The opening of the Second Annual Exhibition of Photography took place in the Palazzo di Belle Arti on the 2d of May, when a large number of members took part.
The display included landscapes and interiors, portraits, instantaneous views, film negatives, photo-micrographs, enlargements, flash-light pictures, architectural views, and representations of costumes taken in Morocco and in Sweden.
An excellent article on “The Duration of the Pose” begins thus:--“Formerly, when collodion occupied the whole field of photography, the first difficulty in the art was the preparation of the sensitive surface. Now that the preparation has undergone a radical change, passing into a branch of industry, that first difficulty has vanished, and there has succeeded to its place the duration of the pose, the exact determination of which has over the resulting picture an influence as great, and possibly greater than formerly, seeing that in the very short poses of the present time even a little error has a value of relatively greater importance.” The article goes on to say that the duration depends (1) on the sensitive preparation, (2) on the actinic power of the light, (3) on the object, (4) on the diaphragm, and (5) on the distance. Thus, if it were required to represent by an algebraic formula the conditions governing the pose t″, we should have--
t″ = k. P. L. O. d. D.
where k is the invariable constant.
The article, which is too long to translate, is written by A. Roncalli. It is succeeded by a short notice of the effects of the Schippang varnish upon collodion enlargements. This article, written by Ab. F. Castracane, makes mention of some unhappy results of the use of this varnish on some of his own pictures. After this comes a letter from Sac. D. Ratti, on halation, or aureole, as the Italians call it. Then a paper on the development of instantaneous negatives and on the toning of aristotype paper, by Bne. T. Melazzo. Various notes and receipts, with a bibliography and a short notice of the illustrated supplement, complete this interesting number. The illustration is that of a moonlight effect, the negative by A. Ducros, the phototype by Danesi, of Rome. “To obtain this picture,” says the letter-press note, “it was sufficient to set the machine against the setting”--pardon the indiscretion; I was about to add sun--“and to remove the cap. But, before this is done, that certain fifth sense has to be taken into account, without which,
‘Non licet adire Corintum!’
and Signor Ducros, profound and advanced artist and photographer as he is, possesses this fifth sense, and uses it in a masterly manner.”--Photographic (London) News.
AMATEUR EXPERIENCES.--IV.
If any one wants to become thoroughly acquainted with the weaknesses and frailties of humanity, just let him become a camera carrier, in “all that the word implies,”--and he will enter a school, wherein he will learn more of the different phases of human nature in one lesson than he has during the last ten years of his life. No other vocation, if we except that of the live newspaper reporter, offers the same advantages in this biological study. Varied indeed are the experiences and vicissitudes of the amateur photographer, whether the camera bearer carries the latest Universal, with aluminium mounting, or rejoices in a Premium Pinhole outfit, he experiences the same annoyances and disappointments. Ignorant and unreasonable people are sure to be met with on an outing, and, worse than all, he has frequently to suffer for the sins of some rude member of the guild who has been there before him. Experiences like these are but too apt to discourage persons of a nervous or sensitive temperament; the picture, however, is not all shadows. There is often a bright side for the camera bearer, especially if he be susceptible of the humorous. Photographically speaking, the writer, in addition to such annoyances as double exposures, unaccountable fog, forgetting to draw the slide, put plates in the holder, or take the cap off, to say nothing of neglecting to insert the stop, has met with many rebuffs and disappointments on his outings, through meeting with ignorant or unreasonable people, in all such cases his rule has been always to look upon the comical side of the situation, and try to achieve his object, bringing into play his common sense, tact and knowledge of human nature, generally with the result of obtaining the coveted negative.