Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1937)

December 22nd, 1937 Thi amateur photographer p 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER 0 clouds into landscapes to which they did not originally belong ; yet no one is hurt by such deception. An area of work in which faking is really to be deplored, however, is in photographs which are put for¬ ward as news. It is as wrong to fake a news photograph as it would be to alter the evidence of a witness given in court, and there ought to be some protection for the public in this respect. A new form of faking, which suggests vast pos¬ sibilities for evil, has just been brought to our notice by an English friend in Germany. He went to a picture house where the news-reel contained a picture of some mob disturbances in London streets. No fault could be found with the picture, which was authentic enough, but the sound effects had been tampered with, and during the scuffle the rattle of machine-gun fire was clearly heard. Machine guns have certainly never been operated against rioters in the streets of London. The faking of sound effects to accompany a film which in itself is a faithful record of what occurred is a contingency which has to be borne in mind. On the Track of Sensations. The press photographer in this country is second to none in keen¬ ness and as quick as any in being on the spot, but the character of his jobs — or, more elegantly put, his assignments — differs somewhat from that of his American colleague. The American press photographer, to judge from a book recently pub¬ lished in the States, is chiefly on the track of “ battles, murders, and sudden death.” One gathers, from the relative space allotted to the subject, and from the specimen illustrations, that half his time is devoted to homicides, kidnappings, railway accidents, fires, explosions, and aeroplane crashes. To these subjects he gives twice as much attention as to sport. The British press photographer, on the other hand, while fully alive to the news value of these things, has always in mind the never-failing British in¬ terest in sport. He has also another subject of never-failing interest which the American photographer lacks altogether — doesn’t the Ameri¬ can wish he had it I — namely, the Royal Family. Photography at the Circus. For the benefit of those readers who did not see our announcement in “ The A.P.” Christmas Number we are repeating here that photo¬ graphy at the Circus at Olympia is now permitted at all performances. A Cash Prize Competition has been arranged by the management, with prizes of £5 5s., £3 3s. and three of £1 is. for photographs taken by amateurs at this season’s show. These prizes will be doubled if the competi¬ tors are readers of The Amateur Pho¬ tographer and coupons from current issues are affixed to the backs of the prints. The Circus opens to-day (December 22nd) and the competition closes on January 22nd. As the en¬ tries will probably be enlargements from small negatives, 8| X (wholeplate) has been decided upon as the minimum size for prints. Full details of camera, film, stop, exposure, etc., and date of performance should be given. All prints to be sent to the Editor, The Amateur Photographer and Cinematographer , Dorset House, Stamford Street, Eondon, S.E.i, marked clearly on the outside of the envelope, “ Circus.” Readers’ Problems Selected queries on topics of general interest to readers will be fully dealt with under this heading week by week. Other replies appear as usual on the last page. Shellac Mounting. I have tried mounting my prints with shellac instead of paste, but have difficulty in getting them to stick flat all over. Can you give me some hints to pat me on the right track ? P. H . F. ( Didcot .) We presume you are brushing the shellac over the back of the print and applying it to the mount at once, and as the solution takes some time to adhere and set you find it a slow job. We suggest that you try the following method which is a modification of dry-mounting with tissue. Get some good quality orange or bleached shellac and put 4 oz. in a wide-mouthed stoppered bottle. Pour on 5 oz. of methylated spirit, and stand aside for twenty-four hours, giving it an occasional stir or shake-up. The whole of the shellac will dissolve, making a gummy solution which should be filtered through fine muslin. Brush this well over the backs of the prints with a stiff fiat brush, and lay the prints back upwards to dry. This may take about half an hour. Taking the prints in rotation, trim them ready for mounting. Lay a mount on a smooth pad of sheets of newspaper, about a dozen sheets deep, and heat an iron, electric for pre¬ ference, to considerably under the temperature used for laundry .purposes or ordinary dry-mounting. No exact temperature is required ; if it is on the low side it will only involve a longer application to soften the shellac. Holding the print in position on the mount, put a sheet of clean paper over one end of it and apply the hot iron till this part of the print adheres to the mount. Shift the paper so that it covers the print, and move the iron very slowly over the whole print, working from the middle outwards over the edges. The aim is to heat the whole of the shellac till it is soft and tacky. When this has been accomplished, lay a sheet of glass or plywood over the print, and weight it down with a heavy book or two till the shellac is cold. If this is all done correctly the print will be perfectly mounted. Should there be any sign of blisters or loose edges a further application of the iron, followed by pressure, will put matters right. A good substitute for glass or ordinary plywood is Plymax, which is plywood covered on one side with a thin sheet of metal. This is a good pressure board for other pur¬ poses also: Concentrated Developer. More than once I have tried to concoct a highly concentrated developing solution, but with indifferent results. Can you sug¬ gest a reasonably simple one for general purposes ? A. A. N. (Hythe.) Highly concentrated solutions are by no means easy to prepare, but you should have no difficulty with the following, which is of moderate concentration : Metol . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 grs. Adurol .. .. .. .. .. .. 120 grs. Sodium sulphite . . . . . . . . . . 750 grs. Potassium carbonate . . . . . . . . 2 oz. Water . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 oz. You may substitute hydroquinone for the adurol, but the latter is preferable for winter work. For negatives and gaslight paper take from 4 to 6 parts of water to one part of stock solution, and for bromide papers 7 or 8 parts. For warm-tone lantern slides and for chlorobromide papers still further dilution is necessary. Potassium bromide is best added as required from a ten per cent solution. 691 10