Chapter VII: 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.