PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Clouds in Photographs (Vol. viii., p. 451.).—Your correspondent on this subject may easily produce clouds on paper negatives by drawing in the lights on the back with common writing ink. There is usually some tint printed with all negatives, therefore the black used will stop it out.
It is at the same time unfair and untrue to the art, because clouds cannot be represented in the regular mode of practice. If they appear, as they do sometimes by accident, it is well to leave them; but in no art is any trick so easily detected as in photography, and it cannot add to any operator's credit in expertness to practise them.
W. T.
Albumenized Paper.—In a late Number of "N. & Q." you published an account of albumenizing paper for positives by Mr. Shadbolt. Having considerable experience in the manipulation of photographical art, I have bestowed great pains in testing the process he recommends; and, I regret to say, the results are by no means satisfactory. I well know the delicacy which is required in applying the albumen evenly to the surface of the paper, and am therefore not surprised to find that each of his "longitudinal strokes" remains clearly indicated, thereby entirely destroying the effect of the picture.
He also advises that the paper should not be afterwards ironed, as it is apt to produce flaws and spots on the albumenized surface; and he believes that the chemical action of the nitrate of silver alone is sufficient to coagulate the albumen, without the application of heat. This I have found in practice to be incorrect: for when I have excited albumenized paper, to which a sufficient heat has not been applied, I have invariably observed that a portion of the albumen becomes detached into the silver solution, making it viscid, and favouring its decomposition. Consequently, the sheets last excited seldom retain their colour so long as those which are first prepared. But even laying aside the question of the coagulation of the albumen, the paper, unless it is ironed, remains so "cockled up," that it is not only unsightly, but very difficult to use. 100-grain solution of nitrate of silver (I presume to the ounce) is also recommended. In a late Number, I find Dr. Diamond uses a 40-grain solution with perfect success; and my own experience enables me to verify this formula as being sufficiently powerful:—no additional intensity of colour being obtained by these strong solutions, it is a mere waste of material. Therefore I think your correspondent fails in effecting either economy of material or time.
However painful it may be to me to offer remarks at variance with the opinions of your kind and intelligent correspondents, yet I consider it a duty that yourself and readers should not be misled, and so interesting and elegant an art as photography brought into disrepute by experiments which, however well intentioned, plainly indicate a want of experience.
K. N. M.
[Mr. Shadbolt's scientific acquirements appeared to us to demand that we should give insertion to his plan of albumenizing paper: although we felt some doubts whether it did not contain the disadvantages which our correspondent now points out. We had met with such complete success in following out the process recommended by Dr. Diamond in our 205th Number, that we did not think it advisable to make any alteration. For our own experience has shown us the wisdom, in photography as in other matters, of holding fast that which is good.—Ed.]
Stereoscopic Angles.—Notwithstanding the space you have devoted to this subject, I find little practical information to the photographer: will you therefore allow me to presume to offer you my mode, which, regardless of all scientific rules, I find to be perfectly successful in obtaining the desired results?