Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1935)

October 2nd, 1935 Ih( AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER p 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER o MAKING SLIDES FROM 3^x2^ NEGATIVES. IT is surprising that more photographers, even beginners, do not make lantern slides. The very best result most negatives will give is not on any kind of paper, however good it may be, but in the form of a transparency. This is particularly the case when the effect depends on light. The light is direct in the slide ; it is only reflected in the print ; and this makes all the difference. I am aware of the objection that slides cannot be shown and carried about as easily as prints. But do photo¬ graphers cart their best prints about ? As to showing the slides there is very little in the argument. Those who belong to a photographic society can 'find opportunities for having their slides put through the lantern ; and when they find that the results are satisfactory they may make a set of slides and show them to the members of their own and other clubs. A lantern show at home is more easily arranged than a cine show. Above all, do not forget that slides can be examined in the hand. The only requisites are a good light — daylight or artificial — and a piece of ground glass to hold a little way behind the slide. No print that you can produce from your pocket, or elsewhere, can compare with a slide. Of course, I am thinking all the time of really good slides. A bad slide is possibly worse than a bad print. But it is easy to learn to make fine slides. The first necessity — not quite so simple — is some good negatives. They must be good technically — clean, flawless, sharp, and with the right range of tones to do justice to the subject. They must also be good pictorially. Dull, hackneyed, badly-arranged subjects can be made into slides, but the slides will not win prizes. A beginner who has some 3^X2^ negatives that fulfil these conditions, and who has never yet made a slide, might get a prize-winner out of his first box of plates. There is time to set to work and enter some slides for “ The A.P.” Annual Competition, which closes on October 31st. A necessary preliminary is to make suitable arrangements for making the exposures, as an ordinary printing frame is not the most convenient thing for the purpose. It will answer at a pinch, but there will be drawbacks. I will assume, pretty safely, that the negatives are on film. In last week’s issue, under the head of “ Readers’ Problems,” a special frame for printing lantern slides was illustrated and described. It was mentioned that others are available, and some time ago I showed a simple form in one of these lessons. ! J An important point is to have the film held properly, so that the lantern plate caii be laid on it and pressed into perfect contact. There are two serious objections to laying down the film on a plain piece of glass : the film will shift about ; and the edges of the picture may be fogged. The parts of the plate that have had only clear glass over them will develop very quickly, and the edges of the dense strips will “ creep ” into the picture and spoil it. This is most likely to occur with development for warm tones on slow plates, but, anyhow, the risk should be avoided. Fig. 1 is a diagram to scale of the accessory I use. It is a cleaned half-plate negative. On one side are stuck three strips of black paper. On the other sjde is another strip, shown shaded, stuck down by one edge only. The 336 22