The night photographer has to be more or less immune to criticism, and
willing to endure all kinds of conversational interruptions, from
friendly questions to unmannerly jeers and imputations of insanity.
The general public knows from personal experience with hand cameras
provided with slow lenses and small stops that picture taking can be
done only by sunlight and in the middle of the day, and does not
understand the setting up of a camera in a poorly-lighted place at
night for the taking of a picture. Nevertheless, this branch of
photography is very interesting and results are possible even in
villages and the open fields, wherever the least artificial
illumination or glimpse of moonlight is present.
Naturally, much light means shorter exposures than are possible with
very sparing illumination, but too many light sources do not tend to
artistic results. One of the finest night pictures we ever saw was
that of an old farmhouse, nearly buried in snow, with one or two
windows showing the light of a kerosene lamp. The snow was illuminated
by the light of the full moon, and only two or three minutes' exposure
was given.
As a matter of fact, 15 to 30 minutes' exposure on any landscape at
_f_: 8 by the light of the full moon high in the sky will give a
picture hardly to be distinguished from one made in daylight except by
the softness of the shadows, and such pictures sometimes have a
softness and wealth of detail in ordinarily shadowed parts which
cannot be obtained by exposures in daylight.
The best night pictures are perhaps those taken in city streets
brilliantly illuminated by arc lights, especially when the pavements
are wet. Care must be taken not to have brilliant lights shining
directly into the lens, for even double-coated plates will not prevent
halation and reversal of the image under such circumstances. Ghosts,
or wheel-shaped images of the lights, in other parts of the plate, are
sure to occur with all double lenses in such cases. The night picture
shown opposite shows how interesting a simple subject, poorly
illuminated, may turn out in the print. This shows typical star
radiation about the single visible light, caused by the blades of the
iris diaphragm, and also a slight ghost from this light on the face of
the tower, caused by a double reflection within the lens.
[Illustration: By F. A. Northrup. FIG. 112.--A GLIMPSE OF THE
EXPOSITION.]
Other forms of night photographs, treated elsewhere in this book, are
photographs of fireworks and lightning. Very interesting and
scientifically valuable pictures of the latter phenomenon have been
made by swinging the camera during the exposure, thus getting a dozen
or more paths of the same flash parallel to each other.