The night photographer has to be more or less immune to criticism, and willing to endure all kinds of conversational interruptions, from friendly questions to unmannerly jeers and imputations of insanity. The general public knows from personal experience with hand cameras provided with slow lenses and small stops that picture taking can be done only by sunlight and in the middle of the day, and does not understand the setting up of a camera in a poorly-lighted place at night for the taking of a picture. Nevertheless, this branch of photography is very interesting and results are possible even in villages and the open fields, wherever the least artificial illumination or glimpse of moonlight is present.
Naturally, much light means shorter exposures than are possible with very sparing illumination, but too many light sources do not tend to artistic results. One of the finest night pictures we ever saw was that of an old farmhouse, nearly buried in snow, with one or two windows showing the light of a kerosene lamp. The snow was illuminated by the light of the full moon, and only two or three minutes' exposure was given.
As a matter of fact, 15 to 30 minutes' exposure on any landscape at f: 8 by the light of the full moon high in the sky will give a picture hardly to be distinguished from one made in daylight except by the softness of the shadows, and such pictures sometimes have a softness and wealth of detail in ordinarily shadowed parts which cannot be obtained by exposures in daylight.
The best night pictures are perhaps those taken in city streets brilliantly illuminated by arc lights, especially when the pavements are wet. Care must be taken not to have brilliant lights shining directly into the lens, for even double-coated plates will not prevent halation and reversal of the image under such circumstances. Ghosts, or wheel-shaped images of the lights, in other parts of the plate, are sure to occur with all double lenses in such cases. The night picture shown opposite shows how interesting a simple subject, poorly illuminated, may turn out in the print. This shows typical star radiation about the single visible light, caused by the blades of the iris diaphragm, and also a slight ghost from this light on the face of the tower, caused by a double reflection within the lens.
By F. A. Northrup.
FIG. 112.—A GLIMPSE OF THE EXPOSITION.
Other forms of night photographs, treated elsewhere in this book, are photographs of fireworks and lightning. Very interesting and scientifically valuable pictures of the latter phenomenon have been made by swinging the camera during the exposure, thus getting a dozen or more paths of the same flash parallel to each other.
[PHOTOGRAPHS ON APPLES AND EGGS.]
To make a photograph in green on the red skin of an apple is a wonderful but simple feat. Tie up the selected fruit on a sunny bough in a thick yellow or black paper bag for about three weeks before harvest time. Immediately after taking off the bag, paste a black paper stencil or a very contrasty negative to the apple with white of egg. It should be small, to fit the curved surface quite closely. Clear away leaves, so the sun gets clear access to the fruit, and leave on the tree till it becomes red. If not then ripe, put it back into the opaque bag for a day or two till ready to pick. The negative may then be soaked off. Don't use a valuable negative, but make a duplicate for this experiment. A paper stencil is better, anyway.