I’m glad to see Jacob Deschin’s article on unusual careers in photography, “This is Photography Too,” in your Jan. issue. Many people find themselves stuck with an overwhelming interest in photography and no real possibility of making a living from straight free lancing, but you point out that there is a great choice open to anyone who puts as much originality into making or finding a job as they do in making their pictures.
Although I polish my ferrotype print dryer's surface, and it has no visible scratches, often get fine scratch marks on my glossy prints. What is this caused by, and how can I remedy it? Steven Starkman, North Bergen, N.J. Take a really close look, and we’ll bet you will find some fine scratches on the metal ferrotype surface, which generally are the cause of such scratches showing up on the prints when dry.
E-6 EKTACHROME DELAY? Trade talk is that Kodak progress with the improved. or should we say revised. Ektachrome films and processing (See POP PHOTO FYI, August 1973) is good, but industry clamor may slow it down. The sale of heavy-duty lab equipment has come to creeping halt.
A forgotten philosopher once counselled young ladies that, when rape appears inevitable, they had best relax and enjoy it. The same might be said for metrication. For it is, indeed, inevitable. And high time, too! America is one of the last major societies to be without it.
I quite often get letters from anxious readers who are asking me for the best route to becoming a professional photographer. This puts me in a rather embarrassing position, since I no longer shoot assignments, except for things I cook up for POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY and its sister publications.
The metric system’s coming and the idea is that one day people all over the world will be “metrified” and talking the same measurements language. But don’t hold your breath. The day may be 10 years off. It’s not that nothing’s being done. Actually, a lot is.
The portrait 100 years ago: the eye is true index of all "passions"
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JACOB DESCHIN
Facial expression, wrote a British photographic authority about a century ago, “is the wreath that crowns the work and distinguishes good portraiture from bad,” but, he added, “if the photographer secures an agreeable expression of the mouth, he has done all that is necessary.
Flashing, Part II: How to zap out large areas without losing control
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CORA WRIGHT KENNEDY
Let's take a closer look at some special darkroom magic for subduing various black-and-white print areas. There’s more to life here than just burning-in. As indicated last month, you can flash small or large picture areas right after exposure, but before developing.
Up with darkroom creativity: try camera optics on enlarger lens
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AL FRANCEKEVICH
Most photographers quickly learn to work with lenses and optical devices when shooting pictures. They’ll use a 105-mm for head shots, a 28-mm or 35-mm for fast-breaking close-up situations. Yet, in the darkroom, all they seem to use is a 50-mm for their 35-mm work.
Using a cheap cassette field recorder? Here's how you can get the best possible sound track
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HERBERT FRIEDMAN
Most of us are familiar with Film and slide shows where an otherwise pro-quality sound track is suddenly jarred with a tinny or squeaky field-sound recording. The background music fades into a nerve-jangling wow as the field-recorded band comes into view.
What would cause a microphone to pick up hum sometimes, while it works perfectly well at other times? From constant handling it is not uncommon for the microphone cable’s shield to open at the connector, so that the center conductor is free to pick up hum.
Complete control of “feed-in” is the aim of a projection system, set up in the heart of New York, that takes an audience hourly back and forth through the city’s history. A rather rudimentary “time machine,” it takes some 40 movie and slide projectors, computer controlled; a seven-section semicircular screen plus eight small screens at the sides; a quadraphonic audio system that includes, underfoot, a speaker that is 26 ft. long with a 208 sq.-ft. mouth; four fog generators; and other assorted paraphernalia to overwhelm the audience.
Judy Dater and Jack Welpott—Photographs, Imageworks Gallery, Cambridge (Dec. 1-Jan. 3). By examining the interpretation of woman by photographers of the two major sexes it is possible to formulate some of the interpretation along sex lines.
Have you heard about the pro who didn't know how much to charge?
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If you want to sell your pictures for money or satisfaction and acceptance, there’s the Gebbie Press House Magazine Directory. It’s in its seventh edition now and is a formidable collection of where-to-try spread over 456 8½x11-in. pages.
Eliminate the variables to improve your prints, and then dry them
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EDWARD MEYERS
If you did your darkroom work with an expert looking over your shoulder, then you’d have someone to give you three-word hints such as, “Where’s your clock?”, “Wash that tray!”, “Where’s the thermometer?”, or “Dump the developer.” This could turn frustration failures into silvery successes.
When you wish upon a star (test), your dreams just aren't going to come true
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NORMAN GOLDBERG
In this issue, we deal with multilayer coating of lenses from a number of aspects. Supporting some of the statements about the merit (and/or lack of it) in multicoating any and all lenses are the results of some tests. These tests comprise one more method of lens evaluation in what seems to be a never-ending collection of test methods.
Two tiny Leicas are from Japan, but they are not the same
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SIMON NATHAN
Look closely at the two cameras above. They are the Minolta twins, and they are also known as the Leica twins. You know by now that Minolta is making the precision body of the new mini-Leica, and this camera carries the firm name of the two firms.
The world of ballet, as seen through the eyes of a romanticist
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RENEE BRUNS
Who has not seen the Hamilton Girl—that fair-skinned woman-child enveloped in transparent garbs, her gaze suggesting contemplation? Thanks to a very eager international photo press that has lavished loving attention on her form, the Hamilton Girl has become almost as easily identifiable as the label on a Campbell’s soup can.
Now that the dust has settled a bit, it seems a good time to explore the most current rage—multilayer lens coating. Most of us first heard the phrase when Asahi introduced their Super-Multi-Coated Takumar on the Spotmatic II in January of 1971.
Since most of the things we photograph, including people, have curved surfaces, it is wise to know what light does to them. In the lesson on plane surfaces I told you some of the things light and darkness do together: create or destroy tone, create or destroy the illusion of volume, create or destroy space and size, create or destroy the illusion of time, and create or destroy visibility and the illusion of reality.
Dogs are unquestionably among the most irresistible photographic subjects on earth. Usually unselfconscious and full of expressiveness, warmth, and general good vibrations, those furry creatures probably appear in pictures everywhere almost as often as children, flowers, and sunsets.
Seen and used with imagination, they ma fair-weather shooting one of photography's biggest turn-ons
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RICHARD BUSCH
Photographic textbooks and teachers often give caution to amateurs about staying away from contrasty sunlight, which as a general rule makes sense. It seems to be a fact of photographic life that most novices confine their picture-taking activities to fair-weather days, particularly when the sun is high in the sky.
For the past 18 years Ruth Orkin has been living in a 15th-floor apartment on New York’s Central Park West with a magnificent view overlooking the park and the skyline to the east and south. She keeps her Nikon camera in a case by the window, and always has it loaded with color film.
photographers are frequently the first to benefit from the application of space-age technology to the production of consumer products. But in our rush to snap up the latest in advanced photographic gadgetry, we sometimes overlook time-proved techniques.
The Rapid Omega 200 tries to pack as many features as possible into one neat package, and for the most part, it has succeeded. The camera has been planned by a group obviously looking toward every contingency that the professional or advanced amateur might encounter.
While handling these lenses in the lab, it seemed that the controls for manually stopping the aperture down, and releasing the bayonet latch felt sharp and unnecessarily large. However, the test shots were made outdoors by a cold, snowy lakefront, and medium-weight gloves were an absolute “must.”
Know your final print tones before you take the picture
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FRED PICKER
Most photographers have a few “lucky" negatives that make beautiful, rich prints with a minimum of effort. I hose negatives, through a fortuitous combination of circumstances, received precisely the right exposure for the scene, the correct development time for the contrast range of the scene, and the characteristics of the photographer's enlarger, chemicals, paper, etc.
What to do when the setting is silent and your subject has nothing to say
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DON SUTHERLAND
When the railroaders put up signs that said “stop, look, and listen,” they must have had super 8 sound movies in mind, especially when used by amateurs. Our current explosion in sound equipment has sent all manner of interested parties scrambling off to their dealers so they can get hold of this wild new stuff, and to this I say: “Right on.”
The Whitney Museum of American Art has published a telephone-and-address book that is itself a unique work of art. Introducing each alphabetical category is the full-page portrait of an artist: Richard Anuszkiewicz for the As, Malcolm Bailey for the Bs, etc.—but portrait isn't really the right word for it.
Meet a 5-ft. 1-in. Texan who was the Robert Capa of the Mexican Revolution
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WAYNE MCCLINTOCK
Photographic coverage of the Vietnam War helped to keep the public abreast of a conflict that varied from moment to moment, and viewers gave no thought to the tremendous work it represented—but the first photo coverage of a war that was “almost" immediate was the picturing of the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
ARIZONA Northlight. Fine Arts Annex. Arizona State University. Tempe: monthly exhibits ARKANSAS The Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Park, Little Rock: Executive Order 9066 (California Historical Society), through March 26 CALIFORNIA The Studio Gallery, Main St., Bolinas: Lewis Baltz, through March 22.
Yashica Electro 35 FC, equipped with a 40-mm Yashinon-DX f/2.8 lens, has tri-zone focusing symbols and a rangefinder, magnetic (buzzless) self-timer, fully automatic electronic exposure control based on preselected shutter speed, ASA range of 25-800, shutter speeds of 4 to 1/1,000 sec, and an automatic flash system based on setting the guide number scale and flash symbol setting (which automatically adjusts shutter speed to 1/30 sec and sets the “X" contact to stand-by).
Cut down on fumbling with lens hoods and lenses by keeping them together, protected from dust with antistatic, plastic head-rest covers used by dentists. Available at dental supply houses, they’re elasticized to slip on and off easily. Rear lens caps keep the other end clean.
A Century of Cameras, by Eaton S. Lothrop, Jr. New York: Morgan & Morgan, Inc., 1973; hardcover, $12. Once in a great while, a book comes along that can be pegged as an “instant classic.” A Century of Cameras is such a book (although its field—historic cameras—is hardly crowded with classic books).
POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY'S travel department maintains a complete up-to-date world-wide listing of travel information sources — countries, states and general areas. This page has been designed to help readers plan their vacations, photo tours, and week-end trips, by making it easy for them to obtain current news about any point on the globe.
A Time to be Born, A Time to Die: the images and insights of Ecclesiastes for today, by Robert L. Short. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1973; hardcover, $5.95; soft-cover, $2.25. Were Ecclesiastes alive today, he probably would be a still photographer, according to author/photographer Robert L. Short who dubs him “the Henri Cartier-Bresson of the Old Testament.”
Substantial cash savings can be realized if you make sets of Kodak Polycontrast printing filters. Five-in.-sq. Kodak PC gelatins are cut into four equal squares and mounted in 2¼x2¼ slide mounts, yielding four complete sets. By sharing the extra sets with friends, your original investment can be reduced by about three-fourths.
A library of useful information is available to photographers free, thanks to the instructional literature many manufacturers offer. There are, no doubt, several booklets described here that will interest you. Just enclose 10¢ in coin or stamps to cover handling and you can circle as many choices as you wish on the coupon below.
Wood duckboards, used in many dark-room sinks, absorb processing solutions, retain moisture, and tend to encourage mold. Translucent, glass-fibered paneling used for outdoor dividers and in patio construction, does not absorb moisture, thereby making it a simple task to rinse away spilled processing solutions.
I own a Tessina camera, and am having no luck in getting film for it since moving here. Could you possibly come up with the name of a supplier? Cheryl Merriworth, Council Bluffs, Ia. Karl Heitz, Inc., 979 Third Ave., New York N.Y. 10022, the distributor of the Tessina, can help you get film inside your cameras’ special cassettes.