CHAPTER XVIII.
PHOTOGRAPHING SHOW WINDOWS.
It is natural that all trimmers should be interested in the proper reproduction of their displays. The photograph is an imperishable evidence of the trimmer’s skill and genius. It counts more with employers than any other one thing. If you wish a position the merchant at once asks, “What kind of work can you do?” Your photograph answers the question. He cannot dispute its evidence. Besides, photographs taken at various times in your career afford a record of your progress. You can see how far you have advanced, and profit by the comparison.
There are a few points that it is well to know and remember concerning the process of photographing show windows:
If there is a broad street before your window, or an open space, it will be almost impossible to take a picture by day; for, plant your camera where you will, it is always darker in your window than it is outside, and the opposite condition should prevail. But you can get it at night. See that your electric lights, while flooding the window, are themselves hidden from the street. If you have a good lens from twenty to thirty seconds’ exposure will be enough. A lens not especially rapid will require more time. The size of the diaphragm also counts. The smaller the diaphragm, the more time is required; but the small diaphragm also gives an additional sharpness to your picture. And then, people can walk between the camera and the window without injuring the picture—provided they don’t stop short. The time required is also influenced by the rapidity and make of the plate. Therefore you have three things to consider in timing your picture—lens, plate and diaphragm.
A good time to photograph a window is early morning, on a clear day, just before sunrise. The light is strong and penetrating, and a good picture will usually result. Remember that the interior of your window must be light. If your window is darker than the street the glass acts as a mirror, reflecting everything on the opposite side of the street. If the sun shines on your window, and the opposite side of the street is dark, there will be no reflections of foreign objects in your picture.
By keeping these important items of information in mind any country photographer can get a good picture of a show window. If the photographer doesn’t know them, it would be well to call his attention to these facts. He may not have had experience in “shooting” show windows.
A method often adopted with good success is as follows: Make a cloth screen of black cambric, sufficiently large to shut off all reflections when raised before the window. Fasten the two upper corners to poles, and when about to take the picture have two men or boys raise the screen just back of the camera. All reflections will be avoided, and a clear picture result. As it is not probable many photographers will prepare such a screen, we advise trimmers to have one made, and keep in readiness for occasions when they want their windows photographed. Flashlight pictures will not avoid reflections.
You must not attempt to use the screen on windy days, however, for the wind will render it unmanageable.
A prominent decorator describes his experience in photographing windows in the following words:
“Under ordinary circumstances it is extremely difficult to photograph a window display, owing to reflections caused by dark objects in the display. These, acting in a similar manner to mercury on the back of a mirror, make the plate glass a strong reflector of objects outside the window. Frequently a photograph contains not only the window display, but trees, buildings, people, and even the camera itself, often to the total exclusion of important portions of the trim. If the glass is extra thick the reflections may be caused by a light colored display as well. Having suffered many severe disappointments in photographing my windows, I have been driven to resort to almost every known method in photography to endeavor to eliminate this very objectionable feature from my pictures. But I always met with failure until I accidentally noticed, while looking at a window one evening, that while the windows across the street were dark, and the arc lights opposite were extinguished, there was absolutely no reflection on the glass. This was, of course, a very natural circumstance, but one a person might easily overlook. As an experiment I planted my camera before the window, and made a flash light exposure of the display, only to find that in the center of the picture I had a great white blotch caused by the flash—it being reflected by the glass. Again I tried. The incandescent lights are placed in a strip running along the inside front of the window, just above the sash, and fitted with cone-shaped reflectors, which is the best system of window illumination ever used, and one that is being universally adopted. The display was a millinery window, done chiefly in white. I allowed an exposure before the camera of twenty minutes under the light ordinarily used in the window, and I got a beautiful picture entirely free from reflection.”