PANORAMAS In large offices, banks, stores, factories, warehouses, and the like, especially if there is a promotion or advertising campaign under way, you will be called upon to make pictures including a view wider than your widest angle lens. Of course, a Cirkut camera is out of the question for most interiors, so it means the making of several negatives with a view camera and joining the prints together to make one continuous picture.
Illustration Number 15 is the interior of a bank, considered a very beau tiful building, the skylight and balconies of which were quite prominent features. Several photographers had tried to make the picture with a wide angle lens, but never satisfied the customer. The illustration, as you see it, is a three-plate panorama with absolutely no art work, and is joined together on the white lines, and when finished, the customer had but one complaint—the price. He had been spoiled by low prices.
You will notice that the picture was not joined in straight lines, which is, to my mind, a great advantage over the old method of printing all in one piece, for you cannot get around angles and posts in making a continuous print.
As most jobs of this kind require only one print for reproduction purposes, it is far better to put them up in pieces. The prints are lapped about half an inch, and the edges, both underlapping and overlapping, are carefully sand papered to a very fine edge, using sandpaper manicure sticks which can be purchased at almost any drug store. After using several other means, I settled on these manicure sticks, as they are much easier to handle, and there is not so much danger of mutilating the print. The prints are then matched together and carefully trimmed.
To prevent buckling of the mount, just before mounting the prints, I paste on the reverse side of the mount a piece of heavy wrapping paper just the size of the combined prints, and then quickly mount the prints themselves. A little careful watching and manipulation in the right direction during the drying process will result in the mount drying perfectly flat.
When dry, a good folder tissue and cover paper, applied similar to the manner used by commercial artists, completes the job, and when put up in this style, will be found easy to deliver at a good price.
I am often asked what I do when the customer wants more prints. They hardly ever do in a job of this kind, but should more be needed, a copy can be made and prints taken from the copy. Personally, I charge them enough for duplicates so that I can mount them the same as the original and still have a profit.
The exposure on the bank picture was about 20 minutes to each plate, stopped f45, Bausch & Lomb series IV, 8 x 10, on backed Standard Orthonon plates, using daylight only.
You will notice no halation on the side windows or skylight, although strong light was coming in at all times. This is due to backed plates, proper exposure, and quick development in the dark-room.
. Number 16 is a two-plate panorama of the interior of a phonograph and electrical fixture supply store—no art work—with artificial lights only, and is joined on the white line.
The exposure was ten minutes to each plate, stopped f32, Bausch & Lomb series IV, and the two Johnson Compact Ventlites used on the job were kept in motion during the entire exposure, which prevented any deep shadows. Backed Standard Orthonon plates were used.
Number 17 is an out-door two-plate panorama and shows the possibilities there. You will notice the lines of the walks and roads are practically straight, and is, all in all, a very satisfactory job.
I might mention that this picture was made on a hazy day in early spring, and from where I was standing, the end of the street was barely discernible. By putting a K-2 filter on my lens, using Standard Orthonon plates, and expos ing about 3 seconds to the plate, stopped to f64 (Goerz Number 6, 8 x 10), the result is that absolutely no haze is apparent.