The Complete Photographer

Abstract

AFTER having read this volume, the question that naturally presents itself to the reviewer is, to what class of readers will it appeal? The author, in his preface, states that he has made no attempt to compete with the many books on photography that have already been published, whether scientific treatises upon the principles underlying the practice or manuals of practical instruction. He states, further, and quite correctly, that the formuke given are very few, and that “it is their application to photography that has formed his topic.” The student, therefore, will not always find here the practical instructions that he needs; sometimes, in fact, quite otherwise. If, for example, he wishes to varnish a negative, and turns to the page indicated in the index, he reads that “the modern dry-plate worker finds the result of the first operation is to send a stream of varnish up his arm, of the second to make a pool of it on the floor, and of the third to cement a number of dust particles to the surface of the negative, and, possibly, to set the whole of the varnish alight.” As the author considers that there is no reason why an amateur photographer should varnish his negatives, he does not help him to do it.

The Complete Photographer.

By R. Child Bayley. Pp. xv + 410. (London: Methuen and Co, n.d.) Price 10s. 6d. net.