Amateur Movie Makers (Dec 1926-Dec 1927)

PROCESSING What It Is and How It Is Done By Dwight R. Furness WHEN you take a regular Kodak film of "still" pictures to be finished you get back the film in the form of negatives, with your prints on paper. If, perchance, you have a standard motion picture film developed and printed you get back your negative and another roll of film on which has been made a positive print of the negative; this print having been made in much the same way as a Kodak print, except that instead of being printed on paper it has been printed on a band of film. When you send your amateur movie film to be finished, or processed, you get back your original film as a positive or print. How is it that in the ordinary photographic developing and printing process the negative and positive are separate and that in the case of your movie film the same film serves in two capacities ? The story is an interesting one and withal fairly simple, although it is more involved than that of ordinary developing and printing. If you will look at a regular Kodak negative you will notice that the whites of the original scene appear as black and that the blacks are transparent or white. In other words, we find that the sky, which was bright in the picture, is shown in the film as very black, while any shadows in the scene, which of course were dark, will be transparent in the film. So that viewing the film by transmitted light we see the objects in the reverse order of the scene photographed. All the bright parts of the scene are dark in the film, and all the dark parts bright. It is for this reason that the ordinary developed film is called a "negative" and when it is printed on paper the reversal occurs again and brings us a picture of the objects as we saw them. Such a print we may call a positive, as it represents the scene as it appears. With your film the original strip that you exposed in the camera is converted in the processing directly to a positive or true picture. The image has been reversed from a negative to a positive, and thus the film that you used in your camera is returned to be projected on your home screen. The steps in the processing to make the original film into a positive are these : The film is developed much as ordinary film is developed but is not fixed. The negative image is bleached out with a chemical solution and the remaining emulsion blackened by exposure to white light and development to form the positive image which is shown on the screen. Since the one coating of silver emulsion must do double duty, the exposure in the camera and the subsequent development of the image must not use up too much of the available light-sensitive silver in the emulsion or there will be none left with which to form the positive image. In case this happens the picture on the screen will appear "thin." If too much is left the positive will be too dark. To the amateur interested only in the final results, the actual laboratory procedure and technique involved interests him only insofar as he controls it, and that is in the exposure. Therefore the amateur should concentrate his efforts on improving his technique as a "camera man." STILL MOVIES Continued from Page 17 compactness are features of this design. All makes are equipped with high grade anastigmat lenses and, due to the extremely short focal length and the fine grain of the film, great depth of focus is obtained with all-over critical sharpness. Another interesting feature of these cameras is found in the fact that a positive print may be made of the strip of film and, when used with a special projector, each picture becomes a slide and is thrown on a screen with excellent results as to clearness and size. One make of this type can also be used as a movie camera for taking short bits of action. But, whatever the type of camera used, get still photographs to accompany your movies. This refinement of the amateur cinema hobby will repay the movie maker many fold in extending the scope of his activity and greatly increasing his pleasure. OPEN HOUSE for All Amateur Movie Makers SPECIALISTS in motion picture equipment for 19 years, Herbert & Huesgen Company have a real service to offer amateurs as well as professionals, in providing the right equipment for every need and competent suggestions as to its use. Filmo Eyemo Cine-Kodak Victor De Vry All Accessories HUESGEN CO. 18 East 42nd St., New York The Big Idea Plus CAMERA Plus ACCESSORIES Plus FILM Plus AMATEUR Movie Makers EQUALS 105% FUN AMATEUR MOVIE MAKERS 105 W. 40th Street, New York Tlease send for this $3.00 cAmateur eMovie -j!Ma\ers for one year. T h i r t v t h r e e