The _Bollettino_, a journal published every two months in Rome, and the
chief organ of those interested in photography in that city, gives the
result of the last election of members of its Photographic Society as
follows: Adler, Dottor Vittoria; Intriglio, Avv. Benedetto; Tenerani,
Cav. Carlo; and of the correspondent members--Calvaria, Cav. Avv.
Giuseppe, of Castellamare di Stabia; Daniele, Oreste, of Catania;
Garzia, Oronzo, of Maglie; Hermans, Charles, of Brussels; and Orsini,
Marchese Antonio, of Solmona.
The opening of the Second Annual Exhibition of Photography took place in
the Palazzo di Belle Arti on the 2d of May, when a large number of
members took part.
The display included landscapes and interiors, portraits, instantaneous
views, film negatives, photo-micrographs, enlargements, flash-light
pictures, architectural views, and representations of costumes taken in
Morocco and in Sweden.
An excellent article on “The Duration of the Pose” begins
thus:--“Formerly, when collodion occupied the whole field of
photography, the first difficulty in the art was the preparation of the
sensitive surface. Now that the preparation has undergone a radical
change, passing into a branch of industry, that first difficulty has
vanished, and there has succeeded to its place the duration of the pose,
the exact determination of which has over the resulting picture an
influence as great, and possibly greater than formerly, seeing that in
the very short poses of the present time even a little error has a value
of relatively greater importance.” The article goes on to say that the
duration depends (1) on the sensitive preparation, (2) on the actinic
power of the light, (3) on the object, (4) on the diaphragm, and (5) on
the distance. Thus, if it were required to represent by an algebraic
formula the conditions governing the pose _t″_, we should have--
t″ = k. P. L. O. d. D.
where k is the invariable constant.
The article, which is too long to translate, is written by A. Roncalli.
It is succeeded by a short notice of the effects of the Schippang
varnish upon collodion enlargements. This article, written by Ab. F.
Castracane, makes mention of some unhappy results of the use of this
varnish on some of his own pictures. After this comes a letter from Sac.
D. Ratti, on halation, or _aureole_, as the Italians call it. Then a
paper on the development of instantaneous negatives and on the toning of
aristotype paper, by Bne. T. Melazzo. Various notes and receipts, with a
bibliography and a short notice of the illustrated supplement, complete
this interesting number. The illustration is that of a moonlight effect,
the negative by A. Ducros, the phototype by Danesi, of Rome. “To obtain
this picture,” says the letter-press note, “it was sufficient to set the
machine against the setting”--pardon the indiscretion; I was about to
add sun--“and to remove the cap. But, before this is done, that certain
fifth sense has to be taken into account, without which,
‘Non licet adire Corintum!’
and Signor Ducros, profound and advanced artist and photographer as he
is, possesses this fifth sense, and uses it in a masterly
manner.”--_Photographic_ (London) _News_.