storm clouds in the east
Toronto. Cloud photography was a challenge in the earlier years of our art. The media were mainly blue light sensitive. Both sky and cloud showed dark on the negative material when the landscape or person was suitably exposed.
To correct the ‘white’ area above the scene in the print, a separate negative for sky and cloud could be made and added carefully. In later years, a yellow filter used with orthochromatic film could capture sky and cloud as well as the scene below. Some filters were clear on the lower half and yellow on the top half so with careful exposure and framing both the sky and the scene below appear natural on the negative and the subsequent print.
For panchromatic film, the yellow filter or a polaroid filter could intensify and darken the sky making clouds stand out. Since halloween themes of ghosts and pumpkins seem common place today, I chose to show a stormy cloud scene and used the story by Noyes. I once read his poem to my children, literally, “scaring the pants off them”!
NB. The title of this post is a phrase from Alfred Noyes’s haunting poem, “The Highwayman” first published in 1906. It is a suitable memory of Halloween!
