FURNITURE The making of negatives of furniture and prints was one of the firstbranches of industrial work that called the photographer into use in helping to sell goods. Thirty to thirty-five years ago, some furniture manufacturers were using photographs, and it is certainly interesting to talk to the old fellows and learn their trials and tribulations when working with slow and color blind plates, and to compare the results with those now obtained with the modern color plates, ray filters and lighting methods. This work today is child's play to what it was fifteen to twenty years ago.
Most furniture is photographed in the factories where it is made, nearly all of the larger plants and many of the smaller ones having a room for this purpose, which is usually their display room, with a skylight and a plate chang ing room for the photographer, making the work comparatively simple. In fact, most operators consider it a poor day's work if they do not make eighty to ninety negatives, that is, in the general run of factory work. It is for this reason that photographers have the matter of low price to contend with, for some photographers have gotten the price down to 75 cents to $1 for 8 x 10 negatives, and occasionally lower, they contending that the simple arrangement, the manufacturer furnishing the camera and by putting boys on to the work of doing any necessary preparing of furniturcand making the exposures, allows them plenty of profit.
This is all to be very much deplored, as are low prices in any line.
The general procedure in photographing in the factory, or in the studio for that matter, for a long run is about as follows : Lines are drawn just off the background and each piece brought up to those lines ; the camera is prac tically never moved and the exposures go along one after the other and the only changes made are in plates, pieces of furniture and number on the signs. The manner of exposing for the signs, such as shown in illustration No. 40, may be of interest. This is a fair average of factory photography. The lettering for such a photograph is set up in a frame alongside the piece and is exposed for a short time, say ten seconds, when it is covered with black velvet and exposure made for the furniture itself. The negative is then blocked for
printing.
As for preparing furniture, that is a question which must be decided for the individual case. Certain manufacturers insist upon their stuff being photo graphed in the white or unfinished state and positively will not stand for any dope of any kind. Others give it a sort of filling coat, which seems to bring out the grain very nicely, and then again the photographer does his own pre paring, using a mixture of kerosene and gasoline, the gasoline being the ingredient that does the business and the kerosene keeping the gasoline from evaporating until the exposure is made. Or, you can use gasoline and parif fine. What I consider the best of all is Cedar Oil, but that is rather expensive.
However, it is in the photographing of finished furniture, which is highly polished as a rule, such as pianos, tables, etc., where considerable ingenuity is required in getting away from reflections and obtaining a satisfactory result.
There have been several methods recommended to eliminate white reflec tions, among them what is known as tenting, that is, to stretch muslin all around the piece and connecting it to the camera, so that all the light is filtered through this muslin in reaching the furniture itself. That has several advan tages for some work, but the disadvantages to my mind offset the advantages. That is, to begin with, it takes considerable time to put it up, unless frames are made for it, and it has to be taken down for every piece. Then, again, it throws white reflections on the articles (unless darker muslin is used, when it takes longer for the light to filter through•the tenting), which is highly detri mental to a piece of mahogany or rosewood. As speed is very essential, if one is going to compete with the price business, it comes down to a system of working with your open light, putting the pieces against the light ground with dark reflectors in such a position that they will reflect upon the polished piece of furniture and make the illumination even. While it takes considerable time to get the reflectors in their proper positions, they will usually do for the whole run of tops, and can be used in different positions for practically any style of furniture.