Early Work In Photography
A Text-book For Beginners

How to Use the Outfit. 67 It is safe to handle some bromide plates by light trans- mitted through one sheet of yellow glass, and one sheet of canary medium; but we do not advise a beginner to court failure by trying such experiments at too early a stage of his studies. Experiments will be interesting and helpful to him after he has succeeded in doing good work, and will then not be likely to discourage him. We shall have more to say about bromide plates when we deal with their development; in the meantime the plate holders may be filled with sensitive plates, which are packed in the same way as the lantern slide plates dealt with in a former chapter. The sensitive side of a bromide plate is far more easily determined than in the case of lantern plates, owing to its slightly dull appearance. The sensitive surface must be lightly brushed with a camel hair brush and then put (film downwards) into the holders, so that the opaque partition rests against the glass side; the sensitive side will then be towards the movable protecting slide. Fasten each plate-holder as you finish loading it and, before opening the dark-room door, be sure and shut the box of plates. Before taking a negative of any subject, we must set up the camera opposite to it (with the lens pointing towards it) so that the image falls upon the focussing screen. The camera must be adjusted in a level position and then the image must be drawn to a tocus. To do this, the student must remove the cap from the lens and put his face within about a foot of the ground glass. He must then cover both his head and the camera with the focussing cloth, and hold it closely to- gether in such a way as to exclude all light except that which, coming through the lens, appears upon the screen in the form of a more or less indistinct view of tlie scene towards which the lens is directed. This image will be upside down, as explained in Chapter VII. In order to secure a clearly defined image it is necessary to move the lens farther from, or nearer to, the ground glass until it arrives at the position giving a true focus. The student will probably fall into the common error and attempt to look through the ground glass in his search for a visible image, but in order to see it he must look upon the surface of the glass. It is well to try the first experiments in focussing with the full aperture of the lens, i.e. without any " stops ” or diaphragm; this will help the student by admitting plenty of light and rendering the image more brilliant. Let us now suppose that the front part of the camera