A Manual of Photographic Chemistry, Including the Practice of the Collodion ProcessHardwich, T. Frederick
Science
A Manual of Photographic Chemistry, Including the Practice of the Collodion Process
Hardwich, T. Frederick
Photographic chemistry; Photography
"A strongly-framed Camera-stand carries a flat table, about 20 inches wide
by 16, furnished with the usual adjustments. Upon this are laid two flat
bars of wood in the direction of the object, and parallel, and about the
width of the Camera asunder. They are 18 inches in length; their front
ends carry stout pins, which descend into the table and form centres
upon which they turn. Their opposite ends also carry similar pins, but
these are directed upwards, and fit into two corresponding holes in the
tail-board of the Camera.
"Now when the Camera is placed upon these pins, and moved to and fro
laterally, the whole system exactly resembles the common parallel ruler.
The two bars form the guides, and the Camera, although capable of free
lateral motion, always maintains a parallel position. In this condition
of things it is only suited to take stereoscopic pictures of an object
at an infinite distance; but to make it move in an arc, _converging_ on
an object at any nearer distance, it is only necessary to make the two
guide-bars approximate at their nearer end so as to converge slightly
towards the object; and by a few trials some degree of convergence will
be readily found at which the image will remain as it were _fixed_ on the
focussing glass while the Camera is moved to and fro. To admit of this
adjustment, one of the pins descends through a Slot in the table and
carries a clamping-screw, by means of which it is readily fixed in any
required position.
"In order however to render the motion of the Camera smoother, it is
advisable not to place it directly upon the two guides, but to interpose
two thin slips of wood, lying across them at right angles, beneath the
front and back of the Camera respectively (and which may be fixed to the
Camera if preferred), and to dust the surfaces with powdered soap-stone or
French chalk."
In addition to this arrangement for moving the Camera laterally, the
_slide_ for holding the sensitive plates must be modified from the common
form. It is oblong in shape, and being about ten or eleven inches long,
requires some little adaptation to fit it to the end of an ordinary
Camera. The glasses are cut to about 6-3/4 inches by 3-1/4; and when
coated with Iodide of Silver, the two images are impressed side by side,
the plate being shifted laterally about 2-1/2 inches, at the same time and
in the same direction as the Camera itself.
The operation of taking a portrait is thus performed. The focus having
been adjusted for both positions, and the Camera and the slide both drawn
to the left-hand, the door is raised and the plate exposed; the Camera and
the slide are then shifted to the right-hand, and the plate in its new
position having been again exposed, the door is closed and the operation
completed.[39]
[39] See 'Photographic Journal,' vol. i. page 59.
Pictures taken with this instrument do not require to be reversed in
mounting, the left picture being purposely formed on the right-hand side
of the glass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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