Perspective

September 1919 by Various.

Department of Photography by The Amateur Photographer.

department of photography prizes to be awarded for the best photographs by amateurs shadowland is to have a department of photography being primarily a picture book photography will enter largely into its make-up but we don't intend to let the professional photographers monopolize this magazine all publications that are devoted to motion pictures and the stage depend for their illustrations on professional photographers this is so from necessity and not from choice yet the truth is that in all contests where prizes are awarded for the best photographs it is the amateur and not the professional who usually wins this may not be true of portraiture but it is doubtless true of all other branches roughly speaking there is a camera in every town in the united states and one in nearly every home in many towns the camera is a great luxury when one learns to use it properly there is no end of pleasure and profit to be derived from it the first thing a person does when he or she gets a camera is to snap everything in sight perhaps all the family are lined up in front of the house and after they have straightened up and readjusted themselves out of their natural proportions they are snapped by the proud photographer then the house itself is taken then the dog the cook the horse the barn etc but after a time one tires of this sort of thing and the camera is laid aside until visitors come or until the vacation arrives or a picnic is planned but there is another use of the camera which many have not yet learned and that is the art of taking artistic pictures in this department i shall try to show my readers how to enter this wonderfully interesting new field in the meantime we want all those who know what art in photography means to send us contributions for this department we shall print each month as many of the good ones as we can make room for and we shall award cash prizes for the most artistic ones we wish to hear from the amateur photographers only write on the back of the photograph your name and address and the title of the picture it is immaterial whether the print is large or small but the larger the better because it is a very simple matter to reduce the size of the picture and very difficult to enlarge it yet if the picture is very small it will probably be useless for our purposes we can't undertake to return any photographs submitted but each and every one will be preserved and the better ones placed on exhibition in our editorial rooms following are a few photographs taken by the editor of this department some years ago the last in title an afternoon ride is a picturesque subject and is nicely lighted it would have been better however if the little girl had entered into the spirit of the occasion and put a little action in her pose it is obvious that she is camera conscious the boy was apparently not old enough to know what a camera was and therefore the photographer succeeded in getting a good pose out of him the second picture entitled star-gazing is another good bit of lighting and posing if we do say so ourselves this picture was of course taken in sunlight with a lens well stopped down the first picture entitled on the great south bay is picturesque but it has very few of the elements of a fine photograph the third example entitled a midday meal shows a couple of children about to have luncheon on a pail of berries that they have just picked the principal charm of this picture lies in the naturalness and ease of the posers editors are frequently asked the question what kind of photographs are best for reproduction dull finish or glossy ones black or sepia the answer in our case at least is that any kind will do but that black and white prints are preferred sepia blue brown green and other tones do not usually produce as well as black and white above all do not attempt to tint your photographs with various colors if you expect to have them reproduced one color is bad enough but two or more colors make a photograph almost impossible for reproduction unless the engraver goes to the expense and trouble of rephotographing it through color screens which in our case cannot be done generally speaking there are two kinds of photography the sharp clear contrasty prints and the soft fuzzy atmospheric ones in nearly all prize contests the latter gets the prizes it is not so difficult to learn how to snap a scene or an object with just the right lens opening in perfect focus and giving it just the right time but it is very hard indeed to make such a picture artistic study any great picture such as a carat landscape or a malay figure painting and observe the different values

This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East.

I'm Drop lens in the comments, y'all.

L-E-N-S, lens.

Instead of what am I doing wrong, try what haven't I learned to see yet? One creates judgment.

The other creates curiosity.