The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

56 CINE TECHNICIAN April 1955 THE British Journal Photographic Almanac makes its annual appearance — as regular as the spring equinox — for the 96th time, and for something like the 10th time the present reviewer fights off the cloud of cliches which this annual event always brings swarming up — a multum in parvo, the photographer's guide, philosopher and friend, unequalled value for money, etc., etc. — and tries to get down to giving some reasonable idea of the contents of the new Almanac, in a few words. Firstly, the editorial article, which this year deals with Scientific Research in Photography. The editors state that it is their intention in this article to provide for the serious student of photography " some account of the essential materials which comprise light sensitive substances used in photography, to indicate briefly where modern research has arrived, explaining . . . the meaning of certain items and ideas, and indicating the action of light, or other radiation, upon sensitive materials, in particular describing a number of ' effects ', study of which has thrown much light on the cause . . . and mechanism of photographic action." The scope of the article can be judged by reference to some of the sub-headings : light-sensitive materials, photo-sensitivity, formation of the latent image, density and exposure, various photochemical effects, reciprocity law failure, intermittency effect, the Clayden effect, the Villard effect, Herschel effect, Sabattier effect, and so on. The other special articles cover the usual varied aspects of photography: Recent Advances in Photography, On Becoming an Architectural Photographer, Materials and Methods for Apparatus Construction, Electronic Flash in the Studio, and Colour Processing — Small Scale or Factory. The pictorial supplement has 32 examples of the work of leading photographers from all parts of the world, excellently reproduced. About 100 pages are given to reviews of new apparatus and materials. In the Epitome of Progress section methods, techniques and items of special interest published mostly in the B.J. during the past year are reprinted or abstracted, with particular emphasis in this edition on user-processing of colour materials. The section devoted to Formulae contains a 12-page list of sensitive materials, which includes particulars of BS/ASA exposure indices A FILM TECHNICIANS NOTEBOOK by A. E. Jeakins of both still and cine monochrome and colour materials of all the principal manufacturers; there is also a useful table of the keeping properties of solutions. Over 20 pages deal with the technique of colour photography, with information on all processes available in this country revised to date. The guide to the technique of electronic flash has also been extensively revised to bring it in line with recent developments. Other features are a glossary of technical terms, a list of chemicals used in photography, a list of books on the history, technique and applications of photography, and a directory of repairers approved by the Photographic Dealers' Association. Text, advertisers and goods advertised are all indexed. The B.J. Almanac is published by Henry Greenwood & Co. Ltd., London, and sells for 5/ in board covers and 7/6 cloth bound. A COMMON fault with Kodachrome dupes is excessive contrast resulting in harsh colours and lack of shadow detail. The main reason for this is that the cyan or blue-green emulsion layer, which is primarily responsible for image contrast, is shielded by the overlying layers and may receive insufficient exposure. Reed's Colour Film Printing inform us that after months of experimenting they have perfected a technique recently introduced in America known as " flashing." The raw stock before printing is given a preliminary exposure of low intensity through a filter, which results in the cyan layer only being slightly fogged; in other words, a form of selective latonsification. The improvement in image contrast and shadow detail due to this inexpensive method is, it is believed, indistinguishable from that effected by more costly processes. It is generally sufficient to treat only the master dupe from which contact prints will be made, but for the finest results, each release print may be treated if desired. It is expected that the value of the flashing system will be particularly noticeable in the transmission of colour films on television, where the tonal range tends to be restricted. Reed's say that even without this improvement experience has shown that colour films give better results on TV than black-and-white. rpHE British Journal of Photo* graphy takes for the theme of the editorial article for the March 25th issue the annual report of Ilford Ltd., and in the course of the article, referring to the part that that company has always played in serving the cause of science by producing special sensitised materials for scientific photography, the occasion is recalled when Ilford participated in providing sensitive material in a remarkable form for cosmic ray investigations. It comprised a solid block of special photographic emulsion measuring 14 i x 10A x 6 in., weighing over a hundredweight, and containing silver to the value of about £300 ! This was carried up by a balloon in Italy to a height of nearly 20 miles in the course of joint investigations into the upper atmosphere by the University of Bristol and several Italian universities. ILFORD LTD. have now incorporated their new developing agent " Phenidone " in a fine grain developer which is marketed under the name " Microphen." It is claimed for this developer that it gives increased emulsion speed without increase of grain size. The British Journal of April 1st carries a report of tests carried out in their laboratory. Strips of HP3 film were exposed in an intensity scale sensitometer and developed in Microphen and an MQ-Borax developer under similar conditions. After fixing, washing and drying, D-LogE curves were