No matter what your equipment is, however, you will need artificial lights of some kind or other, of the electric variety, preferably because, nowadays, speed is essential, and jobs often come in one day, with finished prints to be delivered the next, especially in catalogue and magazine advertising work, and the photographic work will have to be done at night.
Some studios use the old-fashioned arc lights, some the Aristo, the North ern, Majestic, or Panchroma. These are all good, and practically the only difference. I can see is that some of them consume more current than others, and the initial cost.
Then, there is the Cooper-Hewitt, often used to augment even daylight, when they are attached to the crossbars of the skylight so that, as daylight wanes, the tubes can be turned on. Some large plants, especially those doing an immense volume of photo-engraving work, and running night and day, use these Cooper-Hewitt tubes exclusively for all photographic work, so as to obtain an even run of negatives. However, these tubes have one disadvantage which can be overcome, and that is, in using color filters, one has to work somewhat differently in view of the color of the light.
And, last but not least, we have the Mazda or Nitrogen filled bulbs, which can be used in so many different ways that it is almost impossible to enumerate them all.
They have several advantages over the arc lamps, in that they can be used in all sorts of positions ; they consume less current, and are light and easy to move. They can be made in the form of an artificial, skylight, or they can be used separately on stands. The light of the clear bulb is a color correction of about the K-1 type by itself, which is somewhat of an advantage on certain work.
I have already taken up the matter of cameras and lenses in another chapter, and will now only describe the apparatus necessary in photographing set-ups. Illustration No. 29 is a rough pen sketch of a stand carrying a series of shelves, painted flat black to eliminate reflections on the objects being photographed, and which conic in extremely handy. These shelves arc all removable, and the lower section of the stand is a convenient storage place for blocks, tools, clay, putty containers, etc. This rack may be used for photo
graphing practically all merchandise stuff not better done on a vertical camera, and illustration No. 30 is a good example of such a set-up.
In using this rack, many times there will be small articles set close together, one tier above the other, when the upper shelf will cast a shadow on the goods below. In such a case, the wooden shelves may be replaced by some of plate glass very satisfactorily, and an even lighting obtained.
While considerable work done in the studio is eventually blocked out, nevertheless you will need a good background of sonic kind or other, and most commercial places have a background carrier with a black ground on one side and a white ground on the other. Of course, the best dark ground is of black felt,.although the ordinary painted ground. even though it does not have the depth that felt possesses, does very well. For a white ground, it should be a white that photographs white. The light-blue-white, and red-black grounds, which the portrait man uses, and which, with color-blind plates, photograph white and black, respectively, show up very unsatisfactorily, as most of the plates and films used by.the commercial operators are color sensitive.
An extremely practical carrier for these grounds, instead of being a skele ton frame, will be found to be solid, as thus it can be utilized for many merchan dise set-ups which have to be tacked onto a background.
A timely little suggestion with reference to backgrounds, and a wonderful saving, especially when a background is needed for oily pieces of machinery, castings, and anything which might soil the cloth background, is to obtain from your newspaper office what are known as paper butts. These are nothing more nor less than left-over ends of newsprint paper rolls, which are too short to start in the press, and can usually be bought at what the newspaper people paid per pound. The paper is wide, running up to 54 inches and more, and forms a continuous background. As soon as soiled, it can be thrown away, and it photographs a very good white.