shoot" is excellent advice for those who
ask no more of photography than casual snapshots of no especial technical
or esthetic merit. But if you want something more —works of art such as we
find in the prints of the masters, faithful documents of personal experience,
reportage of daily life — you have to define your purpose clearly and then
understand what cameras and lenses are capable of doing.
My intention in this chapter is not to supply a buyers' manual of
cameras and That would be a whole book in itself, and indeed an
lenses.
excellent reference work of this kind is the Photographic Buyers' Handbook

(see bibliography). The August, 1939, issue of Consumers Union Reports
(pp. 21-28) supplements the handbook's data, while Popular Photography''
annual directory number each May brings it up to date. Now the import
market is so unstable that it is hard to say what cameras can be obtained
in the class of high grade, expensive instruments. The fine German-made
machines, such as Linhof, Rolleiflex, Zeiss Juwel, Contax and Leica, have
5
set standards for technical perfection in camera design and manufacture

which will continue to control our judgment of new cameras as they come
on the market. A fortunate aspect of restriction of foreign imports is that
it has compelled American photographic manufacturers to enter into the

production of better quality cameras, a field they should have entered
long ago.
The big question is: what kind of photographs do you want to make?
Will snapshots made with a simple, inexpensive box camera satisfy your
creative sense? Will you never want to photograph baby in the shade of an
apple tree instead of in bright sunlight, squinting at the sun? Do more
difficult interiors and portraits, still on the snapshot basis, allure you? Do
you want to use a camera on a tripod and become involved with flash
bulbs, time exposures, more complicated calculations of shutter speed and
diaphragm opening? Are you a circus fan tempted by rapid activity of
acrobats in the dusky, romantic glare of gasoline torches? Does the incred-
ibly agile motion of athletes diving, jumping, running, fascinate you, as
the grace of a dancer's movement does another? Is it photography as self-
expression which interests you, with the myriad subjects art may use
landscape, still life, genre, street scenes? Does human character obsess you,
so that you constantly study the faces of people, trying to imagine how the
visible form reveals the person beneath? Do you like to creep up on people,
catch them off guard, see hidden selfs behind the masks they customarily
show the world?
These questions show the wide world where photographers may adven-
ture, according to interest and inclination. You know best why you are in-
terested in photography. I can suggest in broad terms what camera is best
suited for a given purpose. You will have to make the choice. Even the
best all-purpose camera involves compromise; and you will never be wholly
happy unless you accept the fact that every type of camera, and every make,
has limitations. Your job is to understand your camera's potential and
stretch it to the limit. But don't think that a racehorse of a camera makes
a good plowhorse — or vice versa.
The old-fashioned fixed focus box camera, which does not require
focusing or possess lens and shutter adjustments, is the simplest, easiest to
operate and cheapest camera. The simplicity and cheapness of box cameras
is the measure of their capacity for photographic achievement. Snapshots in
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NIGHT VIEW Berenice Abbott

i. CANYON: BROADWAY AND EXCHANGE PLACE, MANHATTAN By Berenice Abbot?"
I his photograph is described in the following caption, from the Museum of Modern
Art's traveling exhibition Creative Photography. It reads: "The camera creates
its own perspective. In angle shots where the camera is pointed either up
or down, lineswhich appear as verticals and horizontals to the eye,
are made to converge and become diagonals. Diagonal lines create
a sense of movement; and these shots usually dramatize,
emphasize height or depth, and suggest power."
2. FOOTBALL BEING KICKED Westinghouse ultra-high speed radiograph
taken by Dr. Charles M. Slack
Eastman ultra-speed X-ray film in a casette with Patterson

Hi-Speed
mtensifying screen; exposure, microsecond (1/1,000,000 second);
1
65 kilovolts (65,000 volts); Eastman X-ray developer.
Courtesy of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.

LOLA MONTEZ Southworth & Hawes
Daguerreotype. Lola Montez (1818-1861) was an Irish-born dancer,

actress and adventuress, and, toward the end of her life,
social worker in New York. Her real name was
Marie Dolores Ehza Rosanna Gilbert.
Metropolitan Museum
4. BOATING ON THE HUDSON Margaret Bourke White
-
Life Magazine
HINDENBURG DISASTER
Amateurs give a wide news co\'erage for unpredictable events
such as the Hindenburg explosion.
Pictures Inc.
6. SAN FRANCISCO FIRE, 1906 Arnold Genthe
Taken with a 3A Kodak.
7. TIME OUT FOR BEER Berenice Abbott
Taken with Rolleiflex; 1 100 second; f/22; 2 flash bulbs.
Courtesy Fortune Magazine and P. Ballantine & Sons

8. HEYMANN'S BUTCHER SHOP Berenice Abbott
Superplenachrome film was used to make red letters dark

as explained in text.
9. PARIS WITHOUT SIGNS Photographer unknown
In the days of the Third Empire, signs were not permitted in Paris,
so that the early photographer of this shot had no problem
as far as registering tones was concerned. Optics created
another problem, as explained in the text.
r-
f
10. STATUE OF LIBERTY Bhkhn:ch Abbott
How your sub;cct will look if you ualk all arounj it to get another
point of view; taken with Rolleiflex.
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11. MICHIGAN PATRIARCH William Vandivert

Taken with 3^/4 x 4'Â Linhof camera; V2 second for open flash; f/32;
two No. 20 Hash bulbs on separate reflectors; daylight from
liont window; Schneider Angulon f/6.89 cm. lens;
Agfa Superpan Press. Life Magazine
^
..v',5.
l-rf-
12. OLD WOiMANS HANDS, 1936 Russell Lee
"The hands are those of a pioneer, one who came from Europe
and settled in Iowa on a farm." Contax; 5 cm. lens; Panatomic.
Courtesy of the Farm Security Administration

13. STOCK EXCHANGE: I Berenice Abbott
8x10 Century Universal view camera.

15. FLAGELLATION Barbara Morgan
Jl
Taken with 4x5 Speed Graphic; L 700 second; f 11; Agfa
Triple S cut film; Agfa 17 developer.
Erick Hawkins in El Peniteiitewhich he danced with Martha
in
Graham and Merce Cunningham. Highly specialized photography
such as this requires that the photographer carry his idea through
from the moment of exposure till the final print is made.
<
WHAT CAMERA SHALL I USE? 7
bright light are their limit, though they are now being sold at slight extra
cost with small flash reflectors. Slightly higher in complexity and cost are
folding roll film cameras of the guess focus type, popularized by Kodak.
With cameras of this caliber, it is possible to take pictures in shadow, early
morning or late afternoon, or indoors with photofloods or flashlights. Guess
focus makes it necessary, however, if one is to obtain sharp pictures, to
estimate distance from lens to subject carefully. Pacing is practical, if you
remember that the pace varies with individuals and that a woman's pace is
shorter than a man's. Measuring the distance will save you many out-of-
focus negatives.
Leaving "blind" cameras, we may consider cameras which are capable
of operations of considerable flexibility and so can reproduce on light-sen-
sitive film a latent image comparable to what the eye imagines. This is
not to imply that good photographs may not be made with simpler cameras.
Genthe made his masterpiece of the San Francisco fire of 1906 with a
Kodak 3A he borrowed after his own professional equipment had been lost
in the fire. The point is: no art, science, technic, evolved by human intel-
ligence is worth a cent unless human mind and heart control its use. Human
thought and emotion are complex and subtle, oriented not only by the indi-
vidual's memory of personal experience, but also by the memory we call
history. A modern flour mill may operate without a man in sight, machin-
ery attuned to the function of grinding wheat into flour. But to suggest that
machine can supplant man in the complicated interplay of ideas and feel-
ings which is photography is a mechanical philosophy. To make photography
useful, valuable, expressive, powerful, we have cameras and lenses and
processes capable of adaptation to the creative intent of their user. Here
we move into a broad and often highly specialized field.
How specialized we may illustrate. Are you, the reader, an architect,

a lawyer, an engineer, an artist, a writer, a doctor? Then you may be work-
ing in photography because you think of it as a valuable adjunct to your
profession. But each profession has to use photography in a diff'erent way.
For architectural studies, a view camera with all possible swings and
adjustments is needed. The painter who wants to make photographs of
subjects to work up later in the studio needs a camera which can record
life and action; a miniature type is suitable. The engineer who wants to
record construction progress on a dam will need to use a view camera or
a hand and stand camera. The lawyer who needs legal proof of the existence
of documents will have recourse to a miniature camera copying outfit. The
student of wild life may wish to profit by the experience of Eliot Porter
{U. S. Camera Magazine, No. 3, March-April, 1939, pp. 18 fl.) with a small
view camera. Writers will be guided by tlie kind of writing they do or the
purpose to which their photographs are to be put. Medievalists can accel-
erate their studies by copying old manuscripts hidden away in provincial
libraries in Europe, using for the purpose a miniature camera copying ap-
paratus with supplementary lenses, while a novelist writing of farmers in
America today can illustrate his work with documents from real life, using
a hand or a hand and stand camera.
The broad use of photography as hobby, recreation or self-expression
is complicated by the fact that choice of camera depends also on subject
matter. The angle of those of you who like to make photographic records of
other interest, as dog shows, races, sports of all kinds, differs from that of
those who come to photography desiring to use its capacities as art. Again
there is photo-journalism, which amateurs more and more are entering.
Through great numbers and wide geographic distribution, they give a

physical coverage impossible to the professional news photographer, who
may or may not be lucky enough to be on the scene when the great news
picture of the century breaks.
To meet these varied interests, a variety of cameras exists, more com-
plex in structure and capable of greater complexity of function than the
"blind" cameras discussed above. Among them, the serious amateur should
really make his choice. Through controlled focusing of tlie image, inter-
changeable lenses, range of shutter speeds, these cameras give the photog-
rapher mechanical facilities for equating the camera eye's vision with the
human eye's more imaginative and compensatory vision. With such cameras,
the photographer can execute —
more difficult tasks take snapshots by very
poor light, at home, in the street, in the theater, without tripod or flash make ;
high speed action shots; do excellent pictorial work; use wide angle or long
focus lenses as need. Roughly, cameras of this degree of technical develop-
ment may be divided into two groups, those with ground glasses and tlie
miniature camera of from 1x1 inch to 21/4 x 2^ inches.

Ground glass cameras are equipped with a screen of semi-opaque glass
at the back. This enables the photographer to see full size the image of
the subject he is photographing. There are three types — view, hand and
stand, and reflecting. In the view and the hand and stand types, this is made
possible by the fact that the diaphragm of the lens is opened (no film
being in the camera) and the photographer then can see the image on the
ground glass. In cameras of the reflecting type, the image is seen by a sys-
tem of mirrors and in some cases by the use of an extra lens, as in the twin
reflexes Rolleiflex and Zeiss Ikoflex.
The view camera, though heavier to carry and slower to operate, has
features not found in other ground glass cameras, except some of the finer
quality and higher priced hand and stand cameras, like Deardorff's new
Triamapro. The most important among these are the swings and the rising
and falling front, which make
it possible to correct vertical and horizontal
distortion and same time to preserve depth of field. In buying a

at the
view camera, remember that adjustments are the true measure of its useful-
ness. The chapter on swings (Chapter 11) discusses the point at length.
Another essential feature is a double or triple extension bellows so that
longer focal length lenses may be used and also so that the photographer
may approach his subject more closely. The cost of a view camera, about
$30, has to be computed with the addition of cost of film holders, case,
tripod, and battery of lenses. In my opinion, the best size is 5 x 7; for you
can use a 4 x 5 reducing back if necessary, yet also make acceptable
from the full sized negative.
contact prints
The hand and stand camera field has been dominated till recently by
the German-made Linhof and Zeiss Juwel, the former selling at $160 to
$375, according to size and lens, and the latter selling at $354 in 5 x 7
size with Zeiss Tessar f/4.5 lens. The Linhof is no longer being imported,
though the Juwel is said to be in stock in sufficient quantity for another
year. To meet the need for a high quality, precision instrument of domestic
manufacture, DeardorfF began to experiment some years ago with the
Triamapro. This camera has been in use for about two years but has just
begun to come on the market, due to orders for defense purposes. The cam-
era, 4 X 5 in size, sells for $165 without lenses. Its bellows extension of
19 inches, drop bed of 30 degrees (which also tihs up 15 degrees), swinging
and sliding front, swinging lens board, rising and falling front, revolving
back, are all features which give the camera great flexibility in the hands
of an experienced operator. Comparisons aside, it is an American-made
camera which should supply the facilities for high grade work. A further
advantage of the camera, which it shares with other hand and stand cameras,
is that it may be held in the hand and used without a tripod, if rigid sup-
port is not essential, that is, if the subject does not require use of its adjust-
ments or if it calls for a fast shot.
Folmer Graflex's Speed Graphic, ranging from 3% x 4^4 to in size
5x7 and in price from $113.75 to $165, occupies a commanding position

among hand and stand cameras. The importance of this camera, the favor-
ite of American news photographers, and of its companion, the Graflex,
may be gauged by the amount of attention paid them, as in Morgan &
Lester's Graphic Graflex Photography. The Speed Graphic can be used for
many purposes where flexible swings are not needed. A major attraction is
its sturdiness and aptitude for speed. It has a ground glass for careful
focusing and composition when speed is not essential, and it is also equipped
with a focal range finder for rapid focusing when the film is all set for
exposure. A further feature is the two type shutter system, of focal plane
shutter and between-the-lens The former permits the use of high
shutter.
speeds up to 1/1000 second for press work; the latter works at slower
speeds and is better adapted to synchronized flashlight work. The camera
has a rising front, interchangeable lens board, double extension bellows,
and drop bed for use with wide angle lens. The Speed Graphic is popular
and widely used, not only by news photographers but by professional pho-
tographers generally and by amateurs who like to work with an eye level
ground glass camera capable of making high speed action shots.
Reflecting cameras, by virtue of their construction, have the great ad-

vantage that the photographer can see his picture as he takes it, the image
being reflected from a mirror onto a ground glass, viewed through a hood.
They may be either of twin lens or single lens design. As is generally true
throughout photography, what you gain at one point you lose at another.
In the twin lens reflex camera, the ground glass image is brighter. It cannot,
however, be judged as to depth of field, because the lens through which
the image is seen is not the lens through which the picture is photographed;
in other words, as you focus the working lens, you look at an image seen
through the other lens, whose diaphragm remains wide open. With lenses
of the focal length used on these cameras the factor of depth of field is not
crucial, however. In general, the reflex camera is invaluable when you are
photographing subjects which need to be followed around, which cannot be
posed, and which are so active as to require a fairly fast shutter speed.
Children and dogs, this boils down to. And why, I cannot help wondering,
are the words always paired? Are there no dogs without children, or vice
versa? At any rate, children and dogs do require a camera which can be
held at waist level or lower, while the subject is viewed and focused on
up to the instant of making the exposure. The lower height at which the
reflex camera is used is an advantage, as it brings the lens into the plane of
the small child or pet; and the shutter speed is fast enough to stop action.
In this class, the twin lens reflex cameras, Rolleiflex and Rolleicord and
Zeiss Ikoflex are all excellent. The single lens reflex cameras are led by
the old standby, the Graflex, somewhat larger.
Reflex cameras have the merit that they can be aimed at a right angle
to the photographer. This is particularly easy with cameras like the Rollei-
flex and Ikoflex, because the photographer can still look into the hood while
rotating the camera in his hands so that the lens looks off" at a 90-degree
angle from the direction in which he is ostensibly looking. In fact, he can
even use the camera looking backwards. This kind of detective work with a
camera was anticipated twenty-five years ago when Paul Strand attached a
prism to his reflex camera so that the lens looked in one direction and took
the picture at a right angle. Since then the prism has often been used for
candid photography. But only cameras like those mentioned are so con-
structed as to permit this type of operation without a special adapter,
except for the angle view finders on miniature cameras —which are another
matter.
The miniature camera has become associated in the public mind with
the 35 mm. Contax and Leica. However, cameras from 1x1 inch up to
2^ x 3^ inches may be considered miniature. The great vogue for minia-
ture cameras has been for "candid" shots of people taken off" guard or
close —
up A kind of photographic detective work. The popularity of this
model is proved by the publication of numerous books, notable among them
Morgan & Lester's Miniature Camera Work. (See bibliography.) The fine
professional instruments, Contax and Leica, have been paid that sincerest
compliment of imitation in low-priced models selling around $10. An
American-made quality miniature camera, the Eastman 35 mm. Ektra,
selling for $300, has now come on the market but as yet has scarcely been
tested by experience. The Zeiss Tenax, size 1x1, selling for $60, has a
special usefulness for amateurs interested in making 16 mm. motion pictures
and also for motion picture workers who use these cameras to make loca-
tion shots. This seems a use almost as highly specialized as the use of the
Contax for photographing skin diseases —both excellent examples of the
human and social value of photography, but somewhat removed from the
beaten track of the millions who follow photography for fun.
A prime advantage of the miniature camera is portability, not to be
sneezed at when one is traveling light. The miniature camera is unques-

tionably superior for night subjects because of its short focal length lens
and great depth of field at wide apertures. If the night view is of a char-
acter where long exposure is possible, the argument does not hold good.
On the whole, I should advise against starting life with a miniature

camera. It is an expensive, complicated machine, though capable of pro-
ducing masterpieces in the hands of the expert. It requires costly accessories
and expensive enlarging equipment. Furthermore, because the miniature
camera demands extra care in processing, it puts a heavy burden on the
photographer's craftsmanship. The perfect negatives needed to produce
gratifying pictures from miniature films require that the photographer
thoroughly understand lenses, exposure, problems of foscusing, processing.
This basic knowledge he will acquire more easily and better on a larger
camera. That is why
recommend beginning photography with a ground
I
glass camera, preferably a view camera. But more of that in Chapter 11.
Type of work you wish to do defined and size determined, look over
cameras and select one within the price range you can afford. Though
the habit of swapping is bad, you can explore the secondhand market if
you deal with a reputable firm and get a guarantee. At the point of actually
buying a camera, a further consideration comes into play, namely, your
personal relation to your camera. If you hesitate between, say, a Rolleiflex
and an Ikoflex, it is probably because you feel more at home with one than
with the other. This may be illogical. Nevertheless, these affinities are like
friendships; you some people and not with others. You may feel
click with
more mechanism or handling of one camera than of another.

at ease with the
Other things being equal, that is the camera for you. For example, mechani-
cally minded people will like a camera, the complexity of whose design
and operation estranges another kind of person. Even the placement of
buttons and levers involves tiny but important psychological factors. Here
personal taste decides, as it does between chocolate and vanilla.
3. What Else Do I Need?
GADGETLAND is America's happy hunting ground. In photography, the

American dream is that if you only have enough accessories, appurtenances,
and devices, the machine will take care of the picture. Of course, this isn't
true. It's still the man (don't forget the woman!) behind the camera that
counts. Nevertheless, a minimum of indispensable equipment is required.
Carrying Cases
A camera case is essential for convenience in carrying and for protec-

tion, type varying according to camera. Small cameras come with neat
leather cases, to be slung by strap over the shoulder. Height of luxury is
the custom-built case, with plush-padded compartments for each item of

equipment. Wlien the camera is carried separately, accessories are best
tucked in a pocket which will button or close with a zipper. Otherwise, the
instant you bend over, out fall exposure meter and all; and repair bills can
be enormous. Likewise, if small cameras are carried in a pocket, they should
be buttoned or zipped in. For view cameras, the standard case provides space
for camera, a dozen film holders, focusing cloth, exposure meter and other
necessities. If you are not athletically disposed, divide the load in two parts,
carrying the camera in one case and film holders, etc., in another.
Tripods
The problem of tripods is still to be solved. Ideally, a tripod should

be sturdy and rigid, able to resist gales and hurricanes, and weigh one
ounce, as well as folding to vest pocket size. Instead, tripods are big,
clumsy to carry, heavy and generally unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, you have
13
to have one. Too often the photographer selects a very light tripod in order
to save on weight and space; but a flimsy tripod which shakes with every
breeze is worse than no tripod at all. The first "must" is rigidity. As
cameras need to be flexible yet simple in operation, so do tripods. A two-
way tilting head is desirable because the camera may have to be tipped
sidewise as well as backward and forward, as it is not always used straight

on but sometimes aimed from unusual angles. In such cases, it is simpler
to tilt tlie To level off^ the
tripod top than to shorten a leg of the tripod.
tripod when up on uneven ground, it is easier to tilt the top than to
it is set
make an adjustment of the legs. The tripod must be adapted to your camera.
With drop-bed cameras, like the Deardorff" Triamapro, Linhof and Speed
Graphic, the tripod head must be small enough to allow the bed to drop
freely. Frequently this means that an adapter has to be added to your
accessories.
For smaller cameras, as Contax and Ikonta or even Rolleiflex and
Graflex, a chain tripod will stop the hand's quivering. In most cases, it
helps obtain a sharp image, especially at the slower speeds from 1/5 to
1/50 of a second. The Zeiss chain tripod is excellent; and the six-inch rigid
tubular handle which stores the chain when not in use can act as a firm
handle for the camera as well. The chain tripod has the advantage of light
weight and compactness. If you do not wish to spend several dollars for a
chain tripod, you can devise an acceptable substitute by fitting into your
hand camera a large-headed short screw, to which a length of heavy twine
is then fastened. Use twine which will not stretch or break easily, black
fishline being best for the purpose.
Sunshades
The type of sunshade you buy will be determined by the camera you
own. But make no mistake, a sunshade is not a gadget, it is a necessity.
In ninety per cent of photographs, the result is vastly improved by using a
sunshade, even if there is no direct danger of halation.
Filters
I think that the arguments for filters are exaggerated; and unless you
are thoroughly familiar with their use, I advise using only one or at most
—
WHAT ELSE DO I NEED? 15
two. A medium yellow for orthochromatic film and a medium yellow-green

for panchromatic, which fits the lens snugly, are all that are really needed
to begin with. In advising against too many filters, I repeat a basic convic-
tion: the secret of photography is to simplify! Photography is a highly
specialized body of knowledge, and its intricacies must be mastered if one
is to have the fullest success. But there can be complication of method and
means which serves no good end.
Filters, I believe, have been misused. There has been a tendency in
contemporary photography to overdramatize skies. They are made stormy,
turbulent, dark, romantic, with tonal contrasts between the blue of the
sky and the white of clouds which are far more emphatic than in nature.
Many good sky effects have been photographed by taking the picture early
in the morning or late in the afternoon. Since natural light is less yellow
at midday, at that time a filter may be used to hold back strong blue and
ultraviolet rays in sunlight, which would otherwise overexpose your sky or
similar bright subjects (snow, white sails, reflected light from ocean or
lake) and so fail to reproduce the tonal difference between blue and white
as registered by the eye. A further argument against indiscriminate use of
filters is that they increase length of exposure. If short exposures are neces-
sary for the type of work you do, this is a definite handicap.
Focusing Cloths
A focusing cloth is a necessity, in my opinion, not only with view

cameras but also with ground glass cameras which have leather hoods. I
hundreds of students' prints, that most photog-
believe, after looking at
raphers only half see their pictures. Unless you carefully move your eyes
opposite each corner of the ground glass and note every area, you will
see only the center of the ground glass. This is done with considerable strain
even if you have first-class eyesight. Since the head has to be held a foot
away to permit the eyes to focus, it is plain that extraneous light must be
shut out so that the image seen on the ground glass may be bright and sharp.
To see all parts of the image critically, use a focusing cloth. The
rubber ones crack and admit light. Nor is a skimpy black cloth sufficient
or efficient. The focusing cloth should be completely opaque, even if this
entails sewing tivo together so that they are of double thickness. In very
hot climates, it may be advisable to use (as Edward Weston does) a focus-
ing cloth of which the outside layer is white to reflect the sun's heat. With
cameras like the Rolleiflex, equipped with short leather hoods, there is too
much intercepting light when the eyes are held the proper distance from the
ground glass. Focusing is facilitated by slipping a longer hood over the one
already attached to the camera.
All this, of course, assuming that you really want to see your image,
which implies in turn that you are determined to make the most of photog-
raphy. Seeing the picture before you take it is insurance against disappoint-
ment. From the beginning you have taken control and mean to plan your
photograph. Wlien you have reached this psychological attitude toward
photography, you have reached the stage people are always emphasizing, the
purposive function of the man behind the camera.
Lens Caps
Consistent use of lens caps to protect your lenses if they are removable
is a wise precaution, as you will learn from bitter experience if you have
to have lenses reground because of careless handling. Further care of the
lens — as well as a necessary step to insure negatives free from dust spots
— is to clean it before using. Lens tissue is anotlier "must" of your pack
kit, though a fine old linen handkerchief is better because it does not leave
specks or fiber on the lens. A brush to dust out parts of the camera par-
ticularly open to dust or soot is also needed.
Cable Releases
Cable releases are practically indispensable, so if they do not come

with your camera, invest in them. Their function is to prevent jarring the
camera when you "press the button." They also permit you to stand aside
(if the camera is being used on a tripod) and study the effect the instant
before you click the shutter. This is particularly important in taking por-
traits, because human expression is fleeting and the photographer has to
be ready, cable release in hand, to catch the characteristic look.
Spirit Levels
For all cameras used on a tripod, it is essential to level off the camera,
otherwise the photograph may be tilted. A slanting horizon line can spoil
an otherwise good shot. Many cameras today come with built-in levels.
Small good quality carpenter's levels, costing about 50 cents in a hardware
store, do the trick admirably and save you many heartaches for fine pictures
gone askew.
Exposure Meters
The question of exposure meters is complicated. Their usefulness is not
in dispute, only the degree of perfection which has been attained in design
and manufacture. Of meters of professional quality, both Weston and
General Electric score high. The detailed technical analysis of Photographic
Buyers* Handbook may be used for guidance in this field, as well as the
July, 1940, issue of Consumers' Union Reports, pp. 7-9.
In taking photographs, the exposure meter gives a precise measure-

ment, which becomes one factor in the equation of shutter speed, size of
diaphragm opening, film speed and character of subject. There is no doubt
photography needs precise measurements at every step for fullest effective-
ness. It was a great advance in photographic method when Hurter and
Driffield in 1890 made the experiments on which time and temperature
development is based. Collateral advance in printing has not yet taken
place, though mass production photofinishing plants use the photoelectric
cell to measure the density of negatives and so mechanically to calculate
exposure time for prints. The development of an instrument for measuring

intensit)' of light, similarly, was a great step forwârd in method at the
initial and crucial stage of photography, making the negative. But I per-
sonally should like to see exposure meters even more sensitive and accu-
rate and certainly less susceptible to deterioration or physical injury than
at present.
Exposure itself is discussed in Chapter 13. Here I want simply to stress
the importance of correctly measuring light and of relating this factor to

film speed, which then determines size of aperture and length of exposure
in relation to all other factors, as activity of moving objects, etc. When you
use your meter —whatever model you supply yourself with, Weston or
General Electric, or one of the less expensive makes —remember one

thing: film speed ratings are based on ideal conditions. In using them with
exposure meter readings, you have to be something of a pessimist and over-
estimate the time needed; otherwise you will find your negatives badly
underexposed. Reliable exposures can be read from the Wellcome Cal-
culator, price 90 cents, or the Quick-Set, price $1.
Film
In discussing equipment and accessories, we should not overlook film.

Naturally you use film according to what your camera requires — roll film
for roll film cameras, film packs if your camera will take only film pack,
cut film for view cameras. But, in buying a camera, I would be guided to
an extent by what facilities it offered as far as film is concerned. For ex-

ample, between two cameras of about equal merits, one of which took a
simple roll film and the other of which required special magazines, I should
prefer the one easier to load. On the other hand, between film pack and
cut film, I should vote for the latter, because it is cheaper, more rigid and
offers a greater variety of types of emulsion. These advantages seem to
me to outweigh the trouble of loading film holders.

Actually, the bugbear of loading film has been exaggerated. The pro-
cedure is fairly simple, once you understand it and establish a good habitual
routine. In fact, I want to emphasize that the secret of being successful in
photography is to create good habits of workmanship as you go along.
Photography is not casual, accidental. It requires as much care and fore-
thought as good technicians exercise in a laboratory. Cut film must be loaded
in the darkroom. Some cameras supply two or three film holders; but you
will need at least six, preferably more. First, practice loading in bright
light with old negatives or paper cut to size. When you load the virgin film,
it should be in total darkness. The sensitive (dull) side must be loaded face
up, toward the outside of the holder. Notches cut in the film guide the
worker in the dark. When the notches (designating type of film) are in the
upper right-hand corner, the face of the film is on top. Be sure that the silver
edge of the slide holder also faces outward. After you have exposed the
film, you must replace the slide with its black edge outward, as a warning
that the film has been used.
Choice of film lies between orthochromatic and panchromatic. The

arguments for orthochromatic film are: it is cheaper, of finer grain, with
thinner emulsion to give sharper images, and can be developed under a
safelight, whereas panchromatic film, being more sensitive, generally needs
to be developed in complete darkness. The arguments in favor of panchro-
matic film have to do with esthetic factors: its tonalities are more subtle
and truer to life for the most part, though red may sometimes appear too
light, and it is faster than orthochromatic film. In the slower speed panchro-
matic films, emulsion is also thin and gives the desired sharp image. Weigh-
ing these qualities, the choice boils down to a personal one. Panchromatic
film is more sensitive to all colors, hence the prefix "pan," while ortho-
chromatic is sensitive to most colors except red, so that in a print from
orthochromatic film red appears dark. In the photograph of Heymann's
butcher shop, I had to use orthochromatic film so that the red-lettered signs
would strike the eye with all their natural impact of harshness and blatancy.
Orthochromatic film is good for portraits, especially of men and children,
though women's makeup photographs too dark.
A further consideration is the type of enlarger you use. Orthochro-
matic film is suitable for enlargers with diffused light, while panchro-
matic is good for the condenser type, which otherwise is likely to give too
"contrasty" prints. If you do not enlarge, this factor is negligible. As to the
word contrasty, a note may be added; for its use is confusing. Perhaps the
best definition is that in Basic Photography.
Briefly, it may be defined as meaning that the range between black and
white is greater and more apparent than in so-called "normal" negatives
or prints. There are fewer intermediate tones between black and white;
therefore the "contrast" seems sharper and harsher. Usually, extreme con-
trast is to be avoided. The choice between panchromatic and orthochromatic
will be partly determined by this fact.
As to what make of film shall be bought, "it matters little" (writes

A. R. Lambert in Photographic Buyers' Handbook, p. 137) "whether Agfa,
Eastman or Defender film is used. Equally good results (and equally bad
ones) can be obtained with the products of any of the major film-manu-
facturers." The statement applies to casual snapshots. In the realm of pro-
fessional photographers or expert amateurs, differences begin to emerge,
and experience then becomes the best guide.
4. A Point of View
NOW that you've chosen a camera, let's go outdoors and take pictures. First,
organize your field trip. Photography is more fun if you don't start out on
expeditions with half your equipment missing or in bad repair. Check sun-
shade, filters, spirit levels, lens tissue and brush, cable releases, exposure
meter, whatever accessories you need for your camera —are they all safely
stowed away in the camera case? Above all, don't take along unnecessary
packages. If the trip is to be made by car, do not set the camera on the
floor; even the best shock absorbers will not take up all the vibrations
which can damage a camera's delicate construction.
Comfortable clothes with many pockets are certainly desirable. Women,
wear small hats, and don't carry handbags! Keep your hands and arms
free for work. If the weather is cold,wear warmer clothes than usual. You'll
be surprised how cold you get, standing around while you unlimber camera
and tripod, focus it and all.
The question is; what shall I photograph? The answer was partly
decided long ago — at least as long ago as Chapter 2, in which we dis-
cussed various interests in photography and the sort of camera needed on
the basis of the sort of photographs you want to make. But there is one
thing you can count on in photography, the unpredictable. You may start
out to photograph babies and dogs and find suddenly that the only thing in
the world you want to photograph is apple trees in blossom. Or you may
begin with portraits of human beings and turn to portraits of buildings.
The important thing is what you see and how simply and directly you see it.
So I want to discuss a point of view for photography.

Learn to see the world as it is, I have called this point of view. Others
might call it "straight" photography, or "documentary," or "realistic."
Whatever it is called, the first step is to see through your own eyes, not by
20
—
A POINT OF VIEW 21
the memory of what others have seen. Many wax ecstatic over faraway sub-
jects. But you need not go far from home to find themes. Your own com-
munity, your own backyard, contain valuable material. Some of our most
common American scenes look weird and fascinating to foreign visitors
as tattooed Africans do to us. In the end, you will find greater happiness in
photography if you study familiar scenes and activities around you, the
things you know best. Subjects you know inside out from daily personal
association give photographs greater originality and authority than casual,
hasty snapshots of subjects, the "feel" of which you cannot convey from
lack of knowledge. There is no need to imitate the photographs of other
photographers; let your own intimate knowledge of homely, living themes
speak for itself.
What if you live in the country? Farm animals are always fascinat-
ing, as is farm machinery and farm architecture. Animals can be seen in
—
many moods moods of comedy, of dignity, of tragedy, even, or (as Walt
Whitman saw them) "placid and self-contain'd." There are roads wander-
ing over hillsides, and the vast sweep of prairie lands. There are bridges,
and people working. There are bright clouds, and children playing. There
is the other side of life, also, the darker side which has been recorded with
great human sympathy by the Farm Security Administration photographers
— the ravages of soil erosion and "dust bowl," the migration of disinherited
farmers. In An American Exodus, Dorothea Lange and Paul S. Taylor have
presented a moving and beautiful "record of human erosion." A docu«
ment of such subject matter is Russell Lee's photograph, here shown, of an
old woman's gnarled hands, which states powerfully yet simply the beauty,
the tears, of old age and toil.
The active life of village or town has a vast panorama of human in-
terest. The people you know, the things they do habitually, important houses
and buildings in the community, streets and their activity, events of daily
occurrence, are good photographic material. How such seemingly humdrum
subject matter may be developed is indicated by such photo stories as
Margaret Bourke-White's classic on "Middletown" (Muncie, Indiana) in
Life some years ago, or another photo feature of Life on the Pelham
(Mass.) town meeting. Even more ambitious in its scope is J. W. McMan-
photographic essay in U. S. Camera Annual, 1941, vol.
igal's 1, "Horton,
—
Kansas A Midland Chronicle."
If you photograph in a big city, the situation is more complicated

technically. In many cases, traffic presents an almost insuperable obstacle.
It is up the tripod where you want to, or even to
often impossible to set
stand still moments with a hand camera. Imagine photographing
for a few
Times Square on Election Night from ground level! To capture the spirit
of the modern city with hurrying crowds, congested traffic, skyscrapers, the
photographer has to create points of view quite different from the tradi-
tional eye-level vantage point of old-fashioned picture-making like easel
painting. Angle shots imported from the movies, birds'-eye views, worms'-
eye views, rooftop views, are all part of the complete envisioning of the
city's complex architectural stratifications. The photographer may have to
shoot from a window or a roof. The height at which to take the photograph
is important for "drawing," and brings up interesting esthetic considera-
tions. Paradoxically, some views look best from the safe and sane side-
walk, so that uninteresting roofs are eliminated from the view. It is a sig-
nificant comment on the lack of city planning in the United States that
New York presents a tremendous problem in photography. The sharp con-
trasts between the skyscrapers and the brownstone fronts intensifies chaos;
the culture morphology of New York shows sharp antagonisms in form, an

anarchic heterogeneity. Atget, in photographing Paris, at least had the
advantage of a subject of relative homogeneity.
Wherever you work, you follow the same general procedure. Beyond
the mechanics of taking the picture lies the great zone where intelligence,
imagination, will, combine to create the photographer's choice. Rules which
will help you in learning to make that choice are given in a shorthand
form:
1. Choose your subject —landscape, city scene, person, pet or what.
2. Study your subject for the best angle of view. If possible, walk all
around it.
3. Choose your perspective, by walking closer to and farther away from

your subject.
4. Decide on the height of camera, whether ground level, waist level,

eye level or higher.
5. Decide on the center of interest, so that it controls your picture as
you see it in ground glass or finder.
6. Examine tlie foreground for details to enhance the photograph.
A POINT OF VIEW 23
7. Compose the principal subject in relation to background, whether

contrasting buildings, clouds, hills, water, earth.
8. Regulate the sharpness of background and foreground in relation
to the central theme. Don't let the foreground be fuzzy.
9. Be sure the sun does not strike the lens or the front of the camera.
Remember the sunshade.
10. If the light is flat and uninteresting, take the photograph at an-
other time of day.

11. Study the image on the ground glass, and apply what you know
of composition and lighting.
12. When calculating exposure, think how the subject will look in the
final print.Then expose to obtain detail in the necessary shadows.
13. Keep notes on exposure, time of day, film, etc., and you will
learn even from failures.
14. If more than a third of the picture is sky or white objects (build-
ings, signs, statues, horses) against a blue sky, place a medium yellow or
yellow green filter over the lens and increase time of exposure by the
given filter factor.
15. Guard against strong winds or vibrations which may shake the
camera at the instant of exposure.
16. If the print fails to meet your hopes, do the subject over, trying
to correct your mistakes.
Many technical problems have to be solved when photographing out-
doors. If shutter speed is too slow to stop the action of a rapidly moving
figure, the photograph will show blur in the central subject. To "freeze"
motion, a short exposure must be used with fast lens and film. Or, again,
blur may be due to the fact that the camera has moved in the photographer's
hands; for most people cannot hold a camera steady for longer than 1/50
of a second exposure. The indispensability of a tripod for high quality work
may be judged by comparing two photographs taken under identical con-
ditions, except that in one the camera is held in the hands and in the other
it is set on a tripod.
If Point 9 is ignored, resuhs will be distressing; for when direct light
strikes the lens, general over-all "fogging" of the negative takes place. Al-
ways use a sunshade on the lens except when the camera's rising front has
been raised to such a height that the shade might cut ofi" comers of the film.
—
In that case, if there is danger of sunlight striking the lens, protect the lens
with a hat or film holder slide.

A mistake photographers often make is to tilt the camera, which gives
the picture a topsy-turvy appearance. To salvage such a negative, it is some-
times possible to straighten up the vertical and horizontal parallels but in
so doing important parts may have to be cut into. The best system is to
work with a ground you can see in advance what your
glass camera so that
picture looks like and correct in advance any askew, tilted lines. The spirit
level comes in handy here, too. The ground glass also helps guard against
sun striking the lens, for the dazzling eflfect can be seen at once when the
image is studied.
What Makes a Good Photograph?
First of all, the good photograph is sharp. Careless focusing is fatal,
especially when we think of the photographic medium's esthetic character
its neat, precise quality. Don't focus sharply on the background, when your
dominant theme lies in a central plane. It is better, but not perfect, when
the main theme is in focus and the background out of focus. A smaller leng
opening often will bring both planes into focus, if this is desirable and if it
is not necessary to stop action.

Natural light outdoors is tricky business. Though midday sun is more
intense, it is likely to be flat and dull. Early morning and late afternoon
light gives interesting effects; for at these times, shadows are longer and
light is yellower, facts which produce tonal quality in the print. A flat, front
lighting is rarely advisable. Don't photograph the main part of your picture
in shadow if you can help it. Watch familiar views with the sun's rays
striking across them at different angles and train your eye to differentiate
effects. Study different prints of your own negatives or other photographers'

and note how the lighting might have been improved. By studying the
direction of the sun, you learn to foretell the time when the sun will be in
the best position to photograph a given subject; for the same subject seen
even half an hour apart often presents entirely different aspects. In one
view the slanting rays of the sun may cast shadows which bring the whole
subject to life, while in the other the theme appears dull and lifeless.
Almost any scene, no matter how prosaic outwardly, may be photographed

A POINT OF VIEW 25
as an exciting and dramatic experience if the photographer has imagination.

Working with a plan saves time and energy, as well as money. Before
going out on a Sunday afternoon photographic expedition, you will be
—
wise to plan a bit unless you are of tliat buoyant, happy-go-lucky tempera-
ment which loves the unknown for its own sake. No doubt at one time or
another you have thought of many subjects you'd like to photograph. You
may have made notes of them on old letters and telephone bills. Look them
over and see what rough blueprint emerges. It will save time and anguish,
if you are a passionate photographer who cannot bear to waste a second
of the hours spent in the field. One advantage of this system is that when
you saw subjects which aroused your interest to the extent that you noted
them down, then you probably registered a mental note of the time of day
for best lighting. Planning on a big scale will even include looking over the
subject beforehand, if it is not too far away, and thinking how you want it
to look in the finished photograph. As time goes on, you will be delighted
at the success you have with photographs about which you thought and
planned in advance.
A little story proves the point. The two photographs of the New
York Stock Exchange (Plates 13 and 14) show how much better a pho-
tograph can be with study and thought. I decided to photograph the Stock
Exchange in 1933. At that time, film was much slower than now; traffic,
however, was as congested and rapid. Because light is none too good in
the downtown canons, I decided to take the photograph on a Sunday. But
the result {Stock Exchange: 1) was disappointing. Human activity, flow of
crowds in the narrow street, was needed to offset that static neoclassic
facade. Most of all, of course, the Stock Market without feverish human
movement is totally uncharacteristic. Therefore the picture had to be taken
on a weekday. Moreover, for satisfactory lighting, it had to be taken at a
different time of day. Then the front of the building seemed empty and
blank. The American flag, I thought, would look well on that pediment, it
would enhance the composition.

I had to do considerable preparation to coordinate all the elements I
wanted —crowds in the street, good lighting, American flag. It developed
that the flag is flown only on holidays. But —holidays are like Sundays:
there are no people in the financial district, and human activity had become
an essential motif in my hoped-for picture. Then began a correspondence
with Richard Whitney, at that time president of the Stock Exchange, to

persuade him to issue orders that the flag should be flown on a given bright
morning at a certain hour. Light changes far more rapidly than you imagine,
and in this case by the time the flag had been raised the light effêct which
struck the building only for twenty minutes was gone! The whole job had
to be done over another day. Finally I "got" Stock Exchange: 2, which
became a sort of semioflBcial portrait. Certainly, no "accident" produced
this photograph.
However though planning and forethought are eminently desirable,
there is no law to prevent the photographer from photographing what spon-
taneously pleases his eye. Indeed, if plan and spontaneity can be fused in
one photograph, that is the essence of photography's impact. Photography is
essentially a visual medium — as Balzac said, "Sight is insight" —and if
you prefer to see your picture as it happens, that is the right approach
for you.
5. Do Your Own Processing
SHALL I do my own developing and printing? Emphatically, the answer

is yes. This is written with no unfriendliness toward the photofinishing
industry, which in New York alone can turn out upward of half a million
prints a day. But the goal the serious amateur sets himself is something
else. It combines the immediate pleasure in all photography's manual opera-
tions — comparable with the painter's joy in the feel of paint going on the
canvas or the sculptor's exhilaration as tough wood yields to tool — ^with
a stubborn determination to make the picture his own in every sense.
Though the perfectionist's minute splitting of esthetics is to be avoided,

nevertheless the goal of perfection which the amateur sets himself is not a
thing to be scorned. Rather, it represents the attitude of the photographer
who works for love, unharassed by editor's deadline, not restricted by
commercial assignment. First of all, the audience of the amateur is himself.
It may widen, according to the merit and content of his work. But primarily
he works to please himself. He succeeds best in fulfilling his purpose when
he is the master of every step in the process.
What you find out as you explore the possibilities of photography is
that your own criticism of your work becomes more exacting. You look at
prints you made last year. "Yes, they're pretty good. The idea was good.
But if I had gotten greater depth of field, then it would really have clicked."
Or, "What a lousy print! Guess I had better work with that negative
some more."
Your criteria have been evolving all these months and years you have
been making photographs. At the same time, you have been evolving a
method to produce the kind of pictures you want. This method starts when
you take the picture; it involves the way you see your subject, the way you
analyze light, action and exposure, the way you set up your camera, the
27
way you choose your angle of view. Here already your knowledge is seek-
ing to control what you do. In other words, you want to choose and select
material from nature —
all the real objects and activities about you and —
organize it into significant expression. It is your own emotion about these
things and your own ideas about them that you want to express in your
finished picture.
This drive which inspires you through all the heartaches and drudgery
is a genuinely creative feeling. Yet it can be thwarted by the fact that
photography is still a loosely defined and coordinated art. The first prem-
ise to accept is that in photography, as in any other medium of expression
or communication, you have to think your idea through. Despite the fact
that you press a button and get an image, photography is the least mechani-
cal of mediums. When you plan composition, exposure and all, you have
to imagine how the subject will look after development and printing. No
one else can know what mental picture you had when you pressed the
button. Materialization of concept into visual expression includes the whole
sequence of operations from taking the picture to printing it.
To make the photograph from beginning to end is an obligation the

conscious photographer cannot escape, because he sees his picture from
beginning to end and is not satisfied with less than he imagined. If condi-
tions forbid your doing your own developing and printing, then you will
get a compromise, providing the photofinisher is mechanically efficient. If
you are pursuing photography as a recreation, a hobby, an outlet for your

creative impulses, you'll probably never put up with such frustration. Some-
how, some way, you'll find space and time for developing and printing.
Why? Because half the fun of photography is fooling around, mixing solu-
tions, playing with papers, exercising tangible authority over the silent
partners of photography — film, paper, chemicals.
Indeed, the pleasure photography gives is a crescendo. There is the

healthy excitement of taking the picture, of browsing around in strange
quarters of a city, of prowling about water front or railroad yards, of
snapping intimate genre scenes in little restaurants or shooting people's
funny faces on a bus. Then there is the thrill you get from a good negative,
when everything has gone right and the film is clean, transparent, properly
balanced in density of darks and lights. But the great thrill of photography
is making the print, when the picture finally appears in black and white.
DO YOUR OWN PROCESSING 29
that enchanting vision you saw with your mind's eye as you pressed the
button. Here is the visualization toward which you have been working. It is
complete proof that photography is not automatic writing, but the creation
of man's hopes and dreams and skill and will.
Glamor and romance aside, there are practical reasons why you should
do your own developing and printing. In developing, you will find that
you make an adjustment between the manufacturer's time and temperature
instructions to suit your own particular way of making exposures. In print-
ing, you will be able to make legitimate corrections, such as dodging, coccin-
ing, spotting, retouching, which correct inadequacies of the negative or
defects in materials. (These methods are explained in later chapters.) For
despite the great care taken in the manufacture of film, as described in
Chapter 12, apparently there will always be pinholes and such, and even
the most rigid purism would not argue against such a correction.
To become your own photofinisher involves one of two things: either
you have a flair for science or you triumph by persistence over a non-
scientific habit of mind. Great photographers are not necessarily bom lab-
oratory workers; but for the most expressive photography, tliey adopt the
scientific attitude to the extent of understanding integral relations between
their medium's materials and methods. Photography is still so young that
scientists have not yet solved the mystery of what happens when light
strikes the sensitive silver salts. Although the medium has made great strides
during its century of life, it still has to cope with a number of unstable
factors, one of which is the unequal results from different lots of film.
Surprising and freak accidents may occur, because of this variable factor.
Therefore, we must use the utmost care and precision in dealing with facts
as far as we know them.
What step in photography is the most important? In the last analysis,
each and every step. However, first we have our tools, then we learn to use
them properly. Like any creative work, whether a novel, a piece of sculpture,
a drama, the whole must be good. Likewise, each part must be complete in
itself. And, finally, all the parts must fit together in an harmonious entity.
With the photograph, the whole is the finished print. To obtain a final ex-
pression which is satisfying and successful, we must travel far, pass through
many stages. We have camera, lens, shutter, film. Then we make use of these
tools with brains, eyes, emotions, institutions, alertness, dexterity. But at
any point, the whole sequence may break down if we do not understand
and respect the character of the process.
Truly, if the lens is the camera eye, then chemistry is photography's
heart. In chemical interactions lie the energy, the active pulse beat, to bring
the latent image to life and to turn invisible into visible reality. Chemistry
is no blind accident or miracle, but a complicated science. The chemical
actions in photography consequently must be understood, mastered, and
applied. Here accuracy in the laboratory, precision, exact weights, and cor-
rect temperatures, purity of chemicals, proper storage, are all imperative.
Of the millions of Americans who make photographs today, it is im-
possible to say what proportion do their own developing and printing. Cer-
tainly there are thousands and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions.
At any rate, when you have passed beyond the casual snapshot stage of
photography, the chances are ten to one that you will get as much pleasure
from finishing your pictures as from taking them. For my part, I cannot
imagine the serious amateur's turning over a negative to a photofinisher.
The commercial photographic worker, speeded up by the factory processing

of thousands of films and prints in a day, cannot know or care what par-
ticular effect you desire. Yet in this hoped-for effect lies the specific mean-
ing of the subject as you saw it. A fine conception for a picture, translated
by your thought and action into a good negative, may still produce an
insignificant print if improperly handled. Hence the need for every serious
photographer to be his own craftsman-technician.
6. Planning Your Darkroom
THE great problem in doing your own developing and printing is to find
adequate working space. Many ardent amateurs are forced back on impro-
visation for a darkroom, taking temporary root in bathroom, kitchen or
closet, as is feasible. More fortunate are those who live spaciously in
quarters boasting attics or cellars where darkrooms may be set up perma-
nently. If space is available for a permanent darkroom to be established
(contrary to the Arabs-that-folded-their-tents-in-the-night character of the
improvised darkroom in bathroom or kitchen) the darkroom may be planned
along ideal lines, desire and funds permitting. If it is out of the question
to arrange any kind of darkroom in your home, then you will have to fall
back on facilities offered by camera clubs, schools, church clubs, museums,

etc.
First of all, a darkroom must be dark. Lighttightness is essential,

whether you work in darkroom, kitchen, closet, or ideal photographic
laboratory with Greek key lighttrap entrance. A simple test for lighttight-
ness is described in Chapter 9. The second "must" has to do with physical

facilities, i.e., running water (preferably hot as well as cold) and safely
insulated electrical outlets. Ideally, the darkroom should be air-conditioned.
Ideally, also, it should be in two parts: darkroom (or "wet" laboratory)
and finishing room, with dry, cool storage space in the latter for negative
materials, photographic papers and dry chemicals. Basic Photography de-
scribes standard professional specifications for a photographic workshop.
Quarterly Supplement No. 8 of Photo-Lab-Index gives the most complete
data on darkroom design and construction I have found.
Cleanliness is imperative in the darkroom. Therefore its physical con-
struction, as far as your circumstances permit, should be such as to permit
easy maintenance for cleanliness. There should be ample storage shelf
31
space; but to avoid accumulation of dust, use enclosed cabinets wherever

possible, such as come in standard units for modern kitchens or for medical
supplies. Odierwise, plan your shelves to be only so wide as to hold the
equipment intended and paint them with a glossy paint which can be easily
wiped off with a damp cloth —preferably a standard darkroom paint, which
resists chemical action, like Eastman's Kodacoat.
Whether you work in improvised darkroom or ideal laboratory, you
need to equip it with essential working apparatus, which includes:
Darkroom Apron
The need to protect clothing is self-evident.
Safelight Lamp
The photographer must work in a dark room. But he needs to see to

control results. With experience, he performs many operations in total
darkness, such as developing panchromatic film. However, for developing
orthochromatic film and for printing, safelight illumination aids the oper-
ator until he is thoroughly familiar with technic. The Eastman Brownie
darkroom or safelight lamp, price $2, is suitable if you work in a small
space. Other models are priced somewhat higher. Remember to use the
safelight recommended for the film and paper you are working with. Series
2, with a 10-watt bulb, is correct for orthochromatic film. Series OA takes
care of most printing.
Trays
Size depends on the size of film

you use. If 5 x 7, you will need two
trays 8 x 10 and two 11 x 14, unless you are buying at the same time with
an eye to making enlargements. However, the cost of using greater quantities
of developer and hypo than you need in developing films and making con-
tact prints should be weighed against the cost of buying two sets of trays.
Enameled recommended, though hard rubber or glass trays may
steel is
also be used. The new stainless steel trays are good but expensive. Trays
of other materials should not be used. As regards tanks, these are dis-
cussed in Qiapter 7, with a recommendation.
PLANNING YOUR DARKROOM 33
Graduates
These should be preferably of glass, for cleanliness in measuring and

mixing solutions, though there is danger of breakage. One 16-ounce and
one 32-ounce graduate facilitate preparation of solutions.
Stirring Rod
Preferably of hard rubber, as the glass rods break easily.
Scale
You need a scale if you wish to make your own formulas. The stand-
ard studio type is suitable.
Interval Timer
For tray development, exact measurement of time is facilitated by a

device which rings a bell at the end of the correct period. Use of a timer
is especially important when you develop films in total darkness, as with
panchromatic material. It is not essential to have a timer of the type used

for printing, as printing time can be counted with the aid of any clock
which has a second hand.
Thermometer
Measurement of temperature (in checking temperature of film de-

veloper and printing developer) is as important as measurement of time.
Tlie thermometer should read at least as high as 140 degrees, as chemicals
usually have to be mixed at 125 degrees.
Towels
Cleanliness is indispensable to photography. Early learn the habit of

washing hands after you have had them in the hypo. Otherwise you will
contaminate the developing solutions, as well as mar film and paper.
Filter Cotton
To wipe off films when they are hung up to dry, which will decrease
the danger of watermarks, etc. It is also used in photography for many
other purposes, as in retouching, polishing prints, filtering solutions, etc.
Clips
A good, inexpensive type made of wood. When hanging up films

is
or prints, do not clip too far down on the negative or positive surface, or
you will mar the picture area. If you hang up prints to dry, place clips at
bottom to prevent curling.
Neg-a-Chart
—
The Neg-a-Chart is a guide to the kinds of negatives "dense," "thin,"
"contrasty," "flat." The "average" or "normal" negative is marked "2"
on the chart.
Negative Preservers
Glassine or cellophane envelopes are to be preferred. Since the film

can be seen through its transparent covering, it does not have to be re-
moved from the envelope so often, which obviates excessive handling with
danger of fingermarks or scratches.
Printing Frame or Printer
Size depends on you, again. Arguments for the more expensive printer
are stated in Chapter 8. The Agfa 5x7 printer costs $19.50. Printing
frames of the same size cost about one-sixth as much. However, dodging
can only be done practically with a printer.
Printing Lamp
If you choose the cheaper printing frame, you may use as a light
source any desk lamp, floor lamp, drop light, or wall bracket within work-
ing distance of your table. Use a 75-watt bulb.
PLANNING YOUR DARKROOM 35
Bottles
For storing stock solutions, etc., use brown photographic bottles in

quart or pint sizes. Label these with gummed stickers.
Syphon
For washing prints, a syphon is optional, though desirable.
Filter
If your water supply shows traces of rust or of foreign chemical sub-

stances like the alkalis, a filter attached to the faucet is an excellent acces-
sory. The Elkay Photo-Pure Water Filter, price $3.15, is good for this
purpose except that the filter pads have to be renewed frequently.

These items constitute the main fixed equipment you need, not in-
cluding an enlarger. Then there is the question of supplies, which are

used up from time to time, such as chemicals, film and paper. As far as
chemicals are concerned, you will either supply yourself with the pre-
pared formulas recommended for film developer, as Agfa 17 or Eastman
D76, and the various formulas recommended for paper, which is a simple
proposition, or you will indulge a secret taste of chemistry in compounding
your solutions after all the tried and tested formulas. Morgan & Lester's
Photo-Lab-Index is a useful reference work for laboratory enthusiasts.
Basic Photography may be studied for the theory of photographic chemistry.
You need, in addition to the above, acid fixing powder (hypo) both for
film and paper. Stock a small amount of potassium bromide to add to
your developer for printing, as suggested in Chapter 9. You make a satur-
ated solution by stirring the dry chemical into an ounce of water (prefer-
ably distilled) until the water will dissolve no more of the salt. Also stock
acetic acid, 28 per cent, for the "acid short stop bath" in printing.
For general use, you will do well to stick to orthochromatic film,
because it can be developed under a safelight, whereas panchromatic film
has to be developed in complete darkness. Since orthochromatic film is
cheaper, it is just as well to work with it your grasp of photography

until
requires the use of the more subtle and complicated panchromatic.
As for paper, normal contrast paper such as Azo No. 2 is adequate at

first, developed with D72. Since we are trying to develop good habits of
photographic practice, there is an advantage in confining ourselves to one
grade of paper at this point, because this gives a constant factor in the
extremely variable equation of exposure, developing and printing. The
expert photographer naturally makes use of the latitude offered him by
grades of paper to compensate for characteristics in negatives which he
could not completely control. However, it is better to work toward better
negatives, that is, negatives which will produce good prints on normal con-
trast papers. Later, the range of papers may be used when the best negative
possible under given conditions has been made and it still needs compensa-
tion or adjustment.
If you already have an enlarger and have been working with it, you
will naturally have a stock of projection paper on hand. But that is another
story. Chapter 12 discusses grades and types of paper more fully.
7. Developing the Negative
WHEN Matthew Brady made his photographs of the American Civil War,
he had only primitive instruments with which to work. Using the wet plate
collodion process, he had to cover blank glass plate with sensitizing solution,
put it in the camera, take his picture and develop the plate — all within ten
minutes, and without accidentally exposing the plate. Despite tremendous
physical handicaps, he created masterpieces. Today, photographic machines,
materials and methods represent a great technical advance over Brady's
time. Yet we too need to show as great concern for the minutiae of the
photographic process as he did amid the battlefield's dangers and hazards.
Our care is manifested in cleanliness, precision, attention to scientific de-
tail. This is photography's equivalent for the craftsmanship shown by old-

time artists who laboriously ground colors by hand.
Because industry has made great strides in the manufacture of fast
film, it is more than ever necessary to remember that photography is an
art based on exact measurements, where the laboratory's fine-gauged technic
is needed. In Brady's time, primitiveness of machine and materials did
him from creating authentic works of art. It did, however, mean
not prevent
tempo of his photographs was vastly slower than the tempo of our
that the
age when split seconds are equal to the minutes and even hours of nine-
teenth century exposures. Just because we are able to work with miniature
cameras, fast film, fine-grain developers, we have to observe even greater
care in handling these delicate objects and materials.
Not only must we expose and develop prints exactly the right length
of time. We must measure light, time and similar factors with mathematical
conscientiousness in order that our negatives shall be correctly exposed.
After that, development is an equally meticulous step in the photographic
sequence. My plea to learn photography correctly applies particularly to
37
developing. Guard against the temptation to false economy. Do not use stale
developer; it is cheaper to buy chemicals than to waste film and your time.
Do not experiment blindly with directions on prepared developer, nor, when
you work with more elaborate formulas, with their proportions. Be careful
not to scratch the film when handling it in the developer and hypo. Care-
lessness is fatal at any step but especially so in developing film; for mis-
takes made at this point cannot be corrected.
What Is a Negative?
The answer is simple. It is film which has been exposed to light and
then developed so that the lights and darks make a picture, but in reverse.
Printing from the negative gives the positive print or photograph. But since
photography did not spring into being full grown, to arrive at the negative
and positive required years of effort. Today flexible film, whether roll film,
cut film or film pack, which is so easily handled by millions of photog-

raphers, represents the climax of those early experiments. Indeed, not till
photography evolved the flexible film base in 1888 could it achieve the
stature of a universal art.
The effect of this invention Taft has discussed in his excellent Pho-
tography and the American Scene. First of all, it made possible the folding
camera for amateurs. He writes (pp. 388-9) "The camera was small, :
6% inches long by 3% inches deep and wide, weighed twenty-two ounces,

and made a picture 21/2 inches in diameter. Loaded with a spool of film of
sufficient length for one hundred exposures, the camera sold for twenty-five
dollars. It was reloaded (in the dark) by the dealer for ten dollars; the
exposed was developed by the dealer or sent to Rochester to be proc-
roll
essed. It may be said in passing that the introduction of this camera marked
the beginning of an extensive new business, that of the photo-finisher." The
human and esthetic significance of the new invention were triumphantly
prophesied in the Scientific American of September 15, 1888 (Taft: Note
407) : "We predict for it a very general use — it promises to make the
practice of photography well nigh universal."
Yet universal as photography is today and indispensable as flexible
film is, film itself is practically an unknown quantity. What we are accus-
tomed to seeing and handling with nonchalant ease is the exposed and
>
16. BABY Gay Dillon

Taken with 4x5 Speed Graphic; Zeiss Tessar 5^4 inch lens;
1/50 second; f/ two photofloods; camera on
12.5; tripod:
Eastman Super XX film pack.
17n. HANDS OF JEAN COCTEAU
Berenice Abbott
Taken with 9x12 cm. view camera,

6V2 X 9 cm. reducing back, by daylight.
I7l7. BUDDY Berenice Abbott
Taken with 9x12 cm. view camera.

Posed action.
18. TRESTLE BRIDGE Matthew Brady
Piimiti\'eness of the bridge echoes primitiveness
of materials (wet pk
and all) with which Brady had to make his masterly
Civil War reportage.
19fl. WHAT AN EXPOSED FILM
LOOKS LIKE
Photographs made on an elec-
tronic microscope constructed in

the Eastman Research Labora-
tories show how a silver halide
crystal which was exposed to
light looks when dexeloped in
(left)hydroquinone and (right)

amidol. The cr>stal is enlarged
40.000 times.
Courtesy of Eastman Kodak Company
Berenice Abboit
19k ELECTRONICS
Electronic Research.
Courtesy of Life Magazine and RCA Research Laboratories

20. A NEWHAVEN SAILOR David Octavius Hill
Adamson from
Printed by Hill and a paper negative
made between 1843 and 1848.
Metropolitan Museum of Art

GOULD Berenice Abbott
21. JOE
Taken with 5x7 view camera; studio lighting.
22. JOHN WATTS Bhhhkicb Abbott
laken with 8x10 Century Universal view camera; 1 second; f/32.
Applies principles of lenses and swings.
23. CABRIOLET Eugene Atget
Taken with 18 x 24 cm. view camera; rapid rectilinear lens;

glass plate. For composition, see Chapter 15.
Collection of Berenice Abbott

¥f
m
{mmk\
24. A RUSHY SI lORE, 1886 P. H. Emerson
Platinum print, from the album

Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads.
Museum of Modern Art

25. PEACE: AN ELLIS ISLAND MADONNA, 1905 Lewis W. Hine
Taken with a 5 x 7 view camera and flash powder
"On a day when 12,000 were crowded through the place."
Courtesy of Corydon Hine

26. MANHATTAN SKYLINE Berenice Abbott
Taken with 8x10 Century Universal view camera; single element
of 9y2-inch convertible Goerz Dagor lens; 1/50 second; f/16.
27. FIGHT! Consuelo Kanaga
Taken with Rolleiflex; 1/200 second; f/11; Superpan Press.
Courtesy of Woman's Dar

28. BURNETT HOUSE, LEXINGTON, MISSOURI Gay Dillon
Taken with 4x5 Speed Graphic; Zeiss Tessar 5V4 inch lens; 1 second;
f/32; medium yellow filter: camera used on tripod: Eastm:in
Supersensitive Pan cut film. Good effects in lighting
and in renderina oi wood and hiick.
CITY LANDSCAPE Berenice Abbott
Deardorff Triamapro; 1/25 second; f/16. Held in hands and swings
used. Taken from roof of Irving Trust Companv Building
at 1 Wall Street, New York.
30. EYES OF AUDREY McMAHON Berenice Abbott
Taken with 5x7 reducing back on 8x10 Century Universal
view camera and photoflood lighting.
-tmiW-'n'iB**^'^ y:w^
31. TRIAMAPRO CAMERA

The most flexible of the American-made hand and stand cameras. The picture
illustrates the use of drop bed, rising and falling front, tilting front, lateral
slide and lateral swing. The model shown has a focal range finder.
DEVELOPING THE NEGATIVE 39
developed film, the negative. Film because of its light-sensitive character
is better known by its packaging than by itself.
Photographic film consists of a base (glass plate or transparent cellu-

loid base) coated with a gelatin emulsion holding in colloidal suspension
•
grains of silver bromide. It is manufactured in darkness, with all precau-
tions to standardize gelatin, silver content and thickness of emulsion. Film

is exposed by allowing light to reach it through the lens opening in the
camera, a "latent image" then being produced by the photochemical action
of light striking on silver salts imbedded in the light-sensitive emulsion. By
latent image, we mean an image not visible to the eye but capable of being
developed by a suitable chemical solution. To convert latent image into
visible image, we develop the film.
This brief description is made to underline the necessity for great care
in all manual operations connected with the handling of film, whether in
development, printing, retouching, filing or visual examination. Manufac-
turers of photographic materials use elaborate and costly sensitometers to
control the character and quality of film. Photographers should show equal
respect by manipulating their delicate materials carefully and with good
technic.
^
f There is no mystery about developing a film. As the result of exposure
I (through the lens of the camera) the silver salts in the emulsion have under-
I gone a chemical change. Development consists of treating the exposed film
J — in darkness —with a solution (called developer) to reduce the exposed
^ salts to metallic silver. Then, after rinsing, the film is placed in another
J solution (called acid fixing bath)to remove the unexposed salts. After
/ fixing, the film iswashed thoroughly and dried; and we have the negative,
in which the parts aff"ected by light are dark and parts less affected are
I
\ lighter, a reversal of the relation of light and dark in the photographed
\object.
You need in developing, besides a darkroom in which to work, devel-
oper, fixing bath, water and containers for solutions. Suitable developers
and acid fixing bath (hypo) may be purchased in any supply store. The
packages give simple instructions for preparing proper solutions. Follow
these instructions and remember that cleanliness is a primary rule.
There are two methods of developing, by tray and by tank. For roll
film, tank is more sensible and, indeed, 35 mm. film can only be developed
by tank. (See Consumers Union Reports, August, 1940, pp. 9-11, for data
on tanks.) For cut film or film pack, I prefer tray development unless there
is a large number of films to be developed. If you have followed my recom-
mendation and are working with a fair sized ground glass camera, you may
as well cut the cost of equipment for the time being and stick to tray
development. I write this consideredly. There is a tendency in photography

to believe that all your problems will be solved you have quantities of
if
equipment. Experience teaches that success is achieved by simplifying both

equipment and procedure. This even leads me to say some thing as radical
as "Don't use tanks."
When you develop by tray, one rule is of prime importance: con-
stantly move and rock the tray to agitate the developer so that it is always
in contact with all parts of the film. For tray development, you have sup-
plied yourself with four trays as specified in Chapter 6. The usual practice
is for righthanded people towork from left to right developer at the left, —
rinse bath in the middle, and hypo at the right. However, to fill the trays,
the order is from right to left: first fill the hypo tray, then the water rinse
bath, and finally the developer tray. This order is necessary to prevent hypo
from splashing into the developer.
When developing film packs, remember that they require one-third

more time than cut film. The procedure is the same, except that the pro-
tective paper must be torn off before the films are placed in the developer.
There is certainly a practical argument against developing film packs
in tanks because they have to be removed from the tank and placed in the
hypo in a tray, so that there is no great economy of labor and the films
themselves are subjected to extra handling with the consequent extra risk
of being scratched or marred.
A few more points on good technic. Mix chemicals into water, not
vice versa. Be sure to wash your thermometer thoroughly after you have
tested the temperature of the hypo, before using it in the developer. Or
better still, if you are careful not to "swap" them, use one thermometer for
hypo, and a second one for developer. Be careful not to splash hypo, as its
dry particles make spots on negatives and prints.
In developing, you are profiting by the one controlled method in

photography —time and temperature development. As said previously, other
steps of tlie photograph process have not yet reached the stage of complete
scientific control. But in development, you have no alibi. Make the solution
DEVELOPING THE NEGATIVE 41
correctly, use it at the temperature and for the time (minimum) given,
following instructions to agitate the film in the developer. Then, whatever
errors crop up, the fault is yours. Here experience can be of great value;
for by studying failures, you make possible your future successes. There-
fore, keep the developer at the prescribed 65 degrees Fahrenheit. If neces-
sary, place the tray containing developer in a larger tray of cold water,
using ice as a last resort. If you are one of those handy souls who love
nothing better than hammer and saw, you can easily find blueprints for
build ing a waterbath. »^^
Whether you use tray or tank, the temperature of the developer at the
beginning of development should be 65 degrees. A slight spread from 62

to 68 degrees may be permitted, but with proportionate changes in the length
of development time. But over 70 degrees, development is errative because
it is too fast. As a result, negatives are too dense, the gelatin emulsion swells
and produces coarse grain and is also more easily scratched. Too rapid
development causes unevenness and exhausts the developer quickly. On
the other hand, developing at temperatures noticeably lower than 65 degrees
is also to be avoided. For the hydroquinone in the solution ceases to act and
shadow detail is lost, producing a too contrasty negative. At lower tempera-
tures, longer development is required, which aside from technical and
esthetic results is to be avoided because it wastes time and labor. For con-
ditions where it is impossible to control temperature, developers like Pan-
thermic 777 permit the photographer to break the above rules. On the
whole, however, sticking to the rules is the best way to master photography.
Indeed, the sign of the master isthat he knows when and why he is breaking
the rules; the novice breaks —
them without knowing and without being
able to control the result.
Cut film is slid into the developer and kept constantly in motion, so
The tray should be
that the separate negatives will not stick to each other.
rocked frequently during development. For general work, a moderately
fine-grain developer, such as Agfa 17 or Eastman D76, is to be preferred.
There is no objection to the use ol very fine-grain developers for larger
size film, as well as 35 mm., unless you plan to do retouching on the
jgative.
After the rinse bath, the film must be moved about in the hypo for
least two or three minutes. Then it is left to fix for fifteen minutes, with
A GUIDE TO BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY
occasional agitation. Finally, it should be washed for twenty minutes, in

gently running water, or with occasional changes of water. In working back
and forth from hypo to developer, be sure always to wash your hands after
they have been in the hypo and before putting them again in the developer.
Before you hang up the films to dry, wipe the surface free from scum
or sediment with wet cotton under water, care being taken not to scratch
or mar the softened emulsion. Cut film hung up by the comer. Excess
is
moisture should be wiped off with clean cotton wrung out in water.
All these admonitions may sound monotonously routine. But they are
essential in the campaign for good, clean photographic technic.
8. Printing the Negative
PHOTOGRAPHS are prints made from negatives, reconverting the values

of light and shade to the original state. Without good prints, photography
cannot hope to realize its potentialities for art, communication, recreation,
science and commerce. Misconceptions as to photography's artistic value
explain why many photographers do not learn how to print well. Yet if a
photographer cannot control his work to its final visual expression, can he
be said really to be "making" his picture?

The amateur never really learns what is wrong with his negatives if he
leaves their printing to the corner drugstore photofinisher. But if he has
some knowledge of printing, he can judge better what results to expect
from a negative and how to distinguish a negative's faults. Mastering print-

ing confers other benefits. The scale of nature is so vast that when a new
photographer goes out to take a picture, he cannot encompass the entire
scene. But in his small print, nature is reduced to a scale more easily
comprehended by his eye, which thus receives valuable training for more
difficult subjects. In the developer, the photographer's creative vision comes
alive; but not until the print is made, does he achieve a completed state-
ment of the reality he imagined when he clicked the shutter. To fail to
master printing is to miss half the fun of photography.

We begin printing by making a contact print. Later we'll take up
projection printing for enlargements and the intricate subject of the art
of printing.
What Is a Good Print.^
A good print is clear, rich, luminous. It suggests the relations of

nature's colors by tones ranging from purest white to deepest black. Even
the untrained eye can distinguish rich blacks and whites and washed out
43
neutral grays. In printing, always try to reproduce the tonal relations of

the original subject. Black and white are as much colors as the primary
red, blue and yellow. Only, their quality is more reticent and aloof; its
charm grows with long association. In fact, you will find the excellent
photographer Paul Strand consciously working to achieve "warm" and
"cold" tones in his prints, according to the character of the subject. This
may be done by gold toning, manipulation of developers, platinum paper,
etc.
Luminosity is perhaps the most beautiful single characteristic of the

photographic print, which makes the beholder feel that the picture is
flooded with light — as indeed the subject itself was to be taken. A good
photograph suggests sunlight even on photographic paper. Here is a test
by which you may judge the success of your work.
As with developing, good technic is essential. The first precaution in
printing (which must become the photographer's second nature) is to take
due care for the sensitive character of printing paper. Photographic paper
has one side (the sensitive side) coated with gelatin in which silver salts
are evenly imbedded. This emulsion turns black when exposed to white
light and must, therefore, be handled in a darkroom, shielded from light.
Series OA safelight, yellowish-green in color, is used for contact printing.

If white light falls directly on the paper, it will be "light-struck." If light
leaks into the darkroom or if the safelight is not really "safe," the paper
may be "fogged," a common fault with amateurs' prints. Hence the
necessity for underlining this warning.
As in developing film, lay out your trays and prepare them, left to
'right —developer, acid rinse water and hypo, remembering that the trays
should always be clean and they should be filled from right to left, so that
hypo will not splash into the developer. Printing frame or printer is ready,
as well as a proper light source. You have a stock of paper on hand, pref-
erably a contact paper of normal contrast like Eastman Azo No. 2. Glossy
single weight is suitable. Use with this paper Eastman D72 developer. 7
ind now let's print.
What Is Printing?
In printing, you apply chemical principles similar to those made use

of in developing the negative. The paper (on which the final "print" or
PRINTING THE NEGATIVE 45
photograph made) is coated with an emulsion containing silver salts. In

is \
the dark room,you direct wb itS light through the negative onto the paper.
'
The exposed paper is developed, rinsed, fixed, washed and dried, much as
the negative was. You now have a positive image, like the original subject
in the relation of its lights and darks. The first photographs (daguerreo-
types) were reversed in value because the principle of the negative had not
yet been discovered and these "sun pictures" were made directly on light-
sensitive silvered metal plates. Besides being unique copies, the daguerreo-
types are difficult to see because of their chemical composition, although
very beautiful in the shimmering, delicate tonalities of their reversed
images. Not till Fox Talbot discovered the paper negative through his ex-
periments with the calotype was it possible for photographers to make more
than one picture from one exposure. The negative enormously widened
photography's physical range and gave photography its popular character
as a multiple original medium. More than that, it made possible various
improvements and extensions of technical and esthetic scope, such as re-
touching, enlarging, cropping, etc., which have now been assimilated into
the legitimate photographic idiom.
Printing is almost the last step in getting the photograph before the
world — whether the world of the millions of readers of a magazine like
/ Life or the intimate world of your home circle. Printing takes that reverse
image of the negative — in which blacks of the original are light and whites
are dark —and turns them back to their natural tones. The positive image
obtained by printing is capable of indefinite multiplication by a phenome-
non which is simple yet miraculous. Again, light is the agent. Light-sensi-
tive paper is placed in direct contact with the negative, emulsion to emulsion,
either in printing frame or in printer, and light is directed through the
transparent film onto the paper. A second latent image has been created, to
be made visible in the developing solution.
If there is any question as to which is the sensitive side of the negative,

remember that it looks dull. If you place the wrong side of the negative to
the paper's sensitive side, you will get a "mirror" image. This may be all
right, unless there is text to be read on signs or people shaking hands with
their left hands. The sensitive side of printing paper may be distinguished
by the fact that it curves inward slightly. Look at the paper under the safe-
light and note differences in texture between sensitive side and paper base.
The latter, having no coating, will show a fiber-like surface. If in doubt,
bite a comer of the paper. The sensitive side sticks to the teeth. ^^~
In printing, as in developing, the first standard to enforce is that of
time and temperature. If the temperature of the developing solution is kept

at 70 degrees, then uniform prints may be obtained by ascertaining correct
length of time for exposure and developing all prints for the same length of
time, which is 45
already been set out and
seconds. This involves simple procedures.
filled, the working sequence being (as
ing film) from left to right and the order of filling from right to
The trays have
in develop-
left. The
>
only difference is that the rinse bath has had 1% ounces of 28 per cent
acetic acid added to 32 ounces of water as an "acid short stop bath."

In printing, the darkroom operator exposes the paper, either in a
printing frame or printer, allowing white- light (such as ordinary electric

light) to pass through the negative. The transparent parts of the negative
allow light to pass through according to the degree of transparency, and
the dense parts prevent light from reaching the paper with as great inten-
sity as through the transparent. When the exposed paper is developed, the
latent positive image emerges as a visible picture.
As with all processing, the first step is to turn off all the bright lights
and turn on the safelight. For printing with all papers, except fast bromide
papers for enlarging, the Series OA safelight is correct. Open your package
of paper, and tear a sheet into a number of test strips, to make trials for
proper exposure. Carefully shield the paper from any white light. Before
you start printing, be sure the glass in printing frame or printer is perfectly
clean. If necessary, wash it with soap and water on both sides and see that
no fingermarks or dust streaks are left to ornament the final print. Brush
the frame or printer to remove loose dust. In placing negative and paper in
frame or printer, do not touch the surface of either film or paper. Learn to
handle both by their edges. Place the negative in the printing frame with
the emulsion (dull) side away from the glass. The film (shiny) side should
be in contact with the glass. The procedure is slightly different in detail if
you use a printer, though the principle is the same. In that case, follow
instructions which come with the machine.
Now place your test strip face down on the negative, selecting the
center of interest of your picture to test. Cover paper and film with the
printing frame back, and lock. Place the frame flat on the table, face up,
PRINTING THE NEGATIVE 47
with light source so adjusted that it is at the correct distance. This distance
is twice the diagonal of the frame, so that roughly the distance would be
for a 4 X 5 frame one foot, for a 5 x 7 one and a half feet, and for an
8 X 10 two feet. Now make your exposure test. In this connection, exposure
means the length of time the sensitive paper, covered by the negative, is
exposed to white light. So snap on the printing lamp for ten seconds only,
either counting the seconds or watching the second hand of your timepiece.
Snap off the printing light, and write "10 sec." on the back of the strip.
Place the test strip, emulsion side up, in the developer, sliding it
beneath the surface so that it is quickly and evenly covered. Gently rock
I
the tray to break air bubbles and to insure even development over the entire
surface. Develop exactly 45 seconds. Then remove to the acid rinse bath.
After rinsing a few seconds, quickly transfer strip to the hypo. It should go
into the hypo face up and immediately be submerged and moved about, then
turned face_.dpwn. The fixing bath stops the action of the developer and
\ ^'fixes^' the images. After 15 seconds in the hypo, the test strip may be ex-
I
amined under white light. Remember that after you have had your hands in
\ the hypo, they must be washed before you put them in the developer again.
X,^ Correct exposure is imperative. Hence the reason for making test strips.
Exposure depends on: (1) density of negative; (2) strength of light; (3)
distance of the printing frame from the light; and (4) length of time ex-
posed. To simplify same strength of light. In
calculations, always use the
contact printing, correct exposure is attained when the print develops slowly
but fully in 45 seconds with the developer at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the
paper of normal contrast.
Before making a print, repeat the test several times, vaiying the time
of exposure slightly, until you get a "normal" image, that is, one which
seems natural to you in relation to your recollection of the original subject.
Mark on each strip length of exposure. Develop each, rinse and fix, so that
they may be studied more carefully. Be careful each time you take a piece
of paper from the envelope to protect the package of printing paper from
all light except the safelight. If your first test strip is very pale or blank,
your negative is too dense. Try doubling or tripling the time of exposure.
If the image on your first test strip appeared in the developer too rapidly or
gave too dark an image, the paper was overexposed. For further tests,
reduce the exposure time.
Having made a test strip with approximately correct exposure, you

may — if you wish to experiment —make full-sized prints of ten different
exposures, ranging say from one to ten seconds. Be sure to mark length of
exposure on the back of each print before placing it in the developer. De-
velop, rinse, fix, turn on the light and compare prints. It may be that the
time of exposure for the center of interest is correctly gauged but does not
apply to all parts of the negative. This leads to the question of dodging,
which will be discussed in the chapters on "Enlarging" and "The Art of
Printing." It is difficult to do much of this legitimate kind of print control
with the printing frame.
When handling prints in the hypo, do not splash. Handle them gently
in all solutions without splashing chemicals, but especially in the hypo.
Hypo is enemy because it crystallizes when dry and floats about the
a bad
darkroom, making spots on negatives, prints and clothes. Prints should not
remain in the hypo more than 15 or less than 12 minutes. They should be
thoroughly fixed; and since they do not fix themselves by lying passively in
the acid fixing bath, they should be frequently agitated, turned and sepa-
rated. Thorough agitation is especially important when the print is first
put into the hypo.

After fixing, the next step is to wash the prints, in order to wash the
hypo completely out of the paper's emulsion and fiber. Washing is as im-
portant as developing and fixing. It must be done thoroughly if the print is
not to turn yellow and fade. Double weight paper needs to be washed longer
than single weight. Washing may be done in several ways. One way is to
change the water in the tray twelve times at 5-minute intervals. Another
way is to run water into and out of the tray for at least an hour, provided
that the prints are separated and turned frequently and that the stream
of running water is not directed at their surface. Moving, turning, separat-
ing, are indispensable to eliminate the hypo. A tray syphon is excellent
for this purpose.
Prints are hung up to dry by clips, which are also used as weights on
the bottom. Wipe off the prints with clean cotton wrung out in water, to
remove excess moisture.
9. Analyzing the Photograph
NOW that you've developed the film and printed it, are you satisfied? There
are many reasons why you may not be. Does the photograph express what
you saw when you took the picture? Elementary yet essential steps are
laid down here for analysis to enable you to make the most of your photo-
graphs. But before going into more complicated diagnoses, there is a simple
precaution to take. Is the print "fogged?" Does a gray veil seem to cover
the print, and is the sensation of light absent? Are the whites gray, and the
values flat?
"Fogging" is caused by light leaking into the darkroom from outside

or by an unsafe darkroom lamp. To test your darkroom's lighttightness,
place an unexposed test strip under the safelight and cover part of it with
a coin. Leave for four minutes, then develop and fix. If you can see the
shape of the coin as white and the rest of the paper as gray, white light is
coming into the darkroom from some source. Turn off the the safelight, and
repeat the experiment in darkness. If your test strip still shows fogging,
light is leaking into the darkroom from outside. If the strip is white, then
the safelight is leaking light and you will have to patch it up as best you
can, or buy a new one.
Having eliminated this relatively minor trouble. Let's look at your
prints. A common fault in printing is to take the prints from the developer
too soon. If you do so, because the wet paper looks deceptively dark under
the dim safelight, you will be disappointed; under bright white light, the
prints will appear crude and unfinished. Washed and dried, they are un-
satisfactory. Contact prints developed the full 45 seconds have quality and
tonal unity. Look at the print during development and seek to see it as a
whole and note if it has "roundness" and three-dimensional effect.
Assume that you have developed the print the correct length of time.
49
Does it still fail to satisfy you, and you can't decide why? Perhaps the high
lights lack detail. Remedy: expose for detail in the high lights. Now are the
shadows too black? If so, then the negative was either overdeveloped or
underexposed, or both, with the result that contrast between high lights and
shadows is too great in the print. Shadow detail in the film will not register
in the print unless the negative is properly balanced. If the negative lacks
balance, shadows must be dodged, or otherwise held back, to produce sat-

isfactory high lights in the print. The problem is to learn how to make
negatives with a correct exposure-development relation for normal paper.
Are the edges of your print pale and chalky? One of the commonest
headaches of photography is "edge intensification." This means that the
edges are denser than the rest of the negative. Such areas must be given
additional light during printing by dodging, which can only be done con-
veniently in contact printing with a printer.
More about high lights. Do they look gray or lack zip? Very often,
especially with softer grades of paper, two or three additional drops of
potassium bromide (saturated solution) in the developer will keep the
whites whiter and brighten the print's whole appearance. Do the high lights
of your prints look "grainy?" Then, even with longer printing exposure, you
will not get detail; for the high light areas of the negative are too dense
to print right, due to overdevelopment of the film. Moral: develop less the
next time.
The above suggests that no one step of the photographic process is sep-
arable from the other steps. At every point, we come up against the ques-
tion of what kind of negative you are working with. This involves two kinds
of criticism, creative and technical. First of all, place your negative on a
sheet of clean white paper face down. Study it in terms of reversed tones,
that is, imagining the dark areas as light and the light areas as dark, as
the print will appear. Form the habit of studying your negatives for pos-
sible faults.
Perhaps the negative was fogged? The test is simple. Are the borders
clear and transparent? If they are gray instead, the negative was fogged.
And you know what to do about it. Are any areas of the film (exclusive
of the borders) entirely transparent? If so, the film was underexposed or
the lighting was unbalanced. There should be no completely transparent
areas in a negative; for during the time light strikes the silver salts when
ANALYZING THE PHOTOGRAPH 51
the camera shutter is clicked, whether it be for 1/10, 1/25, or 1/50 of a

second, enough light should have reached the light-sensitive emulsion to
have affected some silver particles all over the film.
A good negative should have ample shadow detail. But at the same
time, it should be fairly "thin," otherwise excessively dense parts will affect
the print's high lights as described above. High lights in prints from over-
developed negatives lack detail and form. In the negative tliis fault shows
up as high light areas which are too dense and "blocked up." If shadow de-
tail is present in the negative and high lights are too dark, the film is over-
developed. This makes for too much contrast and results in flat high lights
in the print. Furthermore the negative requires long printing exposure
because By "reading" the negative, you can tell whether the film
it is dense.
has been adequately exposed. From your best final print, you can tell
whether the film was properly developed. By carrying out the experiment
outlined in Chapter 17, you can determine a working method for exposure-
development balance.
Negatives may be dense, flat, contrasty, thin, dense and flat, or thin and
flat. In fact, they may have any number of several characteristics, or a com-
bination. The principle I advise is: expose for shadows and develop for
high lights. There are several schools of thought on this subject, however,
and a personal style is evolved with experience. Your style has to do witli
your philosophical approach to photography. If you are a realist, photog-
raphy means accurate rendering of materials and surfaces, documentary
precision, clean cut definition, all possible sharpness, texture, detail. For
you, then, shadow detail will be a must. To achieve this, so that your photo-
graphs may be as expressive as possible, you need to work for adequate
exposure. Having seen thousands of students' negatives, I am convinced
that fully nine-tenths of them are underexposed. On this point, I am heartily
in agreement with P. H. Emerson, who wrote in Naturalistic Photography
in 1889: "Underexposure gives chalky whites and sooty blacks, ergo^ no
tonality, ergo, worthless. No remedy, destroy at once."
The tendency to overdevelop film is all too common. It is probable
that developing time, as stated on most manufacturers' instructions, is too
long. It may be that this is deliberate, to compensate for the photographer's
tendency to underexpose the negative. If so, it is a bad remedy for a bad
disease. For better results, use the minimum developing time given as your
maximum. These procedures are always relative, however, and must be

gradually evolved. A time suitable for one person is not necessarily satis-
factory for another because of the varying factors of type of lens, shutter,
film, enlarger, etc. But if you keep in the back of your head the fact that you
are aiming for a negative the exposure and development of which will be of
a character to print best on normal paper, many of your headaches will
disappear.
Besides these rather complicated problems of exposure and develop-
ment of negative and print, there are minor points of correct technical pro-
cedure, which can make or mar your work. The necessity for keeping films
free from fingermarks and free from contamination from soiled tables or
shelves is not fully realized. You may obtain a negative which is perfectly
exposed and developed and a print from it, also perfectly exposed and
developed, but the final result ruined by defects due to lack of cleanliness.
The importance of good laboratory procedure may be gauged by the
ravages of incorrect technic. Streaks appear on the film's surface if the
developer has not acted evenly on the entire surface. Hence, the exhortation
to agitate the film frequently in the developer. Uneven fixing also produces
streaked films because if certain areas continue to develop in the hypo, they
become darker than those areas in which developing has been stopped by
the acid fixing bath's neutralizing action. Milky areas are due to insufficient
fixing, because all the undeveloped silver salts have not been dissolved out
of the film's emulsion. Watermarks are due to incorrect wiping and drying.
Aiiother fault, though not easily detected in a newly developed negative,
results from insufficient washing. If hypo remains on the film, it will turn
yellow in the course of time. Ditto for prints.
After you would think that your problems were all solved. Not
all this,
at all. Now you face some esthetic aspects of photography. Your exposure
may have been You may have developed the negative correctly and
perfect.
printed it admirably. And yet still you are not happy. The picture does not
look the way you imagined it would. Why?
Could it be composition? Instinct plays an invaluable part in picture-
making. If you were to take a photograph blindly without any planning or
selection, you would be startled to see how unhappy, unbalanced and unin-
teresting the result. The importance of consciously composing your picture
so that it has balance and unity cannot be overestimated. That story, how-
ever, is taken up in Chapter 15. But even the newest photographer, fresh
out in the world with his box camera, instinctively seeks to make his picture
a complete pictorial entity. Lack of experience, of course, accounts for his
failures.
The mistakes made by newcomers to photography and even by old —
—
hands follow well defined patterns. Most frequent, perhaps, is the ten-
dency to take the picture with its center of interest too far away. Possibly
you saw a handsome subject from across the street or several blocks away.
In the photograph, the subject which enticed you is dwarfed; instead of
being imposing and majestic (as it seemed to your inner eye) it is revealed
as small and insignificant. Don't be afraid of your subject; approach it
boldly. Get as big an image as possible consistent with your lens' capacity
and your own understanding of the subject's pictorial character. Arrange

the picture on the ground glass so as to eliminate extraneous and unneces-
sary objects, so that the subject which first captured your imagination and
appeared to you in so commanding a light will be recreated in a similar
mood in your photograph.
Another mistake frequently made is that the camera is not carefully
aimed. Result: feet, ears, top of head, all cut ofi" with the casual abandon
of the Red Queen's "Off with his head!" If you are photographing a child,
don't get too near — photography is paradoxical, you will think; but for
the moment just forget the last paragraph —unless you can also manage to
keep the camera low, in the plane of the child's height.
A don't about foregrounds. Unless they contribute to the picture's
meaning, there is no reason for having big, empty five-acre lots filling up
two-thirds of the space. When taking your picture, see that its area is not
divided in the middle either vertically or horizontally. It may merely be a
question of choosing your point of view more carefully and of relating your
subject more interestingly to its background.
Height of camera is a further consideration. Often it should be placed
higher than floor or street level. A chair, door step, roof, window, fire escape,
may offer a better height from which to organize your composition.
Finally, perspective offers one of the most interesting problems of
picture-making. By withdrawing from or approaching your subject more
closely, you have a choice of perspectives — either more natural or more
distorted, according to the effect you wish to create. In some cases, the more
pronounced or acute your perspective the more interesting the picture, and
tlie more difficult it is to take. Then you need "swings" (see Chapter 11) or
perhaps you can do the trick by closing down the lens. My photograph of
John Watts (PI. 22) illustrates how an exaggerated perspective creates the
psychological reality of the subject. The many thousands who hurry by
Trinity Churchyard daily see the statue and the Irving Trust Building facade
in a hasty impressionistic visual distortion. From the optical point of view,
itwas necessary to distort in order to encompass both statue and facade
in one shot. The photograph has telescoped or condensed space into its
dimensions; there is a kind of urgency or haste in the visual presentation,
as there is in the subject in real life.
Related to composition is lighting. What light effect do you want in

your picture? Is the lighting flat and uninteresting? The intuitive photog-
rapher often passes up an otherwise interesting subject because the light does
not bring out the subject to best advantage. So if you take photography
seriously, study the way light falls naturally on various subjects. It is help-
ful to watch familiar scenes at different times of day (just as Monet painted
the Rouen cathedral at different hours and in different seasons) and to
observe how the change of angle and quality of light dramatizes a subject.
Better still, photograph the same subject under different lighting conditions
and see what happens.
Shadows enhance composition. Usually a front flat light (that is, a light
from the sun when it is high overhead and directly back of the photog-
rapher) does not help a picture, though there may be exceptions. Even walk-
ing to another point of view will show you how the subject looks under
slightly different light. An example of the difference lighting makes is
my story of photographing the New York Stock Exchange, told and
illustrated in Chapter 4.
In other words, if you want your pictures to be interesting and beau-
tiful, you have to spend time and thought on them. Take a few pictures
carefully and thoughtfully rather than shoot dozens, as if you were reeling
offjpotage on a movie camera.
To sum up, what are you looking for in your photographs? Esthetic
^hetic
J
considerations aside, what makes a "good" photograph?
1. A good photograph is sharp. The principal object of interestt hasX
n focused with the foreground and background in proper relation. J
2. The exposure has been correctly timed. Essential shadow detail has
been fully registered.

3.The length of development for the film has been estimated exactly.
The time was not too short, resulting in thin, flat negatives; nor was it too
long, resulting in too contrasty negatives.
4. Negatives are clean, because the chemicals used were pure and the
solutions worked with were at the correct temperatures. Negatives have been
developed to a low contrast with fine grain.
5. The print has been exposed and developed at the correct tempera-
ture in fresh developer; and it has been thoroughly fixed and washed.
These are material standards for good photography, on which the
permanence of your work depends. Intangible but just as important stanc
ards will be discussed later.

10. Learning To See: The Lens
PHOTOGRAPHY is a new vision of life, a profoundly realistic and objec-

tive view of the external world. In the all-seeing and minute observation of
the camera eye, we see what we never saw before —wealth of minutiae,
broad panorama of earth and sky. What the human eye observes casually
and incuriously, the eye of the camera (the lens) notes with relentless
fidelity. Position of the sun, height of the tides, wrecked automobile captured
in a "spot news" shot — these are facts which may or may not have esthetic
significance. But they are facts, set forth by photography with convincing
detail, facts sometimes so important in the objective sense that photographs
are produced in law courts as infallible witnesses to truth.
This unique and powerful quality has established an esthetic based on
realism as the new vision of life. But the photographic esthetic could not
function without the tools which science has given photography. Very well
for Eastman to bring forth the roll film in 1888; but if Petzval had not a
half century earlier perfected a double lens for portraiture, photography
would have had no impetus at its very birth to make progress and indeed
might have languished and died away. In its hundred years of life, progress
has been great, and in no field more than in the field of lenses. However,
photographers still fail to bridge the chasm between the lens and the eye.
They accept the lens as being identical with or equal to the eye. On this
fallacy, many a fine picture is wrecked.

Because the human eye has great powers of accommodation, adjusting
itself to wide angles of view, distortions of perspective and other aberra-
tions of optical vision which the lens registers uncompromisingly, we are
accustomed to see the external world in a fictitious not to say glamorous
mood. Psychological memories and overtones color what our eyes think they
see; our mental pictures are as much conventions of sight as the elaborate
conventions of Rennaissance or Chinese art.
56
LEARNING TO SEE: THE LENS 57
The camera eye is less easily imposed on. It demands logical and
reasonable reality in what it records. It creates a marvelous record of fact,
of truth, an almost microscopic chronicle of things, but according to its own
character, a character mercilessly controlled by optics. What the lens sees
is a single image at the instant the shutter is clicked. Unlike the human
eye, the lens does not merge or superimpose images from what it saw a
moment before or what it may see a moment after. It does not color the
image it records with remembered images of other times and places. Nor
does it include in its sharp, restricted, instantaneous view what is seen
vaguely and indistinctly from the corner of the human eye. The lens freezes
time and space in what may be an optical slavery or, contrarily, the crys-
tallization of meaning. The limits of the lens' vision are esthetically often
a virtue. However the limits create problems.

The spreading vistas of a city skyline, the towering heights of city
skyscrapers, are obstacles it overcomes, but at a price. Distortion of parallel
vertical lines, for example, is sometimes unavoidable to encompass the
sweep of buildings a thousand feet high. Yet the human eye, accustomed
to make an optical accommodation which the lens cannot, is estranged by
distortion. Psychologically as well as physiologically, we see those vertical
lines as parallel. When they appear disguised in the photograph, converging
toward each other, we suffer a shock of unreality. The lens has contradicted
itsown nature of being the spokesman of reality. The real world, in which
we rooted ourselves, has been destroyed. For reasons like this, to reconcile
the lens' unswerving vision with the human eye's flexible, imaginative vision
is the task of all photographers not content with a blindly mechanical use
of photography.
The first won when you are able to translate what you see
battle is
with your roving human eye into terms of what the lens will see. The second
is to broaden the scope of the lens' optical vision, a not impossible though
not too easy feat, as I shall explain in the next chapter on "Swings." The
interesting essay in U. S. Camera 1941, Volume 2, by Dr. Alston Callahan
on "The Camera and the Eye" provides a basis for understanding similari-
ties and differences between human eye and camera eye. A technical refer-
ence is R. Kingslake's "How to Choose a Lens" in Graphic Graflex Pho-

tography, while Basic Photography's section on "Photographic Optics"
gives an excellent analysis of the theory of lenses. To be a good photog-
rapher, you do not need to know the whole of optics. But in general, you
will find it easier to solve problems of photographic expression if you under-
stand lenses and how to use them.
You can make a photograph by letting light pass through a pinhole
onto a film. But the exposure takes hours, because very little light is ad-
mitted, a tiny hole being required if the image is to we make

be sharp. If
the opening larger to let in more light and so to speed up exposure, we get
a blurred image because of the flood of uncontrolled light.
The answer to photography's problem was the law of refraction, that is,
the bending or refracting of rays of light. An elementary proposition of

physics is that the direction of light rays is changed by passing them through
a transparent medium, usually a glass prism. Light rays are bent when they
enter the prism and when they leave it. We have all seen how an arm or stick
appears bent when it is partly in and partly out of water. Such an optical
image has been refracted.
Making use of refraction, the lens comes into the photographic picture.
A lens acts, in effect as if two prisms had been put base to base, bending
the rays of light toward each other so that they converge at a point. Used
instead of a pinhole to admit light, the lens brings all the rays of light
together in a much brighter image than is possible with the pinhole, while
the principle of refraction makes it possible to obtain a sharp image. Length
of exposure is decreased, and photographs can be made under practical
working conditions. In the early days of photography, exposures hours long

were made, due to the primitiveness not only of lenses but also of light-
sensitive materials.
A<^ 7^^
This diagram illustrates the principle. A is a point on the object photo-

graphed. Light rays travel from A in all directions and reach the lens where
their direction is refracted and reversed and they meet again at A',
which is called the focal point. Thus we are able to use a great quantity
of light rays emanating from A instead of the single thin beam that could
enter through a pinhole. It is clear, however, that the film must be placed
exactly at A', the focal point where the converging light rays meet. The
distance from the lens to the focal point is called the focal length.
A camera is generally supplied with a lens of focal length equal to
the diagonal of the film used. A 4 x 5 inch view camera needs a 6 or 7 inch
lens to insure adequate "covering power," that is, to make an evenly defined
and illuminated image over the entire film.
Focal length determines the size of the image. The longer the focal
length the larger the image; and conversely. Suppose we photograph a tree
with a 3-inch lens, placing the camera at a distance to obtain an image one
inch high. Now, without moving the camera, we use a 6-inch lens, that is,
the lens must be six inches away from the film instead of three to be in
focus. The second image will be two inches high instead of one inch. For
the size of the image is proportional to the focal length of the lens. On the
same size film, the longer focal length lens giving the larger image includes
less of the subject, while the shorter focal length giving the smaller image
includes more.
There is always a temptation to use too short a focal length lens,
because it costs less and is smaller and lighter in weight. The risk is that
to obtain a large image the photographer will get too close to his subject,
with resulting fatal distortion of perspective. The most common example
is the sort of snapshot in which a bather's feet (closest to the camera) are
bigger than his entire torso. Furthermore, the perspective only obtainable
with a long focal length lens is often imperative to recreate reality. Here
the subjective factor is as important as the objective. Unless we consciously
use distortion for plastic effect, we wish to arouse in those who look at our
photographs association with what they already know of the subject and so,
by reference to the familiar, to lead them persuasively and convincingly

to the unfamiliar. This is that creative plus which we are always hoping we
add to photography. Thus if we wish to express tenderness for a mother and
her child (as Lewis Hine did in his Ellis Island photographs) we do not
want to estrange sympathy by having the resulting picture grotesque, as it
will surely be if the baby's head is bigger than the mother's. Or to take an-
other example, suppose you are photographing that extraordinary skyline of
downtown Manhattan from the water front, you want to be far enough away
from the buildings so that the thousand-foot monsters will be revealed in all
their overpowering height. For creative perspective, you must use a long
focal length lens and get as far away from your subject as the East River
will permit.
Lens Speed
The speed of a lens also enters into the equation. Lenses differ in the
amount of light they admit to the film. The more light admitted, the shorter
the exposure. This is called speed. Speed is determined by two factors, aper-
ture and focal length. Aperture is the width of the opening in the lens, which
is controlled by the diaphragm, a contracting and expanding mechanism.
Obviously more light passes through a large opening than through a small.
Focal length is the distance light must travel to reach the film after passing
through the aperture, intensity of light decreasing with the distance trav-
eled. The rule is that the brightness of the image is inversely proportional
to the square of the focal length.
The speed of a lens is measured by the ratio between aperture (aper-
ture being measured for this purpose at the diaphragm's widest opening)
and focal length, the resulting factor being called the "f value." If the
aperture is 2 inches and the focal length 8 inches, tlie speed of the lens is
expressed as f/4, that is, the focal length (8 inches) is in the ratio of 4:1
to the aperture (2 inches). For a 16-inch lens with an aperture 4 inches in
diameter, the ratio is also 4: 1, so that the speed of both lenses is identical.
Theoretically, images recorded by both lenses are equally bright and require
the same length of exposure. The smaller the f value, the faster the lens;
thus f/3.5 is faster than f/6.8.
Depth of Field
When we focus the lens on a given object, objects somewhat nearer

the camera and somewhat farther from the camera than the object focused
on are also sharp. The distance between the nearest and the farthest objects
which appear sharp is called the depth of field. Depth of field depends on
focal length, size of aperture and distance of object from the lens. Three
simple rules may be stated: (1) the greater the focal length, the less the
depth of field; (2) the bigger the opening the less the depth of field; and
(3) the farther away the object to be photographed the greater the depth of
field. Here is another instance of the paradoxical character of photography:

long focal length lenses are desirable for the reasons given before, yet
they are undesirable because they lack depth of field, to compensate for
which it is necessary to stop down the opening and so lose speed in expo-
sure. Or, in regard to aperture, you want the biggest possible opening for
maximum speed; then again you sacrifice depth of field. As always, oppos-
ing and conflicting forces have to be weighed against each other, in relation
to what you want to emphasize most.
"Stops" (the diff'erent sizes of the diaphragm) are numbered differently
according to the lens. A characteristic series is: f/4.5, f/5.6, f/6.3, f/8,
f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, f/45. The length of time required for exposure at
different openings varies directly as the square of the F values. If at f/4
the exposure is 1 second, at f/8 the exposure will need to be 4 seconds, that
is, 8^: 4^:: 64: 16, or 4. The relation of one stop to another is in inverse
relation to their squares: f/8 is twice as fast as f/11, worked out as follows
— 11^ -^ 8^ is approximately 2. You do not need to figure out these calcu-
lations every time you take a picture, as exposure meters automatically
give the length of exposure at different stops. In making calculations,
you may consider f/8, f/7.5 and f/7.9 as identical, since film allows for
slight variations. Stops control the amount of light passing through the
lens. To improve "definition" (or sharpness) of near and far objects focused
on at the same time, it is necessary to "stop down" the lens. This is the
practical application of the rule that depth of field is less the larger the
aperture.
The photographer's creative impulse exercises itself in focusing on
the subject in the most effective way. By focusing sharply on a center of
interest, you lead the beholder's eye irresistibly to your main theme, direct-
ing attention to what is important in your conception of the subject. More,
you may deliberately put parts of the picture out of focus to accentuate
your main emphasis. An example is a photograph of mine. Willow Street,
(reproduced in Graphic Graflex Photography, p. 161,) in which the iron
grille close to the camera is softened so that the three-story house may
control the composition. Indeed, it can be argued against the so-called "f/64
school" that its needle-sharp precision of photographic image makes every
part of equal interest with every other part and that the eye has no psy-
chological relief from the incessant activity of moving between a number
of planes, all equally compelling to the attention. The sense that real
objects exist in space and in atmosphere, that they are "round" and solid,
is always essential in photography as a pictorial art, because its esthetic
appeal from the beginning has been based on the illusion of reality which
it manages so successfully to project. Too small stops give almost micro-
scopic sharpness, but lose "roundness" in this sense. The function of the
stops here is to enable the photographer to create relations in distance and

perspective.
The usefulness of a lens depends on the degree to which it has been
"corrected." Correction is necessary because no simple lens will give a com-
pletely true image. Common defects are spherical aberration (failure to give
sharp images,) chromatic aberration (images blurred by rainbow colors,)
and astigmatism (inability to get sharp images of vertical lines with hori-
zontal lines.) Other common faults are curvature of field, coma and distor-
tion. For a detailed analysis of aberrations of lenses, read Basic Photog-
raphy, M62-69. In the history of lens-making, technological advances have

made it possible to eliminate most defects.
In general, aberrations may be corrected by combining lens elements,
such as biconvex, plano-convex, convergent meniscus, divergent meniscus,
plano-concave and biconcave. An aberration found in one type of element
can be neutralized by placing with it another element of opposed type. Air
spacing between elements, properties of the glass used, and skillful work-
manship unite to make lenses of high quality.
Because the camera eye is a vital point in the whole photographic
sequence, your lens can make or break you, photographically speaking. If
you use a lens which possesses all the aberrations in an acute degree, you
will get results full of distortion — certainly not desirable from a scientific
or an esthetic point of view. Every photographer should equip himself with

the best lens (or lenses) he can possibly afford —preferably an anastigmatic
lens of the convertible type. For quality work, a lens of moderate speed
(say f/6.3) is probably to be preferred to a faster lens. With the advance
of color photography, both in professional and amateur fields, you will do
well to purchase color corrected lenses.
For practical purposes, anastigmatic lenses are the only type which
need be considered. They give sharp images with fine definition of straight
lines, to the edge of the picture. They are faster than other types. They are
corrected for chromatic aberration. And they give uniform definition over
the film's entire area when a flat object is photographed parallel to the plane
of the film. A lens may be a single unit of one focal length only or a con-
vertible lens, having front and rear elements of unequal focal length, each
of which can be used as a separate lens.
Older types of lens are the meniscus and the rectilinear. The meniscus
lens is to be found only on cheap box cameras. Because of its great curva-
ture of field, only the center is used. The result is that the lens is slow, its
fastest speed usually being 1/15 of a second. The extraordinary depth of

field of a meniscus lens (compensation for its slowness) makes it unneces-
sary to focus the box cameras. Rectilinear lenses represented an advance
in lens design when they came into use about 70 years ago. But they are
not so highly corrected as anastigmatic lenses and do not possess as great
covering power; also they are slower. Built with an element in front and
one in back to get straight lines, the rectilinear lens gives beautiful results,
if stopping action is not an objective. Atget used a so-called "rapid" recti-

linear lens for over 30 years, to make his documents of Paris. By closing
down the aperture, he obtained great depth of field and superb definition,
though he could not photograph the human activity of Paris and indeed had
to rise at dawn to photograph the streets before they filled with traffic.
Wide angle lenses are not another type of lens, but a specialized form
designed to cover a wide angle of view, from 50 to 90 or 100 degrees. As
a rule a wide angle lens is slow, because it is a short focus lens meant to
cover a large plate; therefore it should be used only when the wide angle
of view is essential, as in architectural and industrial interiors or panoramic
vistas. However, a moderately wide angle lens of 60 or 65 degrees may be
had with a speed of f/6.3. Another handicap is that objects close to the lens
are distorted, a fault difficult to overcome. Of course, there are instances
when distortion is wanted for its own sake and then the wide angle lens
comes in handy. Partially to correct the distortion of wide angle lenses,
swings are helpful.
Good lenses are plainly marked with the manufacturer's name, focal
length, speed and serial number. The manufacturer's name is a guarantee
worth heeding; for lens-making is a highly skilled trade, and on the maker's
integrity depends the value of the lens you buy. Reliable manufacturers
are: Zeiss, Leitz, Goerz, Cooke, Schneider, Voigtlander, Meyer, Dallmeyer,
Bausch & Lomb, Eastman. In buying secondhand lenses, be guided by the

reputation of the dealer for fair play.
Lenses, being delicate and costly, require especial care in handling.
When not in use, they should be protected with lens caps. For lenses fixed
in the camera, only a front cap is necessary. For removable lenses, front and
rear caps are needed. Parts should be kept screwed firmly in place, as the
air space between elements is an integral factor in a lens' system of refrac-
tion. Lenses should not be kept in damp or overheated places, and never in
the sun, because of the danger that the Canada balsam with which they are
cemented will deteriorate, the lens darkening or its parts loosening. To
clean, breathe gently on the lens and polish with a soft old linen cloth.
11. Learning To See: Swings
TO all those who wish to photograph seriously, a word of advice: use a

camera with ground glass and adjustments. This may be a small view camera
or a hand and stand camera which can be used with or without a tripod and
which has flexible swings, like the Deardorff Triamapro. The truth is that
adjustments make the camera.

The purpose of adjustments is chiefly to give the camera as nearly as
possible the flexibility of the eye. You can look up or down without moving
your head, you can see out of the corner of your eye. And you can turn
your head up or down to the right or left without moving your body, lying
prone, supine or on your side. A camera with swings is similarly almost as
flexible.
Normally the lens is centered on the film. The camera, so to speak,

looks straight ahead. By means of swings you take the lens off center. You
can "point" the view in any direction and yet keep the lens parallel with the
film which must be parallel with the object photographed. You cannot do
that merely by inclining the camera because then obviously you would get
an angular distorted view.
The various types of swings and their uses are explained later in this
chapter.
If you want an instrument which will respond to your will and your
way of seeing, it is clear that a camera with this adaptability is essential,
as I suggested in general terms in Chapter 2.

How does the view camera (or its equivalentamong the hand and stand
cameras) diff"er from other ground glass cameras? The bellows extension
gives range of sight; by modifications in the focal length from lens to film, it
permits of the use of short focal length lenses or of long focal length lenses.
The bellows construction gives flexibility of sight so that wide angle lenses
65
may be used; for by pushing up the back of the camera toward the front,
the angle of view is cleared ; or, on cameras of roughly equal usefulness, the
drop bed or swinging bed feature allows the same freedom of action.
Thirdly, through swings, sliding front, and rising and falling front, the
view camera reaches a subtlety, a flexibility, a plasticity of vision, which is
only possible on cameras of this type. Either for correction of distortion, or

for distortion for a specific purpose, these adjustments are required.
The view camera is distinguished from other types of cameras by its
ground glass on which the image is focused, by the fact that it must be used
on a tripod, and by its bellows extension (either double or triple) to permit
the use of lenses of varying focal lengths. Focusingmay be done either from
front or rear, or in some cameras from both front and rear, by racking
out the bellows extension by means of pinion screws. Rear focusing is par-
ticularly convenient when the bellows are extended to a considerable length,
because the photographer can still see the ground glass image without having
to make an awkward stretch to the front of the camera. The bellows exten-
sion permits the photographer to focus on objects very near or very far
away; this makes the view camera useful both for close-up work, such as still
life, studio portraits, copying, and for long distance subjects, such as land-
scapes and city vistas.
For portraits, a stand camera at least 4x5 inches is preferred, with a
double or triple bellows extension, to enable the operator to set up the
camera at a great enough distance from the sitter to obtain a good likeness.
There is conspicuous distortion of the "drawing" of features like forehead,
nose, cheekbones, jowls, if the camera is placed too close to the person. The
use of a longer focal length lens produces a large enough image to allow
retouching on the negative and to enlarge easily, without too much grain.
Swings and other adjustments are also valuable for correcting distortion in
such cases. In portraiture, the eyes are always focused on. If hands, arms,
knees, feet, are nearer the camera, the vertical swing can be used to bring
them into better focus without closing down the lens, hence saving speed,
which is all important for spontaneity of expression.
For architectural or pictorial work, a large view camera should be used,
ranging from 4x5 up, with all available adjustments, such as rising and
falling front, swinging back and front, etc. Architectural photography de-
mands a rising front on the camera, with the preferable addition of vertical
LEARNING TO SEE: SWINGS 67
and horizontal swings and lateral slides. Without these adjustments, the
camera is not able to compensate for optical distortion of vertical and
horizontal parallel lines or to take in the vast panorama of modern archi-
tecture and construction. It is interesting to note also that Eliot Porter, a
Guggenheim fellow for photography, has used a small view camera in his
photographs of wild life subjects, certainly not subject matter commonly
thought of as being susceptible to conquest by this type of camera. He

describes his methods in an article in U. S. Camera, No. 8. Paradoxically,
the best animal pictures I have seen were made with a view camera, the cats
of Thurman Rotan in U. S. Camera, No. 2.
A further advantage of the view camera is that its cost is reasonable

compared with the cost of good hand and stand cameras, or of the relatively
35 mm. or the reflex hand cameras. I have
inflexible action cameras, like the
found that metal cameras, however well constructed, are subject to the risk
of leaking light around lens board and lens flange. Generally, screws hold
more tightly in wood than in metal; therefore wooden cameras do not
loosen up so much as all-metal ones. A relatively inexpensive view camera
can be used advantageously for still life, portraiture, architectural subjects,
copying, pictorial work where fast action is not involved, and for commercial
work as a whole, such as fashion work, studio setups, etc.
The arguments in favor of the view camera I developed at length in
my chapter in Graphic Graflex Photography. However, they may be stated
here briefly. The great virtue of the view camera (or its equivalent, like the
extremely versatile Deardorfl" Triamapro, Linhof, or Zeiss Juwel) is that
you see the picture on the ground glass; you are not shooting in the dark;
you are composing, creating your picture as you take it. Obvious faults can
be easily and quickly corrected before you take the picture, such as the
sun shining in the lens or stray telephone poles intruding in the composition.
But a much more subtle reconciliation of elements in nature can also be
eff"ected at this time, which would not be possible if you did not see your
picture when you clicked the shutter. By using swings and other adjustments,
you can bring background and foreground into relation with your center
of interest. You can see how both vertical and horizontal parallel lines are
distorted and so correct the distortion. You can manipulate the picture in a
thousand ways so that the image on the ground glass expresses your sense
of the reality and potency of the objective theme. You can even employ the
camera's contortions to be your spokesman. Who said the photographer

could not control his subject!
For all photographic work where precision and detail are required,
where a camera can be set up firmly on a tripod, swings are valuable. In
photographing complicated New York City (see my book of 97 photographs.
Changing New York), I would indeed have been crippled without swings.
Cameras for fast action and purely hand work, or cameras from 3^4 x 4^
down, can scarcely be said to need swings. But from 4x5 up, swings on
cameras of good design and manufacture are the photographer's salvation.
I might add that my photographs, Stock Exchange, John Waits and Night
View, reproduced in this book, are typical of subjects which could only
be expressed through the correction made possible by swings.
Swings need thorough familiarity. Such adjustments may be built into
a camera and the photographer not even know they are there or how to use
them. However, once swings are understood and made use of, no intelligent
photographer will do without them. Swings are used to obtain uniform
focus when objects focused on are not in the plane of the film. This means
that swings can only be used on a ground glass camera. Obviously, you
cannot see whether an image is in uniform focus through a view finder or a
range finder; only a ground glass, used in the careful manner described in
Chapter 3, gives the photographer this sort of advance guarantee that his
picture will be in focus and evenly in focus. Moreover, so minute are the
variations of angle of view, that this uniformity of focus can only be ob-
tained when one factor of the equation remains constant, namely, the camera
being fixed at one point in space on a tripod. It is not often that swings would
be used while the photographer holds the camera in his hand; but in emer-
gencies it is possible to do so with care and skill.
The advantage of swings is twofold. If the use of a swing, vertical or
horizontal or both, can bring more than one plane into focus —which is
desirable in itself for technical and esthetic reasons — the lens does not need
to be closed down so much, hence there is an increase in speed, a point the
desirability of which needs no arguing. Action is saved, difficult shots are
made possible. Even if you are in a position where the camera cannot be
placed on a tripod, swings will save the day. Suppose you are holding the
camera far out over the balustrade of a skyscraper, or over the edge of the
Grand Canyon. You can carefully bring the different planes into focus on
the ground by using swings. Tlien an exposure fast enough to permit

glass,
the camera's being held in the hand is possible, say 1/25 of a second.
Literally, swings mean the swinging back and front. However, practi-
cally, they involve all the various adjustments of the view camera and of
the flexibly designed hand and stand cameras. These adjustments are listed
here in order of complexity and frequency of occurrence. An explanation

of their uses follows this listing.
1. Rising and falling front: the lens board moves up and down in a
plane perpendicular to the ground. This feature is found on many cameras.
2. Vertical swings: The lens board or the back of the camera, or
both, swing in an arc vertically away from the plane of the subject, to a
varying number of degrees, according to the camera. The front swing pro-
duces less distortion than the back swing.
3. Horizontal swings: the lens board or the back of the camera, or
both, rotate in an arc horizontally away from the plane of the subject, to a
varying number of degrees, according to the camera. Front swings, either
vertical or horizontal, are not found on many cameras.
4. Lateral slides: the front standard slides from side to side, perpen-
dicular to the bellows.
5. Drop bed or swinging bed: the purpose of this feature is to clear the
track for a wide angle lens. The view camera proper achieves the function
by another manipulation. In hand and stand cameras of the caliber of the
—
Speed Graphic or the Deardorff Triamapro the former drop bed and the
latter swinging bed with a drop of 30 degrees and an upward tilt of 15 de-
grees — this adjustment is required to compensate for the fact that the back
has no swings. Drop or swinging bed cameras call for a special tripod head.
6. Revolving back: a device by means of which a vertical or a hori-
zontal picture may be taken without turning the camera on its side ; it pivots
in place. In the extremely versatile Triamapro, the revolving back (which
can be revolved any number of degrees, instead of the right angle 90) can
be used to get vertical lines vertical again when the camera has been tilted
on a tilting top tripod to correct horizontal distortion.
The following outline is a brief summary of the uses of swings. A more

detailed technical analysis is made in Edward J. Cook's two articles,
"Swing's the Thing" in Photo Technique of July and August, 1940.
1. The rising and falling front is used to include more height and to
exclude undesirable foreground. Instead of raising or lowering the camera,

you simply slide the lens board up or down to get what you want into the
picture. Even in taking portraits, this is often done.
2. Vertical swings are used to get vertical lines parallel, to get objects
in different planes into uniform focus, and to augment the rising front.
When the camera is tilted upward and the back adjusted vertically so as
to preserve the parallelism of upright lines, the shift in the image is pro-
portional to the tilt given the camera; thus the desired image may be
included in the picture, but at the cost of distortion of parallel lines. If the
camera is provided with a swing front, the lens board may be aligned
parallel to the back. When the lens is parallel to the film, less stopping
down is necessary, and there is a resultant desirable gain in speed of ex-
posure. When the lens board is considerably raised, the illumination of the
upper corners may fall off. A slight tilt of the front swing rights this.
Swinging front and back are useful for photographing almost every
type of subject where great speed
is not essential. Obviously, fast action and
news photography cannot be done with a camera on a tripod. Otherwise, the

alleged disadvantages of the view camera slowness and complexity are— —
far outweighed by its advantages in flexibility and control. An example of
the usefulness of swings in getting objects in different planes into focus is
to be found in portraiture. If the sitter's hands are important, yet you have
focused on the eyes as being the center of personality, you can bring both
into harmony with a very slight swing. Perhaps you will not bring the hands
entirely into focus, but enough into focus so that it will not be necessary to
stop down a great deal. I find that the use of the front swing is preferable,
if you have it on your camera, because it produces less distortion than the
swing back.
3. Horizontal swings perform the same function in the horizontal
plane that vertical swings do in the vertical. If you are photographing a
row of houses in a narrow street or the top of a table or a desk, swinging
the front or back, or both, horizontally will keep horizontal parallel lines
from converging too much in the photograph. Acutely diminishing perspec-
tive is an optical distortion unpleasant to the eye and should be avoided
wherever possible. Swings are the answer to this problem.
4. The lateral slide is particularly useful when the camera must per-
force be set up in an awkward position and when adjustment has to be
32. BATTERY CHICKENS Berenice Abbott
Taken with 9x 12 cm. Linhof; 1/100 second; f/16; 2 flash bulb's;
Agfa Superpan Press film pack. Used swing back

to get planes in focus.
Life Magazine
JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO: NEW YORK, 1936 Berenice Abbott
Taken with 5x7 reducing back on 8 x 10 Century Universal view camera;
48 cm. single element of convertible Zeiss Protar lens; 1 second;
f/16; Supersensitive Panchromatic; photoflood lighting.
34. FAMILY PORTRAIT .
Ansel Adams
Made with Contax. This fine group portrait illustrates
the practical
point about enlarging small heads onto
glossy paper to
bring out all possible detail in
the small negative.
Courtesy of Carl Zeiss, Inc.

35. TREE ROOTS Eugene Atget
Taken with 18x24 cm. view camera; rapid rectilinear lens;

glass plate.

36. HUDSON RIVER VALLEY AIargaret Bourke - White
VVardhaven Hall at Watervliet with Hugh Campbell, age 7, adding
a little human interest to characteristic Americana of the region.
Life Magazine
\7. AGROBIOLOGY Berenice Abbott
Taken with 9x 12 cm. Linhof; second; f/16; natural daylight. Used swing back to get planes
1
into focus.
INormal exposure was needed to give quality of growing
peas in sand. Enlargement of a part of the negative.
Life Magazine
38. BARN NEAR PULASKI, TENN., 1935 Berenice Abbott
Taken with 8 x 10 Century Universal view camera; 12-inch

Zeiss Protar lens; 1/25 second; f /16; K2 filter.
39. COUNTRY ROAD Eugene Atget
Taken with 18 x24 cm. view camera; rapid rectilinear lens; glass plate.
Original print on gold chloride paper. No filter was used.
See Chapter 15 for application of edge spacing.
Collection of Berenice Ahhott

40. ORPHAN Lewis W. Hine
Taken with 5x7 \'iew camera. An excellent composition.
For detailed analysis, see text.

41 BETHLEHEM, PA., 1936 Walker Evans
Taken with 8x10 DeardorflF view camera; 36 inch Zeiss Protar; 5 seconds;
f/45; Agfa Supersensitive Panchromatic. Contact print.
Courtesy of the Farm Seciiritv Administration

42. THE GAMBLER: MONTE CARLO, 1938 LisETTE Model
Taken with Rolleiflex.
43. EUGENE ATGET: PARIS, 1927 Berenice Abbott
Taken with 9x 12 cm. view camera; f 4.5 I lermagis lens; glass plate.
44a. PUCK Berenice Abbott
Taken with 8 x 10 Centun- Universal view
camera; single element of 59 cm. convertible
Zeiss Protar lens. A subject in which crop-
ping of negative is necessary.
441?. EXCHANGE PLACE Berenice .Abbott

Taken with 8x10 Centun" Universal view
camera; 7 inch Goerz Dagor lens. Another
subject in which cropping is necessar\'.
45. TAKING HOME WORK: EAST SIDE, 1909 Lewis \V. Hine
Enlarged from part of a 5x7 negative to enhance effecti\eness of

content, as explained in the text.

46. A GOOD EXAMPLE OF ADVERTISING ART Leo Aarons
Projection control produced this amusing ad for Arrow Shirts. The montage
was awarded a certificate of distinctive merit at the 20th annual
Art Directors Exhibition this year.
Courtesy of Cluett, Peahody Co.
47. TENANCINGO, MEXICO, 1933 Paul Strand
Taken with 5x7 Home Portrait Graflex, using prism; 1/5 second; f/30.
Masked to same proportions as 8x10. Contact print.
made for its enforced angle of view. With the rising front, vertical and
horizontal swings, the lateral slide is used further to correct distortion of
horizontal parallel lines, by bringing the lens into a plane parallel to the
film.
Study the instructions with your camera. Then practice until you reach
for the swings as you do for an auto clutch. Make these manipulations part
of your "grooving" for photography, as good form in golf is acquired by
creating reflex-like habits. Experiment with and without swings. Take the
same subject, using various combinations of adjustments. Think of these
parts and tlieir uses not as separate solutions for your problems but as means
of achieving solutions which require on your side as well as mechanical
familiarity a creative emotion. Unless you see the subject first, you won't
be able to force the camera (no matter how subtle and complex) to see the
picture for you. But ifyou have seen the picture with your flexible human
vision, then you will be on the road to creating with the camera a vision
equivalent to your own. Swings will then really be of value to you.
12. Know Your Materials
THE materials of photography are still primitive, despite great technical

progress during its first century. Considering what photography has created
as an infant, imagine what can be done when it really grows up, as we
hope it will in its second hundred years. Even so, the physical and chemical
complexities of the medium are bewildering. Before you go out with a
dollar box camera and a roll of film to "take pictures," thousands of scien-
tists and technicians have cooperated to place these relatively simple and
inexpensive tools in your hands. Physics and chemistry have been harnessed
so that millions may have an absorbing hobby, so that artists, press meq
and picture-makers of all sorts may employ a new technic.
Science has not solved the mystery of what happens when light strikes
light-sensitive silver salts, in the gelatin emulsion. We simply know that
the phenomenon occurs. Photography has made use of the fact for diverse
purposes. But, although no ultimate answer has been made to the secret of
the latent image, manufacturers of photographic materials have pressed
science into service in every conceivable way. The photographer, intent on
bringing the camera's eye into harmony with his own more vigilant organ,
is always demanding faster and faster film, so that he may photograph (if
he wish) in utter darkness, as Edgerton has been doing in his stroboscopic

experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (See Flash, in
the bibliography.) Or he cries out for a more flexible camera, or lenses of
greater speed, or more rigid yet extensible tripods. The gadget trade is one
way the photographic millions react to this genuine technological need.
"In photographic factories," writes Clerc in his encyclopedic Photog-
raphy: Theory and Practice, "most elaborate precautions are taken in order
to keep the conditions under which the manufacturing processes are carried
out absolutely constant, and to avoid all external causes of contamination.
72
KNOW YOUR MATERIALS 73
. . . The precautions taken to ensure cleanliness and asepsis are at least as

thorough as in the best surgical operating theatres." To make film involves
several steps. The light-sensitive emulsion must be coated onto a support,
such as a glass plate or film base of celluloid or acetate transparent material.
To make the film base itself is an entire operation; a slight change in the
equation and TNT would result. The story of how the invention of flexible
film base changed photography into a medium for the millions is excitingly
told in Taft's chapter on "The Flexible Film" in Photography and the
American Scene. To manufacture the emulsion is the really delicate part
of film-making. Gelatin is mixed with silver nitrate and potassium bromide
and iodine, and thoroughly agitated. Next comes ripening or cooking for
three hours at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The material is then shredded and
washed. Kept on ice till wanted, the washed shreds are melted and cooked
a second time. More chemicals are added; and the emulsion is applied to
its base.
A somewhat similar procedure is followed in the manufacture of
photographic papers, with diff"erent formulas and chemicals used; but the
basic principle of light-sensitivity is in operation. For papers, it is necessary
to start with pulp, which is transformed into paper, as in an ordinary
paper mill. Surfaces and textures are made by different methods, such as
calendering and coating. This brief account indicates that photography is by
no means a simple affair. Behind the scenes in the factory, science puts in a
good day's work before the photographer can take the field for business or
for fun.
The kind of film you use depends on what kind of photography you
do. If you want to specialize in a given direction, as miniature camera work
for medical record, you need to know the technic and materials suited to
your especial purpose. Otherwise, you need a general understanding of
films, so that you will be able to choose the right kind for whatever work
you undertake.
Film is slow, medium and fast, measured by the length of exposure
required to obtain a satisfactory negative. Manufacturers are increasing film
speed, which is desirable from many points of view. Fast films are usually
designated as "super," such as Superpan and Super Plenachrome. Agfa
Superpan Press, Triple S Pan, Ultra-Speed Panchromatic and Super Plena-
chrome Press, Eastman Tri-X (panchromatic), Ortho-X, Super Panchro-
1i A CVtDE to BETTEk PHOTOGRAPHY
Press f and Kodak Super-XX, Defender Arrow Pan and Arrow Pan Press,
and Dupont Superior 3, are the fastest films on the market, all with Weston
ratings of 100.
The faster the film, the larger the grain; the slower the film, the finer
the grain. Grain is not desirable because it shows up in enlargements as

pockmarks over the entire print. When action is not important, slower film
may be used. In general, the finest grained negatives are produced from
orthochromatic film, such as Agfa Supersensitive Plenachrome. For this
purpose, next in quality are the slower panchromatic films such as Eastman
Panatomic X. Slower film has greater latitude to permit a range of expo-
Where motion does
sures and generally gives better results than faster film.
not have to be stopped (as with architectural subjects) medium slow film,
such as Eastman Par Speed: Portrait or Agfa Portrait Pan or Supersensitive
Plenachrome, is best. For commercial work, catalogue subjects and still
life, use Commercial film. Process film is indicated for subjects with extreme
contrast between the lightest and darkest parts of the negative. The greatest
possible contrast is between black and white, with no intermediate tones.

Printed matter, line drawings, maps, lettering, etc., should always be
copied with Process film.
From the point of view of color sensitivity, there are three kinds of
film, "color blind" or regular, orthochromatic and panchromatic. "Color
blind" film may be used for photographing black and white subjects, where
color values are not important. If the tonal relations of colors are essential
to the picture, another type of film must be used, because regular film pho-
tographs red and yellow as black instead of the gray which the tone in
color appears to the eye. Orthochromatic film is sensitive to more colors
than regular film, but it is not sensitive to red, which photographs almost
black. If the trade name of a film ends in "chrome," it belongs to the
orthochromatic group. Panchromatic film is sensitive to all colors. Thus in
the print, red registers as gray in tone instead of black. The prefix "pan"
usually designates this type of film.
The intelligent control of color-sensitive film depends on the subject's
color values. Such control requires in some instances the use of filters,
within the limits discussed in the chapter on that subject, No. 14. Fast, slow
and medium speed films come in these three types of color sensitivity.The
need for such variety may be illustrated. If we photograph a map with
colored lines or letters instead of a black and white map, then we need to
use Panchromatic Process film with a filter, instead of plain Process film.
As you experiment, remember that different types of film require different
colored safelights during development. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's
directions on this point.
A further caution: keep film in a cool, dry place; never in a hot, moist
place. Do not pile the boxes or film packs on top of each other, but stack
them on their sides.
Paper comes in two weights, single and double. The same emulsion
is used for both weights; but the paper support is thinner with single-weight
paper, making the cost less. For small prints, single weight paper is easily
handled. But for larger prints and enlargements, it is awkward to handle in
the solutions. Single weight paper also curls more when drying and is more
likely to bedamaged and bent than double weight.
Photographic papers come in many colors, ranging from white, natural
(off white) and ivory to cream, buff and deep buff. The use of color in
photographic prints follows cycles. Whereas a generation ago, buff paper

was popular, today it looks old fashioned. The best photographers now see
photography as a black-and-white medium and use only white papers, striv-
ing more and more for purity and richness of blacks and whites. Neverthe-
less, there persists a certain vogue for the cream colored papers, which can
only be called a hangover from the days of pictorialism, when every effort
was made to make a photograph look like anything but a photograph, dress-
ing it up with aquatint effects and following the generally "arty" ideas
which prevailed in the graphic art world of the period. The fact is that
prints made by etching, wood block printing, lithography or any other tra-
ditional graphic art method, were printed on hand made paper which exem-
plified the standards of craft rather than technology. For a time, during its
infancy, photography could not help following the lead of the older black-
and-white mediums. Today, it can stand on its own feet and certainly should
do so in these subtle matters of taste and esthetic appeal.
Surfaces and textures of paper play an integral part in printing. Here,
personal taste will be a factor. But the choice of a surface or a texture
should largely be determined by the type of photograph you desire to make.
Some papers are smooth, some rough. Some are shiny ("glossy"), some are
dull ("matte") in finish. Between the two lies "semimatte," a pleasing
velvety surface. Paper with a slightly uneven surface or "tooth," such as

Eastman P.M.C. 11 or Agfa Brovira Royal, good for enlarging because
is
the grain of the enlarged negative is "absorbed" by the grain of the paper.
For big enlargements where minute detail is not essential, as in my portrait
of Orozco (PI. 33) where I wished somewhat to soften his beard, a rough
paper is best. On the other hand, for a group of people where the heads
are small, too much detail is lost on a rough paper, and a smoother surface
is to be preferred, as in Ansel Adams' photograph here reproduced.
Papers imitating the surface of canvas or the texture of "old masters"
are much too "arty" for the straightforward medium of photography. In
fact, trying to make a photograph look like an etching is just as bad as the
fallacy in architecture of building a skyscraper with steel frame construc-
tion and then covering up the basic form with pseudo-Gothic ornament. Let
the medium speak for itself, frankly as what it is, the twentieth century pic-
ture making art.
Aside from papers like these which are anathema, whether you use a
dull surface or a surface with a slight sheen is a matter of taste. But most
prints need a little "spotting," and matte paper conceals marks of retouch-
ing better than shinier surfaces. Another practical consideration has to do
with reproduction. Blacks appear blacker the shinier the paper, looking
blackest on glossy paper. Glossy paper is therefore used for prints for
magazine or newspaper reproduction. Some very good photographers use
glossy paper for their finished exhibition prints, in fact. As a more
rule,
detail is registered on smooth than on rough paper. Hence, the vogue among
the younger documentary photographers for prints on glossy paper, because
precise detail is picked out and emphasized.
Besides brand names, like Azo, Haloid, Brovira, P.M.C, etc., paper
comes in degrees of contrast, known as "grades." Generally, grades are
classified by numbers, surfaces by letters. For example, Azo F2 equals '*Azo
glossy, normal contrast," while Azo E5 means "Azo semimatte, very con-
trasty." The usefulness of grades is discussed in Chapter 17, "The Art of
Printing."
Paper, like film, should be kept in a cool place. Unlike film, it should
not be stored in too dry a place, as paper so stored has a tendency to crack.
From the chemical point of view, there are three types of paper — bro-
mide, chloride and chlorobromide. Bromide paper has the fastest emulsion.
It is chiefly used for the slower enlargers and is often called "projection
paper." Its emulsion is closest in character to that of film, which also con-
tains potassium bromide. This fact makes it necessary to handle bromide
papers under a dim safelight, Series OA being suitable. Chloride paper
has a much slower emulsion than bromide paper and can be used under a
stronger safelight. It is a "contact" paper, so called because the paper is in
direct contact with the negative. It is sometimes called "gaslight paper"

because gaslight was used for printing before electrical illumination was
invented or perfected. Instead of potassium bromide, sodium chloride is
used in its manufacture. This type of paper gives a greater degree of con-
trast than does bromide paper; hence contact prints are usually more bril-
liant than enlargements. Chlorobromide paper is a combination of the two

types above described. It is of medium speed, measured by the sensitivity to
light. It is used both for contact printing and for enlarging; but the source
of light for enlarging must be much stronger than for bromide paper. For
extremely contrasty negatives, a paper such as Eastman Illustrators Special
makes excellent contact prints.
To achieve technical perfection, as a means to more complete expres-
siveness, the photographer must not only know film and paper, but he must
make a habit of good laboratory technic.The "don'ts" and "musts" which
sound so formidable are really a simple matter if you start your photog-
raphic life right. Sloppiness and dirtiness from bad working methods cause
so much grief that a little thought and time at the beginning are more than
repaid.
The water used for photographic solutions is of prime importance.
Rust from pipes is a harmful substance. If you use tap water, a filter such
as the Elkay Photo-Pure Water Filter, selling for $3.15, is advisable. If
you can use distilled water for all solutions, that is to be preferred. Failing
these precautions, make sure of the relative purity of water by boiling it
and allowing sediment to settle.

Ordinary commercial chemicals will not do for photographic purposes.
Use only the purest products. Among others, Agfa, Eastman and Mallinck-
rodt are reliable. Excepted from this rule is hydrochloric acid, used for
cleaning bottles and graduates. It 'may be purchased in the commercial
grade, commonly known as muriatic acid.
Chemicals cannot be expected to act satisfactorily unless they are prop-
erly taken care of. This means proper storage. Some solids, such as hypo
crystals, which do not deteriorate easily, come in cardboard boxes or in
bags. But very few chemicals used in photography can be stored in this
manner for a long period of time. Generally speaking, all chemicals should
be kept in containers, such as bottles or boxes, tightly stoppered or covered
so that dust and dirt cannot enter. It is even more important that the con-
tainers be airtight so that oxygen is excluded; for oxidization makes the
chemicals unusable. Since many chemicals are deliquescent, that is, absorb
moisture from the surrounding atmosphere, it is essential to keep them in a
dry storage place. Excessive heat is also to be avoided.
Bottles for the storage of solutions should be immaculately clean. To
clean bottles, fill them nearly to the top with water. Add a small amount of
hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, say about three ounces for a quart bottle,
taking care to keep acid from splashing on hands or in face. Let stand for
half an hour or so. Shake well. Then rinse. Stubborn stains may require the
use of a bottle brush. A further word of caution: always add the acid to
the water, don't add water to the acid.
Precision is essential in photography. In measuring chemicals, there
must be no "baker's dozen," no added pinch of salt, no sugar thrown in
with a lavish hand. The formula must be followed meticulously. Hence the
need for a good scale. The type commonly used for weighing solid chemicals
is the studio scale, designed to weigh small quantities from one grain to
four ounces and fifty grains. Paper spoons are handy to ladle chemicals
from their containers to the scale. At all times, when not in use, the scale
should be left in a state of balance, that is, the slide on the graduated beam
should be brought back to zero and the weights removed from the pan.
Next comes order of mixing. Chemicals must be dissolved in the se-
quence stated in the formula. Developer should be mixed at the temperature
recommended, usually not above 125 degrees Fahrenheit. If this rule is not
strictly followed, the developer will be colored instead of clear, or the solu-
tion may produce fog or even a white sludge on films. Each chemical must
be completely dissolved before the next is added. If this is not done, dis-
coloration of the solution results, making it unfit for use. Stir constantly
while adding dry chemicals to the water.
Stock solutions are concentrated solutions to be diluted with various
proportions of water at the time of using. Bottles containing stock solutions
should be carefully labeled as to the amount of dilution required, i.e., 1 : 2

or 1:4, meaning one part of stock solution to two parts of water or four
parts, as may be. Bottles must be kept full and be tightly stoppered. For this
reason, small sizes (quarts, pints or even half pints) are desirable.
Developing solutions need four kinds of chemical substances: devel-
oping agents, accelerators, preservatives and restrainers. Developing agents
change the exposed silver salts of film or paper to metallic silver. The
commonly used developers (or "reducers") are pyro, hydroquinone, metol,
elon and amidol. Accelerators are just that, substances added to accelerate
chemical action; for most developers require the addition of an alkali in
order to become active. The more alkaline the developing solution, the
more rapid and vigorous its action. If the alkali is omitted, the solution will
not work. The accelerators usually used are sodium carbonate, sodium
hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, borax and "kodalk." If a preservative is
not added, developers react to the oxygen in the air and become useless,
discoloration revealing the fact. Sodium sulphite is used for this purpose
in nearly all formulas. Restrainers prevent the developer from acting on
the unexposed silver particles, which would cause fog. In printing, the re-
strainer helps keep the whites clear, giving the finished print more snap.
Tiie most successful formulas are those recommended by the makers of the
film and paper you decide to use. All manufacturers supply booklets of
their formulas free of charge.
In printing only, the intermediate rinse between developer and hypo
serves as a check bath, to stop further development, by neutralizing the
alkali in the developer. This keeps the print from staining and prolongs
the hypo's life. Acetic acid is used for this purpose, as is explained in
Chapter 8.
The acid fixing bath (hypo) dissolves out from the emulsion unused
silver salts, whether in negative or print. Hypo also hardens the film's gel-
atin. Basic actions and agents of the acid fixing bath are: (1) weak acetic
acid, to stop development and eliminate stains; (2) a hardening agent, such
as potassium alum, to harden the gelatin (already softened by the develop-
er's sodium carbonate) so that it will not swell during washing; and (3) the
preservative sodium sulphite, to prevent developer carried over into the
fixing bath on negatives or prints from turning them brown. Hypo must be
handled carefully. Do not mix a larger quantity than you can use in a week's
time. In very hot weather, hypo should be mixed fresh for each use. Tem-
peratures above 85 degrees ruin the fixing bath, causing a pale yellow pre-
cipitate to form.
The final washing should remove all residue of the fixing bath. Wash-
ing must be thorough to insure permanence in film and print.
Neglect to maintain proper temperatures in developers is one of the
most common forms of carelessness. Very cold developer is relatively in-
active and increases the length of time of development. Cold solutions pro-
duce contrasty negatives, which lack shadow detail. A too warm solution
is erratic in action, increases size of grain and produces dense negatives.
Do not be too economical with developer or hypo. When developer is
wearing out, it becomes slower in action, brownish in color and frothy.

Hypo becomes cloudy, whereas it should be clear, to do its work efficiently.
Replace solutions when these danger signals appear.

13. Problems of Exposure
EXPOSURE is the issue on which photography splits into two camps. There
are the "optimists" who follow the "minimum" school of analysis, exposing
for detail in the high lights, and there are the "pessimists" who follow the
"maximum" school, exposing for detail in the shadows. My own conviction
is that overestimating length of exposure is to be preferred to underesti-
mating. Photography used to be called "shadow catching." Surely, the subtle

and less easily seen truths hidden in shadow are as organically part, of the
picture as brilliant accents of white.

The negative is the link between subject and print, therefore indispen-
sable. To produce a good negative is the photographer's first task. Techni-
cally, a good negative depends on correct relation between exposure and
development. But since film cannot be developed until it has been exposed,
exposure is the stage of the process where creation of a good negative
begins. Correct exposure is essential for success in photography. The reason
is inherent in the chemical nature of the process. Under a microscope,
minute particles of silver bromide are seen to be scattered through the
emulsion. Each tiny grain undergoes chemical change when light strikes the
film. The action is not at once visible, but becomes evident when the exposed
particles turn to black metallic silver in the developer. To provide enough
light to bring about this change, and yet not too much, is the purpose of
exposure calculations. For the recording of tones on sensitive film depends
not only on the strength of the light which strikes the film but also on the
length of time light acts on the silver salts.
When we photograph a house, it reflects different amounts of light.
Some parts of the house reflect direct rays from the sun, while parts in
shadow reflect indirect light. The bright area reflecting direct light creates a
high light, the dark area a shadow. Between high lights at one end of the
81
scale and shadows at the other, there are many gradations, called tones. The
problem of photography is to reproduce in black and white the exact tones
of a subject; for by variations in brightness, we express form and color in
the two dimensional black-and-white print.
Fortunately there is some latitude in film emulsions between minimum
time required to affect the silver particles and maximum time. Outside this
range, a longer exposure blackens so many of the silver particles that the
tones at the black end of the scale darken too much and no difference can
be seen between them. This is overexposure. Both shadows and high lights
print gray and intermediate tones are dull. An overexposed negative is
dense, flat, gray and often streaked and uneven. If the film has been under-
exposed, not enough silver particules are changed by the light's action and
the negative is thin, with the result that shadows merge into each other, print
too black, have no detail. Also, intermediate tones are not in correct rela-
tionship or may not be present at all, so that the photograph looks like a
silhouette.
Since a good negative is the first step toward good photography, ex-
posure must be calculated carefully, taking into accoimt all the factors which
affect the lighting of your subject. Strength of light cannot be judged accu-
rately by the eye alone. Three elements influence it, time of day and year,
place, and weather, besides the constantly changing character of sunlight
itself. At midday the sun is stronger than in the morning, no matter how
bright slanting rays at 7 a.m. or 5 p.m. may seem. Obviously, it is much
stronger in summer than in winter. Geographical location, that is, distance
from the equator, also controls strength of light. Clouds, fog, rain, snow,
complicate the light question further.
In judging the strength of light, remember that apparent brilliance
does not mean strong light. Light may be strong on a cloudy summer day.
Therefore, don't be afraid to work on a day which is not sunny. Many sub-
jects are ideal when the light is weak or when there is a slight veil over the
sun. Architectural details, such as doorways, are better in a diffused light.
The second factor which controls exposure is the color of your subject.
Learn to classify subjects according to color, because colors reflect varying
amounts of light. A white horse reflects more light than a black horse, and
a field of snow more than a dark cliff. In winter, when people are dressed
PROBLEMS OF EXPOSURE 83
ill dark clothes, a street scene presents another problem than in summer,
when they dress in light colored clothes.
Speed of film is the third factor. Film differs in the length of exposure
required. At first, use the same kind of film all the time. Also, work with
film which is not too fast, such as PlenachroTne or Panatomic X. Be sure
you know the speed rating of the film you use.
Lens speed also enters the equation. Given the same amount of light
reflected by the same object, a shorter exposure is needed with a fast lens
than with a slow lens. Aperture is another variable. The larger the opening
through which light enters, the shorter the exposure. The rule is: exposure
varies with the square of the stops, or f/4 is to f/8 as 16 is to 64, i.e., 4.
The smaller opening (f/8) requires an exposure four times as long as the
larger opening (f/4), other things being equal. However, you should keep
in mind that there is a loss of depth of field when the larger apertures are
used. Here, as always in photography, you weigh a gain against a loss
and make your decision on the basis of what quality is most important
to you in a given situation. In photographing action subjects, such as skaters
in leaps off the ice, you may wish to show the figures in midair and let the
background take care of itself. Then the larger aperture is the right one
for you.
With all these factors to harmonize, how can you ever decide correct
exposure? No one can take time to figure out the exposure for each subject
by tables of coefficients, as used to be done. But every one can use one of
the meters, calculators or other guides on the market today. Refer back to
Chapter 3 for recommendations on this point. With any exposure aid, you
must learn to use your own judgment. No meter, calculator or other device
can do the work for you. It can give you a minimum exposure. With that as
a basis, you adapt the exposure to conditions as you understand them. For
normal exposure, it is always safe to double the time given. When you use
a meter, test the darkest shadow or area in which you want to show detail.
Thus you will guard against too "optimistic" a reading.
One more warning: meters are fragile instruments for precise measure-
ments; so handle them gently. Do not drop them or bang them about. Above
all, do not expose them to extreme heat or leave them in the sun or light
when not in use.
Calculating Correct Exposure
As there is no one camera for all purposes, so there is no one stand-

ardized time and aperture at which all photographs can be taken. Every
picture differs from every other; its successful making combines many ele-
ments. The vast majority of negatives are underexposed, that is, suflBicient
light has not reached the sensitive emulsion to produce chemical change.
Hence, the picture is but a pale ghost of what you saw and hoped to recreate
in your photograph.
There are many reasons for the gap between hope and performance.
Speed of film is usually exaggerated. Shutters, even the best, are often inac-
curately timed. The listed aperture of a lens only holds true when it is
focused on infinity. Thus, a lens of f/8 speed may actually operate at f/11
or f/16 when focused on an object near the camera. The real speed is the
distance from the lens to the film in focus, divided by the diameter of the
aperture. For example, take a 9^/2 inch lens with a diameter of 1% inches
which has a speed of f/6.8 when focused on infinity, approximately, 100
feet. The same lens, with the same aperture, when focused to take a por-
trait at 9 feet, has a speed of only f/7.8, a figure obtained by dividing the
diameter (1% inches) into the distance from lens to film in focus, which
is 10^/2 inches for the portrait at 9 feet. Related to this variable factor of
diflference in lens speed when used at different distances is the decrease in
speed caused by using a longer bellows extension. Furthermore, lenses rated
at the same speed may vary according to the number of elements, surfaces,
cementing, brilliance of glass. Finally, perhaps the most important reason
for the difficulties photographers encounter in making correct exposure is
that they are tempted only too frequently to expose for high lights alone.
The first rule to emphasize is: expose for the shadows. Determine the
darkest area in which you want detail. If you are using a meter, take your
reading from this area; if a Wellcome Calculator, use the area's estimated
darkness in your calculations. If your meter is of the photoelectric cell type,
hold it close enough so that only light from that specific area registers. In
other words, hold your meter as close to the subject as the diameter of the
area, whether six inches or six feet. That is, if the area you are testing is
the side of a house, about 20 feet will be a reasonable distance to hold the
meter; if a row of books in dark colored bindings, perhaps 10 inches away

will do. Be shadow with your hand or body.
careful not to cast a
In applying the rule of exposing for the shadows, you naturally will
not use the meter on excessively dark detail unimportant to the finished
picture. If you do not want such detail, you will be wise to suppress it
entirely by "underexposing" the unwanted area. "Expose for the shadows
and let the high lights take care of themselves" is practically always true.
But there are exceptions. If your subject is a snow-covered field brilliantly
lit by sun with shadows comparatively unimportant, it would be a mistake
to expose for shadow detail. Or if a large section of the picture is sky, too
full an exposure for the foreground would surely overexpose the sky, and
its effect would be lost.
After you have determined the correct exposure, remembering to double

the minimum time indicated by meter or calculator, you will have to learn
to vary the amount of time slightly, according to the degree of contrast
shown in the subject. To explain contrast in this context, we may give a very
elementary example. A black cat and a white rat together present extreme
contrast; a gray mouse and a maltese cat very little. In more subtle and
complicated relations, contrast pervades the world of pictures, whether in
black and white or in color. For normal subjects, having a moderate degree
of contrast between high lights and shadows, use "normal exposure," or
twice the minimum time estimate. For subjects with great contrast between
light and dark areas, use slightly longer exposure ("plus exposure"), one
stop larger than normal exposure. For subjects with little difference between
light and dark tones, use a slightly shorter exposure ("minus exposure"),
one stop smaller than normal exposure.
Subjects of high contrast, requiring plus exposure, include interiors,
indoor portraits, subjects under trees but with sunlight rays and sky, very
bright landscapes with heavy shadows or dark objects in the foreground,
snow scenes with black trees in the foreground. Subjects of medium contrast,
requiring normal exposure, are average street scenes and ordinary sunlit
landscapes with even distribution of light and shade. Subjects of low con-
trast, requiring minus exposure, include open landscapes, ordinary land-
scapes on a dull day, open air portraiture in the shade. A caution: do not
photograph people in direct sunlight. If you must, watch the shadows and
give plus exposure. Brightly lighted subjects with important shadows re-
quire plus exposure. You might think that a subject in bright light needs
less exposure than one in shadow. However, bear in mind that the brighter
the sun the darker the shadows, hence the need for adequate exposure to
produce details in the shadows.
Subjects in weak light with no pronounced shadows require minus ex-

posure. Since such subjects (called "flat") do not have strong shadows,
overexposure is bad because it exaggerates their flatness. Why photographs
taken in a weak light or under a haze require minus exposure may be ex-
plained by an example. If you photograph a house with a front porch, the
high lights on a sunny day will be bright and the shadows dark. To show
detail, you need plus exposure. But if the light is weak or hazy, tlie high
lights will not be brilliant and the shadows will be gray. Contrast is less;
therefore, to preserve the range of tones, minus exposure is necessary.
Since contrast is also affected by development, keep in mind the fact
that overexposure and underdevelopment "flatten" the negative, in other
words bring the tones closer together. Conversely, too short exposure and too
long development tend toward harshness or excessive contrast. Thus, the pro-
duction of a good negative depends on the length of time it is developed as
well as on the length of time it is exposed. When a film goes into the devel-
oper, all the silversalts acted on by light begin to darken. But those acted on
by the most light darken faster than those acted on by a medium amount of
light, and parts in shadow which reflected the least light develop most
slowly. At first, all the tones are close together. But the longer the negative
stays in the developer, the greater the contrast between dense parts which
produce high lights and thin parts which produce shadows.
Many people tend to overdevelop their films. Aim to develop so that
the contrast between high lights and shadows is not so great but that both
extremes can be printed satisfactorily on normal grade printing paper. Such
balancing of tonalities is part of the intelligent control of photography
(that improvement on nature which is the goal of all art) which enables
the photographer to minimize or even to eliminate undesirable effects. By
the relations he creates, he makes the photograph a creative statement, not
merely that "literal scientific transcript of nature" which P. H. Emerson
believed photography to be. To this end, develop a critical attitude toward
your negatives. Study them to detect the causes of failure or success.
Record in a notebook time of day, light conditions, film used, length of
exposure, and stop used. Compare the finished negative with these data to
discover what factor, if any, was erroneously calculated.
^lien studying your subject for exposure, observe color from a photog-
raphic point of view. Discrimination can be cultivated by comparing your
final print with the subject itself. One thing to keep in mind: do not choose
as a subject a pretty red barn or a bright red fire engine because the color
allures you. Unless the subject's form and line are interesting in them-
selves, they are not photogenic. The picture must compose in graphic terms.
By half closing your eyes and squinting at the subject, you get a good idea
of its black-and-white values.
In closing, the excellent summary called "Golden Rules for Exposure"
of Basic Photography may be quoted here. These rules should be found en-
graved in every photographer's heart.
1. Expose for the shadows.
2. Develop for the high lights.
3. Expose fully for a strong, brightly lighted subject.

4. Avoid too full exposures with flat subjects.
5. Weak light and haze are usually equivalent to a flat subject.
6. Too much exposure and too little development gives flatness.
7. Too much development and too little exposure gives harshness.

8. Observe the color of the subject from a photographic color point of
view.
9. Always exercise good judgment in classifying the subject.
10. Note the distance from the camera to the object to be photographed.
11. Do not forget that the light and shade contrasts are the most im-
portant parts of the picture.
12. Do not put too much faith in the speed ratings of a shutter.
13. When in doubt overexpose, and if several exposures are made in
order to be sure of a good negative increase one exposure over another
by at least 50 per cent.
14. Remember that in the early morning or in the late evening the
light is frequently yellow or even red and therefore it is less strong, so far
as ordinary plates or films are concerned, than it is during the middle of
the day.
15. Do not use a larger stop than is necessary.
14. Use and Misuse of Filters
LIGHT from the sun, which we call "white," is made up of visible light
rays — red, yellow, green, blue and violet, seen in the spectrum —and
invisible light rays — infra-red and ultra-violet. Pass a beam of light through
a prism, and you will refract it so that the colors of the spectrum are
visible. The light we speak of so frequently in photography is composed
of all these colors or light waves. The catch is that they differ in strength,
depending on the length of the light wave. This difference in strength results
in unequal registering of light, which brings us to filters.
Filters are colored transparent discs, preferably of optical glass, which
are placed in front of or behind the lens. Filters are of two kinds, correc-
tion and contrast. Correction filters are used to compensate for the difference
in strength of light of different colored subjects, while contrast filters are
used to accentuate the black-and-white values of subjects so that the tonal

relations will be harmonious with the tonal relations existing between the
colors themselves. With correction filters, strong rays from the ultra-violet
end of the spectrum are held back, which would otherwise overexpose the
negative. Then the light reflected from greens, yellows and reds has a
chance to register in the negative, while excessively strong light from the
brightest areas — sky, snow, water — is partially or wholly "absorbed" by
the filter. Thus, the extreme range of tones in nature is equalized to bring
the natural tones into the photographic emulsion's scale of tones.
Filters are like many other beautiful gadgets — something to beware of.
I write this knowing that many epithets will be hurled at me. After all,
filters look pretty, they are nice to handle. If a photographer be permitted
an occasional sleepless night from excitement over a brand-new camera,
why not with many other lovely gadgets? (Crotchets sounds very much the
same to me. What was it De Quincey wrote? "He ruined himself and all
88
)
USE AND MISUSE OF FILTERS 89
that trustedhim by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational

man.") Surely now the making of lovely pictures will be a snap. Alas, all
I can say is Beware! More than likely these beautiful filters will prevent
you from making lovely pictures and only add to your bewilderment. (Do
I hear some one murmur, "Befilterment" ?
Advice is cheap and I don't like to lay down nor can I rigid laws — —
for photography. Photography is a big loose behemoth, a Gargantua, a Gulli-
verian Brobdingnag, which needs pruning, simplification, more science, but
especially more common sense. As far as amateurs are concerned, I want to
say unequivocally that you can get along very well with one filter, medium
yellow if you use orthochromatic film or yellow-green if you use panchro-
matic, and use that only when really necessary.
The only kind of filter worth buying is one with color incorporated in
the glass, built to fit securely and flatly over the lens. In addition to the
disadvantage that a filter materially increases the length of exposure, it can
detract from the perfection of the negative if it is not free from dust and
fingermarks and/or not absolutely parallel to the lens.
When can you safely work without a filter? Certainly in most miniature
camera work, particularly if you use the miniature camera for the purposes
for which it was intended and which it serves superbly —candid work under
poor lighting conditions. In such work, you are not after gray skies, fleecy
clouds, tonal quality; you want human interest, action, expression. What is
more, the use of a filter complicates your work and delays it, may even
prevent you from getting those perfect negatives so necessary with tiny films.
Naturally, this does not apply to specialized technical or scientific work with
the miniature camera in which color correction is essential, as in making
a medical record of skin diseases with Kodachrome. Nor does it apply to
color photography, generally.
There is a tendency in our country to overemphasize skies, to drama-
tize them, to make them so dark that they weigh heavily, heavily, on the
sight. Where is that sensation of light, or expanding universe, which can
be so thrilling in a photograph? Why the incessant stress on dreary, heavy,
dark, black skies? We may even go back to subject matter itself. Can skies
be properly photographed until color photography is vastly improved? I
have yet to see a cloud picture which is asgood as the cloud itself. Where
is the delicacy, the flight of space? Why aim the lens at the sky and ignore
the earth, with its deep rooted, teeming, human, man-made civilization?
Are there dark, lurking philosophical reasons? In any case, to get a reason-
ably good sky effect, the foreground or earth must be sacrificed. Granted,
reluctantly, that personal taste rules here, I'll take the earth.
A further point is that even without a filter, fairly good skies are pos-
sible. At the most logical times to take pictures, when the light is good and
shadows are long enough to give good form, that is, mornings and after-
noons, light is yellower than at midday. As the rays slant more, light even
becomes reddish, acting as a filter itself. Many beautiful cloud effects can
thus be made without a filter, by studying the varying character of natural
light and taking advantage of its changing characteristics. For general out-
door subjects, where skies do not need a tone or where important whites
(such as white sails or white buildings) do not stand out against a blue
sky, filters are unnecessary. To prove the point, take a series of pictures
with a filter and without, and compare results.
You do need to use a filter if a third or more of your picture is sky,
snow, water, sand or other surface of similar reflecting power. If it is more

pleasing to have a tone over your sky than to have it blank white, then a
filter is needed. Around the seashore or other large bodies of water where
powerful light is reflected from water, sand, and everywhere, a filter is
necessary.
In the above, the discussion has had to do with the use of filters for cor-
rection, so that the relative value of colors will be registered as understood
by the eye. Contrast filters are used to distort the values registered in the
negative, when it is necessary to over correct a color value. To appear
lighter in the print, a color should be photographed through a filter of its
own color. For example, if you photograph bright red cherries in an emer-
ald green bowl without using a filter, both cherries and bowl will appear
gray and flat. The cherry-bowl combination needs to be taken with a red
filter if you want the cherries to register high in key. To appear darker,
a color should be photographed through a filter which absorbs that color.
For example, a woman in a bright blue dress should be photographed with

a red filter if it is desired to have the dress seem almost black. Generally,
blue appears dark through a red filter, so that skies may be darkened by
this means, or blueprints may be photographed as black.
For commercial and scientific work, a more complicated use of filters
USE AND MISUSE OF FILTERS 91
may be necessary. In some cases, special machines, such as the General

Electric recording spectral photometer, are even used. In all, there are a
hundred or more filters. Eastman Kodak Co. publishes a book, Wratten Light
Filters, which describes their many uses.
Contrast filters are used frequently for commercial work, particularly

furniture photography. Oak and woods with grain are definitely
similar
improved in rendering by using a deep yellow contrast filter. With contrast
you need to know which filters to use to photograph given colors light
filters,
and dark. The most commonly used contrast filters are yellow, orange, red
and green. Yellow is used for general correction. Deep yellow is used in
telephotography to cut out haze; also for furniture, and for general con-
trast. Red is used to photograph mahogany furniture; to photograph blue
as black as in blueprints; to reproduce reds very light; it is never used with
orthochromatic film. Green is used to photograph purple or violet type-
written letters; to render green light and red dark.
Filters are only used with color-sensitive film, that is, orthochromatic
or panchromatic. Two filters cannot be used together. The precise filter fac-
tor should be noted on your filter case, this having been carefully calcu-
lated by consulting a reliable reference like Photo-Lab-Index. Remember,
further, that the same filter may have different factors when used with
different films.
15. Composition
WHAT do we mean by composition? The word, signifying orderly arrange-

ment, is generally misunderstood and misused, even as composition itself
is. Some photographers ignore composition entirely. Some are afraid of it
as "art," a distant goal difficult to attain. Some give the word exaggerated
importance. For the latter, composition is an end in itself, separated from
subject matter and meaning. They come to believe that if a picture has a
good "composition," that is all it needs. This is not true. Composition
without subject matter is unthinkable in any real sense. Composition is not
an abstract quantity separable from its parts. It is integral, as closely tied
up with the body of the picture as veins and muscles are articulated with
the human body. Composition without content cannot be imagined.
What, then, is the function of composition in the pictorial arts? With-
out composition, a picture lacks eloquence, we say. But more than that,
without composition the picture cannot speak at all. Composition is the

formal method by which we organize the unrelated objects and incidents of
real life into the unity of art. It is a device of language designed to com-
municate meaning to those who read the language — in this case, pictorially,
through the eyes. To be articulate and intelligible in any medium —and it
is appropriate here to link photography with the spoken and written com-
munication made by words —you need grammar and syntax. Otherwise your
effort to communicate a thought, an idea, an emotion, will fail, whether
visual or verbal.You can put one word after another, and say nothing, un-
lessyou use these words (comparable to visual images in the pictorial arts)
within a framework of familiar acceptance. This does not mean that lan-
guage is frozen into conventions. The great artist is always breaking the
conventions and creating new ones. But he does so usually by reference to
the old as the point of departure toward the new.
92
—
COMPOSITION 93
In the picture-making medium of photography, a visual grammar and

syntax is as much needed as grammar and syntax are needed in verbal lan-
guage. In other words, arrangement or organization of lines and of areas
of light and shade is necessary if the picture is fully to express its meaning.
Composition, therefore, method of creating meaning. If composition is
is a
defined as a method of saying what you want to say most effectively, the
definition implies that you have something to say. There are "artists"
in all mediums who have nothing to say, but are very elegant in their use of
language, whether words, paint, music or what. Photography, by its very
realistic and factual nature, permits the artist to lie less than many other
mediums. To be sure, the photographic process may be manipulated in
ways that seem to deny photography's realistic character. But these diver-
sions do not continue to hold attention as do photographs in the great tradi-
tion of Brady, Hill, Nadar and Atget.
To be sure, whatever the tradition, there will always be those whose
splendid rhetoric rings out, as through an amplifier, who yet say nothing
as in the famous nonsense speech with which Chaplin's City Lights opens.
Among the many subjects chosen for exploitation by these photographic
rhetoricians have been the fad for "pictorialism," like the old-time pho-
tographers who spent all their energies imitating painters soft and fairylike;
the fad for female beauties ad infinitum, as in the so-called "art" maga-
zines; the fad for dramatic lighting in a theatrical mood; the fad for un-
called-for trick "angle shots"; the fad for "print quality" for its own
sake. Thus in photography, as in any other language, the "words" which
can be used to say something important and immediate can also be dis-
torted and robbed of meaning.
Composition has been defined as the most effective way of saying what
you want to say. To produce the effect —
you want documentary, realistic,
esthetic, social —you use any and all means available. Edgar Allan Poe
insisted that he wrote for "effect." He meant psychological effect. In pho-
tography, we strive for effect within the limits of our medium, which is
visual and two-dimensional. For example, I am photographing a group of

skyscrapers at fairly close range, using a wide angle lens. But the widest
angle lens obtainable (unless I accept the extreme distortion of the 180-
degree lens) will take in only a part of the colossal towers. How much shall
I attempt to include? Where begin, where leave off? Here the "any and all
—
means" needs explanation. To make up for the lens' optical limitations

thehuman eye has much greater powers of accommodation — the photog-
rapher has to rely on his knowledge of other resources. These include dis-
tribution of lights and darks, linear pattern, balance, rhythm, unity, so that
psychologically he may reenforce the physical presentation of his subject.
With my example of the skyscrapers, the decision depends on how the
subject is interpreted. I may feel that the skyscrapers are beautiful and
majestic. Or I may feel that they are ugly, inhuman, illogical, ridiculous,
pathological growths which have no place in the planned city. Whatever

I think and feel about the skyscrapers, I say through understanding of and
application of composition. Vertical lines may seem to topple toward each
other, or to fall apart, ready to collapse; they do not create a balanced
whole. On the other hand, the photograph may present the skyscrapers in
such a manner that verticals sway in a majestic and graceful rhythm ex-
pressing unity and order. Even more complex is the problem if the photog-
rapher sees the skyscrapers as both beautiful and ugly and seeks to create
such a duality in the photograph, by posing opposite tendencies against each
other in dynamic composition.
In this instance, the effect is emotional, intellectual, esthetic, factual,
social, personal. Theyou cannot change; but your opinion of
subject itself
the subject and your emotion about the subject are your own. The idea you
seek to convey to others is your own, also. Finally, your expression of that
opinion and that idea will be your own, to the extent that you are capable
of giving visual reality to subjective factors. You communicate your atti-
tude by organizing a space for the subject within the boundaries of the
ground glass. Without question, instinct plays a part in this choice. People
with little or no artistic experience will "feel" when a composition is right.
What is needed to make the intuitive process conscious and controlled is

plenty of practice, a great deal of experimenting. Encourage your innate
feeling and allow it to play freely. Enjoy or resent your subject, sympathize
with it or disapprove of it. Then try to get your feeling across in the picture
itself.
"Composition is an organic and intelligent approach to the problem

of saying what you want. It cannot be reduced to a mere mathematical for-
mula," I wrote in my chapter on "The View Camera" in Graphic Graflex
Photography. "Nevertheless, a few simple rules —applied with a grain of
COMPOSITION 95
salt —help the beginner. When there is a good reason for breaking a rule,
do not hesitate to do so."
I think it is worth while to repeat the rules here:
1. Do not be led astray by rich color in your subject. The photograph
must register in values of black and white.
2. The principal subject should not be placed in the mathematical
center of the ground glass.
3. Generally, the horizon line should not be in the middle of the
ground glass, but above or beneath the middle.
4. Decide if you want your picture to be a horizontal or a vertical.
A vertical composition (such as one almost instinctively uses when photo-
graphing trees) gives an effect of height, strength, dignity. A horizontal
(such as one is induced to use in photographing a view of ocean waves and
beach) gives the mood of repose. For practical purposes this decision is
made by factors inherent in the subject itself, that is, the dominant direction
of the main lines of the picture.
5. Dominant lines may be relieved by secondary lines in opposite

directions; this prevents monotony or instability. A mirror-like ocean may
be montonous, but a sail slanting from the water serves to break the horizon-
tal tendency and give relief.
6. Not only lines, but also lights and shades need to be balanced. A
large shadow should be relieved with a light area or another shadow of
lesser intensity. Correct balance of light and shade unifies the photograph.
7. Chief parts of a picture are the principal subject, foreground and
background. The subject is the center of interest and as such should at-
tract attention at first glance. Other parts should serve to enhance or reen-
force the interest of the main theme.
8. The subject should be the composition's center of unity. There
should not be two or more motives of equal interest.
9. If the main subject is far away, introduce elements of interest
into the foreground so that it will not be dull. A bush, rocks, a person, a
chair, a wagon will serve.
10. If a third or more of the picture is sky, harmony forbids that it
should be a blank, white area. Use a light yellow filter and increase expo-
sure by one-half. The sky will then be a light gray instead of a flat white,
and white clouds will give relief, as well as enrich the compositioa
11. Placing of figures and objects is important. If a person is looking

oflF in one direction, leave more space in front of him than in back. The
eyes must have space to look into.
12. To make a figure look tall, place it high in the composition. To
make it look small, place it low. Never crowd a stout figure into a small
space, unless you deliberately wish to accentuate the impression of weight

and size.
The last rule quoted is an excellent proof of the fact that rules about
composition are made to be broken. Lisette Model's The Gambler, here illus-
trated, could not conceivably have been placed in an area with ample space
about the figure. The sociological significance of the woman, an habitue of
Monte Carlo, is underlined by the thrust or push with which she shoves
against the borders of the photograph. There is a kind of spatial rapacity
about the figure's sheer bulk and mass which is the physical or visual coun-
terpart of the photographer's unspoken but visualized comment. It is inter-
esting to note, also, in connection with Rule 12, a tendency in informal or
news portraits to stress this style of composition. The portraits included in

the 1941 Press Photographers Association "Photo-Exhibit" show a definite
trend in this direction.

That subject matter creates form cannot be repeated too often. Per-
spective in Renaissance painting was a convention (as spoken and written
language is a convention) based on the common consent of its users. The
diminishing perspective accepted in that period is no more faithful to nature
than the perspective of the 180-degree wide angle lens. Two factors con-
trolled that pictorial convention, the objective and the subjective, classically
formal architecture and burgeoning wonder at the world opening out before
exploration and discovery. Perspective of photography is controlled by
other forces, and should not therefore be expected to bow to a convention
based on premises not its own. Even changes in the optical capacity of
lenses will serve to alter our conception of what is and what is not good
perspective in a photograph. For example, the old print, Paris Without Signs
(PI. 9) has a symmetrically placed perspective, due to the fact that the
photographer with the materials and equipment available to him at that
period (early Third Republic) could not take up any other point of view.
Faster lens and faster film today could t^ke the subject from many point?
COMPOSITION 97
of view and still stop the action in the street which the anonymous photog-
rapher had to more or less gloss over.
The application of the rules quoted above may be made clearer by
discussing some of the photographs reproduced in this book. The question
of whether a subject is best rendered in the austere tones of black and white
photography, or in the as yet unsatisfactory colors of color photography, is
not just a question of personal temperament, as might be argued by some,

but is related to the character of the subject itself. For a thousand years,
the western world has had picture-making of two kinds, graphic art and
painting. Graphic art, of which perhaps photography may be said to be
the newest development, is not only a quick, useful expression because it
can be multiplied by prints and widely distributed; but it is the correct

expression for subjects where form, drawing and tonal values are basic
esthetic qualities. It would be absurd to seek to enhance the woodcuts of
Diirer with color; they are complete as they are. This is equally true of
photography, or perhaps even truer. For the light-sensitiveness of its materi-
als is the perfect mirror of the tones existing in nature, of the textures,
surfaces, substances, whose superb rendering in photographs excels the finest
renditions of the handcraft arts. HeymariTis Butcher Shop (PI. 8) was made
because the sheer, shrieking blatancy of the signs called out for recording.
The faded, yellowing paper and the red paint are not to my mind par-
ticularly paintable; but in black and white (to render the total value! of
which correctly I used orthochromatic film) the signs shout, they clamor
for attention, in visual anarchy. At the same time, the shrewd business sense
plastered them solidly over the entire window surface produced, as it were
by chance, an esthetic by-product: the whole area simultaneously has homo-
geneity and variety of texture which gives the photograph interest from the
point of view of a picture aside from its human and social interest. It is my
feeling, too, that Night View, Midtown Manhattan (frontispiece) is a black-
and-white subject, though the same view was used as a cover in color for
the May, 1941, issue of Photo Technique. Essentially, what we see at night
is registered by long habit as dark and light, not as color.
Now for Rule 2. William Vandivert's Michigan Patriarch (PI. 11)
gives a conventional interpretation of this rule. On the other hand, Hine's
Taking Home Work, East Side, 1909 (PI. 45) is proof of how you can
break all the rules if you express the reality of your subject. Here it does
not matter that a telephone pole is growing out of the woman's head or that
she is placed in the mathematical center of the rectangle. There is so much
human action, so much character in her powerful stride that she herself
controls the picture; formal or traditional composition is a secondary con-
sideration. I might add that this photograph is another example of creative
cropping: Hine took the picture as a horizontal with much more space to
the right of the figure than to the left. Because of the relative slowness of
lens and film at that time (1909) he had to concentrate on the center of
interest, the woman, and forget about depth of field, etc.; and the dreary
city street of the slum neighborhood is unavoidably out of focus. To focus
attention further on his theme, the triumphant, unbowed spirit of the sweat-
shop worker, Hine trimmed off uninteresting parts of the picture, making the
figure larger and more commanding.
Emerson's A Rushy Shore (PI. 24) is a good example of how subject
matter creates form, in a creative expression of Rule 3. The composition is
almost a stratification of three themes, rushes in the foreground, marsh water

in the middle distance, and sky. The picture —a faithful representation of
Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads in 1886, as Emerson called his
photographic documentation of this region in what is one of the earliest
photographic picture books — redeemed from a mechanical division of
is
space by the interest of materials, the grassy, growing quality of the rushes,
the light reflected on the water, the profile of the buildings against the
horizon, even the faint suggestion of clouds in the sky.
Atget's Country Road (PI. 39) shows not only how this rule may be
creatively applied, but also another point not listed in the above summary,
namely, edge spacing. The points at which important forms or lines break
the edges of the photographic area should not be spaced uniformly, like
a capital X enclosed in a rectangle, but should impinge on the frame of the
picture asymmetrically yet with balance.
The shape of pictures, whether photographs or paintings, is controlled
more than we admit by the shape of real objects in nature. Thus, Rule 4
needs to be taken with a grain of salt. To be sure, there will be dominant
tendencies in a period — as in a period of fashionable portraiture the ver-
tical will rule, or in an active period of mural painting, the horizontal.
However, the twentieth century's vertikal-tendenz is plainly the reaction
of art to new subject matter, the 1000-foot building. The two photographs
COMPOSITION 99
reproduced in the next chapter, Puck and Exchange Place (PL 44) could
scarcely be done any other way to express their essential mood. On the other
hand, Edward Weston's Dunes at Oceano (PI. 48) expresses the emphasis
of the photographer — his concern with the frozen perfection of a million
tiny particles of sand, shaped into intricate patterns by the drifting action
of wind. A vertical shape would bring in a much greater proportion of sky,
establish an active relation between earth and sky, and change the meaning
of the photograph. As a matter of fact, it may well be that Michigan
Patriarch (PI. 11) would have inspired a greater sense of repose and calm
in the beholder if it had been composed as a horizontal; certainly it would
have been easier to balance the old man's sitting figure with the command-
ing castiron coal stove in a horizontal space than in vertical.
An exception, however, is Manhattan Skyline (PI. 26). Here the sub-
ject requires a horizontal in order to encompass the whole sweep of the
panorama. Yet the spirit of the subject is extremely active; indeed, there
is a sense of incessant motion about the skyline, the pyramiding of the
skyscrapers, the alternations of colors of materials, the way in which the
low buildings along the water front are played off against the Cities Service
and the Bank of Manhattan Buildings. In Rockefeller Center (PI. 49) the
sense of action is the chief emotion to convey, united with the solidity and
enduring character of Manhattan Island's basic granite. The vertical shape
was the only possible one to use to take in the deep excavation and the steel
frame construction rising above. Here the marks of compressed air drills
on granite give visual activity to enhance the tension between the two main
motives. A how space may intensify the mood of a com-
further example of
position is Hine's home work woman. By cropping, the photographer kept
the action concentrated, did not allow the stopped movement of the woman's
body to become diffused in space, and so intensified the total psychological
effect.
Rule 5 may be illustrated by Hands of Cocteau (PI. 17) in which the

strong diagonal chiastic pattern of the crossed hands is relieved by the oval
shape of the felt hat on which the hands are folded. The contrasting forms
are played against each other to create a kind of visual movement in the
composition. In Exchange Place (PI. 44) the upward sweep of the vertical
lines would become unendurably monotonous if it were not counteracted
by the horizontal motive of sunlight breaking across the dark canyon at

the points where cross streets intersect the 35-foot wide Exchange Place.
Walker Evans' Bethlehem, Pa. (PL 41) is a good example of Rule 6.
The complexity of the forms employed and the interplay of tones of varying
value might well seem unrelated and chaotic, if the composition had not
been brought to a focus by the placing of the large white cross. This solid,
simple form creates balance, and at the same time leads the eye back to
the smaller cross and so to the smokestacks which are the ultimate objective
of the photographer's comment.
Art Class (PL 64) illustrates Rule The boy's face is the center of
7.
interest; it is happy and at peace, revealing how important the creative

outlet of art work is for children. In the foreground is the clay he is model-
ing; in the background, on a blackboard, a quick sketch of a figure, evi-
dently from another art class. These themes are subsidiary and kept in
their place in the picture; yet they serve to accentuate the main theme, by
showing the boy's environment at the moment the photograph was taken.
Russell Lee's Old Woman s Hands (PL 12) is a photograph which

breaks all the rules yet observes the important ones. Here is an example
of how a part may speak for the whole more eloquently than a thousand
wholes could. The skirt and hands are placed in the dead center of the
print; the stripes of the skirt's fabric are mathematically centered; even
the gnarled knuckles are symmetrical. Wliat is the result? The picture
evokes a mood of dead center, also; the emotion is as static as the life of
those hands. Here tliey are, an acute material expression of the human
experience of the old woman whose face is not seen. We know more about
her than if we had seen her face. The whole history is here of a hard
working life — written in texture of skin, drab cloth, dirt ground into
human flesh.
With John Watts (PL 22) the comment is less pathetic, more ironic.
What is the center of interest? The statue? The skyscraper's facade? Or
the relation between the two, the incongruity of the past which looks up
to the present, or of the present which looks down on the past? The bronze
may be a monument enduring, but the power and the glory are in the build-
ing. Here is a visual parable of our time.
Stock Exchange (Pis. 13 and 14) shows the importance of Rule 9.
The first is comparatively empty of human life, and tlierefore the second
COMPOSITION 101
version had to be made. The people in the foreground and the use of George
Washington's foot are as essential to the composition as the American flag
and the sun shining on the portico. Again, Genthe, even in the acute excite-
ment of the San Francisco Fire (PL 6) managed to get people into the fore-
ground of his picture; and the photograph gains in reality thereby, for
costume gives a sense of time.

Rule 10 is illustrated by Tennessee Barn (PI. 38). A filter brought
out the clouds, so that the variation of white and light gray in the sky offered
a counterweight to the rich texture of the stone barn.
Hine's Orphan (PI. 40) is a marvellous demonstration of how to
break all the rules. How magnificently the figure of the child is placed. The
perspective is distorted; yet this distortion is emotionally expressive, for it
brings everything in the picture to focus on the child. The visual compul-
sion exercised by this distorted perspective is such that the eyes rush to the
little orphan. Her situation in life is brought inescapably to the attention.
A legitimate pathos is transmuted into a more profound emotion, the tragedy

of disinherited children. The girl's dirty clothes and pudgy feet, the latter
perhaps a symptom of malnutrition, are the accents of her loneliness. An-

other Hine photograph, This Is Such A Friendly Town (PI. 68), has a sim-
ilarly poignant emotional appeal, which is certainly due in part to the
fact that Hine intuitively found an eloquent compositional language. Again,

perspective leads the eye to the figure. The old woman is bowed down as
she sits on the hard piece of sewer pipe; the weight of her position seems
so great that one doubts if she could ever be lifted up. Even a detail like
the cigar butt is expressive; it was tossed away without thought, as the
friendless woman was. Try cutting off some of the space to the left of the
figure, and see how differently it will affect you. Then the intelligent appli-
cation of composition will be better understood.
Atget's Cabriolet (PI. 23) combines placing and edging spacing with
a further element. The horse has been cut ruthlessly in two, like a
Munchausen tale. But this is not important. Atget wanted to compel people
to see the vehicle itself, a type even in his time beginning to go out of use.
Its aura of time past no doubt fascinated him, and probably he loved the
cabriolet for itself, shape and all. To make the cabriolet as large as pos-
sible and to use all of his rectangle, he had to employ a vertical and slash
the horse in two. Here again, content controlled composition (form).
In regard to Rule 12, Hine's Orphan (PI. 40) may be referred to
once more, to illustrate the importance of placing a figure low in the com-
position to accentuate its smallness. The Model The Gambler, as said before,
represents the crowding of a figure into an area to emphasize its largeness.
The Portrait of Orozco (PI. 33) makes use of the same device, but with a
somewhat different emotional slant; the large head is placed with little
space around it to suggest the monumentality of the modeling of the
Mexican mural painter's face, but also the monumentality of his painting
gift and of his character.
The above analyses illustrate how photographers find ways to say
what they want to say. Actually, a sense of composition is developed more
and more as you photograph. When your pictures do not satisfy you,
analyze them severely for the reason. In the majority of cases, failure is
due to not composing your subject correctly. Prints are often easier to
analyze, because of their small size, than the big life size subject in nature.
It is, therefore, profitable, as well as a good method of training the eye,
to retake the picture, having the first photograph beside you and seeing
directly how you can balance it better the second time and make it say
more eff'ectively what you mean. Few mediums train the eye as acutely as
photography, where experience accumulates a store of visual memories
and awareness.
/ /
48. DUXES AT OCEAXO, CALIFORNIA. 1936 Edward \\êstox

Taken with 8x10 view camera.
49. ROCKEFELLER CENTER. 1932 Berenice Abbott
Taken with 8x10 Century Universal view camera; 9^2 inch

Coerz Dagor; 1/5 second; f/22.
50. MOTHER BIRD FEEDING HER YOUNG Er.ioT Po:-.T>:?.
4x5 view camera.
Courtesy of An American Place

51a. TOM Gay DilloiN
Taken with 4x5 Speed Graphic,
Zeiss Tessar 5M inch lens; f/9,
medium yellow filter; Defender
XF Panchromatic cut film; on late
August afternoon. Contact prmt
from original negative, uncroppecl
and unretouched.
51i;. TOM Gay Dillon

Coccine was used to bring out tht.
words "Button Mill" and to light
en the hair. The enlargement was

cropped to improve composition.
n liilliiii
^
52. CHILD IN SURF Ansel Adams

Kodak Ektra; 50 cm. f/1.9 Ektar; 1/500 second; f/5.6; Panatomic film;
Eastman DK20 developer.
Courtesy of Chadwick Seaside School, Rolling Hills, California

53. ARTIST AT WORK Max Yavno
Taken with 4x5 Linhot'; SVi Dagor lens; 2 seconds; f/22; daylight;
Isopan film; Eastman D76; enlargement on Vitava Projection F2;
developed in D72. An example of informal portraiture
in intimate surroundings.
54. JAMES JOYCE, PARIS, 1928 Berenice Abbott
Taken with 13x 18 cm. view camera with 9x 12 cm. reducing back;
f/4.5 Hermagis lens.
55. JULES JANIN Nadar
/
56. EUGENE DELACROIX (1798-1863) Nadar
57. PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Berenice Abbott
Deardorff Triamapro.
58. PORTRAIT OF A WRITER Berenice Abbott
Taken with 4x5 Graflex; sunlight and flash.
An example of informal portraiture.

59. NEAR THE BATTERY Ansel Adams
Taken with Kodak Ektra; 50 cm. f/1.9 Ektar lens; 1/25; f/2.8;
Panatomic film; Eastman DK20.
/
SEA FOOD, MOiMlMA? Gladys Belloff
60.
Taken with 11/4x15/8 Foth Derby; 1/25; f/8; Verichrome. This
amusing shot by a 17-year-old high school senior was awarded

first prize, pictorial section, fourth scholastic salon of
photography of the American Institute, 1941.
61. SMOKE EATERS Jess Strait
Taken with 4x5 Speed Graphic; 1/200 second; f/1 1; flash. The photograph
was made during a four-alarm fire which gutted a wooden box factory
on Hamilton Avenue, Brooklyn. Five bodies were found at the spot.
Awarded first prize in feature class, sixth annual exhibition.
Press Photographers' Association of New York, 1941.
liMMIiiMl
62. CELEBRATION Barbara Morgan

Jane Dudley, Sophie Alaslow and Frieda Flier of the Martha Graham
Dance Group. Taken with 4x5 Speed Graphic; 1 700 second; f 11;
Zeiss Tessar, Kalart Sisto gun, with four No. 31 General Electric flash
bulbs; Agfa Triple S cut film; Agfa 17 developer. Lighted from top
with two bulbs overhead, one bulb at left to cast light on the legs, and
fourth bulb directed at back wall, to give depth.
mil
30, 9*
i^J*
>•'»'
fl
•1 •I
tt'a
I
1
II
II
II
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«* *• "J
t-^1
63. TRINITY CHURCHYARD Berenice Abbott

In this photograph was necessary to stop action of traffic in the streets.
it
Because the camera was high up, this was possible e\en with an
8 X 10 view at 1/25 second.
16. Enlarging
TODAY the battle which used to rage around the question, "Shall I enlarge
my photographs?" does not seem very immediate. No doubt, there sur-
vives a handful of perfectionists, the purest of the pure, the straightest of
the straight, who still raise their eyebrows at the thought of an enlarge-
ment. But in these times when photographers are seeking to make their
work have wide human appeal through means of photomurals, photo-

montage, photographic picture books, magazine reproductions, photo-
journalism, etc., it seems rather unimportant to debate the issue. The fact
is that the vast majority of photographers, for one reason or another, make
enlargements or have them made. In the conventional art world of museums,
galleries and exhibitions, the enlargement is a more sensible way of pre-
senting photographs than sticking up postage stamp sized prints on the
wall, as if photography were the rarest and most precious of portfolio
mediums.
From the point of view of content and also of esthetic effect, there are
definite advantages in enlarging, not to say that you are practically forced
to enlarge films under 5 x 7. In small prints, details are so tiny in scale
that the eye fails to take them in or see their importance. Enlarged, the
details come to life. A further advantage is that when you enlarge, only
a part of the negative need be used, and undesirable and unimportant sec-
tions can be excluded. You can thus try out different effects, improve and
balance your composition, intensify the emphasis you sought.
This is written with full understanding that in the last analysis the
creative photographer controls his picture when he takes —
it of course
within the framework of existing conditions. Because I believe in photog-
raphy as a medium controlled by human intelligence and skill, I have
advocated that you work with ground glass cameras in which you really
103
are able to see your picture as you take it. However, there are many cases
in which you cannot completely see the picture or completely control ex-
ternal facts. If to work with a miniature camera to stop action
you need
under bad light, you can scarcely compose your picture as meticulously as
you do with a gromid glass camera. Or it may be that your subject is of
a nature which does not fit into the rather hackneyed proportions of the
4 X 5 or 8 X 10 rectangle. Definitely you need to bring your picture to
life by a final act of selection, or editorial revision as it were, in enlarging.

In fact, the conventional format of film in a way imposes a slavery on the
eye which perhaps can only be resisted by "cropping."
In both Exchange Place and Puck, here illustrated, I had the problem
of finding a shape suitable to the subject. These two subjects, quite different
in meaning and emotional impact, exemplify the twentieth century vertikal-
tendenz mentioned in the chapter on composition. Only the modem, un-
planned American city can offer these deep architectural vistas as a theme.
The narrowness of the street, Exchange Place, the overpowering fashion
in which the tall buildings crowd in from either side, the occasional inter-
ruptions of patches of bright sunlight, the crowds hurrying antlike about,
express a concentration of life and human activity. In taking the photograph,
I had naturally to take in the fronts of the two buildings which flank the
opening of Exchange Place from Broadway. However, those facades were
meaningless in relation to the idea I wished to present. So the print had
to be trimmed to eliminate the irrelevant. This left me witli a contact print
91-^ inches high and 2^/4 inches wide. For exhibition purposes or to put on
the wall of a room, this size was ridiculous. Hence, the necessity for en-
larging. So, too, with Puck. Here is a sort of antiquity or curiosity of New
York. The building on which it is fastened is not the significant thing in
the picture, but the figure. Again, cropping was an essential step in making
the photograph.
An enlargement is simply a print larger than the negative from which
it is made. The principle of enlarging is similar to that of motion picture
projection, that is, light travels through the negative and is focused on the
printing paper by means of a lens. Enlarging is often spoken of as "pro-
jection printing" and the paper (bromide, described in Chapter 12) as
"projection paper." Enlargers, which make possible this projection, may
be either vertical or horizontal. They vary considerably in cost, size and
ENLAkCtNC 105
type. Photographic Buyers Handbook gives a good analysis of available

equipment.
There are too many cnlargers on the market to make choice simple.
However, there are specifications, which are imperative, whether the en-
larger costs much and without which it is useless
little or for all practical
purposes. These may be summed up as follows;

1. The enlarger must be rigid so that vibrations will not shake it.
2. The lens board must be absolutely parallel to the negative carrier

and to the easel or table (as with the vertical models) or the wall (as with
the horizontal) which holds the printing paper.
3. Some cnlargers have lenses with no diaphragm. But I strongly urge
only buying an enlarger whose lens has a diaphragm. Exposures of less
than 10 seconds are not advisable when making enlargements. If the nega-
tive should be especially thin, using the diaphragm at a smaller opening
enables you to give the minimum length of exposure, namely 10 seconds,
without overexposing the print. Likewise when more time is required for
necessary dodging, the diaphragm can be closed down. This structural
feature is essential for flexibility of operation and of control. If you make
use of a tilting easel or find it necessary to tip the paper, the lens must have
a diaphragm to focus the over-all image. Tilting in such cases is done to
straighten converging lines or to distort deliberately for effect. A further

usefulness of the diaphragm is for closing down to give time for "spot"
printing, with or without montage.
4. If you enlarge from negatives of different size, it is necessary to
use different lenses, hence the need for easily interchangeable lens boards.
Anastigmatic lenses with good flatness of field should be used. Even these
are not perfect, and in most cases for films larger than miniature, open-
ings of no more than f/5.6 or f/6.8 should be employed. A valuable aid
to test the best opening for your lens is to use a focusing film (like the
Utilo, which costs from 25 to 65 cents) to facilitate the focusing of sharp
point images to the comers of the enlargement.
5. The light source used in enlargers ranges from mercury vapor tubes
and carbon arcs to electric bulbs, the latter being most common. The stronger
the light the better, because time is saved in exposing prints and also be-
cause slower and better quality paper may be used. A strong light, however,
requires definite safeguards. The lamp house must be well ventilated to
avoid overheating film and lens; yet the light must not leak during exposure.
Moreover, the light must produce complete evenness of illumination. Light
in enlargers is either diffused or condensed. It is diffused by the use of
opal glass diffusers so that the transmitted illumination is even and free
from filament reflections. Contrasted with diffusers are condensers, like
huge lenses, which condense and distribute the light rays evenly. Condensers
tend to make the light intense and the image brilliant. For miniature film
and small film generally, condenser enlargers are desirable and universally
used.
Before working with your enlarger, test the lighting for even illumina-
tion, which is essential, otherwise your enlargements will be of uneven
blackness and whiteness, the uneven lighting producing prints of uneven
density. The test is simple. Turn on the light in the enlarger and project
it on the easel or wall. The lens' diaphragm should be wide open. Focus
the light by making the outline of the negative carrier sharp. If the light
is not even or if illumination falls off at any side or corner, the light source
should be adjusted, the lens should be checked for the fault, or the con-
struction of the enlarger should be gone over.
The negative carrier is another essential structure of the enlarger.
For negatives larger than 35 mm., the film is usually placed between
two pieces of glass to keep it flat. The sensitive side must face the lens and
easel. If the negative is smaller than the smallest size negative carrier
your enlarger takes, a blackmask should be placed around it between the
pieces of glass, so that stray light will not reflect when it strikes the easel.
Care should be taken, generally, that stray light reflected from a light
colored wall or other light objects does not strike the printing paper on
the easel.
Except for the lamp house, the enlarger is a great deal like a camera,
with bellows and lens. The bellows is flexible to focus the lens. In fact,
some simple enlargers are built to use with your own camera (the Kodak
type as a rule,) using the camera's lens for enlarging. As with your camera,
know your enlarger! It has a number of adjustments for you to turn,
slide up or doAvn or sidewise, to make your composition on the easel as
you wish. A great deal of creative composing may take place on the easel
of your enlarger. Learn to make use of its possibilities.
Negatives intended for enlarging must be more critically sharp than

ENLARGING 107
those for contact printing. This point and foremost. They must also be
first
cleaner than any other negatives; therefore, they must be free from scratches,
dirt, fingermarks, dust. If they are not, all these will be enlarged propor-
tionally and cause endless retouching and spotting on the finished print.
The pieces of glass which hold the film in the enlarger must likewise be
clean and flawless.
Negatives for enlarging should never be underexposed; a negative
fully exposed with adequate shadow detail is best. The negative should
be fairly thin. At this point, I must mention the fact that the degree of
contrast to which it is desirable to develop your negative depends some-

what on the type of enlarger you own. A condenser enlarger, all other
things being equal, gives a more contrasty print than an enlarger with
diffused light. Therefore, with a condenser enlarger, you will do well to
develop your film a minute or two less (experience will tell you pre-
cisely how much less) than you would for a diffuser type enlarger.
Finally, and no less important, negatives to be enlarged should never
be overdense. When a negative is too dense, it is almost impossible to see
detail clearly enough to focus or to judge the composition. Moreover, there
is danger of overheating the enlarger, equally bad for negative and lens.
Furthermore, dense negatives due to overdevelopment are grainier, which

is even less desirable in enlarging than in contact printing.
Contact prints are made with chloride paper in contact with the nega-
tive, light being transmitted through the film. Enlargements are made by
transmitting light from the lamp house through the negative to the pro-
jection paper.The kind of paper used for contact prints is out of the ques-
tion for projection prints because exposure would take hours instead of
minutes. Bromide paper is made, therefore, especially to answer this prob-
lem. If your enlarger is an exceptionally fast one, chlorobromide paper
(which is slower than bromide) can be used; it offers some fine quality
papers. The source of light being equal, a condenser enlarger is faster
than a diffuser enlarger.
Choice of surface and color of paper depends on personal taste. In
my opinion, white or natural white is most beautiful, and a paper which
has a slight "tooth" or roughness is good for enlarging. Papers like East-
man Proof Bromide, PM.C. 11, Agfa Brovira Royal, and some types of
Defender Velour Black, are standard.
Darkroom equipment for enlarging is the same as for contact printing

unless your trays are too small to hold large sized prints. Use the developer
recommended by the paper's manufacturer. In most cases, Eastman D72 is
satisfactory if you buy your developer already prepared. However, instead
of diluting the stock solution one part developer to two parts water as in
contact printing, for bromide paper dilute one part stock solution to four
parts water. For developing enlargements, keep the developer at 70 de-
grees. Use the safelight specified for the paper you choose.
The steps in enlarging may be summarized as follows:
1. Remove negative carrier and clean glass. Dust negative with brush
and place face down in the carrier.

2. Move the enlarger up and down (or backwards and forwards) to
get the projected image the approximate size you wish.
3. Focus the image by moving the lens closer to or farther away from
the easel or wall. If the image is not then the proper size, again move the
enlarger up and down slightly and focus again. With an auto focus enlarger,
no focusing is necessary.
4. During the above step, carefully arrange your composition. If
you wish, you can enlarge only a section of the negative. A slight turn,
a little more or a little less cropping, may vastly improve the effect.
5. Select the proper grade of contrast to suit the negative, remember-
ing that if the negative is hard or contrasty to use softer paper, and vice
versa.
6. Tear a sheet of paper into test strips, and place a strip on the easel
over the most important part of the image.
7. Make tests of, say, 10, 15 and 20 seconds. The correct exposure
may seem to be about 15 seconds. Then make exposures of 13 and 17
seconds, to narrow down exposure time. This estimated time will prove a
good guide for the exposure of the first full sheet of paper. Only the whole
print can determine precise exposure.
8. Develop the test strips for the time indicated in instructions, usually
a minimum of 1% minutes. Projection papers develop more slowly than
contact papers. The l^^ minutes ismuch more flexible, however, than the
45 seconds specified for contact prints. To vary the result, sometimes
expose less; but in most cases, a full two or even three minute development
gives superior quality. As a general rule, an exposure which develops the
ENLARGING 109
print fully in two minutes is best. For the first minute, protect your print
by keeping it face down in the developer, rocking the tray gently. How-
ever, only through familiarity with a given paper can you judge the best
peak of development time. Longer exposure and shorter development tend
to flatten the print, while shorter exposure and longer development make
the print more contrasty.

Rinse the print in an "acid short stop bath" (1^2 ounces of 28 per
9.
cent acetic acid to 32 ounces of water), fix, wash and dry in the same man-
ner as for contact prints.
Local Dodging of Prints
A great advantage of enlarging over contact printing, is the ease it
offers for dodging. The word means just that, dodging the light from parts
of the print. If conditions for taking photographs were always ideal, if all
negatives were 100 per cent perfect, if every photographer could own
first-class equipment, the need for such corrections as dodging would dis-
appear. However, to produce a perfect negative even with all the knowl-
edge and skill in the world is not always possible. There may be external
factors which result in a negative of unequal density. In contact printing,
there are ways of remedying such a condition. Also, for both contact print-
ing and enlarging, retouching the negative with new coccine (as explained
in Chapter 18) will help correct unavoidable inadequacies in the negative.
However, dodging is a somewhat more flexible and plastic way of achieving
the same end. It permits a certain amount of legitimate modeling or fading
of the edges of one area into the adjacent area.
In dodging, you intercept light from the lamp house, holding it back
from thin areas of the negative, which would otherwise print too dark.
You can make your own dodger, you wish, attaching a piece of heavy
if
cardboard or even a wad of cotton to a stiff wire handle; or there are any
number readymade gadgets on the market for the purpose, some being
of
very fancy little items of celluloid, in various shapes and colors. The handle
should be at least a foot long so that the shadow of the hand will not fall
on the print. The dodger is held at some distance from the easel, to pre-
vent its casting shadows with sharply defined edges. It must never be held
still but must be gently and evenly moved back and forth so that no line
of demarcation or too light area appears in the print. Dodging is almost

like using a brush and painting with light. Perhaps there is a dense cor-
ner or edge to the negative, giving a faded and weak corner to the print.
Hold a cardboard between the light and the paper, and keep it in motion,
to hold back light from the entire print except the edge or corner. Count
the additional length of time for this purpose, as several trials may be
necessary.
—
17. The Art of Printing
AT EVERY step in photography we pause and say ''This step is vital. If
this link breaks, the whole chain is broken. Is there, indeed, one phase
of greater importance than another? Can we say that making the correct
exposure is more important than developing the film properly? Or that
either of these steps is more vital than printing? When we try to weigh
questions like these, we are forced back on the paradox of photography
its complex and interlocking character.
However, just to cut the Gordian knot for once, let's take a stand and
make a forthright assertion flatfootedly. If every step has been meticulously
and correctly carried out and if printing is badly done, then the whole
process is defeated. Not until the photograph can greet the world as an
accomplished fact, a picture in black and white, or in color, can it be
said in any real sense to exist. The you had when you clicked the
vision
shutter is meaningless unless it achieves visualization. What you dream
is your private, subjective fantasy. Only the reality of the finished print,
as beautiful and convincing as your imagined picture, can speak to the
hundreds, thousands, millions, who never knew what you saw with your
inner vision.
So — printing is crucial. By the print, whether contact or enlargement,
the aims of the photographer must be vindicated. Here is the photograph,
rich, glowing, luminous, brilliant, capable of arousing emotion, lovely in its
own physical self. And how did it get that way? Because the photographer
had a sense of the medium, because he had a flair for printing, because
by patient exercise he mastered the discipline of his technique.
A synthesis of experience is achieved at the time the print emerges
from the developer, just as coordination of skills is needed when you click
the shutter. A number of perceptions are involved and coordinated in that
in
final click when your fate is sealed; for, before that click, you have selected
your subject, chosen your point of view and angle, determined the light-
ing eflfect wanted, gauged perspective, and calculated exposure, so that

everything is set for the final peak of instantaneous action and interest. If
haste is necessary, you have accumulated enough experience so as to be
able quickly to coordinate all these decisions and operations. Consequently,
the role of photographer is tense, all nerves focused toward this one pre-
cise moment. Concentrating the faculties on the crucial moment requires
keen alertness and consciousness and consumes more nervous energy than
work where the effort is spread out over hours instead of minutes.
In printing, a like intensity prevails. Precise exposure in seconds and
precise development and manipulation, all consciously and quickly con-
trolled, call for a similar alertness and awareness on the part of the pho-
tographer. Hence the slogan; for good printing, experience! Better make
many prints from one negative to get one good print, than ten bad prints
from ten negatives, good or bad. Prints which are made with lukewarm
interest or "let the print take care of itself" mood are never good prints.
In most cases, you have to sweat to get a good print.
A great many prints made in the robot fashion of letting mechanically
timed exposure and development do the work appear overbright, hence
unreal. No doubt, you have seen prints of interiors where everything in the
room sparkled like an advertisement. What is wanted is a print with the
depth and atmosphere of an inside room which is never as bright as if
the room were laid out like a stage setting on a sunlit plain. The error
comes from the attitude that print-making is purely mechanical. Alas, too
many prints look just that way: they look too photographic! They lack
spirit, depth, atmosphere, control. I believe that this unreal untendency
can be overcome you make a visual transition from the print back to the
if
scene photographed and vice versa. For, when you took the picture, you
certainly tried to visualize the scene as a photographic print and to decide
what characteristics and qualities you wanted to stress or, better, enhance
in the print. You must have wanted, most of all, to recreate visually in your
photograph the same atmosphere, the same light quality, the same sensory,
emotional effect you experienced when you were prompted to take the pic-
ture. Above all, when taking a photograph, try to see light as it will register
in the print.
THE ART OF PRINTING .
113
The idea which led you to make a certain shot falls short if you can-
not convey to others what you yourself felt. The print is not expressive
unless the entire processing is tied up step by step with the taking, making
and printing of your picture. All negatives are not perfect. Compromises
must too often be made with exposure so that in the final analysis prints
must be manipulated, juggled, analysed critically. The factor most to be

considered in making a good print is correct balance of contrast. The print
is made for effect more than for mechanical representation; it should,
therefore, be studied for what to subdue, what to emphasize.
If all our negatives were of normal contrast, printing woidd be a
simple matter. Unfortunately, conditions of photography do not allow
even the most expert to turn out one hundred j>er cent of perfect negatives.
The goal toward which to work is a normal negative; by keeping exposure
records and by analysing results, you may hope to approach this goal. In
the meanwhile you have to work with what you have negatives inadequately :
exposed because conditions did not permit fuller exposure, contrasty nega-
tives because they were overdeveloped, thin negatives because they were
underexposed or underdeveloped, dense negatives because they were overex-
posed or overdeveloped or both, flat negatives because the lighting was flat
or they were underdeveloped. You can't throw out all these pictures because
they aren't perfect. You want to salvage what you can from them, learn
what you can. The first step is to analyse the differences so that at the be-
ginning you can tell what type of negative you have. The ultimate purpose
of classifying negatives is to develop your skill in selecting the right grade
of contrast of paper for a given negative.
What does this mean? You know that paper comes in different colors,
surfaces and textures. These are material differences. However, paper also
comes in different contrasts, which are chemical differences. Thus, the com-
position of a paper's emulsion is varied, in order to produce different kinds
of prints. Prints, like negatives, may be normal, contrasty, flat, dense, etc.
To compensate for unavoidable deficiencies or failures of negatives, you
use a paper of opposite character. Contrast is the pivot around which quality
of prints revolves. It is a term frequently heard and frequently misused.
The difference between the negative's lightest and darkest parts measures
contrast, because this spread determines the range between a photograph's
blacks and whites. If a negative lacks contrast, it is called flat. What is
needed in printing is compensation for this characteristic. If the flat, thin
negative is printed on a hard or extra hard paper, a satisfactory print may

in most cases be produced. Contrariwise, if a hard or contrasty negative
is printed on a soft paper, a good print should result, providing your ex-
posure, development and manipulations are correct.
When you start out to make a good print, there are several mechanical
steps to take care of first. The developer should be fresh, properly mixed
and at the correct temperature. Next, the proper grade of paper should be
selected for your negative. Unless your work is developed to a point where
you can print on one grade of paper, you must have on hand a selection
of grades of paper. The proper grade cannot always be chosen by examin-
ing the film. Perhaps a few tests or prints must be made first. Once the
correct grade is ascertained, exposure must be determined by making sev-
eral tests. Now you have an approximate print to judge.
Your best judgment presupposes that you know what you wish to em-
phasize or to subdue and the over-all effect you want to create. Do you want
some details minimized? Let that area print darker or manipulate the print
by "spot" printing, that is, by letting a spot of light pass through a hole
in a cardboard to give more light to one area, while holding back light
from other areas. If you need more detail in parts and cannot get it from
a straight print because the negative is not perfectly balanced, dodging
(as described in the last chapter) may be resorted to. If the area to be
held back is too precise for dodging and if the shadow parts of the negative
are thin but have detail, new coccine can be used on that part of the negative
which is to appear lighter in the final print. New coccine (which is a red
dye, described more fully in the next chapter) is a good medium for hold-
ing back light from local areas, usually shadow parts which the latitude
of present-day papers fail to deal with.
To bring out stubborn high lights, friction can be used, rubbing that
warmth and touch of which hasten
part of the print with the fingers, the
development of that area. Some photographers use a wad of cotton dipped
in a concentrated solution of developer
and rub areas meant to be brought
you can manipulate the print in this manner to darken
out. Conversely,
areas which you wish subdued. Even a warm breath gently blown on a
part of the print will hasten development.
For nearly all types of printing paper of normal contrast, additional
THE ART OF PRINTING 115
bromide is needed in the developer. Two or three drops of saturated solu-
tion of potassium bromide peps up the print by making the whites whiter.
With a little practice, you will recognize when and if the additional bromide
is sufficient.
To make good prints, it is important to be thoroughly familiar with

the paper you use. Some papers dry down darker and need to be taken
from the developer sooner than appearances warrant. Other papers reach
a better over-all tone by longer than prescribed development time, while
still others reach their best development at the median time. Azo, for in-
stance, develops nearly always to its best peak in 45 seconds, this for
contact prints, of course. Many enlarging papers develop best from IY2 to
2 minutes; but there are quite a few exceptions, some projection papers
giving the best result with a 3-minute development.
A from merely holding back or lightening some
factor which differs
areas while darkening others has to do with the controlled and exact amount
of contrast. Assuming that the correct grade of paper has been chosen, there
are various means other than straight development which will lessen or
increase the degree of contrast in the print. These are outlined in the
following table:
TO MAKE PRINTS MORE

CONTRASTY
in considerable time experimenting and making test prints for comparison.

Another method which is a favorite for controlling the effect of prints
is two tray development, in which the print is alternated between two trays
containing two types of developer. Two developers used for this method are
Agfa 120 and Agfa 130. Agfa 120 is a soft developer; and when the print
is first placed in it, shadow detail and soft tones appear. Then when there
is enough shadow detail, the print is placed in Agfa 130, which gives the
print brilliance. This developer contains glycin and does not fog the print
easily so that a longer development is possible. Also, fine blacks are pro-
duced. The print can be manipulated between these two developers for the
desired efiêct.
Other factors which produce contrast but which cannot be manipulated

are listed in the following table:
FACTORS PRODUCING
CONTRASTY PRINTS
THE ART OF PRINTING 117
and-seek with a cloud, but which is unobscured. Be sure that there are
important shadows with desired detail in the chosen subject. Use your
exposure film rating and judge exposure according to formula. Place your
camera on the tripod, and now give the first exposure your calculated time.
Then, in quick succession and with your subject and shadows the same,
give five more exposures, varying the time of each; say, if the calculated
time calls for 1/10 second, give in all six exposures at the same aperture
of 1 second, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25 and 1/50 second. Have your developer
ready at the correct temperature, and develop the films immediately for
the minimum time of development. If development time is said to be 10
to 15 minutes, develop for 10 minutes. Judge the negatives only for shadow
detail and general exposure density. If you think that the negative which
had 1/10 second exposure is most nearly correct, you have good reason
to be satisfied with your meter or calculator plus your own interpretation
of how the reading should be taken. If, however, the best negative for
adequate shadow detail is the one which had I/2 second exposure, adjust
your calculations with exposure meter accordingly, allowing a factor of
five forenor in film ratings, as the I/2 second exposure is five times the
estimated 1/10 second.
B. Now make ten exposures of the same subject, giving them all the
same time under the same conditions, i.e., exposures at Y2 second. Then
develop these films for different lengths of time, varying time by one minute.
Be sure to have the developer the correct temperature throughout the test.
With a stated development time of 10 to 15 minutes, develop the ten expo-
sures, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 minutes. Then compare results.
The best way to tell if a negative is properly developed is to judge by the
print, and, if your negatives are to be enlarged, this means the enlarge-
ment. When the films are dry, make the best possible print on normal paper
from all ten negatives. The film which gives the best print denotes the best
developing time for you with your particular type of equipment, enlarger,
etc. If you have a condenser enlarger, it is possible diat you should de-
velop your films a minute or two less than a person with a diffuser en-
larger who would need to develop his film longer for best results with
normal paper.
18. Finishing the Photograph
FINISHING the print is the photographer's last action before it can go

out into the world —whether the world of the close family circle, the salon
or the editor's desk. If the photographer has mastered his technic in order
to be able to communicate what he has to say, then the presentation of his
idea is the last proof he can give of his sincerity; for bad presentation can
wreck a good photograph. The most progressive contemporary photog-
raphers have put behind them "art for art's sake." With the new vanguard,
the conception of technic for technic's sake is no longer valid. On the con-
trary, the usefulness of superb technic and excellent equipment is now be-
lieved to be due to the fact that they widen the range of communication
of photography. The more the photographer can learn about his medium
the more he can say. Thereafter, the impact of what he says is determined
by the richness of his experience, by how he sees and feels, by how pro-
foundly and seriously he thinks about what he has seen and felt.
If it is worth while to go to a great amount of labor to practice pho-

tography in this spirit, it follows logically that the photographer should not
let his idea fail of comprehension due to slipshod presentation. All the steps
which must be carried out between the time the print leaves the hypo and
is hung on the wall involve careful workmanship. Drying, straightening,
trimming, cropping, mounting, are essential parts of this last phase in
making a photograph.
Drying Prints
Once the prints are dry, they need to be straightened. This is no prob-
lem in a photofinishing plant where prints are placed wet and squeegeed
on large ferrotype tins which revolve around a heater and are quickly
118
FINISHING THE PHOTOGRAPH 119
dried flat. Where space permits, the amateur can dry prints on racks of
clean muslin stretched on wooden frames, and the curl in the prints will
be slight. However, most amateurs dry prints by hanging them to dry, and
curl is therefore something to deal with. It is advisable to place clips at
the bottom of prints as well as at the top. They can be hung up, two to-
gether, back to back, to save space and labor. Placing the prints between
blotters is not to my mind a good drying method. If they are placed be-
tween blotters while still too wet, there is a danger that the face of the
print will stick to the blotter. There is also the problem of replacing the
blotters frequently enough to be sure that they are absolutely clean.
Glossy prints can be dried on ferrotype tins and, when dry, fall off
flat, with a high gloss. There are disadvantages, however, to this method.
Beside the additional cost of the tins, great care must be taken to keep
them free from scratches and absolutely clean; and frequent polishing
with ferrotype polish is necessary to keep the surface perfectly smooth. In
ferrotyping, prints are placed wet, face down, on the tins, and clean blot-
ters are placed on top ; then the whole is rolled firmly with a hand squeegee.
If you use a number of tins, they should be wrapped separately in tissue
paper when not in use or placed in a rack with shelves for each tin. If the
ferrotype tins are not clean and free from scratches, the prints will dry
with some spots dull, some glossy, or they may stick to the tin and not
come off, or dry in uneven rings or ridges.
Straightening
Prints curl more in winter than in summer and are more brittle, re-
quiring greater care in handling, not to crack the emulsion. If they curl
too much, try steaming them by holding the face of the print toward steam
from a boiling kettle and moving it about slowly. Steam will remove the
worst curl so that you can flatten the print more by other means. This is
usually done by moistening a wad of cotton with water or with half wood
alcohol and half water and dampening the back of the prints, which must
not be made too wet. Then stack them together and place them under a flat
weight, a dry mounting press being ideal. The backs can also be damp-
ened with a solution of 1 part of glycerin 3 parts of water. If the print
to
has not curled too much and if the emulsion is not too brittle, it can be
120 A GUIDE TO BETTER PHOTOGkAPHY
straightened by pulling it firmly over a smooth table edge. Holding the

print down against the table edge with one hand, pull with the other alter-
nately toward the print's four corners, the face of the print being up. To
dry prints with some photographers bathe them after their final
less curl,
washing in a bath composed of 2 ounces glycerin to 32 ounces water, and

let them remain in this solution not less than five minutes without further
washing before hanging up. In any case, prints must be reasonably flat
to spot and absolutely flat to mount.
Retouching
Retouching on a big scale is rarely done by amateurs or even by pro-

fessionals; for it requires experience and time and is a highly specialized
job. However, simple retouching, such as spotting, can be done by every
photographer who will take the time to learn how and, indeed, is often
unavoidable. Understanding of the method and a little patient practice on
old prints will do the trick. H you wish to spend your life on negatives
and prints, gilding the lily as it were, a helpful reference is *'The Art of
Retouching and Improving Negatives and Prints, for which see the bibli-
ography. Luckily, most photographers are so eager to take pictures that

they are saved from the worst excesses to which retouching, practiced in
a mechanical spirit, can lead. Taft in Photography and the American Scene
has some interesting historical material dealing with the dawn of retouch-
ing as a photographic trade. However, for our purposes, neither trade nor
history is imperative; a few simple instructions will do.
Most white spots on prints are caused by dust in the enlarger or the
printer; and great care must be taken to prevent stray particles of foreign
matter of any sort settling on the film while printing. Likewise, the glass
holding the film in the enlarger and all parts of the printer should be kept
spotless. Black spots on prints are due to dust in the camera or film holders
and cause "pinholes" or tiny transparent holes in the negative, which print
black. It is practically impossible to retouch on small negatives; but in the
case of larger negatives which have pinholes, spotting is best done on the
film. For the most part, all kinds of spots are caused by carelessness, hence
one of the reasons for my repeated pleas for extreme cleanliness ..nd neat-
ness in the darkroom.
It is desirable to practice spotting prints before you attempt spotting
negatives. The following materials and tools are needed: a small tube of
ivory black water color; a medium sized sable brush witli a fine point for
spotting; Eagle Turquoise lead holder with electronic graphite HB leads;
a razor blade; fine emery paper; retouching fluid; small paper stumps from
an art store; new coccine; a small block or jar of opaque.
Daylight is best for retouching prints. But if you have to use artificial
light, let it be indirect. All light should come over the left shoulder, not
to cast a shadow on the print. Place a small amount of tlie spotting color
on a dish and get the wet brush full of color, working out excess moisture
on a sheet of paper and at the same time bringing Jê brush to a fine point
and matching the tone of the color to the tone of the print so that the spot
disappears. If the brush is too wet, a shiny spot will remain on the print,
so that it is better to have the brush almost dry and gently build up the
spot. Spotting white spots on prints is actually a dotting process where the
white spots or white lines are dotted out or removed with tiny little strokes.
Larger spots should be built up little by little. If a mistake is made or the
spotting color too dark, wipe it off with moist cotton and begin over. Al-
though in spotting attention is directed mainly toward repairing the damage
caused by lint or dust spots, you can also use the spotting technic to get
rid of objectionable small parts of a print, such as undesirable high lights
or distracting forms.
Black spots on the print are "etched" out. This amounts to shaving
the print emulsion very gently and delicately. A sharp razor blade is suit-
able, although there are special tools for the purpose. The corner of the
blade is stroked lightly back and forth over the spot or area, care being
observed not to scratch or dig into the emulsion.
Retouching on the negative is more delicate and needs more practice.
Etching on the film is not advisable since only skilled retouchers do the job
well. However, since etching is much less desirable even on a print than
on a negative, it is better to solve the dilemma by filling in the pinhole on
the negative which produces the black spot on the print. Then a white spot
will appear on the print instead of a black one. To do this, the brush is
filled with moist opaque, which is then dotted into the pinhole on the
negative.
Any other retouching on the negative is usually done with pencil.
Since pencil does not adhere to the emulsion, retouching fluid is first ap-
plied. With the tip of the cork, place a dab of fluid on several parts of the
film and rub the entire surface evenly and firmly with a circular motion,
using a good sized wad of clean cotton and spreading the fluid uniformly
and drily. Care must be exercised not to mark the negative with finger-
marks or dust, since the surface is tacky from the fluid. The negative is
then placed on the retouching stand; or in a pinch, your printer may be
used. A magnifying glass may help you to see more clearly. Long leads
in the pencil holder are worked up to a very fine point with emery paper.
The point should be two or three inches long, so that the lightest touch
can be made when working on the negative. Holding the pencil lightly,
brush the side of the lead across the surface to be retouched, moving the
lead with a circular motion, as if you were superimposing many little 6s,
8s and 9s with a rotary stroke, gradually building up the area. On larger
areas, the paper stump is used to smooth out the pencil.
Work of this kind is often done on portraits when wrinkles, blemishes,
deep shadows from artificial light, stray wisps of hair, moles, whiskers, etc.,
need to be subdued or eliminated. Since glossy paper has a shiny surface,

penciling is done in the same manner as on a negative, giving the print
a slightly tacky surface with retouching fluid. As most glossy prints are
designed for reproduction, this is not serious, as it would be if the prints
were meant for exhibition.
New coccine is a valuable retouching medium. It is a red dye which
is purchased in powdered form and dissolved in water. The use of the dye
is to hold back light from that part of the film you wish to appear lighter
in the print, and with more detail. It is usually applied to the thinner parts
of the negative. However, it is applied only to thinner parts which already
have detail, not to merely transparent portions, as they would only print
gray instead of black. With this medium, hair can be made to look lighter
or to have more detail, the shadow parts of a garment can be brought out,
or architectural detail in shadow can be made more evident. Here, too,
practice is important. The trick is to get the dye on the local area evenly
and gradually. A sable brush somewhat larger than the spotting brush is
needed. First moisten the brush in clear water, then go over the area to be
treated, brushing back and forth with a pushing motion as if to work the
water into the gelatin emulsion. This is best done with the brush held at
right angles to the negative. Enough of the powdered coccine has previously
been dissolved in a small bottle of water to make a solution deep red in

color. This stock solution lasts indefinitely. For a working solution, take
a few brushfuls of the stock solution and put it into a small glass and add
a little water so that the color of the liquid is pink instead of red.
Coccine is never brushed on evenly by one application. The knack is
gradually to build up a number of coats of the pale pink dye, each time
pushing the brush back and forth as evenly as possible, until an over-all
evenness is achieved, and the density of the red dye deepens to the tone
required. The brushing can be done on both sides of the film, so that if
there is pencil work on the emulsion side, coccine can be applied on the
celluloid side. The amount of brushing will depend on how light you want
the area to appear in the print. It may be necessary to make a test print
before you can be certain if enough coccine has been applied. The film is
dried thoroughly before you print it. Ifyou have not used enough coccine,
begin again and add still more coats, or increase the amount of stock solu-
tion in the you make a mistake, soak the film in a
working solution. If
tray of water to which has been added a few drops of ammonia and wash
it until the red disappears. Dry, and try again. The entire operation needs
to be practiced for you to become proficient. Usually, difficulties arise from
using the diluted coccine too strong and thus starting out with a badly
streaked and uneven tone. As in any phase of photographic retouching,
patience is needed, first of all.
A new formula which has come on the market recently is the Carl Dial
retouching fluid. It is applied directly to the print for local reduction, so
as to lighten hair, eyes, clothes or any other part desired.
Cropping
Trimming the print is a further step in finishing the photograph. Ordi-

narily, it is to be hoped that the picture has been so well composed on the
ground glass that no excessive cropping is necessary at this point. But

since there are many factors to prevent the attainment of perfection, crop-
ping is frequently called for. Certainly, edges which do not contribute to
the unity of the picture or which detract from the center of interest or
divide interest should be cropped. Likewise, the shape of the subject may
not always fit the standard dimensions of the negative, as explained in the
chapter on composition. Very often, the print must be trimmed so that ver-
tical lines are not tipped. This is true when the camera was not leveled
off straight at the time of taking the picture. If a hand camera has not
been held straight, too often important corners in a print must be sacrificed
to straighten the vertical lines. Horizontally directed lines more or less take
care of themselves, in fact are more likely to be diagonally placed. But if
vertical lines are not upright, an uneasy, unbalanced effect is created, which
produces a feeling of psychological insecurity. Wlien the camera has been
pointed upward, vertical lines converge. In this case, the convergence must
at least be equalized, not toppling over to one side. Slightly converging
lines which are symmetrically placed can be straightened up in enlarging
by tipping the easel. Where a frankly tipsy angle shot is made, it is assumed
that the angle has been well thought out and balanced in its own right and
that the subject naturally calls for such an angle to create a definite emo-
tional effect or meaning. Sometimes technical problems in taking the picture
— the sun being in an unfavorable position or possibly hiding behind a

house, or lack of space preventing you from withdrawing to a suitable dis-
tance —force the photographer to make an angle shot.
A good trimmer is needed, whether for routine trimming or cropping.
It should cut squarely and sharply and be so constructed as not to warp.
Since a trimmer is permanent equipment, it is wise to buy a good one. Care
is important, too, and a main point is not to cut heavy cardboard on the
trimmer; for this dulls the knife and throws the tension out of adjustment
for photographic paper. Follow the maker's instructions for maintenance
and care. Rather than buy a poor trimmer, it is better to make shift with
a straight edge and a razor blade. To protect yourself, use the type of blade
which has a rounded back, or if you use a double-edged blade, tape one side.
If you cut with a straight edge and sharp blade, it is advisable to place a
sheet of zinc under the print for the knife or blade to cut into, the metal
needing to be of a character hard enough for a clean edge and soft enough
not to dull the cutting edge. Of you only mat your photographs,
course, if
this consideration is not urgent. For composition, whether you use mounts
or mats, it is a good practice to make two L-shaped pieces of white card-
board and move them about over the print to see the final result before
trimming or cutting a mat. With enlargements, of course, the final compo-
sition is decided on the easel, and only the edges of the print are trimmed
later.
19. Presentation
WHEN the finished photograph is mounted for presentation, the laws of

composition are carried one step further. Injudicious placing of a print on
its background, whether mount, mat or frame, can seriously detract from
the visual weight of a picture. Inharmonious colors may alter the subtle
tonal values of the black-and-white print —throughout our discussion we

have been talking chiefly about black-and-white photography. Texture of
papers used for mounts or mats is another item to consider seriously.
Finally, if photographs are framed, there is the question as to what type of
molding is suitable for the rather severe, certainly not antique character
of the medium. Here, again, taste will determine how your photographs
are presented. But taste is not an inherited characteristic, like the color of
your eyes; it is developed through experience and cultivation and to a
large degree it reflects the standards prevailing in a period. The drive of
our period is toward a method of presentation congenial to the spirit of
modern photography.
Mounts or Mats
To begin with, mounts of suitable tone must be chosen, to match the

tone of the print. In other words, a black-and-white print should not be
mounted on a cream colored paper; for this will have the eff"ect of making
the white look dirty. Even so-called white mounts vary considerably in
tone, being yellowish, bluish, pinkish, grayish, greenish, or what have you.
Pure whites are rare and are most easily obtained in the most expensive
mount or mat boards, unfortunately. If you have standardized your print-
ing paper fairly well, you can buy mounts which best match the particular
color of that paper. As the tone of the mount can either brighten and en-
125
hance the effect of a print or rob it of its fullest visual effectiveness, best
take prints with you when you select mounts.

Wliether you mount your prints on top of the support or mat them
behind a cutout paper mat, the problem of the relation of physical materials
is about the same. The choice between mounts and mats is, however, a
rather more complicated esthetic one. It involves a feeling for the spatial
relations of picture from the wall on which
and the plane which separates it
it is hung. Essentially, the function of a mount or mat is twofold to protect :
the print from handling and to enhance its visual message. The protective
function may be fulfilled in many ways; the esthetic function of enhance-
ment is best carried out when the photographer has a keen sense of the
meaning of his pictures and how he wants them to speak. There are valid
arguments for standardization of presentation, if prints are to be widely
exhibited in group exhibitions; the arguments for individual presentation
are just as valid, if the photographer wishes to make every part of the
photograph completely an expression of his own idea. Thus when the Mu-
seum of Modern Art exhibited Barbara Morgan's dance photographs, color
was an organic part of the installation, as a visually physiological way of
calling attention to the pictures themselves.
Carry this logic further, and you come up against the question of
mounts vs. mats. My personal preference is for mounts; as I feel that the
photograph is the cleancut, straightforward projection of a picture to the
eye, and the spatial relation betwêen the photograph and the mount seems
to me to serve this quality of projection better than imprisoning the pic-
ture behind the cutout mat. There is a hangover of oldtime esthetic snob-
bishness about the mat, harking back as it does to rare prints and the port-
folio psychology of collectors, who put up drawings and prints in fancy

frames, with tinted mats and gold lines drawn around them. The photograph,
being modern and rational, should not associate itself with this traditional
folderol. The great argument for mats, of course, is that they can be more
easily renewed than mounts, and therefore the life of the exhibition print
is longer and the photographer does not sink so much labor and materials
in preparing photographs for exhibition purposes. On the wall in the home,
I like to feel that the photograph comes off the wall a little, as it does when
mounted on top of its paper support, rather than feel that I have to probe
back into the wall to see the picture. Actually, the dividing line here may
PRESENTATION 127
be whether you think of photography as "art" like etchings, aquatints, etc.,
or whether you believe it to be a medium in its own right, with its own
standards of quality and presentation.
Mounting
Where prints are likely to be handled a great deal, as in museums,

schools, libraries, they may better be mounted on dark-colored mounts
which will not show handling. The Russell Sage Foundation Library has
done this with the collection of Hine photographs they purchased shortly
before Hine's death last year. For such uses, the prints should be mounted
so as to be easily removable when the mounts need to be renewed. If they
are kept in albums, they can be tipped in with rubber cement or similar
adhesive, the pressure of the closed pages being depended on to keep them
from curling.
For temporary display, prints may be mounted with rubber cement.
Of course, this is not a permanent method and may even finally discolor
the print; but if the operation is carried out neatly and carefully, the job
may last several years. The rubber cement is spread on both print and
mount, with care being taken that sufficient cement is spread around the
edges so that the print will lie flat. The print is then firmly pressed down
over the entire surface with a clean cheesecloth and placed under pressure,
as a heavy weight or in a dry mounting press. When the cement has set,
excess adhesive is wiped off and brushed away, coming off in crumbs and
leaving no mark.
Whether you mat or mount your prints, you will do well to back them
first. This is better done with dry mounting tissue or Foto-Flat, though
rubber cement may also be used if you are willing to run the risk of dis-
coloration of the print after some years. For backing prints, probably the
best material is a discarded print or a piece of stale photographic paper
which has been fixed and washed. The reason is that the two pieces of paper,
print and backing, have equal tensile strength, being of similar materials
and both having been coated with the photographic emulsion, which exerts
a pull, causing the paper to curl inward slightly. Print and backing are
placed back to back and cemented together, so that these two pulls neutralize
each other. If you are planning to mat your prints, do not trim the mounted
photograph. There is another point to watch out for: the gelatin emulsion
of the backing will not "take" to- any adhesive, so you must first roughen
it with sandpaper or steel wool, and then tip it on by the corners to a card-
board. The cutout mat is then placed over tlie print, carefully cut to size
of the photograph as it is to appear finished, including any necessary crop-

ping of edges.
Foto-Flat is a popular method of mounting today. Sheets of the ad-
hesive membrane are tacked to the back of the print by means of a warm
Fotowelder, or a household electric iron will do. The sheet of Foto-Flat
and the print are then trimmed together and tacked in place on the mount,
again with the Fotowelder or the electric iron. Place a sheet of clean paper
over the print, and pass the moderately warm Fotowelder or iron over
the surface to heat the gum of the adhesive membrane. Then place mount
and print under a weight, and as the Foto-Flat cools, the print will be found
to adhere firmly to the mount.
Dry mounting of prints is the most permanent and professional method.
Dry mounting tissue is a sturdy transparent sheet, permeated with shellac.
It is tacked to the back of the print in two or three places with a tacking
iron. Print and tissue are then trimmed together and tacked on the mount.
The dry mounting press is a machine heated with electrical units, which
provides both heat and pressure to seal print and mount in a practically
indissoluble union. More heat is needed than for Foto-Flat, the sealing
taking place at from 15 to 60 seconds and at a temperature from 175 to
200 degress Fahrenheit. Thin cardboard is placed over the print to protect
its surface from the heat of the electrically heated metal surface. If any
moisture has remained in the print or mount, the print will not adhere
permanently. If the dry mounting press gets too hot, the print also will
not adhere. The great advantage of dry mounting, besides the fact that
the print lies absolutely flat, is that it seals off the back of the print and
prevents physical deterioration from setting in from the back.
A method which permits the mount to be renewed is first to dry mount
the print on a thin sheet of bristol board or on a piece of photographic
paper as described above and then, after trimming, to tip the print onto
the mount with an adhesive like rubber cement. If the mount becomes dis-
colored or broken at the comers, it may be replaced without losing the

print, an important item if you exhibit widely.
PRESENTATION 129
Format
Three factors control the best presentation standards, namely, color of

mount, texture of mount and appropriate placing of the photograph in the
format of the mount. Rough surfaces make a print look smoother, smooth
make it look rougher. A large head with a great deal of texture looks
smooth on a rough board, as do enlargements with any degree of grain,
while the texture and detail of a fine finished print may be enhanced with
a smoother mount. If possible, stock two types of mounts, to be used accord-
ing to subject and its treatment.
Placing the print in its proper space creates interesting problems.
Here again, set rules do not apply, the individual print sometimes calling
for special handling. Traditionally, we can start with the proposition that
the photograph should be placed on its mount or mat in a manner com-
parable to book page design, the top margin being the smallest, the side
margins wider, and the bottom margin the widest. The theory behind this
traditional spacing is that equal margins would be monotonous. Tlie reasons

behind the convention are many and complex. The usual proportions of
book pages in the days of the scribes were determined by the shape of
vellum, which in turn depended on the shape of the sheep it came from.
A long, relatively narrow page resulted. When papermaking mills came
into Europe in the fifteenth century, paper followed the tradition of vellum.
The invention of printing and the spread of books still was influenced by
these historical facts. Even today, paper sizes (made by machinery instead
of the old handcraft methods) are controlled by tradition, and book format
continues to follow precedent, though there is no particular esthetic war-
rant for the long, narrow page. Prints, whether of the older graphic arts
medium or of photography, have also been affected by these conditions.
Now, however, there is a trend away from the rectangle toward the square, in
such German cameras as the Tenax, Ikoflex, etc., and in typographical de-
sign for photographic books, as in the catalogue of the Walker Evans
exhibition at the Museum of Modem Art in 1939. The more nearly square
format is more sympathetic to space design as we understand it in this
period, and as it has been conceived by such a contemporary abstractionist
as Mondrian.
However, when you try to buy mounts or mats, you will run up against
13(9 A GUIDE TO BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY
tradition in a rigid mood. Mounts and mats are standardized to the old-
fashioned sixes of 14 X 10 or 16 x 20, and it is difficult to get other propor-

tions except by buying paper and having it cut to the size you want. This is
not impossible, as papers do come in other sizes than the standard book
paper sizes, notably the "elephant" which can be cut to good advantage.
I have used a 14^ x 17 inch mount, which I like for general shape. A
note: modern practice requires all prints, whether vertical or horizontal,
to be mounted with the mount or mat vertical.
If you exhibit very much, of course you may find yourself confronted
by the tyranny of custom; for museums set up specifications of sizes which

meet their installation facilities or the glass they have on hand or some
other similar external condition. Then you will simply have to mount or
mat your prints as specified. However, I feel that the reform in these mat-
ters is long overdue and hope that photographers will bring it about before
long.
In placing the print on the mount, generally, it is wise to follow a mod-
erate style, that is, one in which the print is centered, though the top
margins or the bottom margins need not be the same for all subjects. How-
ever, prints can be bled on all four sides, on three sides, on two sides, or one
side, and in all kinds of space arrangements. They can even be placed
diagonally on the mount, if there is any reason for doing so. They can be
placed off center, if that seems to emphasize the compositional pattern. The
advantage of tipping them on, as described in the last paragraph in the sec-
tion on "Mounting" is that it gives you leeway to experiment this way. Ex-
treme placing, however, is distasteful if the unusal arrangement is not called
for by the movement or the meaning of the picture. The large exhibition of
Lewis Hine's photographs, held at the Riverside Museum in 1939, showed
asymmetrical and untraditional mountings to good advantage.
In the main, simple mounting is certainly preferable to bizarre, the
mount acting as a background to the print, to bring out its qualities to best
advantage. Nothing in mounting should distract attention from the photo-
graph. For this reason, I strongly oppose borders, embossed edges, double
mounts, lines inscribed around the print, in short all the fancy parapher-
nalia invariably used to conceal the poor photograph. The commercial
ornate folders are to be avoided like the plague. If manufacturers still insist
that the taste of photographers is pathetic, it is up to photographers to clear

PRESENTATION 131
their good name, by shunning all but the simplest mounts. There are few,
if any, stock mounts worth considering, and photographers will just have
to have recourse to intelligence and ingenuity, searching out stores with good
stocks of paper, and planning their own presentation.
There are other ways of protecting and preserving photographs for
display. Varnishing and waxing serve to enhance the paper quality of the
print. Clerc (Section The drawback is that the
714) gives directions for this.
varnish or wax often turns yellow and so detracts from the original "color"
of the print. About two years ago, I had some enlargements of mine (20 x
24 and 24 x 30) mounted on masonite, bled to the edges, and sprayed with
a matte lacquer by air-brush. These prints have traveled a fair amount,
been hung a number of times, and handled considerably; yet they have stood
up very well. Paper today does not have the material richness of the old
gold chloride or platinum paper; but the lacquering seems to have the
effect of making the prints richer and more luminous.
A further note: displaying photographs in the home creates a prob-
lem. Shall you have dozens of favorite prints framed at a fair cost to your-
self, and then ever after face the difficulty of finding storage space for them?
A modem device like the Braquette, which sells for $1, is a satisfactory
solution. In my own worked out a panel for the display of photo-
studio, I
graphs, which consists of a back and moldings screwed into the wall. The
top molding is hinged and lifts up, so that prints can be changed easily.
When it is clamped down, it holds a piece of plate glass firmly in place
over the photographs. In this way I get variety and at the same time a
sense of permanence.
20. Portraiture
COUNSEL is a dangerous thing; for portraiture means many different
things to different people. To clarify confusion, we may start out with

"What does it mean to you?" Portraits range all the way from the most
casual snapshops to chichi surrealist concoctions. They can be out of focus,
inane, sentimental, disguised versions of the person, masquerades. Or they
can be a real revelation of the person, the inner life and quality revealed
through face, through pose and attitude of body, though characteristic
gesture, dress and environment.
more strenuous re-education of the eye than
Portraits require an even
other kinds of photography. When all is said and done, photography is
essentially a medium in which the eye must be coordinated and trained to
see as the lens sees, to know what it has really seen and what it wishes to
express. As a dancer's muscles and grace are developed by dancing, so
the photographer's ability to see creatively grows as the eye is trained and
becomes ever more acute, penetrating and inclusive. When a subject strikes
a responsive visual chord, the photographer's many sets of eyes come into
focus. He sees the subject itself; but at the same time he sees behind, above,
in front of and to the side of the subject simultaneously. Complex, indeed,
is the vision of the trained eye.
Apply this vision to the problem of making portraits, and what do
we find? The maker of great portraits will have to have a burning curiosity
which probes beneath the flesh to the bone and beyond that to the soul of
his sitter. He may romanticize or dramatize a person, but in no petty spirit.
The essence of the portrait is humanity, its meaning, all its thoughts, emo-
tions, characteristics. How a person's life speaks through his eyes, the
modeling of his cheekbones, the weight of his body as he sits or stands, are
subtle nuances, without which portraiture is mechanical and lifeless. In my
132
PORTRAITURE 133
portrait of Atget, I sought to evoke the weariness of this indefatigable

photographer of Paris, as if tlie slump of his shoulders visibly symbolized
the labor of thirty years tugging about his bulky 18 x 24 cm. view camera
and heavy glass plates. In fact, it was a disappointment to me when he
appeared at my studio dressed in his "best" suit, instead of in the patched,
stained clothes I had always seen him wear before.
The qualities to be sought in portraiture are three: a good likeness,
character and spontaneity. Of course, most people indulge in a certain

amount They imagine they want to see themselves as they
of self-deception.
really are; yet their subconscious censor shears away double chins, warts,
big ears, and such, so that their mental image is totally different from what
the outsider sees, and especially from what the relentless lens registers.
Here what the photographer must do is to put the sitter's best face forward,
without sacrificing all identity.
Truly, portraiture has a tradition which today takes living up to. The
early daguerreotypes, calotypes and photographs are remarkable for their
qualities of honesty and acute observation. To be sure, the excellent like-
nesses found in them are partly due to the slowness of lenses a century ago
and the resulting depth of field obtained in the pictures. But the portraits
of Hill, Nadar and Julia Margaret Cameron, to mention the three stars of
nineteenth century portraiture, are noteworthy not for technic or lack of
technic, but again because of the man (or the woman) behind the camera.
Despite difficulties, these artists with the camera captured what it takes to
make a good portrait, likeness, character, spontaneity. Mrs. Cameron's por-
traits have a spontaneity, which is as candid as the miniature camera, while
Nadar's two portraits are certainly excellent statements of character. When
we begin to analyze the value of photography, we really need to look back
a little and see what was achieved with slow lenses and clumsy machines.
There are two schools of thought in regard which may to portraiture,
be described as informal and formal. In the informal may be included
outdoor shots, where natural lighting simplifies the problem to an extent,
and indoor shots in casual, everyday surroundings, where extra artificial
lights are needed, usually with small fast hand cameras and flashlights.
The formal comprises portraits done under studio conditions, with a ground
glass camera on tripod, photofloods and studio lights, and a slower, more
carefully studied method of working. Actually, portraits outdoors may move
into the formal class, in Hill's masterpieces The Finley Children and The
Cockburn Family, while Gay Dillon's Tom (PL 51) is a simple illustration
of informal portraiture with no frills, as also in Portrait of a Writer and
Portrait of a Painter, here shown. As far as candid portraits with flash are
concerned, you will simply have to apply the technical information pre-
sented in the next two chapters to the especial problems of portraiture. The
drawback to this type of portrait is that tlie small cameras do not permit you
to "draw" your subjects, as you can with the ground glass camera.
In discussing studio portraits, my approach is not so much a genre one,
as what perhaps might be called "pure portraiture," by which is meant,
character, personality, expression, all the little things which differentiate
one person from another. The face as the focus of personality is the main
motive in portraiture, ninety per cent of the time. However, a person may
be revealed in many other ways, as in Russell Lee's Old Woman's Hands
(PL 12) or my Hands of Cocteau (PL 17) and Eyes of Audrey McMahon
(PL 30). Perhaps the best portrait ever made of me showed my feet in
"Mopassins." Generally, the face deserves most attention and should be
truthfully presented, in all its plastic complexity of structure and modeling.
Four factors are involved:
1. Mechanical: Distance of sitter from background, distance of tripod
from sitter, and height of tripod.
2. Lighting: to model the features and the planes of the face.
3. Creative: establishing an affirmative relation with the sitter.
4. Processing: the kind of negative you aim for in portraiture.

I have called the first consideration "mechanical," because it concerns
external spatial relations between subject, room or what, camera, and
photographer. Keeping in mind that the purpose of a portrait is to capture
the sitter's personality at the height of characteristic spontaneity, do not
choose a background likely to detract from the person or to dissipate the
human interest. The background should enhance the person, not be the
whole picture, like a Victorian painting of a parlor in which attention is
delighted by the furniture and drapes and ignores the people. Thus, if the
interior of a room is chosen, make sure that no conspicuous objects like
lamps, doorknobs, bookcases, potted palms, project from the subject's nose
or ears. You would not photograph Einstein against an "ad" for Vaporub
PORTRAITURE 135
in a subway you sought

car, unless of course to carry the laws of relativity
to a far-fetched imaginative comment.
Under studio conditions, general rules may be stated. The sitter should
not be too close to the background. There should be plenty of space to place
lights in back of die person as well as in front, which means that the wall
or background should be at least three feet away. This point is important
also, because it is desirable to give a sense of air around the human figure,
so that it is visualized as a solid, three-dimensional volume in space. This

does not mean that you cannot place a sitter with his head leaning directly
against a brick wâll if you so desire; but in that case, make sure that the
texture and lighting of the wall does not steal interest from the person.
Furthermore, the tone of the background should be adjusted to the
general tone of the subject. Do not have the background the same tone as
the flesh or the clothes. A plain light colored wâll can always be made to
serve and, of course, the tone of a light wall can be varied by lighting and
also by the distance the sitter is placed away from the wall. If you wish the
background darker, move the sitter farther away. Varying tones can be pro-
duced by throwing a spotlight on the background. This applies to portraits
taken in the sitter's home. Usually it is wiser to simplify the setting, al-
though a good portrait in which the person is seen in habitual surroundings

is not to be sneezed at. The reason I advise against it is that you may con-
centrate so much on the setting that the person is lost in the hypo.
The next mechanical step is to set up the tripod at the proper distance
from the sitter. Do you want a true likeness? Then place tlie camera nine
feet away, if at all possible. This is a much debated point, and many pho-
tographers deliberately get too near in order to get a bigger image on the
negative. Obviously, it is desirable to have as big an image as possible so
that necessary retouching may be done on the negative; likewise, it is almost
impossible to retouch a very small head. But you approach too near your
if
subject, you are bound to get optical distortion which subtly falsifies the
likeness. A stuffy, leathery, swollen mass results, instead of true drawing
of the face; and the sensitive eye can sense the distortion even if you cannot
explain it. Distortion is less likely with profiles, since the features are more
nearly in the same plane. Only the experienced photographer can distort
just enough to gain his effect, without losing it. Sometimes a dramatized
version of character or physiognomy is more important than likeness; but
this does not come under direct portraiture. Ralph Steiner's portrait of
"Schnozzle" Durante is a classic example of distortion for effect.
Because a big image is needed for retouching and a safely adequate
distance from the sitter is imperative for good drawing, a lens of relatively
long focal length is your logical choice. A Cooke portrait lens or a Voigt-
lander Heliar is ideal for portraits. A further argument for long focal
length is that if the camera is placed too near the figure, it tends to fatten
up the sitter.
Next on the agenda is the camera's height. Good results require that
the height be varied with each sitter. In the majority of cases, the camera
is best placed at eye level or a little higher. If the camera is too high, the
effect is to shorten the head, to exaggerate a bald spot, or to weaken an
already receding chin. The jaw line is important and should be studied
for best drawing. Raising or lowering the camera can clean up the jaw line
or give indiscreet glimpses of voluminous chins, delicately rippling. If the
neck is short, chin weak, nose too long, the camera should be placed lower
to compensate. On the other hand, if you wish to accentuate a fine set of
nostrils, place the camera lower, not for compensation, but for emphasis.
As nearly all faces are asymmetrical, it is desirable to study both sides of
the subject's face in order to photograph its more favorable side. Each
face should be carefully though quickly analyzed, and your decision as to
camera height made then. Practice, practice, and the eye strengthens its
vision!
Background, distance of sitter from background, height of camera all
settled, the next consideration is to place the image on the ground glass
with ample space about it —crowding is fatal —and with due thought for
the direction in which the sitter is looking or, better still, the direction in
which the body faces. Before you think about lighting, it is well to seat your
subject in a comfortable position with the body approximately posed as you
expect to take the picture, the final posing waiting till the last instant before
making the exposure.
First "must" for portrait lighting is: let the light be soft and diffused.
Examine faces under direct light and under diffused light, and you will
see a marked difference in the quality of flesh. Lights must not be so strong
or harsh as to make the eyes strain and blink, as if the sitter were being put
through the third degree. The best guide for portrait lighting is to observe
PORTRAITURE 137
light on the human face as it falls naturally from many sources, such as
lamps, windows, the sun. Otherwise, lighting is to be considered for its
ability to model the features to best advantage. Guard against unpleasant

shadows around the nose and eyes. High foreheads should not be too
strongly high lighted or weak chins photographed in a tapering-ofF light.
Planes in a face are interesting and need to be stressed by the way you
place your lights.
You will need one general light of fairly high power, such as a No.
2 photoflood, or several No. 1 photofloods. Whatever your main light
source, have it as strong as possible without paralyzing the sitter's eyes. For
in portraiture perhaps more than in any other kind of photography, you are
truly "painting with light." However, when I took Joyce I could not use any
lights, because of his bad eyesight, and simply had to hope for the best.
In photographing the painter Eilshemius, I had an even more difficult prob-
lem. Not only could I not use light — the house not being wired for elec-
tricity, but lighted with gas —but Eilshemius was ill, deaf and shaky. I
could not yell at him to keep still, for he could not keep still even if he
heard me. What was I to do? Just pray.
Your main light, assuming you are not dealing with special problems
like Joyce and Eilshemius, must be diffused and also reflected back onto
the shadow side of tlie subject; or a secondary light must be placed so as to
light up tlie shadow side. If high lights or accents are wanted, additional
lights (spotlights or even the little Birdseye bulbs used for theatrical flood-
lighting) may be used. To lighten the hair or dark parts of the clothing.
If you do not lighten the shadows, they will come out almost black. To avoid
this, resort to a reflector, a simple piece of white cardboard doing the trick
if nothing else is at hand. In lighting the hair, watch out for unwanted high
lights on the tip of the nose or the ear. You can tell better how the lighting
looks from the ground glass than by eye until you have trained your eye
thoroughly. When back lighting the subject, be sure no light rays strike
directly on the lens. Cheekbones are important and may be emphasized or
minimized, according to the general drawing of the face, by the way in
which the secondary lights are arranged. When using auxiliary spots, re-
member that a front light is likely to make a person look older. A low
light like stage lighting is flattering to the eyes.
To eliminate unpleasant shadows, throw a light directly on the back-

ground. Contrariwise, dramatic shadows can also be projected on the back-

ground if you study the composition and see what the shadows do to the
whole picture, including what is after all the center of interest, the sitter!
Generally, lights should be fitted with dififusers, such as the excellent profes-
sional ones of spun glass. Less expensive are buckram screens, which are
placed at some distance from the light source, giving even, soft light, though
at some cost in loss of strength of light.
In modeling the features, move the lights about, holding the reflector
at diffêrent heights. Lighting is different for every face, and you will learn
to adapt it to the person. However, if you want lighting to be perfect, you
have to sacrifice some spontaneity. That is why I prefer simple lighting.
There has to be a choice: perfect technic or perfect expression; rarely do
you get both. My choice is perfect expression. It is desirable to combine both
as much as possible; but it is harder to portray, or reveal, character than
it is to get the light just right. When you begin to work for character, you
enter the creative side of portraiture. You have to win the confidence of your
sitter, get that person to relax, to feel at ease, at home. You want natural-
ness, and you may even have to employ tricks to get a natural and charac-
teristic expression of countenance. You have to talk to the sitter and draw
him out, establish a personal, human relation, which is friendly and warm
even though temporary.
This is a last minute consideration, however. Before you can even
think of creating a rapport with the sitter, you have to do a few practical
but very necessary things, such as get the subject placed on the ground glass
and get it Always focus on the eyes. Wlio called them "the window
sharp.
of the soul?" Then, study the image to see if the rest of the figure is in
focus. Use the swings to bring them into focus, if possible. In portraiture, the
creative and the technical are thoroughly scrambled. For example, I have
just written that between perfect technic and perfect expression, I take the
latter. Now perfect expression is matter of split seconds; so the fastest film
you can get is an added help.
Lastly, the sort of negative needed for portraits is to be considered.
Because of artificial lighting and relative nearness of the camera, portraits
are contrasty as subjects, just as sun falling in a deep woods is a very con-
trasty subject. But the negative you want is a soft negative because the con-
trastiness in portraits is only what the lens sees. To the eye, human flesh,
PORTRAITURE 139
skin and hair are soft and warm. By nature and by vision, portraits are
soft subjects, though according to optics they are contrasty. To compensate

for this optical contrastiness, you have to give full exposure and minimum
development, first balancing your lighting to bring out all the roundness and
softness of your subject. To estimate exposure, do not consider merely the
head, but take a reading from the darkest area of the clothes, where tex-
ture is important. Only in fashion work, do you need to have light accents
fully in the clothes. For portraiture generally, clothes should be lighted
with an eye to characterization.
21. The Miniature Camera
THIS chapter offers a brief summary of the uses of the miniature camera
as a specialized field of photography. Apart from its scientific applications,
for which the 35 mm. camera is admirably suited, the field in which minia-
ture camera work excels and truly finds its perfect function is "candid"
photography. Today candid photography means all things to all people,
the scope of the miniature camera having been artificially widened to in-
clude functions which logically belong to other types, so that we find thou-
sands of minicam fans trying to do with the miniature camera what can only
properly be done with the "big" camera or at least with a ground glass
camera. The practice of Eliot Porter of photographing birds with a small
view camera is an excellent refutation of the mistaken idea that action can-
not be taken with anything except the 35 mm. machine.
When Dr. Bamach designed the first miniature, the Leica, in 1913,
he seemed to be perfectly aware of its function and place. He photographed
people in the streets without their knowledge, took them in natural positions,
with natural expressions, doing things that were characteristic of their
ordinary activity. In most cases, this meant a close-up or semi-close-up, of
people being taken off guard. Later on, the idea grew up (almost like
Topsy) that candid meant solely embarrassing shots such as a man eating
spaghetti and dribbling, looking like a scared camel, or what have you, of
sleeping drunks sprawled out in a subway car, of human beings at their
most unguarded moments, pathetic, grotesque or sinister. But as far as I can
see, candid photography was, is and shall be, primarily for the purpose of
capturing human, spontaneous expression and action, a glorious goal in
itself. It need not be —and should not be, if photography is anything more
than a game — a prying and peeping into life; it should be a revelation of
the immediacy of human action and emotion, not a negative, destructive,
140
'
THE MINIATURE CAMERA 141
scornful intmsion. However, what your idea of candid and human is rests
with you. After all is said and done, it is the mind behind the camera which
makes the camera count. Whether your choice and observation be one of
depth or triteness depends on you, not the camera.
The only catch is that this glorious goal of human interest and signifi-
cance is difficult to attain! So difficult, indeed, that in the large exhibitions

of hundreds of prints from miniature films, the onlooker is lucky if he
finds a half dozen truly candid shots, the subjects for which the miniature
camera is fitted. The reason is that the miniature camera had a mushroom
growth in this country, being promoted as the universal panacea of the
photographer's ills. When 35 mm. camera was introduced to the United
the
States in 1923, there was no
official welcoming committee to launch it as
the white hope of photography. Not till the thirties, in fact, did it succeed in
capturing attention and imagination.
Then it took like wildfire, like a Mississippi bubble or a Western
boom. Photographers spent sleepless nights, thinking life would be unlivable
without one, to the tune of $300. Back in the minds of many lurked the
notion that here was an easy road to photography. Away with bulky ground
glass cameras, no more wearisome chores toting tripod, plateholders and
all. The minicam was small enough to tuck away in the pocket, almost like
a fountain pen or a cardcase. In fact, I had a coat made to fit my first
miniature camera (a Leica, though I now use a Contax) and planned to
have the camera always by my The whole idea appealed to technology-
side.
minded Americans until the miniature camera became a craze. Manufac-
turers came out with countless models, most of them worthless. Furthermore,
since the fad became one of contagion more than of reason, miniature cam-
eras strayed from their basic powerful function of candid photography and
became conspicuous in design. Instead of little, black cameras, they blos-
somed forth in burnished chromium, pretty to look at, visible a mile off,
scaring away possible victims.
Yet in spite of dangerous distractions from the fundamentals of minia-
ture work, the basic value of the miniature camera remains. The advantages
are as pronounced today as ever before; likewise the disadvantages. The
advantages are lightness, compactness, rapidity of operation, adaptability
to bad light, good depth of field because of short focal length lens, hence
particular suitability to all types of night and poor light subjects. The
disadvantages are costliness, added expense for an enlarger, lack of all
adjustments, the additional care with which tiny negatives must be processed,
and most of all tlie especial expertness of use needed, as perfection of
focusing, exposing, and so forth.
It goes without saying, therefore, that the miniature camera succeeds
better in the hands of the expert than in the hands of the beginner. Anybody
just starting photography with a serious purpose who thinks that he wants
to do miniature camera work would best learn the principles of photography
first witli a larger camera, because it is much easier, and graduate later on
to the 35 mm. machine when he is qualified to make good use of it. A wide
experience with many students has convinced me that this method is to be
preferred to starting off your photographic life with one of those beautiful,
costly, intricate, minutely machined cameras, which are supposed to have
taken all the pain out of photography, but which have actually put it in.
A further word of advice has to do with tempo : as the miniature camera

can be used at high speeds for fast action under poor light, so it in turn calls
for a rapid tempo of operation. Usually, this tempo is acquired by starting

at a slower speed of operation and working up, as in practicing scales. In
fact, tempo is a far more important part of photography than people realize.
The speed of reaction time, the speed of perception, the speed of working,
all affect the result. The highest tempo of work is, of course, that of the
press photographer, who is always working at a stretch, hemmed in on one
side by the fact that he must not miss the subject and on the other by the
ubiquitous deadline.
A brief outline of procedure for miniature camera work follows. I
am limiting suggested formulas, not because there are not other good ones
on the market, but because I wish to emphasize the need for simplification
in practice. As far as processing is concerned, this refers to miniature film
from 2^4 X 3^4: down to 1 x 1.
1. Camera must be kept in perfect mechanical order.

2. Camera must be kept spotlessly clean inside. Use a good soft
brush and an ear syringe for blowing dust out of corners.
3. Camera must be held steadily. A chain tripod is recommended.
4. Button or cable release must always be pressed gently, not jerkily.
5. Thorough familiarity with camera is a prerequisite. Practice
quickly changing the shutter speeds.
6. Make a habit of giving shorter exposures with larger apertures,

and not closing down. Depth of field is not important in miniature camera
work. Stopping action and catching human interest are important.
7. Use a sunshade, nine-tenths of the time, at the very least.

8. Use fine grain film, such as Agfa Plenachrome or Eastman Pan-
atomic X.
9. Don't use a filter for candid work. Human interest rarely demands
it, and the loss in speed is crucial.
10. Full exposure and moderate development are the best guarantee
against grain. Remember, the denser the negative, the greater the grain; and
the greater the negative's contrast, the greater the grain.
11. Have a good tank for development, such as the Nikor, M M
(Miniature Marvel), F. R. Adjustable, or F. R. 35 mm. (See the reference
given in Chapter 3.)
12. Have all containers and darkroom scrupulously clean.
13. Prepare all solutions before beginning work.

14. First soak film in distilled water in the tank for three or four min-
utes before developing, to prevent the possibility of air bubbles forming,
also to promote even development.
15. Use a standard fine grain developer, such as Agfa 17 or Eastman
D76 or DK20, at 65 degrees; or if your darkroom is over 70 degrees in
temperature or the weather so hot that the 65-degree temperature is difficult
to maintain, use Harvey's panthermic 777. In every case, follow the direc-
tions carefully.
16. Gently agitate the tank at intervals of about a minute throughout
development to insure even action. Above all, do not overdevelop. In any
case, use the same formula all the time and become thoroughly familiar
with its results.
17. Use a hardening short stop bath between developing and fixing,
to toughen the film so that it will not scratch easily. This step is important
because tiny marks become major flaws in enlargements from miniature
film. The following is a good formula for the hardening bath. Potassium
chrome alum, 2 ounces; 28 per cent acetic acid, 3 ounces; distilled water,
1 quart. This makes a stock solution, which lasts well. For use, dilute 1 part
to 3 parts distilled water, and use only once.
18. Immediately after pouring out the developer from the tank, with-
out rinsing the film pour in the hardening bath. Agitate the tank gently and
thoroughly, and then leave the film in the solution for 4 minutes.
19. Next pour in hypo, using Defender I-F, which can be bought in
1-quart, 2-quart and 1-gallon packages as "777 Fixer (I-F)." This hypo
lasts well; but better use it for film only. Ten minutes should be sufficient
time for fixing. However, if the film clears in 2 minutes, leave the film in the
hypo only 6 minutes. In other words, let the film fix three times as long as it
takes for the first apparent clearing.

20. Wash the film in the tank in running water. Be sure there are
several changes of water during washing, which should be for the full 20
minutes.
21. Finally, rinse the film well with distilled water, still in the tank.
22. Do not leave the film any longer than is necessary in any of the
solutions, including water, as the gelatin tends to swell and soften and so to
create a tendency toward grain.
23. After thorough washing, the film is hung up to dry, and clips are
attached to the bottom to keep it from curling.

24. Excess moisture is gently wiped from both sides of the film (to
avoid watermarks) with clean cotton wrung out in water and used only
once.
25. Even temperature, not too hot, should be maintained throughout
the drying, else a "shoreline" may result. Also, the film should be hung up
in as dustless a place as possible. Ideally, air conditioning is called for in
miniature film processing.

26. As soon as the roll is dry, it should be cut up into separate films
if larger than 35 mm. The latter size should be cut into strips of six expo-
sures and placed separately in cellophane or glassine envelopes. Negatives

should not touch each other or abrasion is likely to take place. Film should
not be rolled up.
27. If negatives are developed to a low contrast, it is quite possible
to find a paper of medium contrast giving the best prints. Papers with a
slightly rough surface or "tooth" are suitable for enlargements from minia-
ture film; for grain in the negative will be "absorbed" by the texture of the
paper.
Miniature Cameras
The 35 mm. class worth considering

three miniature cameras in the
for serious work are the Contax, Leica and Eastman Ektra. They should be
carefully compared for ease of loading, ease of operating control, and lens
performance, before you buy one of the three. Although they are all excel-
lent machines, they seem to cancel out in some ways, a desirable feature in
one machine being balanced by a second desirable feature in another, all
perfections not being incorporated in any one type. The Contax has beautiful
simplicity of loading, with its controls streamlined, while its metal shutter
lasts the lifetime of the camera. The Leica is very compact, a favorite with
many, while the Ektra has a new lens which is the pride and joy of the
Eastman Kodak Co. This lens is chemically treated to reduce internal reflec-
tion, which gives more speed.

Above all, if you use a miniature camera, do not use it just now and
then. Take pictures by the hundreds, nay, thousands, practicing to make
perfect. If you are interested in color, the miniature camera is particularly
well suited to Kodachrome. It has many uses for science, too, as in micro-
photography and medicine. Excellent references for advanced miniature
camera work are the Leica Manual and Miniature Camera Work, the latter
out of print, but now being issued in a revised edition under the title,
Modern Camera Work.

22. Action: Flash
THERE is medium in which specialization counts for so much as

scarcely a
photography. You may be able to photograph fashion subjects, gardens,
dogs, architecture, superbly well; but that doesn't mean that you can turn
around suddenly and make good lantern slides or snappy sports pictures.
Each field you attempt should be pretty well mastered before you try an-
other; for each has special problems and technics. No field, probably, re-
quires actual experience more than action work. This is one place where
"Learn by doing" is about the only possible way of becoming expert.
There are very few directions which can help you with action work.
To be sure, whole books have been written on action alone, and there are
excellent chapters in Miniature Camera Work and Graphic Graflex Pho-
tography. Yet, to be armed with good advice culled from the experience of
others will not necessarily enable you to get good results. The best thing
you can do is to take many pictures and determine your own best procedure
from them. You will rapidly learn what not to do. My observation of stu-
dents who take up action work is that they expect the camera to do all the
work. Either they snapped the shutter a little too early or too late, missing
that peak of activity and interest, that climax of motion, which only the
photographer can select. Or they did not observe keenly enough, so that a
conspicuous but irrelevant figure got in the way at just the wrong moment,
which they did not even see as they clicked the shutter. Eternal vigilance
is certainly the price of photography, if you do not want odds and ends
straying into the picture. Here particularly a high degree of nervous and
muscular coordination is needed, with quickness of thought, manual dexterity
and such thorough familiarity with the camera's mechanism that its opera-
tion becomes almost automatic in response to highly discriminating and
willed orders from the eye and the brain.
146
ACTION: FLASH 147
To begin witli, you have infinitely more control and accurate vision if
you have a fairly sound practicing knowledge of photography. Where pos-

sible, in order to be able quickly and surely to select a background, you
need to be familiar with the particular brand of action you are photograph-
ing, slow, medium or fast. Learn to anticipate the moments of the highest
tension, the peak of activity. I do not know of another place where intense
awareness is so important unless it is on the firing line where either you
shoot accurately or are shot. The keyed-up emotion of the photographer
pursuing action at any price is like that tense, nervous skill of the surgeon
operating, finely trained, poised for his own kind of action.
The essence of photographing action is to stop motion at its most
significant, characteristic and expressive moment. Therefore, the nature of
themovement must be studied, and wherever possible that momentary lag
when motion is almost at pause should be utilized. Since film is still slow
and lighting rarely perfect, these moments of apparent equilibrium when
opposing forces seem for an instant to have brought motion to a standstill
really save the day for action shots. A hackneyed example is the often pho-
tographed subject of a pole vaulter at the top of his vault, as his body
seems to float over the crossbar. Sports subjects of all kinds may be thought
of to illustrate the point — the hurdler in mid-air, the horse just over the
hedge, the pitcher at the height of his windup before the ball leaves his
fingertips, the golfer at the top of his swing, the tennis player reaching for
the ball in his serve. Simple actions like a man walking or lighting a cigaret
have this same phase of pause or lag, when the motion is arrested to the
extent that it can be more easily stopped than at another phase of the
cycle. A complicated example of the application of this principle is to be

found in the dance photographs of Barbara Morgan (see bibliography) who
has spent several years of intensive study on the problem, without resorting
to theperhaps more mechanical aids of the stroboscope or high speed flash.
Her practice has been thoroughly to familiarize herself with the form of
the dance itself by repeated observation, then to seek to photograph still
shots which are kinetic in spirit. The standard which has controlled her
work and which may be set forth as a sensible one is not to attempt to
freeze all action but to utilize movement blur where it creates the sense of
one movement in transition to another.
As photography may be specialized into many fields, of which action
work is one, so action work in turn may be broken down into a number of
subspecialities with special study and skills. If you are photographing con-
temporary rapidfire sports, baseball, football, hockey, basketball, you need
to use a different technic and equipment than for average, casual action.
Taking dogs at dog shows is almost a subdivision of a subdivision ; and when
you come up against the nervous, highly bred pedigreed animals, you need
to be a canine psychiatrist as well as a photographer to bring home the dog.
Babies are a story in themselves, and are always wonderful; but to catch
their high moments, patience and calm are needed. Devotees of horseflesh
call out another side of photographic human nature, which in turn entails
more knowledge, more equipment and more headaches for the photographer
who practices photography for fun, not for business. If you wish to be as
serious with your hobby as professional photographers are with tlieir jobs,
you can find specialized chapters on all these and other subjects in Graphic
Graflex Photography.
Quality in the sense that it can be achieved by the big camera is not a
primary objective of action photographs, although a few genuine artists do
achieve it despite the great handicaps. To catch the subject with the proper
degree of motion is the basic consideration, with an active balance between
the frozen motion of the arrested action and that amount of movement blur
to convey the visual sensation and kinesthetic emotion of movement. Simple
technical criteria which will serve as a guide to this objective are listed
here in order of importance.
1. Get the picture sharp. To overcome this difficulty is the plague of
professional as well as amateur. A good range finder or Graflex type of
mirror which permits seeing the image and following it through help solve
the problem. Where movement is not great, it is better to close down and
give a longer exposure in order to insure sharpness. In flash work (to be
discussed later in this chapter) focusing is easier since the lens can be
closed down.
2. With faster action, be careful to catch the whole figure or group.
Don't let the subject escape the confines of your negative. If there are no
obstacles between you and your subject, withdraw to a distance so that you
will have more leeway to center your action; thereby, you will avoid losing
a few heads, arms, legs or feet. Furthermore, at a greater distance, there is
a better chance that the necessary short exposure will be sufficient.

ACTION: FLASH 149
3. For fast action, such as races, sports, dance, use a camera with a
focal plane shutter. The favorite of news photographers is the Speed Graphic,
chiefly the 4x5. However, for this work, the miniature camera with its
excellent shutter and exceptionally fast lenses is often used, either solely or
as a supplementary camera, where poor lighting conditions do not permit

another camera to be used. Where larger cameras would be taboo, the
miniature may be used because its size makes it relatively inconspicuous.
For moderate action, cameras with front between-the-lens shutters are ade-
quate. In fact, the majority of action subjects can be captured from 1/250
second down to 1/2, so that cameras of the type of Rolleiflex, Ikonta, Dear-
dorfF Triamapro, Linhof and many other hand cameras qualify.
4. Understand the nature of motion as it registers photographically.
Three factors must be considered. First, the speed of action. Is a man walk-
ing slowly or rapidly, or is he running? The speed of a rowboat, a galloping
horse, and a locomotive differs. Obviously, the faster the action the faster
the exposure needed. Second, the direction of the motion in relation to the
lens. This may be directly toward or away from the lens, diagonally or
obliquely athwart the lens, or across the lens at right angles to its axis of
sight. Exposure must be adjusted accordingly. If the action is across the
lens,you need to give it a third of the exposure given motion toward or

away from the lens. The third consideration is the distance of the camera
from the action. A much shorter exposure is needed to stop action near the
camera, say, within 10 feet, than is necessary if the action takes place 25
feet away from the camera. New York traffic photographed from a consid-
erable height can be stopped at 1/25 second. From ground level, up close,
1/200 second is by no means too fast.
In every category of action work, range of exposure varies according

to the speed of the particular action. In photographing the circus, for ex-
ample, you can give exposures all the way from 1/25 to 1/1000 second.
If a bulky slow bear is riding a bicycle, a 1/50 second exposure will do,
whereas a bareback rider may need 1/400 second. Here again the eye must
learn to discriminate.
With action photography, it is appropriate to consider flash. Indeed,
many types of action work force the photographer to underexpose negatives,
particularly when light is not favorable. Any action which takes place near
the camera, such as intimate street scenes or shots of people in the news,
is likely to be underexposed. Sports and news photographers must, there-

fore, include efficient flashlight equipment in their working kits.
Space does not permit a comprehensive survey of synchroflash work

here, which is a whole book in itself; but I shall give a few general sugges-
tions which apply simply to amateur photography. If you have not done any
flashlight work, I suggest that you begin with one bulb until you are thor-
oughly familiar with the method. Then you can go on to multiple flash.
The simplest and least expensive way to experiment is with so-called "open
flash," which is not synchronized, the shutter of the camera being first
opened, then the flash set off^, and the shutter quickly closed. You need an
electric extension cord about 25 feet long, with a push button fixture, and
a socket with reflector. Place an ordinary electric bulb in the socket, and
move the light about until you have ascertained the best angle for a single
source of light. Superior results are had if the single flashlight can be re-
flected back onto the shadow side of the subject from a light colored wall
or, better, a piece of white cardboard, held or placed so as to get the maxi-
mum reflection of light. Light reflected back like this has a diffûsed charac-
ter which softens the photograph and gives it greater roundness.
Having found the right location for the flashlight, remove the bulb and
put in a medium sized flash bulb, such as No. 2 Superflash. This should be
diff"used by placing a sheet of tissue paper over it, holding the paper in
place with a rubber band or clips. The subject should remain in the same
spot but can move freely as far as talking or lighting cigarets or such move-
ments are concerned. At just the right moment, open the shutter, push the
button, and quickly close the shutter. In open flash, the full lighting strength
of the flash is registered, while average motion is stopped. There need be
no blur in the photograph from movement during the short time while you
open and close the shutter if the lens has been shut down to, say, f/16 and
if room is only normally lighted. Open flash can be extended to the use
the
of two or more bulbs for more subtle lighting effêcts, if they are all con-
nected to the same electrical circuit.
The simplest method of working with synchroflash is to use only one
bulb in a reflector fixed on the camera and synchronized to the shutter. I
think a warning is in order here because all types of camera are not de-
signed and constructed so as to work well with the rather elaborate mechan-
ism needed for synchroflash. The shutters of many small cameras are likely
64. ART CLASS Berenice Abbott
Taken with 9x9 cm. Rolleiflex; 1/100 second; f/22; two synchronized
flash bulbs, one at camera diffused, the second bulb as close as
possible without getting within range of the lens.
65. ICE CREAM CONE W. Arthur Evans
This candid shot, made widi a miniature camera, illustrates how the
lighter and more entertaining aspects of human interest
may be captured with the 35 mm. machine.
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66. ANCIENT RUINS IN THE CANON DE CHELLE, NEW

MEXICO, 1873 T. H. O'Sullivan
Albumen print. Made byphotographer on U. S. Geologic Survey, which may be called a document
of nature, shows how photography has always been a "straight" medium.
Museum of Modem Art
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68. THIS IS SUCH A FRIENDLY TOWN, 19B Lewis W. Hine

Contact print from 5x7 negative. Hine's intuitive sense of composition,
discussed in Chapter 15, gives this social document added
weight and meaning.

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69. "DESOLATION AND HORRORS OF POVERTY" Max Yavno

Taken with 30-year-old 4x5 Century view; 6 inch Dagor lens; f/45; bulb
opening and No. 2 Wabash flash bulbs and daylight; Super Panchro Press;
Eastman D76; enlargement on Vitava Projection F2; developed in D72.
70. "TRESORS El MISERES': ST. CLOUD Eugene Atget
Document of a vanished world.

7\a. CUP OF COFFEE BREAKING Harold E. Edgerton and
K. J.
Germeshausen
Stroboscopic photograph: about 1 100,000 seconds; f/16.
Cotirtesy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7\h. LEPTOSPIRA CANICOLA

A spirochete which produces an infec-
tion in dogs. An electron micrograph,

or electron picture, taken with an elec-
tron microscope produced by the RCA
Manufacturing Company.
Courtesy of Dr. Harry E. Morton of the University

of Pennsylvania and Dr. Thomas F. Anderson, RCA
Fellow of the National Research Council
ACTION: FLASH 151
to be severely damaged by the forceful push of the electrically tripped

plunger which sets off the flash bulbs. It is important to find out first, be-
fore buying the expensive equipment, if your own camera can safely be
operated with the photoflash synchronizers on the market.
Ordinarily, the single bulb at the camera gives flat pictures so that
only subjects of inherently interesting and exciting content survive the re-
sulting monotony. But the field of action photography in which I see the
synchronized single flash giving first rate pictorial results is when it is used
with sunlight. Here, you can use the flash to great advantage and get variety
of lighting effêcts, letting the sun act as back light, side light or top light,
and using the flash bulb on the camera to bring out what would otherwise
be hidden in deep shadow. For all kinds of street action at close range, the
single bulb brings to life many a shot which would otherwise be hopelessly
thin and contrasty.
Multiple flash with synchronized equipment such as the Heiland
SOL Synchronizers use two or more bulbs for more elaborate lighting
and indoor work. Careful study of the manufacturer's directions is your best
guide here. Technical data are listed and explained at length in Synchro-
flash Photography by Willard D. Morgan, The diagrams illustrating Eliot
Elisofon's article on "Flash Photography" in the 1941 U. S. Camera annual
are helpful for the analysis required in multiple flash for professional
photography. Full exposure, determined by practice and experience, and
light development hold particularly true in flashlight work. Results are often
contrasty due to the nature of flashlight illumination; and if the lighting is
not well balanced, some areas in the picture seem to catch most of the light,
leaving the rest in shadow. These areas will be overdense and flattened out
if development is not kept to its minimum time. My experience with multiple
flash has been to discount exposure tables based on stated lighting power of
flash bulbs and to take the photograph with the bulbs closer than the dis-
tance given in the tables and at longer exposures. These tables seem to me
to be over-optimistic. As with all exposure tables, the best guide is personal
experience with given equipment.
23. Color Photography
APART from technical considerations, the principles of picturemaking

apply equally to color photography and black-and-white photography. Learn-
ing to see optically, composing the subject, heightening the expressiveness
of your material, all these problems are the same. The added feature of
color, however, creates new technical problems, perhaps the most urgent
being processing. At this stage of the evolution of color photography, this
is still a problem of the manufacturer, not of the photographer, which is
probably a blessing in disguise, although all color film processing does not
yet produce standard results. The reason is that color photography is still
in its infancy, just beginning life. The fact that it is a very healthy and
promising infant causes us to hope great things from it in the future. The
prospect of good color photographs is so alluring that with a little imagina-
tion, we can visualize truly exciting results —some day.
Whether or not we are satisfied with color photography as it exists
today depends on our standards and criteria of judgment. Some gleeful color
fans exult over results which to others seem monstrosities. Essentially our
perception of color and our emotional response to it are conditioned by two
factors, physiological and psychological. The former comprises the complex
structure and functions of the eye, as well described in Dr. Callahan's essay,
referred to in Chapter 10; as the eye sees with a more accommodating and
flexible vision than the lens does, so more subtly than the chemi-
it sees color
cal composition of color film can register it. The latter involves not only
seeing the color but the memory of color, as we have known it through our
associations with art. Color in painting is quite a different proposition from
color in photography. The physical character of pigment in paint differs
radically from the nature of color in light, especially when registered in
chemical elements. Thus when we judge the color photograph, we not only
152
COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY 153
think of how the subject looked in nature, but remember how

we also
painters throughout the centuries have rendered similar subjects. The color
photograph has to satisfy a double standard — fidelity to real life and a
recognizable approximation to traditional art. Ultimately, of course, color
photography will evolve its own esthetic (probably quite different from
that of painting) as black-and-white photography has today an esthetic not
to be confused with that of graphic art. Before this can happen, color photog-
raphy has to solve many technical problems.
It seems to me that the failure of color photographs today to satisfy
critical taste lies in the fact that the selection of color in subjects is ill-
considered. As in black-and-white photography, too often the impossible is
attempted. Generally, color photographs are not kept within the limitations
of the medium at its present stage of evolution. Even the makers of color
film warn us of its limitations: that good rendering of one color may throw
another color off, that we cannot as yet reproduce complex combinations of
colors with truth to nature. The reason is, among others, that three colors
cannot represent all the colors we see. As a matter of fact, in the best color
reproductions of paintings as many as 17 color separations may be used,
which indicates the complexity of the problem of rendering color by photo-
graphic methods. Nevertheless, color enthusiasts rush in wishfully and try
to include all colors of the rainbow, and usually colors of the most blatant
character. Here, again, the factor of human intelligence and discrimination
cannot be overrated.
I do not wish to imply that color photography is of no value. Even at
this stage in its gro\\^h, it exerts great power in the advertising field when
used by experts. It can be of even greater value in specialized fields, such
as medicine, science and art teaching. Esthetically, however, its value and
realization surely lies in the future. In fact, the growing popular interest in
color may well prove a spur to technology to improve methods and ma-
photographs will satisfy the real human need for such
terials so that color
sensuous enhancement of the picture. It is quite possible that if you have not
already worked with color, you may be attracted to it in the not too distant
future, particularly when the cost of color film comes down.
With this possibility in mind, it is well to buy new lenses which are
truly color corrected. Transverse chromatic aberration, which causes soft
def-
inition at the edges of the film is to be avoided at all costs. In
black-and-white
photography, this aberration merely results in softening of definition, where-

as with color work the different colors overlap. This leads to a chief require-
ment of color photography: great depth of field is needed in the lens; for
parts of the photograph must not be carelessly thrown out of focus, else tlie
above disagreeable overlaps of red, blue and green take place. The new
Eastman Ektar f/3.7 107-mm. lens is designed with especial attention to
the problem;it is used with the Kodachrome Professional film, 2%^ x 3^
inches.
Miniature film is still the most popular size of Kodachrome, because
at best color photography is an expensive business. Miniature is used not
only because of the element of expense, but also because since color film is
slow compared with black-and-white film, necessary depth of field and sharp
definition are more easily obtained with the short focal length lenses used on
miniature cameras. To aid in obtaining good definition, it is desirable to
use an opening not larger than f/11. If this is not possible, arrange to use
a plain black background to avoid a discolored out-of-focus background.
With color work, exposure must be well nigh perfect. This is another
argument for the use of miniature cameras. Shutters need to be more pre-
cise than in black-and-white work. Since exposure meters, judgments, shut-
ters et al. vary, how are you to get perfect exposures without considerable
experimentation? In order to use your meter accurately for color work, care-
ful notes must be made until you have established what film speed rating is
the correct one for your meter. In color photography, the reading is not
taken from the shadows — in fact, shadows should not be pronounced —but
the reading is made from a neutral gray matte cardboard about five inches
square. The meter should be held from three to five inches from the card.
The light which falls on the cardboard is the same light illuminating your
subject. The card should be held away from colored objects which would
reflect colored light on it. Eastman gives as a basic exposure for normal
subjects in full sunlight 1/25 second at f/6.3. Even after experience with
color photography exposure is gained, it is best to give a series of three
exposures, differing from each other by a factor of one-half stop. Photoelec-
tric exposure meters should be checked and calibrated by the maker for
accuracy before you start color work.
Light must be fairly flat. Wlien you have considerable experience with
color film, reasonable exceptions may be made to this rule: but generally
COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY 155
speaking, lighting must be much flatter than for black and white, which is
still the "shadow catching" branch of photography. Compared with the great
contrast permitted in black-and-white photography, the contrast in Koda-

chrome film is relatively small. Instead of exposing for shadows as in black
and white, work it is
in color lights. Therefore,
important to expose for high
the range of brightness must be equalized. An example with artificial light
may be given. First, arrange a general flat flood lighting. Then additional
lights are used to give modeling and accents. Any strong shadows cast by
these secondary lights must be relieved by lights so placed as to illuminate
the shadow areas and eliminate strong contrasts. A meter is used to check
up on the uniformity of illumination. The Weston Electrical Instrument
Corporation suggests a method of measuring range of desirable brightness

with their meter, to obtain proper exposure balance. Take readings from
various parts of the subject. Then the range of intensity should not exceed
4 to 1. In other words, the strongest high lights should be no more tlian
four times as bright as the darkest areas. For lights and filters, follow
Eastman's directions.
Despite discouraging esthetic results from color photography, due to
the physical and psychological reasons stated, the lure of color is so great
that photographers continue to plunge into this new field regardless of cost
and uncertainty. This drive of amateurs undoubtedly will lead to ever sim-
pler methods, which is necessary before color photography can become a

medium for the millions as black-and-white photography is. The essential
technical background of color temperature, pH of developer, Kelvin degrees,

color balance and the like has really nothing to do with the activities of pho-
tographers w^ho make pictures for their owti pleasure, any more than the
complicated studies of linguists need be understood by the layman who is
able to read and write quite well enough for his needs.
Aside from this elaborate theoretical setting, color photography has
suff"ered another drawback. The Kodachrome transparency may meet all
esthetic standards and gives a completely satisfying picture in color. Yet,
there is a considerable diff"erence between the pleasure gained in handling

and putting a print up on the wall and simply viewing a projected picture in
color or, even worse, seeing it tiny and imperfectly illuminated as the film
is held up to the light. Aside from the cost of color film, the added expense
of projection equipment enters into the balance sheet for color photography.
A simple, relatively inexpensive method of making color prints from

Kodachrome has, therefore, been much needed. Methods like pigment-print-
ing, imbibition and chemical toning are lengthy, complicated and difficult. To
meet this need, a new printing method has been devised, the Iso Color
Process (see Paul Outerbridge's article in U. S. Camera magazine, No. 15.
Also Julius J. Wolfson's article "The Iso Color Process" in Modern Lithog-
raphy, April, 1941). This process does not require the use of expensive
apparatus or temperature-controlled darkrooms. It does not employ a long
and involved technic. The time needed to make a print should be no more
than 40 to 50 minutes. Iso Color's 9 steps certainly seem simplicity itself.
The process, essentially, consists of printing by contact or projection

each of three color separation negatives on thin stripping film. The exposed
film is then developed in the appropriate color developer, where positive
monochrome images are produced. After fixing in bisulphited hypo, the
unwanted silver is removed in a quick bleaching procedure so that only a
transparent color image remains. The film is cleared and washed before
being stripped off from its paper base. The three layers are super-imposed
on each other, and the print is finished. Since the publication of this book,
Eastman has put on the market a new method of making positive color
prints from Kodachrome transparencies, called Minicolor from 35 mm. —
and Kotavachrome from professional Kodachrome sheet films. Processing
is done at their laboratories. Further information may be obtained from
your dealer.
The status of color photography being what it is today, it is clear that
color and black and white fill two separate needs. As yet, all subjects and
effects are not better taken in color. Just as selection of subject matter is a
major consideration in every field of photography, so is judgment needed
to determine what type of subjects are better and more fully realized in
color and what in black and white. In a similar way, still photography and
motion picture photography are often confused. Each own pur-
fulfils its
poses. \^Tiat is most important in motion pictures is motion, action. What is

most important in color photography is the impact and message of color.
24. ^'Straight" Photography
"STRAIGHT" photography is one of the major storm centers of photog-

raphy. About this word and about this school, there still rages considerable
controversy, although the style itself is certainly old enough to have at-
tained its majority. Indeed, it is not distorting truth to say that photography
throughout its existence essentially has been "straight." Despite flaws of
technical performance in early daguerreotypes and calotypes and despite
an occasional personal deviation such as Julia Margaret Cameron's prefer-
ence for a slightly out of focus lens, the photographs which have come down
to us from the past century as indubitable masterpieces are remarkable for
qualities which can only be described as truly photogenic — precision in the
rendering and definition of detail and materials, surfaces and textures; in-
stantaneity of observation; acute and faitliful presentation of what has

actually existed in the external world at a particular time and place. Brady's
Civil War photographs could not make their intense emotional appeal if we
had any idea in looking at them tliat they were doped-up fakes like Hearstian
war "atrocity" pictures.
Straight photography is, thus, a major part of the inheritance of con-
temporary photographers. If we are proud to be photographers and aware
of the honorable tradition we have inherited, this inherent character of pho-

tography is part of our equipment for using the medium. Actually, alas, too
many photographers adopt a position which can be explained by analogy:

they act as if photography had no past and almost no future, as if writers
were had been written in a thousand glorious years of
to ignore all that
English making a crass assumption that the language had been in-
letters,
vented only yesterday and for their especial, individual benefit. In this re-
spect, the kinship of photography to writing is marked. Both incur a handi-
cap but at the same time gain strength from their dual fvmction, of being
U7
languages of colloquial speech, as well as mediums for highly concentrated

and meaningful communication.
The curious thing is that photographers of every kind, from the veriest
amateur to the most highly skilled professional, accept the word "straight"
as describing a particular attitude, yet almost no one if challenged could
give an acceptable definition of the concept. Beaumont Newhall in his
Photography: A Short Critical History writes:
". . . the functional spirit caught hold of the younger generation of American
photographers. They became interested in the problem of 'straight' photography
by which meant not only the production of unretouched prints from unmanipu
is
lated negatives, but an insistence on the utmost clarity and detail of the image. . .
Edward Weston (Plate 77) and his son Brett Weston, Walker Evans (Plate 62)
Berenice Abbott (Plate 51), and Ansel Adams (Plate 52), belong to this group
Their work, like Atget's, is usually limited in its field, because their desire for pre-
cise detail necessitates small stopsand consequently long exposures. Arresting fast
action does not predominate in their work; its chief value lies in its remarkable
analysis of the face of nature and of man's work, rather than of mankind.
"Paul Strand's photographs are of a dififerent kind. Equally interested in
through his choice of lighting and understanding of his subject,
'straight' technique,
he brings out the lyrical quality of nature and of man. Texture and detail, while
remarkably rendered, are subordinated to the whole. A brilliant technician, Strand
uses every available photographic means to obtain the results he wishes. The very
color of the final print is calculated as meticulously as its precise mounting on pure
white cardboard. . . .
"The exponents of pure photography, in its contemporary sense, wishing to

get every possible advantage from their medium, make their prints mostly by con-
tact. . Necessarily the size of the picture is determined by the size of the plate;
. .
for large pictures a large camera must be employed. The 'straight' photographer
also composes his picture on the ground glass viewing screen of the camera. The
final image is unaltered, once the exposure has been made; 'cropping' or trimming
of prints is to their minds wasteful and inappropriate."
To my mind, this description is somewhat too limited, placing as it
does the emphasis on method rather than meaning. If we accept it, should
we then say that "straight" photography is merely a style, whereas "docu-
mentary" photography is a philosophy? The century -long tradition to which
I have referred suggests that straight photography is broader in its scope
than the excesses of the f/128 school, wider than false purism. We may even
argue that the fact that straight photography does not mean technic alone is
"STRAIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHY 159
proved by the work of photographers as vastly different as Cartier-Bresson

and Doris Ullman, where a kind of anti-technic revolution, conscious or
intuitive, grew up against technic without meaning or broad human emotion.
As I see straight photography, it means using the medium as itself, not
as painting or theater. Straight photography should be understood, I believe,
not as the product of a group of photographers but as a historical move-

ment expressing the interplay of forces. It was a necessary revolt from the
worst follies of pictorialism —manipulation of prints, toning, double print-
ing, fuzzy imitation of inferior Corots. In passing, I might remark it is sig-
nificant that the best informed opinion now rejects the Corot landscapes but
elevates the more plastic and realistic figure paintings of his earlier period.
In painting, even as in photography, the cycle of taste reforms itself.-
I have written that photography has always essentially been a straight

medium, judged by its Hills, Bradys, Nadars, Atgets. So far did this ten-
dency go that in 1889 P. H. Emerson wrote an obituary for photography as
art, The Death of Naturalistic Photography. Believing the essense of art to
be freedom from discipline and considering "the limitations of photography

... so great," he consigned it to the circumscribed function of being "a
true and literal scientific transcript of nature." In this judgment, Emerson
himself expressed a mechanical attitude. To oppose his position, a new
school of thought came into being, the pictorialist movement, led by Alfred
Stieglitz.
No matter that today the word "pictorial" is held in disrepute by van-

guard photographers. In its period, a half centuiy ago, it represented a
need and healthy reaction from Emerson's conception. To the pictorialists
of 1890, photography was a medium of expression not inferior to painting
or graphic art, but different. "Using the methods and materials which be-
long exclusively to photography, Stieglitz has demonstrated beyond doubt,"
wrote Paul Strand in Mss. in 1922, "that when the camera machine is guided
by a very sensitive and deeply perceptive artist, it can produce perfectly em-
bodied equivalents of unified thought and feeling. This unity may be called
a vision of life — of forces taking form in life." In this view, the machine,
the camera is "a new means of intellectual and spiritual enrichment." In
the creative role of the human being using the camera, thus lay that freedom
which Emerson felt was denied photography by its mechanical limitations.
In our period, revolt has again been necessary. Because the followers of
the early pictorialists went so far astray from the legitimate bounds of
photography, the only direction in which this revolt could take place was
toward the technical and physical qualities of the medium, which might
superficially be described as a return to Emerson's "literal scientific trans-
script of nature." In fact, we almost come back to the position implied in a

press review of 1844, in which it is reported that "The plates of the present
work are impressed by the agency of light alone, without any aid what-
soever from the artist's pencil." In discussing this rather complicated his-
torical and philosophical subject, I do so to suggest the orientation of
modem photography.
Photography is the medium par excellence of our time. As a visual
means of communication, it has no equal. Because of its value and useful-
ness, we would be very bigoted and even irresponsible to seek to legislate a
narrow perfectionism for the medium, though equally we have a duty to
combat the false Ananias in photography as well as in art. If we can make
an effective comment by cropping, dodging, spotting, distorting, that is
certainly legitimate. Photomontage has great powers of communication, as
may be observed in the work of John Heartfield. Impressionism in printing,
that is, accentuating shadows, making them blacker by more contrasty man-
ipulation or adjusting the general tone to a more psychological effect, may
be accepted —though if the overemphasis on cloud effects in a single negative
is to be deplored, what can be said of the unforgivable practice of faking
in clouds by multiple printing! What to me is anathema — a corpse-like,
outmoded hangover — is for photography to be a bad excuse for another
medium. Anything that smacks of painting, charcoal drawing, etching,
aquatint, is strictly forbidden. The slave mentality behind this falsification
is the most dangerous and important objection. Is not photography good
enough in itself, that it must be made to look like something else, sup-
posedly superior? The first thing to leave behind as excess luggage is the
notion that art is sacrosanct, that using oil paints makes the picture in itself
art. What makes art is the man who feels, thinks, labors, sweats, dreams,
hopes. This is as true with photography as any other medium.
All subject matter is open to interpretation, requires the imaginative
and intelligent objectivity of the person behind the camera. The realization
comes from selection, aiming, shooting, processing with the best technic
possible to project your comment better. But devious manipulation into the
"STRAIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHY 161
falsified, "arty" "prettiness" of petty minds is certainly not a photographic

function. Here Emerson was right: "Avoid prettiness," he wrote in 1886,
"the word looks much like pettiness, and there is but little difference be-
tween them." He wrote too what may be adopted by photographers as a
slogan and tacked up on the darkroom wall along with formulas: "The
value of a picture is not proportionate to the trouble and expense it cost
to obtain it, but to the poetry that it contains." The spontaneity of Cartier-
Bresson's Child at Play creates this poetry of photography, as a thousand
frozen miracles of technic could not. The expressive and esthetic impact of
a photograph, one might add, is not the result of a cerebral determination
to produce a work of art, but of a complex of factors, in which the suitability
of the form to the function is certainly important. O'Sullivan's early photo-
graph of Canon de Chelle, New Mexico, 1873, proves the point. It is beau-
tiful because it has fulfilled its use, recording the subject completely and
understandingly.
In considering its application to present-day work, we can see that
straight photography today exercises a corrective influence in two directions,
against the kind of repetition of picturemaking extolled by the pictorialists
who say flatly that they see no reason why a picture made in 1940 should
be any different than one made in 1904, thereby ignoring the change in
external environment, costume, transportation, let alone in human habits of
thought and social association, and against the frivolousness of those who
manipulate the medium purely for selfish ends, as in the surrealist night-
mares before mentioned. Contrasted with the horrors of sentimentality and

of pseudo-sophistication, straight photography is a clean breath of good,
fresh air. It aflirms again, as history and tradition do, the essential photo-
genic quality of photography and calls for the use of the medium without
perversion of its true character.
Nevertheless, the limitations within which straight photography has
been understood have in their turn generated revolt, the contemporary docu-
mentary movement which may be considered a revolt against the coldness
and emptiness of human content of some straight photographs. There is a
saturation point, as far as attention is concerned, in viewing still lifes of
rocks, trees, sand, ferns and all the other subjects so minutely and exquis-
itely rendered by f/64's needle-sharp precision. We live in a world of
human beings. Tlirough daguerreotypes, calotypes, tintypes, family albums
and all, photography has recognized this fact for a century. In news photog-
raphy, lively and immediate application of the medium, the fact has never
been forgotten. In "art" photography (so-called, though there should be an
injunction against the phrase), humanity has too often been left out of the
picture. The drive now is to get human beings back where they belong on
the center of the stage.
25. Documentary Photography
THE word "documentary" no less than "straight" has come to have a some-
what limited meaning when applied to photography. Yet its use in this con-
nection is of such recent date that Webster's defines the adjective thus:
"Consisting of, or in the nature, of documents; contained or certified in
writing. Of or pertaining to, or employing, documentation in literature or
art." Writing and art, yes, but no mention of photography, perhaps tlie most
documentary of all mediums. The definition for the word "document"
brings us closer to the meaning: " — in its most extended sense, including
any writing, book, or other instrument conveying information."
In this sense, we may argue that all significant works of art in any
medium are documents of their period, telling what kind of clothes people
wore,how they sheltered themselves, even to a degree what their skeletal
development was by their height measured against recognizable objects and
by the shape of their faces. Certainly, works of art tell us not only about
the manners and mores of their time, but also about the mind of their
maker. In this respect, then, documents may be either objective or subjective,
personal or social in character. In photography, the range of the document
may be from photostats of disputed legal papers to such a highly personal
and romantic expression as Stieglitz's cloud photographs, "conveying in-
formation" about cloud forms — cirrus, cumulus, nimbus or stratus — as

well as about the photographer's inner emotional life.
We may have documents of nature, as in O'Sullivan's photograph of

Canon de Chelle, New Mexico, 1873 (PL 66), which has great value as a
form of information about an important culture remain bound to change in
the course of years, as well as great value for its esthetic quality and poetry.
Porter's photographs of bird life and of nature are surely sources
of information, as well as beautiful in themselves. There can be
163
documents of people, like Nadar's portrait of Delacroix or Hill's calotypes
of the life of lisherfolk in the village of Newhaven. Atget's photographs of

Paris (see bibliography), made from before the beginning of the twentieth
century till 1927, are documents of a civilization. As his friend, M. Andre
Calmettes, wrote me, they record 'Hresors et miseres" They show the effect
of man's hands and thought on his environment, as in the photograph of
Rockefeller Center, 1932 (PI. 49), under construction, the marks of com-
pressed air drills on granite are as much a fact as the marks of wind and
rain erosion in the New Mexican canyon. Without question, the documents
of science made by photography of various kinds, stroboscope, high-speed
X-ray, electronic microphotography, are notable not only for the facts they
tell but also for a beauty which is a new esthetic expression.
What, then, is meant specifically by documentary photography in our

time? There has been a tendency to confine the movement (which I have
said was a necessary revolt from the lack of human content of much straight
photography) to work of sociological purpose, to what James Thrall Soby
in U. S. Camera magazine (No. 12) has described as "the desolation and

horrors of poverty." Steichen, in writing about "The F.S.A. Photographers"
in the 1939 U. S. Camera annual, emphasized the value of photographs
expressing this subject matter with the brusque observation: "If you are the
kind of rugged individualist who likes to say 'Am I my brother's keeper?,'
don't look at these pictures —they may change your mind." The fine pho-
tographic pictures of Dorothea Lange and Paul S. Taylor, An American
Exodus, has come out of this soil. Indeed from the beginning of the twentieth
century, the United States has had a continuous history of photographers
who sought to make the world better with their cameras, starting with that
pioneer, Lewis W. Hine, as Elizabeth McCausland points out in her article,
"Boswell of Ellis Island," in U. S. Camera magazine. No. 2.
However, there is some justice to Soby's plaint that all walks of life
should be documented as well as the underprivileged third of a nation. The

Gambler of Lisette Model (PI. 42) is surely no less interesting as a revela-
tion of human life than Russell Lee's Old Woman s Hands (PI. 12), or
Atget's "Tresors et miseres:'* St. Cloud (PI. 70); than Max Yavno's New
York slum, "Desolation and Horrors of Poverty" (PI. 69). Beaumont New-
hall's essay, "Documentary Approach to Photography," in the March, 1938,
issue of Parnassus, states a broader conception and points out the many
DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY 165
ways of usefulness as document in which photography may be put to work,

at the same time stressing the organic esthetic quality needed to enhance the
effectiveness of the documentary statement.

The battle of opinion which rages about documentary is paralleled in
the discussion of the early days of pictorialism, chronicled in the pages of
Camera Notes and Camera Work, as to whether or not photography is art.
The prime quality of photography was well stated by Shaw in 1910, when
he wrote:
"Tine, the camera will not build up a monumental fiction as Michael-
iVngelo did, or coil it cunningly into a decorative one, as Burne-Jones did.
But it will draw it as it is, in the clearest purity or the softest mystery, as
no draughtsman can or ever could. . . . Photography is so truthful — its
subjects such obvious realities and not idle fancies — that dignity is imposed
on it as effectively as it is on a church congregation."
The American painter George Luks, one of the early twentieth century
group known as the "New York Realists," had this same sense of tlie
realistic function of pictorial art when he asked how the future was to
know what we looked like, what fire engines were like, or what kind of
clothes we wore, unless the artist (for this, read "photographer") presented
truthfully what he saw.
Taft, in Photography and the American Scene, describes the historical
function of photography cogently:
"1. Such a photograph should truthfully record significant aspects of
our material culture or environment, the development of such culture or
environment, or any individual, incident, or scene of possible historic
value. . . .
"2. The photograph should be properly documented. That is, the pic-
torial record should be accompanied by a suitable contemporary descrip-
tion or caption of the subject photographed, thename of the photographer
should be given, and the date of recording should be given or established,
so that collectively there is suflBcient information to establish without ques-
tion the authenticity of the photograph."
In my documentation of Changing New York, I sought to meet these
criteria, the textby Elizabeth McCausland being planned to fulfil the sec-
ond of Taft's requirements. The growing tendency to stress appendices of
technical and related data in photographic books is part of the documentary
movement, without doubt. This sort of information has the value for the
future that the imprint of a book has, it locates the photograph in time
and space.
The emphasis of documentary photography I have said lies, not on
technical or external photographic performance in the spirit of art for art's
sake, but on human content. This conception widens out into a further phase,
stated by Lincoln Kirstein in American Photographs (see bibliography), as

follows
"The use of show us our own moral and economic
the visual arts to
situation has almost completely fallen into the hands of the photographer.
. .The facts of our homes and times, shown surgically, without the intru-
.
sion of the poet's or painter's comment or necessary distortion, are the

unique contemporary field of the photographer, whether in static print or
moving film. It is for him to fix and to show the whole aspect of our society,
the sober portrait of its stratifications, their backgrounds and embattled

contrasts. It is the camera that today reveals our disasters and our claims
to divinity." Robert Disraeli, in his chapter "The Passing Scene," in Minia-
ture Camera Work, amplifies the point.
It is significant that this function of photography was prophesied, as
it were, by Balzac, writing in 1831 in The Quest of the Absolute:
"It so happens that human life in all its aspects, wide or narrow, is so
intimately connected with architecture, that with a certain amount of ob-
servation we can usually reconstruct a bygone society from the remains of
its public monuments. From relics of household stuff", we can imagine its
owners 'in their habits as they lived.' Archeology, in fact, is to the body
social somewhat as comparative anatomy is to animal organization. A com-
plete order of things is implied by the skeleton of an ichthyosaurus. Be-
holding tlie cause, we guess the effêct, even as we proceed from the eSêct
to the cause, one deduction following another until a chain or evidence is
complete, until the man of science raises up a whole bygone world from
the dead, and discovers for us not only the features of the Past, but even
the warts upon those features."
The reason I emphasize the content of documentary photography by
these quotations is that I believe content to be the raison (Tetre of photog-
raphy, as of all methods of communication. The importance of content is
demonstrated by the fact that the photographs which have survived from
the past and which ever increase in value and prestige are those endowed
with content and documentary interest, as well as beauty. The primitive
trestle bridge of Lincoln's time (see Brady's photograph, PI. 18) is not a
beautiful object, but it is certainly a beautiful photograph, because it tells
us so poignantly about our country's technological birthpains: this is our

past as Americans, organized in a most lucid manner.
The potentiality of the camera for communication of content is almost
unlimited. The photograph, full of detail and objective, visual facts, speaks
to all people. Where language barriers impede the flow of spoken or written
ideas, the photograph is not handicapped; the eye knows no nation. Indeed,
photography may be said to be another form of transportation, because it
bridges oceans and continents, brings faraway lands close and shows us
countries and peoples inaccessible to travel. With this important objective
in mind, we ask "What is it that photography is to communicate? What
content shall it state?" The answer is implicit in what has been stated before.
Photography is to communicate the realities of life, the facts which are to
be seen everywhere about us, the beauties, the absurdities, the achievements,
the waste, of contemporary civilization.
Photography may speak of the wide miles of our American country-
side, its waving wheatfields, its great mountains and canyons, surf on a
thousand white beaches. It may speak, also, of slums, of those who are
housed in inadequate and substandard dwellings without decent plumbing,
heating or lighting. It may speak of American types — city-dwellers, share-
croppers, fruit pickers in Southern California, workers in factories, store-
keepers, pushcart vendors, middle class clubwomen, national political
conventions, an American Legion parade, cafe society, the Easter parade.
Isolating the individual from the species, it may speak intimately and
profoundly in the portrait, giving a revelation of character, a deep view
into the ultimate mystery of human personality. Photography may speak of
conflicting strata of society, our period superimposed on the previous, like
one glacial age on the previous, setting down the culture morphology of a
strange and bewildering world.
In other words, it is real life, the life you see everyday, which is excit-
ing and worthy of note. When Brady made his thousands of negatives of the
Civil War, he was photographing the realest thing that happened in his time.
the acute struggle between two ways of life, the industrial and the agrarian.
War, in all its was the outward and visible sign of conflict. In its
horrors,
wake, it left ravaged towns and fields, houses gutted by fire, dead bodies,
abandoned trenches. Here is a profound and dreadful chapter in American
history, set down in a profound and dreadful document.
Today, photographers have a world no less profound and dreadful to
record. In this crisis of world history, it is important to understand clearly
the potential function and value of the photographer as the historian of
human life. To sum up, I may quote from Newhall's Parnassus article:
"It is important to bear in mind that 'documentary' is an approach rather than

an end. Slavish imitation of the style of other workers is meaningless. Photography
has suffered from imitation almost more than the other arts; various movements
have been so blindly followed that the force of the original impetus has been lost.
'Pictorialism' had a definite esthetic place so long as was not practiced as an

it
end; the Photo-Secessionists at the turn of the century were genuinely creative. Yet
compare the plates of Camera Work with the prizewinners in pictorial salons today!
The followers have imitated the form and the technic, but they have omitted the
spirit of the original. Just within the last few years we have seen the growth of the
'candid' school from the truly amazing unposed portraits of Dr. Erich Salomon
in the late 'twenties to the most casual snapshot by any one whose pocketbook can
afford a miniature camera with an f/2 lens. Dr. Salomon's pictures were correctly
described by the editor of a London illustrated paper as 'candid,' but the majority
of similar photographs deserve no such adjective.
"And so it is with 'documentary.' Because the majority of best work has been
concerned with the homes and lives of the underprivileged, many pictures of the
down-and-out have been made as 'documentaries.' The decay of man and of his
buildings is picturesque; the texture of weathered boards and broken windowpanes
has always been particularly delightful to photograph. Eighty years ago a critic in
the Cosmopolitan Art Journal wrote: 'If asked to say what photography has best
succeeded in rendering, we should point to everything near and rough.' These things,
taken for their picturesqueness, may and often do form photographs of great beauty.
But unless they are taken with a seriously sociological purpose, they are not
documentary.
"The documentary photographer is not a mere technician. Nor is he an artist
for art's sake. His results are often brilliant technically and highly artistic, but
primarily they are pictorial reports. First and foremost he is a visualizer. He puts
into pictures what he knows about, and what he thinks of, the subject before his
camera. Before going on an assignment, he carefully studies the situation which
he is to visualize. He reads history and related subjects. He examines existing pic-
torial material for its negative and positive value — to determine what must be
re-visualized in terms of his approach to his assignment, and what has not been
visualized.
"But he will not photograph dispassionately; he will not simply illustrate his
library notes. He will put into his camera studies something of the emotion he
feels toward the problem, for he realizes that this is the most effective way to teach
the public he is addressing. After all, is not this the root meaning of the word
'document' (docere, 'to teach') ? For this reason, his pictures will have a different
and more vital quality than those of a mere technician. They will even be better
than those of a cameraman working under the direction of a sociologist, because
he understands his medium thoroughly, and is able to take advantage of its poten-
tialities while respecting its limitations."
From this point, we may proceed to a definition that the photography

which best expresses the interplay of forces in our period will be a syn-
thesis of straight and documentary, in which the excellent photogenic technic
of the former school and the human emphasis of the latter will be fused.
Before this can happen, there will need to be an improvement in materials
and equipment; for much of the coldness and lack of action of straight
photography has been due to the inability of existing film and lenses to
capture human activity and at the same time give a reasonably good photo-
graph. All these drives and objectives act as impetus to science and industry
to produce better materials, which in turn should further encourage photog-
raphers.
26. Standards for Photography
IN discussing standards for photography, I do not wish to talk about the

physical limitations of materials and equipment — the relatively slow speed
of film, the clumsiness and flimsiness of cameras, the impermanence of
papers —though these are legitimate subjects for inquiry. I wrote a lengthy
"hymn some years ago in Popular Photography
of hate" on this subject
(May, 1939), and don't feel like repeating it. The recently formed com-
mittee on standards, which works from the point of view of research and
production, should prove a good influence in raising the material standard
of photography. What I am interested in is standards as they apply to the
use and practice of photography. These are mental and emotional much
more than physical. They are important, not abstractly in themselves, but
because of their relation to the communicative purpose and content of
photography.
As a starting point for a discussion of standards in photography, I may
quote from Elizabeth McCausland's essay, "One Hundred Years of the
American Standard of Photography," in the 1940 U. S. Camera annual:
"Mystical ecstacies aside, we may define photography in clean, neat
terms, as it has been used during a hundred years on the American con-
tinent.
"Wliat are the criteria garnered from this century?

"First: A good likeness; the daguerreotype. Truth to the subject, the
sitter. Realism, honesty, tlie thing itself, not the photographer's subjective,
introverted emotion about the thing.
"Second: Fidelity to materials, textures, as hair, gravel, silk. A prime
beauty of photography, the minute rendering of textures.
"Third: A popular art. Dentists, tradesmen made daguerreotypes in
their spare time. Millions of hobbyists today tote Brownies, Kodaks,
Arguses.
170
STANDARDS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY 171
"Fourth: Constant technical growth. Faster film, more sensitive meters,

sturdier and The effort of machinery to catch
lighter tripods, Polascopes.
up with the imagination and the racing tempo of history.

"Fifth: Historical value. American Civil War. War Spain; China; —
Europe. A baby crying in the streets. Sudden death from the skies. Mis-
souri sharecroppers. Destitution on the rich American farmlands. Slums in
the shadow of Wall Street. The future will be interested.
"Sixtli: Quality. Better control of machine and material, not for
quality's own sake, but to heighten communication.

"Seventh: Truthfulness. Honesty. Fidelity. "The camera cannot lie."
But it can. Unless its user does not lie.
"Eighth: Technical standards. 'Straight' photography. 'Clear definition'

and 'brilliancy and sharpness.'
"Ninth: Subject matter. Objective reality. The world today, the world
in the grip of powerful forces, the world played upon by death, war, and
famine. The world confronting crisis.
'Tenth: Multiple reproduction. The half-tone, the power press, the

millions.
"Eleventh: For the future. An archive.
"Twelfth: Propaganda: for peace; for better housing; for public health;
for civil liberties.
"Thirteenth: Science: for human betterment.
"Fourteenth: The dimension of time: action, motion. The tempo of
our century, the acceleration of history."
The approach necessary to produce photographs which fulfil these
standards is already well defined in tlie practice of fine workers. The Civil
War photographs of Brady, the early twentieth century American document-
ary photographs of Lewis Hine, the Paris scenes of Atget, some of the
photographs published in Life— these present, whether as the result of con-
scious intention on the photographer's part or as the result of sound intui-
tion, the tradition of direct, realistic straight photography, where
the camera
is used simply and naturally as an instrument to record external reality.
Here is the new esthetic of photography,
based not on theories of trailing
clouds, angle shots, gadgets, processes, but on what the camera can
see and
set down imperishably.
Technically, standards in photography derive from an exact yet imagi-
native knowledge of the camera. Learning the medium on a view camera

or hand camera with ground glass is but the first step in a complex sequence.
After the eye has been trained to see photogenically, after creative faculties
have been disciplined to reject old conventions of the pictorial arts and to
medium, then there is still much

think and feel in terms of the photographic
to do One might be rash and say that the road to this
to achieve quality.
goal would be made easier if we could have standardization and simplifica-
tion, that much of what passes for photography today is needlessly compli-
cated by a confusion of gadgets and of counsel, not to say sales talk.

Allied with the need for simpler and more standard methods is a
psychological characteristic, which I believe is peculiar to Americans — a sort
of overtechnical neurosis. I have already referred to this in the chapter on
straight photography as an anti-technic revolution and instanced Cartier-
Bresson as a photographer who in his work protested against too mechanical
an approach to the medium. The American's respectful not to say subservient
attitude toward technic is the direct opposite of that of the vanguard Euro-
pean photographers of a decade ago who threw over technic, cameras as
machines, and shot willy-nilly their emotions onto light-sensitive gelatin
emulsion, Cartier-Bresson, Germaine KruU, Eli Lotar, among them. Atget
never trimmed a print in his life, to judge from the evidence of his almost
10,000 prints. If this is a spiritual antidote to a mechanical understanding
and use of photography, more power to them, I say.
The division still seems to exist. Are Americans to put their feelings on
a dusty shelf and tinker, tinker, eternally in the darkroom with that latest
formula or film with which the clever manufacturer has so wilily seduced
the shekels from our jeans? The slogan, "Technic for technic's sake," boils
down to a cold, intellectualized, mechanized style. Actually, after technical
mastery has been achieved, the photographer has only begun to approach
his central problem. Technic for technic's sake is like art for art's sake —
phrase of artistic isolationism, a creative escapism. Technic in photography
is like technic in industry, a means of doing something. In industry that
something may be weaving cloth, mining coal, reaping wheat, generating
electricity. In photography, the product is less tangible than a suit of clothes
or a bag of flour or a ton of coal, but nevertheless equally useful and neces-
sary to society.
In short, the something done by photography is communication. It was
STANDARDS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY 173
fashionable a dozen years ago to sneer at communication as the purpose

of art and, indeed, even to deny that art has purpose. Non-intelligibility,
non-communication were raised to ultimate ends. To say anything in a book,
a picture, a piece of music, was anathema. The artist who did so was a prig
and a prude and distinctly passe. That phase is past. Witli the rapid changes
of history in recent years, serious artists do not haggle about what art is
for or seek to abstain from human objectives in their work.
With this rebirth of interest in subject matter or content, which has

had the effect of making realism the dominant mood today, vast numbers
of people have been drawn —almost instinctively — to photography. Just as
the most exciting reading matter is to be found in the daily newspapers, so
in photographs we find the pictorial matter most sympathetic to the spirit
of our age. This is because photography's direct, realistic nature is closely
related to the scientific and technological forces which create the twentieth
century's consummate speed and dynamics. From Nadar's minute-long poses
to the split-second of candid portraiture is a measure of the present's ac-
celerated tempo. Speed or telephone, telegraph, wireless, photoelectric eye.

X-ray, TNT, airplane, stratosphere, round-the-world flights, have their visual
counterpart in speed of lenses, shutters, film, the stroboscope, high-speed
flash, electronic radiography.
The concrete image registered by the lens on film is comparable to the
factual impact of contemporary reportage on the mind. We are conditioned

to think and feel in headlines, in scraps of statistic, in slogans. Time moves,
and life moves, with an irresistible rapidity. Who has time to be a Piranesi,
faithfully setting down each crack in the stones of Rome in his engraved
plates? Yet the romantic art of the nineteenth century will not satisfy the
twentieth century. Emotion, rhetoric, Rembrandtesque light and shade, will
not serve an age at the crossroads of history. Here the camera, inescapably
realistic, fills our need. Prophets say that television will supplant the still
photograph. That may be, though the radio has not yet supplanted the news-
paper. But for the time being, photography answers the need of the present
for a means of communication, straightforward, factual, documentary, sci-
entific, realistic, truthful, honest.
What do these standards imply about a direction for photography in the

future? I have written that photography is creating a new esthetic. This is
based not only on perspective and plastic form as expressed by the lens.
but also on the new subject matter made by science.

possible in our age
When the first stroboscopic photographs were exhibited, was evident thatit
in them was to be seen a real hyperreality, a true fantasy beyond what the
subconscious could concoct. Some of Atget's photographs of reflections in
Paris shop windows had had an intuitive premonition of the bizarre juxta-
positions of objects from nature which surrealism likes to flaunt, but with
this diflference — Atget's incongruities were seen and understood from life,
not fabricated. They had the spontaneous absurdity or even madness of

nature's chaos; they were not melancholy arrangements of the paranoiac
vision. A step beyond this visual comment is the comment made by science
when it sees the unseen, by means of all the most intricate and modem
devices — ^the stroboscope and electronic radiography.
Here at last photography sees with its own eye, untouched by any
memories of how painters saw in the past. For it is true, that in photog-
raphing subjects from life— people, buildings, landscape— ^we cannot help
but be slightly influenced by the remembrance of how these subjects have
been painted through the ages. The portraits of Hill and Mrs. Cameron are
examples of how tradition imposed itself on the new art.The final liberation
of photography from the past may come through the new subject matter of
science, where there is no precedent for what is seen and photographed.
No man before photography could know what an invisible particle of silver
halide looked like. Enlarged 40,000 times, it is still less than two inches
long. In these basic forms of materials may be found the new esthetic of
photography.
I do not mean to suggest that photography will abandon its old sub-
jects. By no means. Through centuries, pictures have used the same ma-
terials, because they are essential themes of human experience. I think of
the new uses and the new themes — the unseen substances of life — as being a
widening of the scope of photography, which will react to widen the imagina-
tive approach of photographers to more usual subjects. For what our age
needs is a broad, human art, as wide as the world of human knowledge and
action; photography cannot explore too far or probe too deeply to meet this
need.
Bibliography
American Photographs. Walker Evans; with an essay by Lincoln Kirstein. New

York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1938.
An American Exodus. Dorothea Lange and Paul S. Taylor. New York: Reynal &
Hitchcock, 1939. "A record of human erosion."
Art of Retouching and Improving Negatives and Prints, The. (14th ed.) Robert
Johnson; Arthur Hammond, rev. American Photographic Publishing Co. A
last resort when the photographer has tried to produce a perfect negative with-
out the use of any crutches and now wants to salvage something of his work.
Basic Photography. "Training Manual No. 2170-5," Air Corps, War Department.
Write Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Wash-
ington, D. C, price 65 cents. The serious student can have no better reference
work. A revised edition, to be issued as Technical Manual 1-221, is in prepa-
ration.
"Boswell of Ellis Island, The." Elizabeth McCausland in U. S. Camera Magazine,
No. 2, 1939. A comprehensive account of the early work of Lewis W. Hine in
photographing immigration at its heyday.
"Camera and the Eye, The." Alston Callahan, M.D., in U. S. Camera Annual, 1941,
vol. 2, pp. 13 ff.
Changing New York. 97 photographs by Berenice Abbott; text by Elizabeth Mc-
Causland. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1939.
Complete Photographer, The. General editor, Willard D. Morgan. New York:
National Educational Alliance. Forthcoming publication to be announced. Will
contain articles by the author of A Guide to Better Photography and many
of the photographers and writers on photography referred to in this book.
Dance Photographs of Martha Graham. Barbara Morgan. New York: Duell, Sloan &
Pearce. [To be published late summer, 1941.] 150 photographs reproduced by
gravure: a photographic repertory of 16 dances. Text: introduction by Barbara
Morgan, essay on dance by Martha Graham, a biographical sketch by Frances
Hawkins, and choreographic reference data by Louis Horst.
David Octavius Hill. H. Schwarz. New York: The Viking Press, 1931. Beautiful
portraits by an early master, with documentary interest.
Death in the Making. Robert Capa. New York: Covici-Friede, 1938. A record of
the War in Spain, in photographs, with running commentary.
"Eugene Atget." Berenice Abbott in Creative Art, Sept. 1929. The first article pub-
lished in English on this French master, who photographed Paris for over thirty
years till his death in 1927.
"Eugene Atget." Berenice Abbott in V. S. Camera Magazine, Nos. 12 and 13, 1940.
A comprehensive biographical sketch.
175
Flash. Harold E. Edgerton and James R. Killian, Jr. Boston: Hale, Cushman and
Flint, 1939. Photography with the help of the stroboscopic high speed flash
technic.
"Flash Photography," Eliot Elisofon in U. S. Camera Annual, 1941, vol. I, pp.
177 fi^, A practical article on multiple flash.
Graphic Graflex Photography. Willard D. Morgan, Henry M. Lester and twenty
contributors. New York: Morgan & Lester, 1940. Contains chapter by Berenice
Abbott on "The View Camera." Covers such subjects as elementary photog-
raphy, exposure, lenses, filters, printing, Kodachrome, copying, dance, aerial,
news, synchroflash, science, children, darkrooms, speedlamps, perspective, and
identification photography.
"Iso Color Process." Paul Outerbridge. U. S. Camera Magazine, No. 15.
"Iso Color Process." Julius J. Wolfson. Modern Lithography, April 1941, Vol. 9,
No. 4, pp. 34 ff.
Kodachrome and How to Use It. Ivan Dimitri. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940.
For color photography fans.
Leica Manual, The. Morgan & Lester and contributors. New York: Morgan & Lester,
1935. Covering all phases of miniature camera work, with especial emphasis
on the Leica camera and its accessories. Subjects discussed include lenses,
filters, films, enlarging, copying, projection, color, photomicrography, infrared,
aerial, photomurals, news photography.
Men at Work. Lewis W. Hine. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1932. A pioneer
documentary photographer's photographic chronicle of the construction of the
Empire State Building.
Miniature Camera Work. Edited by Williard D. Morgan and Henry M. Lester. New
York: Morgan & Lester, 1938. Out of print. To be issued in revised edition,
with Synchroflash Photography, under new title. Modern Camera Work, in
summer, 1941.
New Cameras and Photographic Equipment. Consumers Union Reports, August,
1939, pp. 21-28.
"100 Years of the American Standard of Photography." Elizabeth McCausland in
U. S. Camera Annual, 1940, pp. 11-18. A panorama of a century by a leading
art critic and writer on photogTaphy.
Photographic Buyers' Handbook, The. A. R. Lambert and Consumers Union. New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1939. Compass and North Star to steer by in the
wilderness of photographic gadgets.
Photographic Tanks: Tanks for Roll Film. Consumers Union Reports, August, 1940,
pp. 9-11.
Photographing in Color. Paul Outerbridge. New York: Random House, 1940.
Photo-Lab-Index. Henry M. Lester. New York: Morgan & Lester, 1939. Basic set
constantly brought up to date by quarterly supplements. "The Cumulative
Formulary of Standard Recommended Photographic Processes." A two-volume
looseleaf compilation, including processing formulas of all manufacturers,
papers, filters, photographic lamps, conversion tables, film data, cine data, etc.
Photographs of Mexico. Paul Strand. New York: Virginia Stevens, 1940.
Photography and the American Scene. Robert Taft. New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1938. Source materials for understanding the American tradition
in photography.
Photography: A Short Critical History. Beaumont Newhall. New York: The Museum
of Modern Art, 1938 (revised edition). A scholarly and provocative critique
BIBLIOGRAPHY 177
by a student of photography who has since become curator of the newly formed
department of photography of the Museum of Modern Art.
Photography, Its Principles and Practice. C. B. Nebelette. New York: Van Nostrand,
1930. An excellent technical manual.
Photography: Theory and Practice. Louis Philippe Clerc. London: Pitman, 1930.
A compendium of useful information.
Ratings of Exposure Meters: Photoelectric Exposure Meters. Consumers Union Re-
ports, July 1940, pp. 7-9.
"Swing's the Thing." Edward J. Cook in Photo Technique, July and August, 1940.
Well illustrated explanation of too often ignored adjustments on view and
other ground glass cameras.
Synchro flash Photography. Willard D. Morgan. New York: Morgan & Lester, 1939.
Out of print. To be issued in revised edition, Avith Miniature Camera Work,
under new title. Modern Camera Work, in summer, 1941.
Wratten Light Filters. Eastman Kodak Co. 16th Ed., 1940.
You Have Seen Their Faces. Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell. New
York: Modern Age, 1937. Powerful documentary photographs and text, indicat-
ing the shameful poverty of the South.
Index
Abbey multiple flash, 151 Bromide paper, 76, 77, 107, 108, 116
Aberrations, 56, 62, 153 et seq. Buckram screens, 138
Accelerators, 79
Acetic acid, 35, 46, 109, 143 Cable releases, 16, 20, 142
Acid fixing powder, see Hypo Cabriolet, 101
Acid short stop bath, 35, 46, 109, 143 Callahan, Alston, Dr., 56, 152
Action photography, 83, 146 et seq. Calmettes, M. Andre, 164
Adams, Ansel, 76, 158 Calotype, 45, 133, 161
Adjustments, see Swings Camera case, 13, 20
American Photographs, 166 Camera cost, 9-11
An American Exodus, 21, 164 Camera Notes, 165
Anastigmatic lens, 62, 63, 105 Camera Work, 165
Angle of view, 22 Cameron, Julia Margaret, 133, 157, 174
Angle shots, 22, 93 Candid photography, 11, 133, 140, 141
Aperture, 60, 61, 83, 143 Canon de Chelle, New Mexico, 1873, 161,
Art Class, 100 163
Art of Retouching and Improving Nega- Carl Dial retouching fluid, 123
tives and prints. The, 120 Cartier-Bresson, 159, 161, 172
Astigmatism, 62 Chain tripod, 14, 142
Atget, Eugene, 22, 93, 98, 101, 133, 159, Changing New York, 68, 165
164, 171-174 Chaplin, Charles, 93
Chemistry, 30
Backing prints, 127 Child at Play, 161
Balzac, 26, 166 Chloride paper, 76, 77
Barnach, Dr., 140 Chlorobromide paper, 77, 107
Basic Photography, 19, 31, 35, 57, 62, 87 Chromatic aberration, 62, 63, 153
Bellows, 9, 65, 66, 106 City Lights, 93
Bethlehem, Pa., 100 Clerc, 72, 131
Between-the-lens shutter, 10, 149 Clips, 34, 48
Biconcave, 62 Coccine, 109, 114, 121, 122, 123
Biconvex, 62 Cockburn Family, The, 134
Birdseye bulbs, 137 Color, 82, 87, 88-91, 97
Blind cameras, 7, 8 Color blind film, 74
Blotters,119 Color photography, 89, 97, 152 et seq.
Bottles, 35,78 Color-sensitive film, 74, 91
Bourke-White, Margaret, 21 Coma, 62
Box camera, 6, 63 Communication, 160, 171, 172, 173
Brady, Matthew, 37, 93, 157, 159, 167, Composition, 23, 52, 54, 92 et seq., 103,
171 123, 124, 130
Braquette, 131 Condensers, 106, 107
178
INDEX 179
Consumers Union reports, 5, 17, 39 Edgerton, Harold, 72

Contact print, 43, 107 Eilshemius, Louis, 137
Contax, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 141, 145 Ektar, 154
Contrast, 9, 41, 85, 86, 113, 115, 116, Ektra, see Eastman Ektra
138, 144, 155 Electronic microphotography, 164
Contrast filters, 90, 91 Electronic radiography, 174
Convergent meniscus, 62 Elisofon, Eliot, 151
Cook, Edward J., 69 Emerson, P. H., 51, 86, 98, 159, 160, 161
Corot, 159 Emulsion, 73, 82
Correction, 62 Enlargers, 19, 104 et seq.
Country Road, 98 Enlarging, 103 et seq., see also Printing
Covering power, 59 Esthetic of photography, 171
Cropping, 104, 123, 124, 160 Etching, 121
Curvature, 62 Evans, Walker, 100, 129
Cut film, 18, 40, 41 Exposure, 15, 23, 47, 4S, 51, 58, 61, 81
et seq., 105, 117, 139, 143, 149, 154
Exposure meters, 17, 83 et seq., 154, 155
Daguerreotype, 2, 45, 133, 161, 170
Exposure tables, 151
Darkroom, 31 et seq., 49
Exposure test, 46-48, 116-117
Deardorff Triamapro, 9, 14, 65, 67, 69,
Eyes of Audrey McMahon, 134
149
Death of Naturalistic Photography, The,
159
f/64 school, 61, 161
Definition, 61, 157, 171
f/128 school, 158
Delacroix, 164
f value, 60, 61
Density, 41, 51, 107, 143
Fads, 93
Depth of field, 60, 143, 154
Falling front, 69
De Quincey, 88
Farm Security Administration, 21, 164
Desolation and Horrors of Poverty, 164
Fast film, 73, 74, 116
Developer, 35, 39, 41, 79, 80, 86, 108,
Ferrotype tins, 118, 119
114, 115, 116, 117, 143
Film, 18, 19, 39, 73 et seq.
Developing 29, 37 et seq., 51, 52, 143,
Film loading, 18
144
Film pack, 18, 40
Diaphragm, 60, 105
Filter cotton, 34
Diffusers, 106, 107, 138
Filters, 14, 15, 88 et seq., 143
Dillon, Gay, 134
Finley Children, The, 134
Disraeli, Robert, 166
Finishing, 118 et seq.
Distortion, 2, 9, 57, 59, 62, 63, 66, 67,
Flash bulb, 150, 151
135, 160
Flashlight, 150
Divergent meniscus, 62
Flexible film, 38, 73
Documentary, 20, 158, 161, 163 et seq.
Focal length, 59, 60, 136
Dodging, 50, 105, 109, 110, 114, 160
Focal plane shutter, 10, 149
Drop bed, 69
Focus, 24, 60, 61, 68, 138
Drying prints, 118, 119
Focusing cloth, 15
Dry mounting, 127, 128
Focusing film, 105
Dunes at Oceano, 99
Fogging, 23, 49, 50
Durer, 97
Folmer Graflex, see Graflex
Foregrounds, 53
Eastman, 19, 56 Format, 129
Eastman Ektra, 11, 145 Foto-flat, 127, 128
Edge intensification, 50 Fotowelder, 128
180 INDEX
Gambler, The, 96, 102, 164 Lange, Dorothea, 21, 164
General Electric recording spectral pho- Latent image, 38, 45
tometer, 91 Lateral slides, 69, 70
Genthe, Arnold, 7, 101 Lee, Russell, 21, 100, 134, 164
Glossy paper, 75, 76, 122 Leica, 5, 11, 140, 141, 145
Glossy prints, 119, 122 Leica Manual 145
Glycerin, 119 Lens, 56 et seq.
Grades of paper, 76, 114 Lens board, 105
Graduates, 33 Lens caps, 16, 64
Graphic Graflex Photography, 10, 57, 61, Lens manufacturers, 63
67, 94, 146, 148 Lens speed, 60, 83
Ground glass cameras, 8, 10, 12, 15, 24, Lens tissue, 16
40, 65, 68, 103, 133 Life and Landscape on the Norfolk
Broads, 98
Hand and stand camera, 8, 9, 10, 65 Light, 24, 54, 82, 85, 86, 88, 105
Hands of Cocteau, 99, 134 Linhof, 5, 9, 14, 67, 149
Heartfield, John, 160 Lotar, Eli, 172
Height of camera, 22, 53, 136 Luks, George, 165
Heiland SOL Synchronizers, 151
Heymanris Butcher Shop, 19, 97
McCausland, Elizabeth, 164, 165, 170
High lights, 50, 114, 137
McManigal, J. W., 21
High-speed flash, 147
Manhattan Skyline, 99
High-speed x-ray, 164
Mats, 125, 126, 130
Hill,David Octavius, 2, 93, 133, 134,
Matte paper, 75
159 164 174
Meniscus lens, 63
Hine, Lewis, 59, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 127,
Michigan Patriarch, 97, 99
130, 164, 171
Miniature camera, 7, 8, 11, 12, 89, 104,
Hurter and Driffield, 17
140 et seq., 154
Hydrochloric acid, 77, 78
Miniature Camera Work, 11, 145, 146,
Hydroquinone, 41, 115
166
Hyperreality, 174
Mini color, 156
Hypo, 39, 40, 41, 48, 79, 80
Minus exposure, 85, 86
Mixing chemicals, 78 et seq.
Ikoflex, 9, 11, 12, 129
Model, Lisette, 96, 102, 164
Ikonta, 149
14,
Modern Camera Work, 145
Interval timer, 33
Modern Lithography, 156
Iso color process, 156
Mondrian, 129
Monet, 54
Joyce, James, 137
Morgan & Lester, 10, 11, 35
Morgan, Barbara, 126, 147
Kingslake, R., 57
Morgan, Willard D., 151
Kirstein, Lincoln, 164
Mounting, 127
Kodachrome, 89, 145, 154, 155, 156
Mounts, 125, 126, 130, 131
Kotavachrome, 156
Mss., 159
Kodacoat, 32
Muriatic acid, 77
Kodak, 7
Museum of Modern Art, 126, 129
Krull, Germaine, 172
Laboratory procedure, 52 Nadar, 2, 93, 133, 159, 164, 173

Lambert, A. R., 19 Naturalistic Photography, 51
Lamp house, 105, 106 Neg-a-chart, 34
INDEX 181
Negative, 38, 45, 50, 51, 106, 107, 113, Portrait of a Writer, 134
121, 122, 138, 142 Portraiture, 66, 70, 122, 132 et seq.
Negative carrier 106 Potassium bromide, 35, 115
New coccine, see Coccine Presentation, 125 et seq.
Newhall, Beaumont, 158, 164, 168 Preservative, 79
Night View, 68, 97 Press Photographers' Association Photo-
Non-intelligibility, 173 Exhibit, 1941, 96
Normal exposure, 85 Print quality, 93
Printer, 34, 44, 46
Old Woman s Hands, 100, 134, 164 Printing, 17, 29, 43 et seq., 79, see also
Orozco, Jose Clemente, 76, 102 Enlarging
Orphan, 101, 102 Printing frame, 34, 44, 46
Orthochromatic film, 19, 35, 74, 89, 97, Printing lamps, 34
116 Printing paper, 35, 44, 45, 73, 75 et seq.,
O'Sullivan, T. H., 161, 163 107, 113 et seq.
Outerbridge, Paul, 156 Prism, 11, 58
Overexposure, see Exposure Processing, 27 et seq.
Projection paper, 104
Panchromatic film, 19, 35, 74, 89, 116 Projection printing, 104
Paris Without Signs, 96 Puck, 99, 104
Parnassus, 164, 168
Perspective, 2, 22, 53, 96 Quest of the Absolute, The, 166
Petzval, 56 Quick-set, 18
Photofloods, 133, 137
Photographic Buyers' Handbook, 5, 17, Rectilinear lens, 63
105 Reflecting cameras, 10
Photographic chemicals, 77 et seq. Refraction, 58
Photographic materials, 72 et seq. Restrainer, 79
Photography: A Short Critical History, Retouching, 109, 120
158 Retouching fluid, 122
Photography and the American Scene, Retouching materials, 121
38, 73, 120, 165 Revolving back, 69
Photography: Theory and Practice, 72 Rising front, 69
Photo-Journalism, 8 Riverside Museum, 130
Photo-Lab-Index, 31, 35, 91 Rockefeller Center, 99, 164
Photomontage, 160 Rolleicord, 11
Photo Technique, 69 Rolleiflex, 5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 149
Pictorialism, 93, 159, 165 Roll film, 2, 39
Picture planning, 25 Rotan, Thurman, 67
Pinholes, 120 Rushy Shore, A, 98
Pinhole photography, 58 Russell Sage Foundation Library, 127
Piranesi, 173
Plano-concave, 62 Safelight, 32, 44, 46, 49, 77
Plano-convex, 62 San Francisco Fire, 7, 101
Plus exposure, 85, 86 Saturated solution, 35
Poe, Edgar Allan, 93 Scale, 33, 78
Popular Photography, 5, 170 American, 38
Scientific
Porter, Eliot, 8, 67, 1040, 163 Semimatte paper, 75
Portrait lenses, 136 Shadow detail, 50, 51
Portrait lighting, 136 et seq. Shadows, 84 et seq., 137, 138
Portrait of a Painter, 134 Shaw, 165
182 INDEX
Shutter, 10, 84, 142, 150, 154 Time and temperature development, 17,
Single lens reflex cameras, 11 40
Slow film, 74 Tintype, 161
Soby, James Thrall, 164 Tom, 134
Solutions, 78 et seq. Transverse chromatic aberration, 153
Speed Graphic, 10, 14, 69, 149 Trays, 32, 39, 40
Speed of film, 83, 84 Tresors et miser es: St. Cloud, 164
Spherical aberration, 62 Triamapro, see Deardorff
Spirit levels, 17 Trimmer, 124
Spotlight, 135 Tripod, 13, 14, 16, 23, 66, 68, 69
Spot printing, 114 Twin lens reflex camera, 10, 11
Spotting, 120, 121, 160 Two tray development, 116
Standards for photography, 55, 170 et
seq. Ullman, Doris, 159
Steichen, Edward, 3, 164 Underexposure, see Exposure
Steiner, Ralph, 136 U. S. Camera, 8, 21, 57, 67, 151, 156,
Stieglitz, Alfred, 159, 163 164, 170
Stirring rod, 33 Utilo, 105
Stock Exchange, 25, 68, 100, 101
Stopping action, 23, 143 Vandivert, William, 97
Stops, 61, 62 Vanishing perspective, see Perspective
Straightening prints, 119, 120 Varnishing, 131
Straight photography, 20, 157 et seq. Vertikal-tendenz, 98, 104
Strand, Paul, 11, 44, 159 View camera, 7, 8, 12, 15, 65, 66, 94,
Stroboscope, 1, 147, 164, 173, 174 140, 172
Studio lights, 133
Sunshade, 14, 23, 143 Washing prints 48, 80
Swings, 9, 63, 65 et seq. Water filter, 35, 77
Synchroflash, 150 Watts, John, 54, 68, 100
Synchro flash Photography, 151 Waxing, 131
Syphon, 35, 48 Wellcome Calculator, 18, 84
Weston, Edward, 99
Taft, Robert, 2, 38, 73, 120, 165 Weston Electrical Instrument Corp., 155
Taking Home Work: East Side, 97 Wide-angle lens, 63, 93
Talbot, Fox, 45 Willow Street, 61
Tank, 39, 40, 143 Wolfson, Julius J., 156
Taylor, Paul S., 21, 164 Wratten Light Filters, 91
Telephotography, 91
Temperature, 41, 46, 80, 117, 143, 144 Yavno, Max, 164
Tenax, 11, 129
Tennessee Barn, 101 Zeiss Juwel, 5, 9, 67
Thermometer, 33, 40 Zeiss Tenax, 11, 129
This is Such a Friendly Town, 101 Zeiss Tessar lens, 9

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CROWN PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Third Printing, May 1945

This book has been manufactured in

PKINTKD IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

17. The Art of Printing

book possible^ including photographers who have generously provided ex-

various organizations, especially RCA, Westinghouse, Eastman, DeardorfF,

of numerous photographic publications. To Elizabeth McCausland, my

39. COUNTRY ROAD Eugene Atget

Following Page 102

Following Page 150

PHOTOGRAPHY is a new way of seeing, a new way of making pictures,

gence of fifteenth century picture-makers, i.e., painters and graphic artists.

chine and high speed flash; it is a matter of the imagination, of seeing

thereby he intensifies his picture's emotional impact.

universal appeal. Roots strike deeper, however, to wellsprings of individual

Whatever you want to do in photography — rise to professional status,

2. What Camera Shall I Use?

camera to the $300 Contax, the name of cameras is legion. Variety is

Therefore, before buying a camera, analyze what kind of photographs you

excellent reference work of this kind is the Photographic Buyers' Handbook

set standards for technical perfection in camera design and manufacture

it has compelled American photographic manufacturers to enter into the

NIGHT VIEW Berenice Abbott

Eastman ultra-speed X-ray film in a casette with Patterson

65 kilovolts (65,000 volts); Eastman X-ray developer.

Courtesy of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.

Daguerreotype. Lola Montez (1818-1861) was an Irish-born dancer,

Taken with Rolleiflex; 1 100 second; f/22; 2 flash bulbs.

Courtesy Fortune Magazine and P. Ballantine & Sons

Superplenachrome film was used to make red letters dark

11. MICHIGAN PATRIARCH William Vandivert

12. OLD WOiMANS HANDS, 1936 Russell Lee

Courtesy of the Farm Security Administration

8x10 Century Universal view camera.

How specialized we may illustrate. Are you, the reader, an architect,

Through great numbers and wide geographic distribution, they give a

miniature camera of from 1x1 inch to 21/4 x 2^ inches.

reflexes Rolleiflex and Zeiss Ikoflex.

distortion and same time to preserve depth of field. In buying a

ments or if it calls for a fast shot.

Folmer Graflex's Speed Graphic, ranging from 3% x 4^4 to in size

5x7 and in price from $113.75 to $165, occupies a commanding position

Reflecting cameras, by virtue of their construction, have the great ad-

sneezed at when one is traveling light. The miniature camera is unques-

On the whole, I should advise against starting life with a miniature

more mechanism or handling of one camera than of another.

GADGETLAND is America's happy hunting ground. In photography, the

A camera case is essential for convenience in carrying and for protec-

leather cases, to be slung by strap over the shoulder. Height of luxury is

the custom-built case, with plush-padded compartments for each item of

The problem of tripods is still to be solved. Ideally, a tripod should

sidewise as well as backward and forward, as it is not always used straight

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED? 15

two. A medium yellow for orthochromatic film and a medium yellow-green

A focusing cloth is a necessity, in my opinion, not only with view

Cable releases are practically indispensable, so if they do not come