Dear Sir : I will probably not be the only one to write to you about your Pix-Quix in the August issue. The first question was, "You have just taken a picture of a car, using a focal-plane shutter moving from top to bottom. The print will show the car . . ." (and your answer was) "leaning forward."
MEMBERS of the Los Angeles Press Photographers Association entertained their bosses recently at the sixth annual Editors' Dinner in Los Angeles' Town House. Frank Filan, staffer for Wide World Photos, was installed as president. The affair was attended by newspaper executives, city, county, and state officials who were entertained by the association and a score of celebrities.
THE eighteen pages of pictures and text on the atom, in Life's May 16 issue, are perhaps a perfect example of the more-than-blood-tears-sweat that go into the making of an important picture story. FRITZ GORO and Life science writer Bob Campbell worked for months, Campbell reading more than 100 books on the subject, and Goro attempting to correlate physics and optics.
A round-up of recent developments and significant trends
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NORMAN C. LIPTON
Safelight Safety. Experienced darkroom workers know there is no such thing as completely safe safelighting. The lamp in the safelight fixture may be too bright or the fixture itself may be too close to the work-table. Perhaps the colored filter material has begun to deteriorate.
I HAVE BEEN guilty of starting off an instruction session on enlarging with the statement: "I'm the sort of a person that the gadget manufacturers should subsidize to keep my mouth shut," and then going on to show few and simple items of equipment are needed to make a print.
Here's another of Popko's inimitable photographic puzzles, guaranteed to amuse, if not confuse you. Sharpen up a pencil, summon your wits, and hit the deck. Place a check mark in the square before the answer you feel is most like the right one, and when you've finished, turn to page 143 to learn the correct ones.
CAMERA owners who become interested in extending the scope of their picture making beyond the snapshot stage soon discover the importance of the darkroom as a means toward that end. Many amateurs, as well as most professionals, look upon their negatives simply as tools with which to work, and more often than not the prints from those negatives have benefited from one or more of the many controls which the darkroom worker has at his command.
Jules and Beatrice Pinsley combine their talents and technical know-how to create
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ASSIGNED to produce an illustration for the cover of a foreign magazine, Jules and Beatrice Pinsley, talented New York photographic team, planned this effective shot. In order to achieve the desired result, it was necessary to resort to montage, and the final transparency was a combination of three separate exposures on a single sheet of 8×10 Kodachrome.
With ordinary equipment found in the average amateur darkroom plus a suitable negative, Wendell Merrill shows you how easy it is to make
FOLLOW THESE EASY STEPS IN CREATING GIANT PRINTS
USE A CAMERA CADDY BOY
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MOST every photographer has one or more favorite pictures that he has taken, and with which he would like to live more intimately. He also usually has a choice spot in his living room, hall, or den at home where he can display such a print to good advantage.
Check your negative files for discards that might be combined to make striking pictures, as did the author
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ROBERT B. KOHL
NEXT time the clouds gather overhead and spoil a day's shooting for you, study your collection of discarded negatives that you've accumulated around the darkroom for just such a rainy day. Some of the most interesting compositions and unusual pictures can be created by double-printing negatives which could never solo in the salons.
Here's a simple darkroom trick that offers a sure cure for "bald skies"
HOW CLOUDS ARE DOUBLE PRINTED IN ENLARGING
PHOTOGRAPHY TAKES TO VIDEO
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ERIC M. SANFORD
IT’S a great day for pictures whenever you find a scenic setting capped by a "photographer's sky" —fluffy white clouds that stand out prominently against a glorious blue background. Unfortunately, such a treat occurs all too seldom, and when it does, you usually can consider yourself lucky.
Standardize your darkroom procedure and watch the fine quality in your negatives come to life in your prints
OTHER FACTORS affecting print quality
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OTHA C. SPENCER
HOW can I make prints with the quality and sparkle obtained by the professional photographer? This is one of the questions most often asked of a photography teacher. "I have good negatives, good equipment; I use fresh chemicals and paper, and yet my prints are usually gray and dull when finished.
This ace photographer makes the darkroom the keystone of his huge illustration studio
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MILDRED STAGG
"TURN 'EM OFF!" is the signal that Tony Venti has finished shooting an illustration. The lights die and the models leave the set, but Venti's job is only half finished. There is no processing assembly line in this studio, although it is one of the largest in the profession.
The Air Force “bombs” New York after dark, but it drops only flares—a spectacular experiment in night aerial photography
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NEW YORKERS were given a thrill recently when they witnessed a large-scale experiment in night aerial photography as the Air Force tested its newly-developed flashbomb. A B-17 bomber flying the length of Manhattan dropped a series of 50,000,000-candle-power flares at four second intervals.
This method of making fine negatives, used by many professionals, is practical and easy. The author explains the simple procedure step by step
The Exposure-Development Relationship
The Desensitizer
The Safelight
Procedure
Inspection Development of Roll Film
Conclusion
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GEORGE JEWELL BAKER
SO YOUR’E having negative troubles? Let’s see what can be done to remedy the situation. Hmmm! In this one, the highlight is blocked and the shadow areas are clear; you’ve underexposed and overdeveloped. And this one is heavy and flat, although shadow areas are full and rich.
Give your photo lab a good fall housecleaning for trouble-free processing, and more fun, too
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SANDI BURPEE
ARE you having troubles with your negatives and prints—pinholes, dust specks, and other unaccountable blemishes? If you have to spend as much time spotting a print as you did in making it, then some drastic measures are in order. Everyone knows that dust, dirt, spilled chemicals, cigarette ashes, and excess junk in the darkroom are the photographer’s worst enemies.
This expert cuts through the mystery surrounding partial reversal to show you how to capture its subtle effects
FOLLOW THIS STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE TO ACHIEVE THE DELICATE EFFECTS THAT TYPIFY SOLARIZATION
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GERTRUDE FEHR
NORMALLY we expect to have a white object appear white in a picture, and a black object to appear black—but there are a few interesting processes in which this does not always hold true. Most effective and artistically useful among them is an effect which is created by partial reversal during development of the negative.
THE average camera owner who finds a good subject is usually content to shoot one or two pictures of it. This is not so, however, in the case of Mike Roberts, well known San Francisco professional photographer. Although he has worked in forty states and has made seventeen trips on assignments to the Hawaiian Islands, Mexico, Canada, and Alaska, one of the most intriguing picture subjects he has found—and perhaps his favorite—is the famous San Francisco Bay Bridge.
THE negative is not the end result in photography. It is simply a tool used in making the iinal picture. Most print makers know the ordinary tricks of cropping and local control, but there are other operations and processes that can be employed to create added interest and unusual results.
Strange phenomena, usually annoying but occasionally beautiful, may result if direct light strikes the lens during the exposure
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ONE OF THE basic rules of good photo technique demands that direct light (as opposed to reflected light) should never enter the lens during the exposure. If it does, odd forms will "mysteriously" appear in the photograph though definitely not apparent in the subject.
CLEVER GADGETS MAKE THIS SMALL DARKROOM DO A BIG JOB
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A GADGETEER’S DREAM—that’s the basement darkroom where Robert Hertzberg, busy New York free lance, turns out the pictures that illustrate his articles for radio, home mechanics, and photo magazines. Hertzberg is one of those fellows who don’t mind taking a few minutes or hours to design and build any device that will make darkroom work easier.
Extreme sharpness in both near and far objects is attained easily by K. Chester of New York, who uses a flash trick to combine two separate exposures on one sheet of film
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M. L. Fisher
THE quest for foreground-to-background sharpness in pictures has led many amateurs and professionals along various photographic paths. Realism, obtained by tremendous depth of field, gives a photograph more impact. And it is that quality which all of us want our work to possess.
You can easily build this portable work table which will convert your bathroom into an orderly photo lab
BODINE CLICKS AGAIN!
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Adeleum Seckendorff
ARE you one of the casual amateur photographers who is missing out on the fun of printing your own shots because of space limitations? If so, here’s a little gimmick that will literally "put you in business." It is an easily-made, portable darkroom table which fits over your bathtub—the answer to the amateur's prayer for unhampered working space and the chance to systematize his darkroom work.
Introducing this darkroom picture section is Cooper Jenkin’s unusual study which looks like it might have been photographed in a range of mountains on another planet. Not only is this print unconventional from the standpoint of its subject matter, but also because a camera wasn’t used to record it.
Color slides are kept best when they are filed with some continuity as to subject matter, time, and place. Yet, at times it is desirable to show only a selection of the best slides available. At such times, it is difficult and time-consuming to go through the entire slide collection to find those “best” shots.
Want to pep up your movies? Then try filming your legends on inexpensive contrast stock
FACTORS THAT WILL AFFECT THE SUCCESS OF YOUR TITLES
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FELIX ZELENKA
CAN you remember back to the heyday of the silent professional movie? If so, you'll recall that the conventional title contained white letters on a dark or black background. The white on black was considered to be the easiest to read as well as the least apt to cause eyestrain.
It's just as easy to shoot good movies as stills once you understand how cine methods differ from those you now use
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GERALD HIRSCHFELD
ANY AMATEUR who has branched from still photography into movie making will tell you that the step is an easy one. Once you get the hang of using a movie camera the rest comes naturally. If you have been a still photographer for any length of time you should recognize immediately that there is a difference in still and movie procedure.
MODERN HAWAII. I reel. Sale $45, black-and-white; $90, color. Coronet Films, Coronet Building, Chicago I, III. This film moves you to the "Paradise of the Pacific" to bring romantic Hawaii in all its natural splendor. The camera catches Hawaii as it lives and prospers, as a scenic haven . . . economic asset . . . transportation crossroads . . . outpost fortress . . . ranks among the most important possessions of the United States.
A new field of opportunity has been opened to amateur movie photographers. Telenews Productions, newsreel affiliate of the International News Service and International News Photos, is willing to purchase up-to-the-minute 16-mm films on subjects of national news interest submitted by nonstaff cameramen—for inclusion in its daily newsreel releases.
Few items of photographic interest have recently had so much attention as the 35mm Kine Exakta camera. These cameras are manufactured at the famous Ihagee plant in Dresden, which lies in the Russian occupied zone of Germany. Long known as one of the very finest of miniatures, the Kine has many features not found on any other camera, regardless of price.
THE MASTER GUIDE TO RELIGIOUS FILMS, 1948-9. Published by Selected Films Release Service, Whittier, Calif. Paper bound, 8½×10¾, 264 pages, $2.50. Contained in this volume are release sheets for most of the available 16-mm religious motion pictures.
GRAFLEX, INC., announces the 1949 Graflex Photo Contest, which opens October 1 and closes December 1, 1949. Pictures taken since December 1, 1948, with any Graflex-made camera are eligible for this contest. Prizes totalling $5,000 will be awarded.
The beautiful color transparency from which this month's eye-catching cover illustration is reproduced was made by Harvey White for Bielefeld Studios, Inc., in Chicago. The model who posed is lovely Lee Lampman. White's camera was an 8×10 Eastman view; the lens a 14-in.
All who are burdened with the responsibility of scheduling and maintaining club programs will greet with genuine interest the recently-formed Photographic Speakers' Bureau, which functions under the direction of J. Elwood Armstrong, APSA, of Detroit, Mich.
13th Milwaukee International Salon*, Photo Pictorialists of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On exhibit at Milwaukee Art Institute Sept. 17 to Oct. 3. Northwest International Salon of Photography*, Western Washington Fair Association and Washington Council of Camera Clubs, Auburn, Washington.
I. (4) an attachment for enlargers to adapt them for color work. II. (2) No. Take two single pictures with a stereoscopic camera. III. (3) a bright spot of light under the enlarger. Think up some questions yourself. POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY will send you three dollars and the original Popko drawing, suitable for framing, which is used to illustrate your quiz question. So send in your pet problems, and let's see if you can stump the experts.
FOR SILENT SHOWINGS, the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester 4, N. Y., introduces its new S-mm Kodascope Eight-71 Projector which is equipped with a coated 1-inch f/1.6 Kodak Ektanon Projection lens and a 750-watt lamp. A 1000-watt lamp can be used if desired.