FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY
The photographing of flowers, fruit, and still-life subjects forms a
delightful photographic hobby peculiarly adapted for pursuit at home.
Properly handled, such subjects tell most interesting stories. The
work involved is a pleasant occupation for the leisure hours, and
brings us face to face with absorbing problems. The negatives used may
be utilized in a variety of ways to give pleasure to others as well
as ourselves, or for the decoration of the home after an attractive
fashion. A few hints given here may be profitable and sufficient to set
the reader thinking over the possibilities of the field. We need for
the work only the apparatus included in the ordinary amateur equipment,
a single or long focus lens, orthochromatic plates and a color screen,
or the Imperial Non-Filter Ortho plates, which require no screen. If
we have already mastered the meaning of orthochromatic photography the
usefulness of color sensitive plates and color screens will be fully
appreciated.
Flower photography, like portraiture, needs a quiet, diffused light.
The best time for the work, therefore, is in the early morning or
late afternoon, and the best place, a window facing north with the
unobstructed light of the sky. When we work at a window lighted by
the sun, the window should be screened with translucent paper or
tracing cloth, so that the light is diffused and softened. Softness
of illumination, delicacy of modelling combined with the natural
vigor of the subject under treatment, and the appearance of life, are
the three points to be aimed for, and they depend upon the lighting
and arrangement of the subject. Values of tone and texture are also
important; stiffness or formality are things to be carefully avoided.
Generally speaking, a side or three-quarter lighting will give us the
most favorable angle of illumination for most subjects. Sometimes,
however, a top light alone, or a method of lighting in which the light
is thrown upward with a mirror, will be advantageous. In most cases a
white reflector to throw illumination into the shadows will be useful,
but this must be carefully handled. A few experiments will tell us the
value of these devices. Almost invariably, the light should come from
one source only, but auxiliary illumination will, at times, be found
very helpful to reveal the peculiar translucency of some flowers. To
keep the flowers from drooping the stems may be kept packed with very
wet moss, or we can seal the cut ends of the stems with wax, which will
preserve them fresh for a long time.
The arrangement of flowers, singly or in groups, or sprays, or single
branches, is an art difficult to teach in a few words. A touch here
and there will often disturb or improve in an incomprehensible way.
Simplicity, and an endeavor to reproduce the natural characteristics
of the subject, are the keynotes to successful arrangement. Where
several blooms of one flower are photographed in extended formation,
to form a panel or frieze, care must be taken to secure variety, and
avoid monotony of design. Writing of this an experienced worker says:
“Form and texture of flowers demand special attention, as a variety of
blossoms crowded into one photograph destroy the effect of graceful
tendrils and natural beauty, and present to the eye a blurred and
meaningless mass. Quantity is not needed to make a picture, and upon no
account have a mixture of garden and wild flowers. Plentiful array of
foliage is an improvement in a floral study, and a few buds break the
rigidity of the whole and display the beauty of the full-blown flower
more prominently. A defaced or worm-eaten leaf mars the otherwise
perfect plant, but that can be manoeuvred by replacing it with a
faultless one with the assistance of a touch of gum.”
Wild flowers, so delicate in texture and modelling, must be carefully
dealt with, especially their foliage, as it is too often sparse and
puny looking, demanding a sprinkling of wayside grasses to give
variety to the fragile forms. The loveliest forms should be selected
for photography, and single plants, growing in moist soil and partly
sheltered from the burning heat of the sun, lend themselves splendidly
to graceful effects. The first arrangement of a floral study will
probably not be very encouraging, but it is principally from failures
we learn. Practice makes perfection, and the gradual ascent is smoothed
to the painstaking student. Flowers are generally troublesome to
photograph growing—their homes are ofttimes unevenly lit and the
background unsuitable; still, a natural representation of them can
be secured, although they be cut blooms, by examining their haunts
and carrying out the idea impressed on our minds on reaching home.
Overcoming the initiative stages, other schemes of arrangement will
readily present themselves to the true lover of the beautiful.
A simple and easy plan to display flowers naturally is to fill a long
narrow box with damp sand, and using that for a support, arrange them
according to the uniformity of the foliage and flowers. It would hardly
be possible to steady the stems of the flowers out-of-doors unless they
were propped up; thus damp soil is essential. A more realistic picture
could be obtained if the front and sides of the box were covered with
moss, to allow gradation in height for the numerous stems, instead of
cutting them across in a line with the receptacle. View the design from
various directions, and, if it pleases, place it about three feet from
the background, thus getting rid of reflections.
The introduction of a glass bowl or vase will sometimes lend desirable
support, in fact and tone, to a fragile subject, but natural forms are
often most attractive of themselves without the addition of anything
else. What, for instance, could be more desirable to the eye than a
single sprig of mistletoe against a panel of grained oak, or a trail
of ivy leaves decoratively disposed over a delicately tinted card?
Similarly a spray of holly with berries, the long, graceful lines of
golden rod, or a few Bermuda lily blooms, offer excellent material for
the decoration of a panel or dado.
After lighting and arrangement, the background is a detail of much
importance. Plain tinted grounds are to be preferred, and the
cartridge papers used for wall hangings, or some of the more delicate
of cloths used for book-covers offer abundant choice. A large picture
or canvas stretcher, on which coarse linen has been stretched, will
serve as an admirable base for many different grounds. For light
flowers a medium tone or dark ground is generally desirable, and for
dark flowers a lighter ground. Extremes are to be avoided.
A very simple method of making photographic reproductions of decorative
natural forms—such as details of flowers, ferns, small plants, leaves,
seaweeds and grasses—is that described by M. Jules Carteron a few
years ago. In this method no camera is necessary, a printing-frame and
supply of sensitive paper being all that we require. A fairly large
printing-frame is desirable as permitting of the arrangement of the
subject: for printing papers we may choose from the familiar “blue
print” paper, Eastman’s _Sepia_ paper, or any variety of print-out
silver paper. The printing-frame should be fitted with a piece of clear
plate-glass, and should be of the box pattern, so that we may use a
certain amount of padding (soft blotting-paper) to secure perfect
contact everywhere between the subject and the sensitive paper. To
make the print, the plants, or leaves or grasses, as the case may
be, are carefully spread out upon the glass with such arrangement as
is possible or desirable. Next place upon the plant a sheet of “blue
print” paper of suitable size, allowing the paper to come into close
contact with every part of the original. Over this place several sheets
of blotting-paper, so as to form a cushion; then close the frame
by means of the usual springs. Expose for about fifteen minutes in
sunlight, and develop with water, which will yield an image of a pale
blue color upon a background of a darker shade.
Such a print as this serves well for an herbarium of pictures, the
dentition of the leaves being finely marked, and the shades of coloring
very apparent. Of course the record so obtained is a negative record.
What shows clear on the print is opaque in the plant, and _vice versa_.
The silhouette detail of the plant is traced upon the paper by the
solar rays in the same way as the silhouette of an object is traced by
the X-rays upon a sensitive plate. Besides this, it would be difficult
to make many prints exactly alike from the same original, for it is
hardly possible to open the back of the frame without displacing the
plant, or modifying the position of the leaves; for these reasons a
second method is desirable. We therefore make a negative of the plant
as before, only the material used for this negative should be _sepia_
paper, as being thinner, more transparent, and consequently more
sensitive than “blue print” paper. This paper negative we need simply
wash in water if on _sepia_ paper, and then dry.
In order to render the part printed more transparent and also to show
more detail in the positive, place the paper against the glass of a
window (the sensitive side against the pane), then with a fine brush
charged with oil follow carefully the lines representing the plant on
the back of the print, keeping rather within the outline, as oil always
spreads. Use blotting-paper to remove all superfluous moisture. With
this as a negative, very many clean and well-defined positives can be
obtained. On these two papers the image stands out in a kind of tobacco
color upon a very slightly toned ground. This tobacco color is very
favorable in representing many plants, and prints thus produced present
the appearance of a dried plant mounted on a paper support.
The method is one which lends itself peculiarly to gum-bichromate
printing, in which we may control the color of the print. By rendering
the negative transparent it is possible to bring out the minutest
details of the subject. Its possibilities for the decoration of _menu_
and other cards, for suggestions helpful in design and similar purposes
will be evident.
The oil used may be olive oil, but from experience the better kind to
use is benzine mixed with a small quantity of glycerine.
Photographs of fruit, as a rule, are improved by the introduction of an
accessory. Thus a fruit-bowl of oriental design, or a basket carelessly
placed, or a little rough foliage will often help in the composition
of the picture. Beware of any formal arrangement, and illuminate the
group so that the natural forms are kept with only a touch of light
here and there. The cast shadows are important and should be given
careful attention in lighting. With most fruits a color-screen will
be desirable, enabling us to retain the different tone values of the
colors.
Still-life picture-making offers a wide range for the individual fancy.
Groups of game; arrangements of oriental fans, draperies and feathers;
a shield, with a bit of old armor and a gauntlet; a lamp, with an open
book and spectacles; a few toys and a pair of baby shoes and a corner
of the nursery; or a favorite window-nook with my lady’s desk; these
suggest themselves as likely subjects which, treated pictorially, are
well worth a plate.
In dealing with such subjects a full exposure is always desirable, and
the development should be directed toward the securing of a rather
thin, detailful negative which will yield the different values and
textures of the subjects as the eye perceived them in the originals. In
the making of prints the carbon process seems especially desirable, as
giving us color, which oftentimes will add interest to the picture.
The wonderful range of colors, between thirty and forty different
tints, permits selection to suit the subject. Added to this the
three-color carbon process, giving a close approximation in effect to
the originals, is peculiarly adapted to home practice requiring only
patience and time to give very pleasing results.