=The Photographic Requirements Dictated by Brightness and Color
Considerations.=—Considering only the demands made by the character of
the view presented to the airplane camera, and leaving out of account
other limitations to photographic operations in the plane, certain
requirements as to sensitized materials may be outlined. First of all,
the photographic process must not reduce, but should rather be capable
of exaggerating, the range of brightness of the object. Preferably the
seven-to-one range of the object photographed should be lengthened out
to the full range of the printing paper, which may be two to three times
this. With such an increase of range, those minute differences of
brightness are accentuated, on which the detection of many objects
depends.
Next, the plate or film must be sensitive to the portion of the spectrum
transmitted by a yellow or orange filter which will cut out the effect
of haze. This calls for orthochromatic or panchromatic plates, depending
on the depth of filter required. Next, if the objects to be photographed
differ little in brightness but are different in color composition, we
may have to rely on color filters of peculiar transmissions, capable of
translating these color differences into brightness differences. These
will, in general, call for fully color sensitive, or panchromatic
plates.
In conclusion it may be pointed out that the endeavor in ordinary
orthochromatic photography—to reproduce the visual brightness of colors
in the photographic print—has no real justification in aerial work.
Neither in respect to color values nor in respect to brightness range is
it the object of aerial photography, especially for war purposes, to
present a truthful tone reproduction. Its aim is rather the adequate
differentiation of detail, by whatever means necessary.
CHAPTER XVIII
CHARACTERISTICS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC EMULSIONS
The purely photographic problem in aerial photography, as distinct from
the instrumental one, is the selection of photo sensitive materials
which will yield useful results under the conditions peculiar to
exposure from the air. After such materials have been found by extensive
field tests, it is preeminently desirable to determine their
characteristics in such terms that the kind of plate or film may
thereafter be specified and selected on the basis of purely laboratory
tests. Specification must be made in terms of the ordinary sensitometric
constants of the photographic emulsion—its speed, contrast, fog,
development factor, its color sensitiveness, its ability to render fine
detail, and its grosser physical properties such as hardness and
shrinkage.
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