focusing cloth

American  

noun

1. an opaque cloth surrounding the ground glass of a camera so as to shield the eyes of the photographer from light that would otherwise prevent seeing the image in the ground glass.

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Etymology

Origin of focusing cloth

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

“She’d be barefoot, and with her husband, Allan, would duck under the focusing cloth of their heavy eight-by-ten view camera and start whispering conspiratorially before they photographed me.”

From Washington Post • Apr. 4, 2020

The focusing cloth should be fastened to the camera.

From The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 1 March 1906 by Various

At the same moment Blake threw a black focusing cloth over the mirror, for he thought the Frenchman might notice that it was in a position to reflect whatever took place in the opposite room.

From The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front Or, The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]

They had pinned a big focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.

From Freckles by Stratton-Porter, Gene

The focusing cloth clung to her head like a cowl as she raised it and bowed.

From Tiny Luttrell by Hornung, Ernest William