CAMERA NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1049, 11 January 1913, Page 4

CAMERA NOTES.

[By “Focus.”]

Foxtou possesses the unenviable reputation of forming various clubs and societies, and then after a short period of existence abandoning them. At the inaugural meeting of the Camera Club, the chairman (Dr Adams) expressed the opinion that Foxtou people in this respect were “good starters, medium stayers, but bad finishers,” and this in some ways no doubt applies, especially as regards “bad finishers.” Let us hope this will not be the brief history of our own Club ; we made a most encouraging commencement, but just lately the attendances have inclined to be disappointing, At this period we are passing through perhaps the least interesting part ot the Club’s programme, and combined with the business of this time of the year, may account for the present laxness in attendance, but with the advent of the winter months the membership should inciease. The value of such an institution is apparent to all serious camera workers, and this lact alone will preserve.the Club from quietly “snuffing out.” THE ADDRESS. At last night’s meeting of the Club, an address was delivered to the members present, with a demonstration, on developing the photographic plate. As it is said that exposure is the pivot upon which the successful working of the process depends, so it must follow that with a correctly exposed plate, precision in development must be observed to produce a negative of maximum printing quality, and therefore it would seem that one has as Important bearing on the quality of the finished print as the other. Mr Savill, in his remarks, said that after receiving an exposure of the required duration, the sensitive plate possessed no visible change, although the emulsion contained what was termed a “latent image,” due to the chemical action of the light, entering the camera through the lens, on the particles of silver bromide contained in the emulsion. To produce a negative, it was necessary to “develop” this latent image, and to attain this end some reducing agent was required—generally termed a “developer”-™that would deposit within the sensitive film the silver salts acted on by the light during exposure in exactly the same ratio ot density as the intensity of light in the original camera image. The duly of the developing solution was to change the light-effected silver bromide into a metallic silver, which was insoluble in the “fixing” bath and insensitive to light, and which accounted for the negative appearance of the image on the plate during development and after fixation. According to the correctness or otherwise of the exposure, so must the duration of development be regulated. The time necessary for the completion of development has a fixed relation to the lime of the first appearance of the image from the moment of pouring on the developer. Unsatisfactory results occur from taking the plate from the developer too soon, and alike from overdevelopment. Of the two errors, over-development may be considered the easiest to deal with. The period when development has been carried just far enough is hard to judge, and varies according to the formula of the developing agent, and to some extent on the nature of the subject. A demonstration. A practical demonstration accompanied the address, during which two approximately correct exposures were developed in a normal metol-quino.l solution, and fixed in a plain hypo. bath. This operation afforded those present an opportunity of witnessing the method of straight-out development, and was of value to those who were not thoroughly acquainted with the procedure. A demonstration on the correcting of errors in exposure during development will no doubt be set aside for a special evening in the near future.

At the next meeting of the Club the subject ot “chemicals”— as applied to photography—will be dealt with, when the chemical formulae of various developers will be explained, among other matters, and modifications iu their proportions of reducer proper, accelerator and restrainer for the development of incorrect exposures, gone into.