A Sunny Smile . . .
HERE IS A PICTURE of lady standing at the doorstep in bright sunshine. Can't think why the man behind the camera included so much of foreground which actually serves no purpose, but then this is a common error many box camera users--oh well, I mean amateurs--make, keeping aloof of the subject. You can't really blame the man with the box; his lens allows him only to approach his subject upto 8 feet or so when using early models giving 6 x 9 cm negatives. Later models brought this distance down to 4 or 5 feet, although this was possible with the earlier ones too using a portrait attachment. If only our man would have stepped forward a few paces using this attachment, he would not only have obtained a larger image on his print, he would have been using his emulsion to the best advantage, and lastly, he would have done away with that bare space in front that is so tiresome to the eye. But does it really look so bad? Doesn't it give the feeling of depth, that the lady is at a distance, that the photographer is not literally falling over her? A second point that deserves attention is the lady's dress. The washed-out appearance is characteristic of what happens when a print is made straight from a negative: whites often lack gradation and detail. To get around this trouble a softer grade of paper is required. Alterntively, if the printer was skilled enough he would have burned in the white areas giving more detail at the bottom end of the tonal scale.
HERE IS A PICTURE of lady standing at the doorstep in bright sunshine. Can't think why the man behind the camera included so much of foreground which actually serves no purpose, but then this is a common error many box camera users--oh well, I mean amateurs--make, keeping aloof of the subject. You can't really blame the man with the box; his lens allows him only to approach his subject upto 8 feet or so when using early models giving 6 x 9 cm negatives. Later models brought this distance down to 4 or 5 feet, although this was possible with the earlier ones too using a portrait attachment. If only our man would have stepped forward a few paces using this attachment, he would not only have obtained a larger image on his print, he would have been using his emulsion to the best advantage, and lastly, he would have done away with that bare space in front that is so tiresome to the eye. But does it really look so bad? Doesn't it give the feeling of depth, that the lady is at a distance, that the photographer is not literally falling over her? A second point that deserves attention is the lady's dress. The washed-out appearance is characteristic of what happens when a print is made straight from a negative: whites often lack gradation and detail. To get around this trouble a softer grade of paper is required. Alterntively, if the printer was skilled enough he would have burned in the white areas giving more detail at the bottom end of the tonal scale.