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.

---

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

From Tiny Luttrell by Hornung, Ernest William

The focusing cloth is thrown over your head, the position taken as shown, and the exposure made by the pressure of the teeth on the bulb while held between them.

From The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 700 Things for Boys to Do by Popular Mechanics Co.

Then the focusing cloth was stretched across the frame and tied down at the corners with more strips from the handkerchief.

From The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, Issue 160, April, 1904 by Various

The focusing cloth should be fastened to the camera.

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