Evening star., 1949-07-10
Camera Angles.
Tips on Fundamentals of Photography
By Alexander J. Wedderburn
curotor Of Photography
The Smithsonian institution

A few years back I was having
difficulty one day on the target
range. More often than not, as
I was attempting to zero-in my
rife on the bull's-eye, the little
red flag, irreverently referred to
as "Maggie's drawers" passed
slowly across the face of the tar
get, indicating a clear miss. This
brought on a barrage of abuse
which clearly intimated in no un-
certain terms that my Springfield
was Of a peculiar and unwhole-
some vintage. But word of ad-
vice from the coach tipped me
of to a previously neglected ad-
iustment for windage, and then
the good old rifle began plopping
them into the center, one after
the other.
The moral is both simple and
apparent to the amateur photog-
rapher-don't blame your camera
for the bad pictures that you take.
The blame for this condition in
almost every case rests squarely
on your own shoulders.
Your camera is, after all. only
mechanical instrument. 1t can
be made to perform wonders but
1t cannot think for itself. 1t cam
not regulate it's own shutter speed
or open or close its own dia-
phragm of it's own volition. Nor
can it select scenes to be photo
graphed or reject those that
should not. 1t cannot select the
proper type of Aim or rid its lens
of dust and moisture or. unguided
by your hand, account for any OF
the other elements that 90 into
making what we call good pic
ture.
Technique Is Yours.
If your pictures come back from
the flnisher's overexposed or I'M
derexposed or blurrer from cam
era movement or out of focus. 1t
is your own fault that these i'm
perfections exist. And it can't be
palmed off with the excuse that
the camera or lens is no good.
If your camera technique is good
your photographs will be good. no
matter what kind or type camera
YOU may use. II your camera
technique is bad your pictures will
also be bad until you have un-
covered the mistakes and correct
ed them.
The manufacturer Of your
camera has done his best to
anticipate the extent OF human
frailties as they may apply to the
taking Of pictures. Through years
of constant improvement, the
camera has progressed steadily in
the direction of being simple
and easy-to-use tool for the
average person. Nowadays 1t Is
hard to make q bad mistake with
some Of them. But in the final
analysis the man who presses the
shutter release is responsible for
the result.
Let's take q look at the last
batch of pictures that came back
from the photofinishers. If half
of them are worth keeping. you
are performing well above aver
age, If one-third of them are
really good shots you can con-
gratulate yourself and should you
have even one shot on the roll
good enough to be above the
serious reproach OF an expert or
professional you can assume that
you are doing all right-unless 1t
was an accident.
The preceding paragraph is
rather sad commentary on the
ability of the average amateur
photographer but nevertheless is
true. Most of the trouble Is due
to carelessness and most of the
rest to a lack Of knowledge Of the
basic principles Of photography.
Watch for Movement.
To get back to that most recent
roll of film let's examine one Of
the discards. The negative may
have an extremely dense black
appearance. This would indicate
that the trouble was overexposure.
If such was the case the print
would be white and washed out
with little or no detail In the
lighter or high light portions.
If one of your prints is ex-
tremely black and burned up"
In appearance q glance at the
negative will reveal that It was 30
badly underexposed that very
little was recorded.
Another print may be sharp and
clear all over except that the per-
son whose picture you were trying
IN rac0rd xAama to ho hj1,rrad