Part 2

The ghostly image can be prepared upon the plate, either before or after the exposure of the sitter. The method is this: In a darkened room the draped figure to represent the spirit is posed in a spirit-like attitude (whatever that may be) in front of a dark background with a suitable magnesium or other artificial light thrown upon the figure, which is then focused in the "fuzzy-type" style; or, better still, a fine piece of muslin gauze is placed close to the lens which gives a hazy, indistinct appearance to the image. The exposure is made and the latent image remains upon the sensitive plate, which is again used to photograph the sitter. Upon developing we get the two images, the "spirit" mixed up with the figure. The spirit should be as indistinct as possible, as it will then be less easy for the subject to dispute the statement that it is the spirit-form of his dead and gone relative. Some amount of discretion in this part of the performance must be used, we fancy, otherwise the same disaster might happen as did to a spiritualist some little time ago. An elderly gentleman had come for a _seance_, and, after some mysterious maneuvers, the gentleman was informed that the spirit of his mother was there. "Indeed!" replied the old gentleman, somewhat astonished. "What does she say?" "She says she will see you soon," informed the medium. "You are getting old now and must soon join her." "Quite right," replied the old gentleman; "I am going round to her house to tea to-night."--Total collapse of spiritualist.

Fluorescent substances, such as bisulphate of quinine, can also be employed. This compound, although almost invisible to the eye, photographs nearly black. If a white piece of paper be painted with the substance, except on certain parts, the latter only will appear white in the picture.

We hope that it will not be inferred that we desire to explain how to deceive persons with regard to photographs of spirits, for this is not so; we only hope that they will be made merely for amusement, and if possible to expose persons who practice on the gullibility of inexperienced persons.

Fig. 20 is a reproduction of a "spirit" photograph made by a photographer, claiming to be a "spirit photographer," and to have the power to call these ladies and gentlemen from the "vasty deep" and make them impress their image upon the sensitive plate by the side of the portraits of their living relatives.

Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose this fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur Photographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between one of the "spirit" images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.

A reproduction of the picture is given herewith, Fig. 21, and it will be seen at once that the spirit image is copied from it.

In a recent number of _The Australian Photographic Journal_ we read of the following novel method of making so-called spirit photographs: "Take a negative of any supposed spirit that is to be represented, put it in the printing frame with the film side out; lay on the glass side a piece of platinotype paper with the sensitive side up; clamp in place the back of the printing frame and expose to the sun for half a minute. Now place in the printing frame the negative of another person to whom the spirit is to appear, and over it put the previously exposed sheet film side down; expose to the sun for two minutes until the image is faintly seen, then develop in the usual way and the blurred spirit photograph will appear faintly to one side or directly behind the distinct image. Sheets of paper with different ghost exposures can be prepared beforehand."

Spirit photographs might easily be made by means of Prof. Roentgen's well-known X-ray process of impressing an image upon a photographic dry-plate without uncovering the shutter. The process would however entail considerable expense and would necessitate the use of so much costly apparatus that we will content ourselves with the simple mention of the possibility.

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR HOUSEHOLD DECORATION

How few amateur photographers there are who thoroughly enter into the enjoyment of the art-science as a pastime. Many of these, perhaps, must be excused for the reason that they are ignorant of its capabilities. Indeed, how many there are who imagine that the art of photography consists in making negatives and, from these, prints--good, bad and indifferent. All the friends and relations are called into requisition "to be taken." At first they do not mind, thinking it a fine thing to have a portrait made for nothing; but when they see the result they very naturally object to be caricatured, and the amateur loses many a friend, and the maiden aunt leaves all her money to the home for stray cats. If he is a married man and delights in a happy, cosy home, neatly and artistically decorated, photography can be of very great assistance to him--how much, few realize. There are a thousand different ways in which it can be of use, and the photographer has always before him some permanent record of his travels and skill.

Let us take, for instance, the making of transparencies. These are very simply made. Any moderately rapid dry plate can be used for the purpose. Every amateur becomes possessed after a time of a large number of negatives, good, bad, and indifferent. Let him carefully go through these, selecting all the printable ones and the pictures that he most admires. From these, transparencies can be made, either by contact, or enlarged or reduced in the camera. Persons residing in cities often have a nicely furnished room utterly marred by an unsightly outlook. Perhaps a view of chimney pots and dirty back yards. In such a case all that is necessary is to fit in place of the lower panes some neat photographs on glass, backed with thin ground-glass. These can be puttied in or they can be fitted in neat brass frames and hung up against the windows.

The craze of the present day appears to be in the direction of bright and gaudy colors, except with the more highly cultivated, who recognize the artistic value of unobtrusive colors and delicate tints. A photograph, provided it is a good one, is always to be preferred to colored pictures unless the latter are by good artists. We once constructed with a half dozen of transparencies a very neat lamp shade. Some idea of it can be obtained from Fig. 23.

A brass frame is first constructed, and any wire worker will execute this so as to hold the six or eight pictures. The transparencies are made, cut down to the size and shape required and fitted in; then ground glass of the same size and shape is fitted, small brass tabs at the back being used to keep them in their places behind the transparency. The glasses should not fit too tightly in the brass frames or, on expanding by the heat, they will crack.

A hall lamp can be treated in the same way, the colored glass removed and photographic transparencies substituted. Photos on glass can in the same way be used for a variety of other purposes, such as fire screens, candle shades, etc.

Next look up your stock of prints, scraps, waste prints, etc.

Often from a large, spoilt picture you can get a neat little bit about a couple of inches square or less; look up all these and from them a photographic chess-board can be made. Our illustration in Fig. 24 is intended to show what is meant, although our artist has not been happy in the selection of his material to represent photographic views and portraits. First mark out a square the size you wish the chess-board to be. Divide it into sixty-four squares and draw a neat border round it. Thirty-two of the squares are then neatly pasted over with selected photographs as varied as possible in subjects. Sixteen are fitted one way and sixteen the other. Our illustration is incorrect in this respect. The sixteen pictures should be placed the right way on the sixteen squares nearest to each player. When the photographs have all been pasted on and dried the whole is sized and varnished. If, however, it is desired to preserve this photographic chess-board, and at the same time to use it frequently, a better plan is to cover over with a glass plate and bind all round the edges to prevent dust from entering.

In a similar way a neat card table can be manufactured. Fig. 25 is intended to illustrate the top of the table covered with photographs and protected by a glass plate.

A little consideration will no doubt give various other similar ideas to the reader.

Those who can work the carbon process successfully have it in their power to transfer photographs in various colors to all kinds of supports, to wood for instance. The panels of a door can be very considerably improved by the insertion of photographs on fine grain wood, varnished.

Pictures can in this manner be transferred to plates, china and ornaments of every description.

Various methods of printing on silk and various fabrics have from time to time been given. Perhaps the best for our purpose is the primuline process, as various colored images can be produced, with but little trouble, on all kinds of material. A description of the process will be found in another part of this work. (See Page 39.)

These the amateur can hand over to his better half or female relations, who with the natural feminine abilities will produce all sorts of pretty artistic articles for decorating the room.

We are well aware that we have by no means enumerated one half of the various means in which photography can be employed for decorating the house, but hope at least to have given the reader some idea of what its capabilities are.

LEAF PRINTS.

Nothing can exceed the beauty of form and structure of the leaves of different plants. Ruskin observes: "Leaves take all kinds of strange shapes, as if to invite us to examine them. Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, sinuated; in whirls, in tufts, in spires, in wreaths; endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same, from footstalk to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness and take delight in outstripping our wonder." Photography has placed in our hands a simple method of preserving facsimiles of their ever varying shapes that will last long after the leaf has died and crumbled to dust. Although the discovery of the darkening action of silver chloride when exposed to light was discovered by Scheele as far back as 1777, little was apparently known of the possibilities attending the discovery until 1839, when Fox Talbot read a paper on "A Method of Photogenic Drawing," in which he described various experiments that could be made with paper coated with this substance, and showed many pictures of leaves, ferns, and pieces of lace which he had obtained.

The illustrations which we reproduce herewith are reproductions from leaf prints made by Mr. Thomas Gaffield, who has made quite a study of this fascinating pastime. In a little work entitled "Photographic Leaf Prints," published in 1869, he describes his method. The leaves and ferns are first selected and pressed between the leaves of a book. They must not be dried, as in that state they do not so readily permit the light to pass through and the delicate structure of the leaf would not be reproduced. They should therefore only be pressed sufficiently to allow the excess of moisture to be extracted. A sheet of glass is put into the printing frame and the leaves artistically arranged. When the arrangement is satisfactory the leaves are attached to the glass with a little mucilage to prevent them from slipping out of their places. A sheet of sensitive paper, albumen, gaslight, or platinum is then inserted, the frame closed up and exposed to the light until a very dark print is obtained. The time required in printing must be found by practice; it will, of course, differ according to the intensity of the light. It is a good plan to employ an actinometer to judge the correct exposure. It is not possible to open the frame, as a double or blurred picture would result. The halves should be exposed sufficiently long to enable the light to penetrate through them and give a distinct image of the veins and structure.

When the printing is completed the paper is removed and toned and fixed in the usual manner. If platinotype or gaslight paper is used, this, of course, requires development. The resulting picture gives us a light impression of the leaves on a dark background, but if so desired, the print thus obtained can be used as a negative. It can be made transparent with wax or vaseline, and prints obtained from it giving a dark image on a white ground. It is difficult to say which picture is the more beautiful. We give illustrations of pictures of both kinds. (Figs. 26 and 27.)

Naturally enough, the beauty of these pictures lies in the careful selection and arrangement of the leaves. Those which are too thick should not be used. Delicate ones, showing all the veins by transmitted light, are the most suitable. They can be arranged artistically, in any shape or form. We prefer, however, a life-like arrangement to the construction of various shapes and designs.

TO MAKE A PEN AND INK SKETCH FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

By the following method anyone can, without any knowledge of drawing, produce from a photograph a pen and ink sketch suitable for reproduction as an illustration. From the negative a silver print is made on albumen or gelatine or collodion paper. This is fixed without toning in a solution of hyposulphite of soda. It must then be thoroughly washed to remove all traces of hypo, and when dry, the outlines of the photograph are traced over with a fine pen and a waterproof ink, obtainable at any artist's material store. If the photographer possesses a little knowledge of drawing, some of the shading can also be attempted. When the ink is dry the picture is immersed in a saturated solution of bichloride of mercury (poison) when the photograph will disappear, leaving the outline sketch intact. The picture is again well washed and dried. Newspaper sketches are often made from photographs in this manner, a zincotype being quickly produced from the drawing. Gaslight paper can also be used.

PHOTOGRAPHS ON SILK.

Photographs can be very effectively printed upon silk, satin, or other fabrics. There are several methods of accomplishing this. A simple one is the following:[2] The silk best suited for the purpose is that known as Chinese silk, and this is first washed in warm water with plentiful lather of soap, then rinse in hot water, and gradually cool until the final washing water is quite cold. Next prepare the following solutions: Tannin, 4 parts; distilled water, 100 parts. Sodium chloride, 4 parts; arrowroot, 4 parts; acetic acid, 12 parts; distilled water, 100 parts.

[2] From the "Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Photography," by the author.

The arrowroot is mixed up into a paste with a little of the distilled water, and the remainder added boiling hot, with the acid and the salt previously dissolved in it. When the solution is quite clear the tannin solution is added, and the whole allowed to get fairly cool. The silk is then immersed for about three minutes, being kept under without air in the folds, and then hung up to dry, or stretched out with pins on a flat board. The material is then sensitized by brushing over with the following solution: Silver nitrate, 12 parts; distilled water, 100 parts; nitric acid, 2 drops to every 3 ounces. Other methods of sensitizing are by immersing in or floating on the silver solution. After sensitizing, the material is dried by pinning on to a board to keep flat. It is then cut up as required, and printed behind the negative. Every care must be taken in printing to keep the material flat, and without wrinkles or folds. It must also be kept quite straight; otherwise, the image will be distorted. Printing is carried on in the same manner as with printing-out paper. It is then washed and toned in any toning bath. The sulphocyanide gives the best action. Fix in a 10 per cent. solution of hyposulphite of soda for ten minutes; wash and dry spontaneously. When just damp, it is ironed out flat with a not over-heated iron. Black tones can be obtained with a platinum toning bath, or with the uranium and gold toning bath, made up as follows: Gold chloride, 1 part; uranium nitrate, 1 part. Dissolved and neutralized with sodium carbonate, and then added to sodium chloride, 16 parts; sodium acetate, 16 parts; sodium phosphate, 16 parts; distilled water, 4,000 parts.

Very effective results may be made by printing with wide white margins, obtained by exposing with a non-actinic mask.

Another method is the following: Ammonium chloride, 100 grains; Iceland moss, 60 grains; water (boiling), 20 ounces.

When nearly cold this is filtered, and the silk immersed in it for about fifteen minutes. To sensitize, immerse the silk in a 20 grain solution of silver nitrate for about sixteen minutes. The silver solution should be rather acid.

Or immerse the silk in water, 1 ounce; sodium chloride, 5 grains; gelatine, 5 grains. When dry, float for thirty seconds on a 50 grain solution of silver nitrate. Dry, slightly overprint and tone in the following bath: Gold chloride, 4 grains; sodium acetate, 2 drachms; water, 29 ounces. Keep twenty-four hours before using. Fix for twenty minutes in hypo, 4 ounces to the pint of water.

PHOTOGRAPHING A CATASTROPHE.

On this page we reproduce a curious photograph by M. Bracq, which appeared some time ago in the _Photo Gazette_.

Despite all the terrible catastrophe which it represents, carrying pictures along with him in his fall, the subject has not experienced the least uneasiness, not even so much as will certainly be felt by our readers at the sight of the tumble represented.

The mode of operating in this case is very simple and we are indebted to _La Nature_ for the description of the method employed by M. Bracq. The photographic apparatus being suspended at a few yards from the floor of the room, in such a way as to render the ground-glass horizontal (say between the two sides of a double ladder--a combination that permits of easy focusing and putting the plates in place), there is spread upon the floor a piece of wall paper, about 6 feet in length by 5 feet in width, at the bottom of which a wainscot has been drawn. A ladder, a few pictures, a statuette, and a bottle are so arranged as to give an observer the illusion of the wall of a room, that of a dining room for instance. A hammer, some nails, etc., are placed at the proper points. Finally, a 5 feet by 2-1/2 feet board, to which a piece of carpet, a cardboard plate, etc., have been attached, is placed under the foot of a chair, which then seems to rest upon this false floor at right angles with that of the room.

Everything being ready, the operator lies down quietly in the midst of these objects, assumes a frightened expression, and waits until the shutter announces to him that he can leave his not very painful position. This evidently is merely an example that our readers will be able to modify and vary at their will.

PHOTOGRAPHS ON VARIOUS FABRICS.

By means of a dye process known as the "Primuline Process," very pretty images in various colored dyes can be made upon silks, satins, cotton goods, etc. The material is first dyed in a hot solution of primuline, made by adding about 15 to 30 grains of the dye to a gallon of hot water; a little common salt should also be added. On immersing the fabric, and stirring it about in the solution, it becomes of a primrose yellow color, when it is removed and washed under a cold-water tap. The next process is to diazotize it by immersion for half a minute or so in a cold solution of sodium nitrate, one-quarter per cent., which has been sharply acidified with hydrochloric or other acid. The material is again washed in cold water, but it must be kept in a weak light. It can be hung up to dry, in the dark, or exposed while wet beneath the object of which it is required to produce a positive reproduction. This process gives a positive from a positive, so that any ordinary picture on a sufficiently translucent material--flowers, ferns, etc.--can be reproduced. Printing requires about half a minute in the direct sunlight to half an hour or more in dull weather, or if the material to be printed through is not very transparent. The high lights become of a pale yellow, so that a faint image is perceptible; but this is made visible in almost any color by development in a weak solution (about one-fourth per cent.) of a suitable phenol or amine. The following have been found suitable:

_For Red._--An alkaline solution of [Greek: b]-napthol.

_For Maroon._--An alkaline solution of [Greek: b]-napthol-disulphonic acid.

_For Yellow._--An alkaline solution of phenol.

_For Orange._--An alkaline solution of resorcin.

_Brown._--A slightly alkaline solution of pyrogallol, or a solution of phenylene-diamine-hydrochloride.

_For Purple._--A solution of [Greek: a]-napthylamine hydrochloride.

_For Blue._--A slightly acid solution of amido-[Greek: b]-napthol-sulphonate of sodium, now better known as "eikonogen."

If the design is to be made in several colors, this can be done by painting on the different developers, suitably thickened with starch. After developing, the material is well washed and dried. With the purple and blue developers it is necessary to wash the material finally in a weak solution of tartaric acid. Wool and silk require a longer exposure to light than other fabrics, and cannot be successfully developed with the maroon or blue developer.

SILHOUETTES

Silhouette portraits were at one time very popular. They are simply made, and if the effect is well carried out will afford considerable amusement. The best description of their manufacture was given some time ago by Herr E. Sturmann, in _Die Photographische Korrespondenz_. His method is as follows:

Place two dark backgrounds in parallel position about 4 feet from the sky and side light of the studio and distant from each other about six feet. Improvise a dark tunnel by drawing a black cloth, of non-reflecting material, over the two dark grounds, and arrange a white screen, somewhat larger than the distance between the two dark grounds, in an oblique position so as to be fully illuminated.

The subject to be silhouetted must be placed in the centre of the tunnel, one side of the face turned towards one ground, but comparatively nearer to the white screen so that the side of the face turned towards the camera is as much as possible in the shade.

Focus must be taken accurately, so that the outlines of the figure are perfectly sharp.

As it is the object to obtain a perfectly transparent, glass-clear silhouette upon an absolutely opaque ground, but a very short time of exposure is required.

Develop as usual and to secure perfect opacity intensify more than usual. Plates of lower sensitiveness invariably give the best results. A slow plate or one made particularly for reproduction is well adapted for this kind of work. With ferrous oxalate or hydrochinon developer there is scarcely any need of intensifying.