How a “Rembrandt” Was Made

The original negative of my father was made with 5×7 Graphic camera and a Standard Orthonon plate, using a Busch Omnar F 4.5 of ten-inch focal length, at full opening. A hazy day in the country, the ground covered with snow, a south window shaded by a veranda and my father seated in front of the window about four or five feet from it, explain the lighting. No reflector was used. Camera was moved to get the desired light. Knowing him, I caught him in a favorite chair and in a characteristic position. To subdue the detail of the door and wall behind, but to suggest the depth and atmosphere of the room and to give all the lines and modeling of the face, an enlargement was made on an 11×14 sheet of P. M. C. No. 8 Bromide paper, and this was carefully inked, using the copper sulphate, salt, bichromate bleach. The aim throughout was to get a print which should be a sympathetic record of a good strong face and one which should tell of the cheerful evening of a busy life.

All my portraits are made in ordinary living-rooms or school-rooms. I rarely use any reflector, merely shifting my camera or my subject, preferably the former. For younger subjects and especially children I prefer a lighter key. Sometimes I use a soft focus lens for a very moderate degree of diffusion.

Vernon E. Duroe.