Peter Burgess
New member
Cornishman, 10th October, 1878
Penzance
Subterranean Photography by Artificial Light
Saturday?s Photographic News has an interesting and appreciative notice of the great step in photographic art taken by our former townsman, Mr. Brooks, of Reigate. It explains that the colour of the surface of the Reigate caves (in silver sand, we believe,) is black and blackish green, which increased the difficulty of the task. Indeed, the News adds, that the mechanical troubles of photographing dark interiors are not easily overcome and are, in many cases, insuperable, but Mr. Brooks has, in the present instance, with a happy audacity, dispensed with the aid of the electric, the lime, or the magnesium light (actinic lights) and used common paraffin lamps duly distributed, and has avoided the difficulty of keeping wet plates moist by using dry gelatine emulsion plates. After further reference to Mr. Brooks?s processes, the News says: ?Everything is duly rendered and fairly modelled; all trace of the intense shadows generally noticeable where artificial light is employed being absent,? and proceeds to shew how Mr. Brooks?s method of lighting up a cavern might be made available in coal-mining and tend to avert our disastrous colliery explosions.
Penzance
Subterranean Photography by Artificial Light
Saturday?s Photographic News has an interesting and appreciative notice of the great step in photographic art taken by our former townsman, Mr. Brooks, of Reigate. It explains that the colour of the surface of the Reigate caves (in silver sand, we believe,) is black and blackish green, which increased the difficulty of the task. Indeed, the News adds, that the mechanical troubles of photographing dark interiors are not easily overcome and are, in many cases, insuperable, but Mr. Brooks has, in the present instance, with a happy audacity, dispensed with the aid of the electric, the lime, or the magnesium light (actinic lights) and used common paraffin lamps duly distributed, and has avoided the difficulty of keeping wet plates moist by using dry gelatine emulsion plates. After further reference to Mr. Brooks?s processes, the News says: ?Everything is duly rendered and fairly modelled; all trace of the intense shadows generally noticeable where artificial light is employed being absent,? and proceeds to shew how Mr. Brooks?s method of lighting up a cavern might be made available in coal-mining and tend to avert our disastrous colliery explosions.