For every one of these thousands of amateurs there p142 is something to learn before he or she can succeed in producing a picture; to know how to make a photograph never comes by intuition, but must be acquired by study and practical experiment. This need not be prolonged or difficult, and the purpose of these pages is to afford the beginners that instruction, which will enable them to surmount the difficulties of a new and untried pursuit; to open up to them the knowledge that will enable them to bring the little dry plate and the quantum of pyro together, so that they may tell a story, the constantly varying changes of which will afford ever renewing delight, a pleasure gained without undue fatigue and never followed by regret or pain. One little gem of a negative or transparency will afford the maker more real pleasure, than many a costlier amusement.
THE AMATEUR OUTFIT.
The number and variety of outfits manufactured for the use of amateurs are so great that the question of selection becomes one of more than ordinary interest and importance. Indeed, this fact is impressed upon the mind and fully established when one undertakes p143 to inspect and examine the variety exhibited by one house alone, but when one has seen the stock of all the different large concerns and has examined the bewildering variety, he becomes aware of the immensity of the demand that has brought into existence such an enormous supply; for here, beside the toy outfit for the child of ten or twelve years, he will see the perfect equipment for the professional photographer, and every possible grade between, in every style of finish and ornamentation, and all supplied with so many appliances for easy handling and accurate adjustment as to astonish one at the amount of skill and ingenuity exhibited by the makers.
It is not the intention of the writer of these pages to describe this great variety of apparatus; having himself used with success and pleasure the instruments of the great house of E. & H. T. Anthony & Co., he will merely point out some of the advantages of and the valuable improvements lately added to their amateur photographic equipments.
The amateur preparing for the field will find it necessary to provide himself first with the apparatus necessary to the making of negatives; these articles constitute the viewing outfit. Having made himself familiar with the use of the camera and lens, he may next provide himself with the chemical constituents of the developer and proceed to develop his own plates. These chemicals and the necessary dishes, etc., constitute the developing outfit.
It is recommended that the beginner confine himself at first to the preliminary of selecting his views and making the exposures, taking his plates to some photographic establishment to be developed, where he p144 may learn as to the correctness of exposure, and receive such information in connection therewith as may be of benefit afterwards.
Having made himself somewhat proficient in exposing, he may then take up the development and enjoy the true delight of the amateur in witnessing the growing of the picture upon his developing plate.
With this end in view, then, we will proceed to consider, describe and explain the apparatus of an outfit, the construction thereof, and how to use the same.