Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1937)

December 22nd, 1937 The AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER p 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER <3 From information communicated to our Special Representative. Mr. R. M. KIRKPATRICK MY photography is divided into two main groups — the pictures I make for pleasure, and those I take in my capacity as publicity adviser. For both classes of work I strongly favour the high-grade twinlens reflex which I find a most useful all-round camera. I consider that the time is not far distant when every commercial studio of note which speci¬ alises in advertising work will make great use of the miniature camera. This is already the case among the lead¬ ing photographic studios of Germany and America, where the miniature camera is even invading those fields in which the cumbersome stand camera has hitherto been considered supreme. " The miniature camera offers so many advantages. The more important are, of course, its economy of material, speed of operation combined with great St. Moritz. depth of focus, and the opportunities it provides to obtain those intimate pictures of everyday happenings so widely sought in advertising. A minia¬ ture camera can always be carried ready for instant use, and so unobtrusive is it in action that often the subject does not know he has been photographed at all. In this way perfect naturalness is assured, and wonderful opportunities provided for ' candid photography.’ “ It is very probable that I get more enjoyment out of the photographs I have to take in connection with my business than those I take for pleasure ! The reason is that they are more in the nature of problems. I am given definite limitations : 1 may have to photograph an exceedingly commonplace object and yet obtain a picture that will lift the article right out of its class ! Perhaps this is why 1 do not condemn striking R. M. Kirkpatrick. and forceful angle shots — so long as they are from an unusual but not ‘ freakish ’ viewpoint. “ My ‘ pleasure photographs ’ are mainly landscapes and portraits. Apart from lighting and composition, to which I pay great attention, no hard and fast rules as to how I work can be laid down. I always feel that a landscape without clouds is only ‘ half there.’ I therefore tend rather to strong correction of skies in order to emphasise them. In portraiture, my aim is always to secure a natural picture of the subject (there is no need to repeat how the miniature camera helps me here !). Any variation is created by lighting effects. I favour the highwattage lamps against the overrun type, which in my experience I find tend to give an unde¬ sirable hardness. Incidentally it is only in portraiture that I am fond of diffusion. For all other subjects I like to see as much detail and sharpness in a print as possible. " I am a great believer in the tripod and use it wherever possible for all speeds up to i/iooth of a second. Where speed is essential, I use hypersensitive pan. film, and on other occasions I favour Panatomic film. These are de¬ veloped in D76, and whole-plate en¬ largements taken. From these prints one is able to select the correct portion and angle of the picture. “ I favour the Kodak Royal or Finisher papers for landscapes and portrait work, but invariably produce a glazed print on a contrast paper for commercial work. I do not favour any ' faking ’ or retouching outside the usual spotting, and control during enlargement. “ I use one of the modern vertical types of enlarger and find that a lens of the same focal length as the camera objective gives excellent depth. This is important since many of mv shots are architectural studies. I find the reflex camera very valuable for this architectural work. The ground-glass view-finder with its picture the correct way up makes the taking of verticals fairly easy. If I do produce a picture with a slight tilt, this may be overcome, without distortion, by correction in the enlarging.” (A farther example of Mr. Kirkpat¬ rick's work is reproduced on one of the centre Art pages.) 2 1 700