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

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

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 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.]