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.
He Thought She Was Crazy
See [Arches of the Municipal Building]
“Arches of the Municipal Building of New York” was taken on a Standard Orthonon plate, about 9:30 A.M., with a twenty minute exposure. Instead of a lens, the photographer used a piece of black [pg 12] paper pierced with a pin. A wise passer-by who knew a thing or two about photography noticed the absence of the lens. “How do you think you are going to take a picture without a lens?” he asked. “With a pin-hole,” she replied. He watched her with pitying interest. “She thinks she is taking a picture,” he said to another expert, tapping his head significantly.
Antoinette B. Hervey.
The Last of the Square Riggers
See [The Last of the Square Riggers]
How to suggest something of the stately vigor and the triumph over the mysteries of the seas of the old whaler, “Greyhound,” home from her last voyage after seventy-four years of service—her yards squared and bravely dressed for the inspection which will condemn her to be broken up—was the problem of the photographer.
The time was near noonday in early August, the air clear and the sun bright. A Graflex camera was used with Seed L Ortho plates and a three-times screen, and one-fortieth of a second exposure sufficed at F 8. The plate was developed with Kalogen in tank rather softly and a contact positive made of the negative. This positive was then used to make an 11×14 negative by enlargement. P. M. C. No. 8 paper, buff stock, was selected, and in printing a piece of thin, even-grained paper was placed between the negative and the print paper to gain a certain softness of quality in the finished print. Finally when dry the print was waxed and rubbed down several times to give extra life and richness, particularly in the shadows. The camera carried a nine-inch Struss lens.