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THEGETTY CENTER LIBRARY 
 
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Amateur Photographer Library.—Advertisements, ii 
 
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 The great City Depot for Amateur Photographers. 
 
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Vv Amateur Photographer Library~-Advertisements, 
 
 WATSON’S NEW CONVERTIBLE LENS, 
 
 THE HOLOSTIGMAT. Series I. F/6'I. 
 
 A rapid universal lens, unrivalled 
 for groups, portraits, architecture, 
 landscape process, and all work 
 requiring great rapidity. This 
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 84 74 43 {/6"5 | 4eX 4b 510 0 
 
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 The following extracts from a criticism of one of these Lenses (of 6}in. combined focus) 
 
 which appeared in Photography in July last will be of interest :— eer 
 
 ‘“‘ The largest effective aperture possible was one inch in diameter, so it will be seen that the 
 lens was capable of working at f/6°4. W7th this stop it could be got to cover a whole-plate 
 easily with good definition, and on a ten by eight plate, only the extreme corners were unillu- 
 minated, the angle of the cone of rays being 86°. It will be observed that the actual angle 
 required by a hatf-plate lens of this focus is 64°, so that there was an excellent margin for 
 the use of a rising front, whether the piate were used vertically or horizontally.” 
 
 ‘‘The tests applied for achromatism showed conclusively that the correction in this respect left 
 nothing to be desired, while in the matter of distortion, the image of a straight line the full length of a 
 half-plate, falling ment upon the margin of the plate, did not vary from the straight more thana 
 hundredth of an inch in its whole course—an amount quite ee bn kee even to a practised eye 
 without instrumental aid. The curvature of the field was similarly infinitesimal. Tested on a flat 
 subject, ON A WHOLE PLATE, the extreme edges were at their sharpest focus, with full aperture 
 only one-fiftieth of an inch nearer to the lens than the centre. This was the mean of a series 0 
 readings, which did not vary amongst themselves a hundredth of an inch altogether, and should suffice 
 to show that the lens is not merely a medium angle high rapidity lens, but should prove a very valuable 
 wide-angle instrument also.”’ 
 
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 313, HICH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C., and 16, FORREST ROAD, EDINBURCH. 
 
 (Opticians to H.M. Government.) 
 
Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. vi 
 
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Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. vill 
 
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ix Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. 
 
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 ANIMATED PHOTOGRAPHY; THE ABC OF THE 
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 ART OF RETOUCHING, THE. 
 
 CARBON PRINTING. 
 
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x Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. 
 
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PL Weve 
 
 PRACTICAL PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
PAK 
 
 Contains a simple statement of the theories which govern 
 pictorial work in photography, and working instructions 
 as far as it is possible to reduce it to practical rules. 
 
 PARE i. 
 
 Contains numerous types and examples, showing the applie- 
 ation of the practice and theories given in Part I. 
 
PRACTICAL 
 PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS IN THE 
 APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY 
 TO. ARTISTIC ENDS. 
 
 PRACTICAL 
 
 BY 
 
 A. HORSLEY HINTON, 
 
 Editor of ‘* The Amateur Photographer.” 
 
 Author of ‘‘ Art Photographique 
 dans le Paysage,’ ‘‘ The Handbook of Illustration,” 
 
 “* Platinotype Printing, ete. 
 
 [AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS LIBRARY No. 17.] 
 
 PH oT OG. 
 NH 
 LONDON: es 
 HO (of. 
 Meow be WATSON, & VINEY, Lp. 222 
 
 1, CREED LANE, LUDGATE HILL, £.C. = 
 RO¢c 
 1900. 18 / 
 
e 
 
 ? 
 
Practical Pictoriul Photography. 
 
 [)ROBABLY no branch or application of photography 
 has been so misunderstood, or has suffered so much 
 by such misunderstanding, as that which forms the subject 
 of this book. It has suffered because it has been so often 
 criticised for failing to do what it was never intended to 
 accomplish, and condemned for not doing the very. thing 
 the performance of which it was essential should be left 
 undone if success was to be attained in the particular 
 application of photographic means which we call PicrorraL 
 PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Now let it be quite clear that we are merely dealing 
 with photography applied to a certain purpose—pictorial 
 photography is not photography in the sense in which the 
 word is commonly understood, but merely an endeavour 
 to apply some of the powers which Science has placed at 
 our disposal—because the employment of photography in 
 the most perfected form of the craft does not necessarily 
 accomplish the ends in view; and it is my task to briefly 
 explain what those ends are, and to point out how the 
 means at our disposal may best accomplish them. 
 
 Finding it impossible within the compass of one little 
 book to give examples of the various points dealt with, or 
 to illustrate them as fully as I think is desirable, I have 
 confined myself in Book I. to a general statement of the 
 theory and practice of Pictorial Photography as I under- 
 stand it, and in Book II. I give a series of examples which 
 are intended to show the application in actual work of the 
 principles laid down in Book I. For the convenience of all 
 
 1 
 
BE ES 
 
 oe Sie: 
 
 FELDEE SHORE. 
 
A Willing Reader. 3 
 
 classes of readers, the two books are published separately 
 and also together. 
 
 I state this here because, whilst either book may be taken 
 independently, I feel it but due to myself to say that my 
 tale is not told until both sections are read in due course. 
 
 Now [ only want willing readers; for the present I am 
 not disposed to attempt to make converts. I only desire to 
 help those who already are anxious to cultivate the use of 
 photography to pictorial ends. I want, therefore, to be 
 quite sure at the outset that the help and information of 
 which the reader is in search is the kind of help and in- 
 formation I am on this occasion and in this little book 
 setting out to give. Pictorial Photography is a modern 
 term created to meet a modern development of ideas, and 
 
 “we may not all be meaning the same thing when we ‘use it. 
 
 On the opposite page is a reproduction of a photograph 
 which, with all its sins of omission and commission, may 
 serve as a typical example. 
 
 Is it a picture? It isa photograph. Is it, my good sir 
 or madam, what you understand as a pictorial photograph ? 
 IT am not asking as to its merits, but would you regard it 
 as belonging to the genus concerning which the following 
 pages have todo? If you say “ Yes,” very well; we under- 
 stand each other, and we may go ahead. But some may 
 say, ‘I can’t see anything in it—it is a good cloud, but I 
 should have liked some fishing smacks and some fisher folk 
 —something of interest to explain where it is, and all 
 that.” Very well, my friend, on other occasions I may 
 have written something for you, or may do so hereafter ; 
 but for the present I fear this little book is not what you 
 are in search of, albeit if you will peruse its pages we may 
 come to a better understanding before we part. Because 
 a photograph does not contain some objects of intrinsic 
 interest and does not proclaim its whereabouts, it is not 
 necessarily the less pictorial. 
 
 Turn to the next reproduction, entitled “ Requiem.” 
 Does that please you better? Well, say you, ‘“ Yes, that’s 
 more like: there’s an old fishing boat and landing stage, 
 and there’s always something so quaint and picturesque 
 about such things.” I do not agree with you quite. If my 
 picture “ Requiem” possess any merit at all it is not on 
 
” 
 ° 
 
 “ REQUIEM 
 
The Purpose of Delineation. 5 
 
 account of its representation of fishing boat or pier, because 
 you know very well that for a shilling you could any day 
 purchase a much better portrait of a fishing boat, and this _ 
 of mine is a poor kind of a pier alongside of the usual 
 photographs of Brighton or Hastings. 
 
 Although in “Requiem” there are some masses rather 
 rudely portrayed which might possess more interest to the 
 average person, yet the merit, if any, in this, as in Feldee 
 Shore, is the same: it depends upon the amount of success 
 which has attended the endeavour to express or suggest the 
 feelings or emotions which nature sometimes creates upon 
 those who are in sympathy with her, and do not only 
 derive pleasure from Nature by what they are able to learn 
 - of her laws, her constitution, and her uses. 
 
 And now, having attempted to achieve a kind of personal 
 explanation, we may proceed. 
 
 Tue Tworotp Funcrion oF DELINEATION. 
 
 The quality which has distinguished photography from the 
 first and which has brought it into such high esteem and 
 contributed chiefly to its utility, to such a degree that the 
 industrial, commercial, and social conditions of to-day could 
 hardly be without it, is the completeness and accuracy 
 with which it can reproduce anything which is set before 
 it. A faithful and perfect delineation, then, is the goal 
 towards which Science and mechanics have striven in 
 photography as generally understood. 
 
 Such also was probably the aim of primeval man who 
 first found himself possessed with the power of delineating 
 with a sharp stone, or with his finger-tip, in the wet sand. 
 So far as he was able he copied certain objects; but as he 
 attained to greater facility in drawing, it is conceivable 
 that he would put this power to a use. He would draw 
 something, and then, either with or without supplementary 
 sounds or gesticulations, he would endeavour to convey 
 to others some scene, or event, or idea. 
 
 The mastodon or more recent elephant, when compared 
 with the huge bulk of rocks, and hills, and forest trees, is 
 not such a great beast as he would appear to puny man 
 who met him for the first time, whilst his trunk and tusks 
 
6 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 are by no means, when compared with his size and singular 
 build, such all-predominant features as we commonly con- 
 ceive them to be; and yet the first man who in his 
 wanderings encountered such an animal, would, it is easy — 
 to conceive, greatly exaggerate the total size and especially 
 emphasize the abnormal form of the prolonged upper lip 
 in his attempts to convey a notion of the beast to his 
 fellows by means of a drawing. 
 
 The cave-dweller who in his wanderings had crossed a 
 vast arid plain, might naturally try to convey an im- 
 pression of its flatness by a horizontal line and a wave of 
 the hands to express its emptiness, omitting to refer to 
 details or even to take notice of trifling undulations, even 
 as we describe a country as being as flat as a billiard-table, 
 well knowing the simile to be more expressive than 
 accurate. 
 
 It may be seen, then, that whilst the value of delineation 
 may in some cases depend on its fidelity to fact, yet for 
 the purposes of conveying to others the idea of a thing 
 which has most impressed us, a considerable departure from 
 exact fact may be distinctly advantageous, if not essential. 
 
 Tur Purpose oF THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Now I am purposing these introductory remarks as an 
 argument in favour of those methods employed by the 
 majority of the leading exponents of the application of 
 photography to pictorial ends, which methods have been so 
 strongly condemned with ridicule by those whose con- 
 demnation arises, as I believe, more from a misconception 
 or misunderstanding of the motive and aim of such 
 productions than from a logical disagreement. 
 
 Presently I shall endeavour to look at the subject from a 
 more practical standpoint, and, as already promised, having 
 ascertained the aims I shall try to show how they may 
 best be attained. 
 
 If my foregoing parallels have sufficed to show that 
 delineation, to be most communicative of ideas and im- 
 pressions (not facts), may with advantage be not entirely 
 accurate, I would then proceed to point out that accuracy of 
 delineation depends for its very accuracy upon its fidelity 
 to details, 
 
Detail versus General Effect. 7 
 
 Now I submit that if by a representation of any object 
 or objects I wish to convey to others my impression of such 
 objects or conditions, or to, as it were, interpret them in the 
 manner they impressed me—not, mark you, to show what 
 those objects and conditions were really like, but the ideas 
 they prompted in me—then I shall probably do it best by a 
 general outline, or by the portrayal of the chief items only, 
 perhaps simultaneously exaggerating and distorting some- 
 what in order to serve my end; but I shall omit the details, 
 partly because their introduction would not help the 
 matter and partly because if the impression made upon me 
 by the original scene was a very powerful one, then most 
 probably I should have been unconscious of and be blind 
 to petty details, my mind being pre-oceupied by the force 
 of the general effect. 
 
 It is not a question of what the eye sees or might see— 
 detail was doubtless there if we stopped to look at it, and 
 still more of it might have been discoverable had we sought 
 longer ; and moreover, to the mind of aman without much 
 imaginative faculty, who is not easily or greatly moved by 
 effects which might thrill the sensibilities of another, but 
 one who instinctively rather investigates and analyses, 
 details would perhaps strike and impress him before the 
 general effect which had so absorbed and, so to speak, 
 dazzled the other. 
 
 Thus both methods of delineating the same scene (either 
 with or without detail—that is to say, in sharp focus and 
 bright, and in uniform illumination, or out of focus and 
 perhaps with details still further suppressed by deep shadow) 
 may be equally correct according to the motive, or, what 
 perhaps is almost the same thing, the temperament, of the 
 producer, 
 
 DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS. 
 
 Now if the man who either admires nature for what he 
 can find in her to wonder at or excite curiosity and prompt 
 inquiry and investigation, looks at a painting which in its 
 suppression of details does not satisfy this desire, it may be 
 that he turns from it with indifference or accepts it as an 
 example of fine art with which he has no especial sympathy 
 —to him a museum is pleasanter than a picture-gallery. 
 
8 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 If the same person sees a photograph which similarly 
 does not record completely the details of nature, he, knowing 
 that as a photograph it must be from nature and not a 
 wholly imaginative work, not unreasonably condemns 
 it. 
 
 He says, Here is a copy from Nature, made by a process 
 which miakes supreme accuracy possible, and yet it is 
 deficient in complete accuracy. Hence he reasons it is a 
 failure, and is bad. 
 
 He has not realised that the same motives which operated 
 in the production of the painting which he tolerated may 
 have been at work in producing this photograph. The 
 person who, viewing a photograph in which, in order to 
 render effectively some light-and-shade impression, detail 
 and crisp outlines have been, it may be, intentionally 
 subdued, says, “I cannot see things clearly. I want to have 
 things more distinct,” is but unconsciously giving expression 
 to an instinctively investigating or inquisitive mind. He 
 is seeking for daisies on a well-kept grass lawn from which 
 they have been carefully eradicated, because their presence 
 was not desired there, pretty and interesting though they 
 be of themselves. 
 
 A picture, a pictorial rendering of anything, is not for 
 every one, it is only for those who want it; but the man 
 who does not want it and whom it does not please is 
 not necessarily a more foolish man than he to whom it 
 appeals, if he but have the wit to admit his lack of 
 appreciation and allow that there may be those to whom 
 it might be pleasing. Such an admission would be no 
 confession of inferiority, and would be a more intelligent 
 
 position than to condemn as bad and to ridicule everything | 
 
 not in accordance with his individual taste—as surely no 
 man will say that all brunettes are ugly, his personal 
 preference being for the blonde. 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF THE ForEGOING PriIncrpuzs. 
 
 If, then, we are prepared to endorse the foregoing very 
 tolerant views, we shall be able to accept the conclusion 
 that inasmuch as in a pictorial representation a personal 
 and individual impression of a scene is all that is aimed at, 
 
 a4 
 
 ec | 
 
Art not an Imitation of Nature. 9 
 
 we may omit or we may exaggerate any portions if in so 
 doing we can the better gain our end. In photography 
 we can perhaps omit more easily than add, but our power 
 of omission is chiefly limited to details, whilst the largely 
 mechanical nature of the process compels us to a fidelity 
 to general masses and such larger truths as our impressions 
 are mainly dependent upon. In this there is perhaps as 
 much cause for satisfaction as for regret. 
 
 But some exaggeration is also in like manner permitted 
 us, to just such an extent as its evident violation of truth 
 does not overwhelm the impression we desire to convey. 
 Thus we may deepen shadows, we may increase the lights, 
 and in other ways emphasize certain matters, so long as 
 the emphasis or exaggeration does not seem unnatural.* 
 
 So long as the scientist, as well as the unthinking, 
 compares a picture, be it photograph or otherwise, with 
 nature to such a degree as to condemn any pictorial work 
 because ib is not true to nature, there will never be any 
 right understanding between those who value photography 
 for its scientific utility, and those who merely employ some 
 of its powers for the interpretation of scenes as they felt 
 them, not as they might, with careful scrutiny, have seen 
 them to be. , 
 
 Art does not try to copy or to imitate Nature. 
 
 And now one last word on this part of my subject to 
 him who has found in the perfecting of the process of 
 photography, as a process, a keen delight and fascinating 
 pursuit. He is not justified in supposing that because a 
 vocalist can compass say from middle C to the higher F, 
 any song performed by that singer which includes less is 
 proportionately a poor musical performance. 
 
 If he look at a work in which photography has been 
 applied to certain pictorial ends and misses certain qualities 
 of the process at which he, in his labours, has perhaps 
 been at great pains to bring about, he is not to say this 
 photograph is poor because the producer has not availed 
 himself of such and such advances in technique. 
 
 A scale of music comprising two octaves has twelve 
 tones, or fourteen notes, strings, or keys, and between the 
 
 * This matter is dealt with at greater length in Book II. 
 
10 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 highest and lowest notes of that scale most musical airs. 
 will fall; and yet hardly one will be found to employ the 
 full gamut of such octaves. 
 
 The average compass of the voice may be taken as an 
 octave and a half. Is ‘‘ Home, Sweet Home” or the 
 National Anthem, or any other musical composition, to be 
 despised’ because it only requires one or two notes over 
 the octave, and hence does not include the full range of 
 possible sounds or exhaust all the notes within ordinary 
 boundaries ? 
 
 Just as the man looking at a photograph in which the: 
 matter has been pictorially treated will be disappointed if 
 he expects to find a faithful and comprehensive copy of 
 Nature, so also will he who looks to see in every production, 
 in which photography has been employed a complete — 
 exhibition of the mechanical and scientific perfection to. 
 which the process has been brought as a duplicative method.. 
 
 There are photographs of three kinds: thase which 
 marvellously reproduce every line and every fibre so that 
 at our leisure we may study it, and learn more of the 
 original than we could with unaided vision in its very 
 presence; there are those which exemplify the highest 
 possibilites of the process and stand as a towr-de-force of 
 manipulative skill; and then. there are those in which with 
 deliberate intent the producer has selected just such pro- 
 perties of photography as seemed calculated to fulfil his 
 designs, making use of, it may be, the very characteristic: 
 which in the other two instances the photographer has 
 sought to abolish, turning to account for definite purposes 
 what by the maker of a perfect photographic image would 
 be deemed an imperfection and a fault. 
 
 Each of such three kinds of photography has a different 
 purpose to fulfil; and assuming each to be equally success- 
 ful in its particular sphere, then each should bear a 
 different appearance, and the various results will be directly 
 determined by the motive with which it has been set 
 about ; nor should the characteristics of any one be expected 
 in any other. 
 
 At this point I may I think proceed to more practical __ 
 
 considerations, dividing the subject under the head 
 Motive, Means, and Methods, . 
 
Il 
 
 PRACTICAL CoNSIDERATIONS.—MOTIVE. 
 
 Whilst the chance spatterings of ink from a fallen pen 
 may suggest familiar forms and figures, so it is_possible 
 that a clumsily made photograph may ‘suggest ideas and 
 act upon the imagination as forcibly as though it had been 
 deliberately intended to so act, and the ideas prompted 
 had been the Motive instead of the accidental result. 
 
 Obviously, however, the uncertainty of the outcome 
 precludes such a course from serious consideration. A work, 
 especially art work, must be considered good in proportion 
 as the result obtained is a fulfilment of the intention. 
 An intention or Motive, therefore, is essential to the making 
 of a Picture. 
 
 Whilst the term picture is commonly used to signify 
 a facsimile image of anything, we shall have to understand 
 it in a much more restricted sense in the present subject 
 of our study. I cannot lay too much stress upon this, 
 that in art a picture is not essentially or only a representa- 
 tion of certain objects in nature. 
 
 Tf welook atan admittedly good picture—say, for instance, 
 a great painting—it is possible that we instantly recognise 
 it as representing certain natural objects; but if its effect 
 upon us ends there we may be quite sure of one of two 
 things ; either we are approaching it with wrong expecta- 
 tions, or else this particular picture, and perhaps pictures 
 generally, are not for us—we have not a natural taste or 
 sympathy for pictures, just as some men do not care to read 
 poetry, and are unmoved by music. 
 
 But in most cases it will probably be found that, quite 
 apart from recognition, we shall be conscious of other 
 feelings.* 
 
 I have not space to argue it here, and surely no argu- 
 ment is needed, to point the fact that a really great picture 
 gives the beholder a sensation of pleasure apart from the 
 fact that pretty or familiar objects, or pleasing scenes, are 
 depicted. 
 
 Now this sensation of pleasure may be of varying 
 character. It may be that we feel again the tremulous 
 
 * Instances given in Book II. 
 
12 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 fleeting light which comes from the western horizon and 
 spreads over the landscape, gilding the outlines and pouring 
 like a glowing, warming flood into every portion, or the 
 gladness of the summer sunshine sparkling in the tree-tops, 
 glinting on the water full of life, richness, abundance, 
 calling from out the cool shadows the summer breeze which 
 rustles and bends the corn, then stilling it again, stifling 
 it in a warm embrace as it passes into the shimmering 
 distance. 
 
 Or there may be a pleasure of a more thoughtful kind 
 in the grey stillness of dawn, or in the sense of dreariness 
 and desolation of winter, a time for pensive thought and 
 calm imaginings, a pleasure of a quieter, subtler order; or 
 it may be the esthetic senses are stirred by a representa- 
 tion of the beautifully moulded and symmetrical human. 
 form. Yet again one’s sympathies may be stirred by the 
 suggestion of more homely scenes, sorrow or suffering, noble 
 sacrifices, or great deeds. 
 
 In every case let it be noted, and never forgotten, that 
 the strongest part of a picture is the sensation and feeling 
 which it creates, this being done through the agency of 
 certain familiar objects more or less accurately depicted and 
 represented with more or less completeness. 
 
 The Mortvs, then, in all pictorial work is to convey some 
 thought or idea or sensation by means of a chosen subject. 
 
 It may be that some scene in nature awakens some 
 emotion, and we then endeavour to depict that particular 
 scene and the objects it contains in such a way as to work 
 upon the imagination of those who see our picture, so as 
 to create in them the same feelings; or it may be that we 
 first desire to give expression to certain sensations and then 
 choose a subject which will best convey those feelings—in 
 either case the motive is the same. 
 
 I will not dwell on this part of my subject a moment 
 longer than I feel to be imperative; but I should probably 
 leave more doubt than I hope to do were I not to refer to 
 the fact that we must distinguish between the thoughts 
 which the picture may promote, which also it was the 
 artist’s motive to create, and those which the beholder may 
 arbitrarily attach to it. A beautiful landscape, say, of 
 mountain and lake will create in the beholder thoughts 
 
Pictorial Representation Defined. 13 
 
 and feelings which he did not possess a moment before. 
 Art has been creative of new ideas. But another beholder 
 may at once gather round the picture of the mountain 
 recollections of a previous excursion, and commence specu- 
 lating on the altitude of the mountain and the difficulties 
 of its ascent, mingled with the memory of a hundred happy 
 experiences which have been called up by this representa- 
 tion; but these feelings have not been created, only thoughts 
 and memories have been revived, and probably any 
 picture of a mountain would have done as much—indeed, 
 it needed not a work of art or a picture at all; the pages 
 of a diary or a guide-book would probably have served 
 nearly as well. 
 
 From the foregoing we might now formulate a maxim 
 to the effect that art—that is, in our case, pictorial 
 representation—employs the image of concrete things to 
 create abstract ideas. 
 
 It is a matter of experience that a representation of 
 anything which first and before all else impresses us with 
 its startling likeness to the original, or sets us wondering 
 at its exquisite execution, does not readily appeal to the 
 imagination, and hence we must be content to confine 
 ourselves to working out a single motive—that is, we should 
 either be satisfied to produce graphic memoranda or records 
 which remind us, and others, of events and scenes, or 
 portray objects pictorially that we may create new sensa- 
 tions in others. 
 
 We may, if we choose, win applause for our skilful 
 manipulation by prceducing a technically perfect photo- 
 graph, or we may feel satisfaction at having used our 
 photography for the production of an astonishingly truthful 
 record, whilst again we may with perfect legitimacy employ 
 that same process so as to carry to others feelings and 
 sensations which cannot be depicted, but which we may be 
 able to express in such a way that they will be understood 
 by those who are naturally in sympathy with us. 
 
 If the reader has followed me thus far, it is quite possible 
 he may be ready to say, “ But how may this be done, 
 considering the means at our disposal? Does not the 
 very nature of the photographic process render the ex- 
 pression of the ideal all but impossible?” 
 
14 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Tue MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED, 
 
 I have endeavoured to show that all photographie pro- 
 ductions naturally resolve themselves into, roughly, three 
 classes, each having a distinct interest and prompted by a 
 different Motive. In all, however, the Means employed are 
 the same, the distinction in the result depending largely on 
 the Method in which they are used. 
 
 Dismissing from our minds for a time the two classes 
 which, as will be seen, have exclusively to do with the actual 
 and real, and confining ourselves to that class of work to 
 which this book is devoted and in which it is attempted to 
 apply photography to the expression of the ideal, it may be 
 well to consider what the means at our disposal really consist 
 of, and whether at the outset there seems any likelihood of 
 their being adequate to the performance of their task. It 
 need hardly be said that before attempting to apply a 
 process to a definite end which is not perhaps the purpose 
 which those who made it had in view, it will be necessary 
 to, or at least very desirable that we shall have attained 
 some proficiency in its use, and a mastery of the tools which 
 we may have to use. 
 
 I have already to some extent drawn parallels from 
 paintings, and as it may be objected that in painting we 
 have the assistance of colour, which is denied us in 
 photography, let it be remembered that whilst, as a means 
 of expression, colour is of extraordinary value, yet so potent 
 is mere black and white that even painters sometimes elect 
 to work in monochrome, and with a perfectly satisfying 
 result ; and I do not think the photographer need lament 
 that he is denied the use of colours so long as we have 
 before us such media as pencil, crayon, pen and ink, 
 engraving, etching, mezzotint, ete., all of which are in 
 their own way perfectly satisfactory in the hands of the 
 artist as a means of expression and of appeal to the 
 imagination. 
 
 Now let us notice that photography gives us unlimited 
 power of rendering every gradation of light and shade 
 between white and black; and as in music we use the term 
 “tones” to signify degrees in sound between the highest 
 
Methods, Means, and Motives. 15 
 
 and lowest, so we speak of various degrees of lightness and 
 darkness as “tones” which are “higher” or “lower” 
 according as they respectively approach the high light, or 
 white, and the deepest shadows, or black. 
 
 Next photography gives us the power of faultless drawing 
 —that is to say, we can without tuition portray any form 
 to which we direct the camera and lens. 
 
 Given, then, the power to portray and to produce the 
 whole range of tones of which the eye can take cognisance, 
 it might reasonably be supposed that everything can be 
 done which is possible to any monochrome method. If 
 with pencil or brush I set about producing a sketch or 
 picture, I first seize upon the objects which strike me most 
 forcibly, and I put into my drawing just as much as I think 
 necessary to convey whatever meaning or idea I wish: 
 subsequently I fill in the rest of the view, with perhaps less 
 fastidious exactness, so that the thing shall not possess an 
 unfinished appearance. Yet when all is done an immense 
 amount of detail has still been omitted as of no importance. 
 
 In this respect, however, photography differs. It is 
 indiscriminating and sets down not only what we feel 
 would convey the desired impression, but everything else, 
 with equal completeness. Thus photography is not lacking 
 in means of expression ; its fault isits redundance ; it gives 
 us too much, and it is for us to as far as possible restrain 
 it and control its action. 
 
 Similarly at each stage of the process the same control 
 is to be exercised, in order that every part of the final 
 picture may be, not as the mere mechanical process would 
 give it, but as we, the producers, wish it. 
 
 It might be expected that in this part of my subject 
 some description should be given of Apparatus and 
 materials, as constituting the Means employed. I would, 
 however, rather leave these matters to such Handbooks 
 and technical articles as may deal with the implements 
 and appurtenances of the craft, because no special apparatus 
 is needed in Pictorial work, and I have assumed that the 
 reader has already attained some fair amount of proficiency 
 in photographic practice; and we may now pass to the 
 consideration of the Methods as well as the Means which 
 we may resort to, to fulfil our Motives. 
 
16 — Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Metrnops.—TuHe PracticaAL APPLICATION OF MEANS TO 
 THE END, 
 
 Bearing in mind the somewhat obstinate and uncom- 
 promising character of the Means to be employed, we may 
 conveniently consider the photographer’s Methods of bending 
 these means to his will under the headings: Selection, 
 Manipulation of the Lens, Printing and the Control of 
 the Print, Development of the Plate and Preparation of the 
 Negative. 
 
 In selecting our subject, whether in order to produce a 
 picture which shall bé expressive of some predetermined 
 idea, or whether in selecting the best point of view of a 
 particular scene or objects so as to convey the feeling or 
 impression which it makes upon us at the time, there are 
 two factors which it should be borne in mind are essential, 
 and these are Expression and Composition. 
 
 Of the former a good deal has already been said; but 
 what of the latter ¢ 
 
 It may be said that in everything the eye calls for a 
 greater or less amount of symmetry or design. We see this 
 in the commonest details of daily life, on our tables, in our 
 houses, in buildings, and elsewhere; hence, as the angle 
 of view of the lens only includes a limited field, we should 
 naturally seek to include such a part, or select such a view, 
 as shall contain various objects symmetrically grouped. But 
 selection does not end here. It must be remembered that 
 a picture is an arbitrary abstraction of a little piece of the 
 whole view, and is bounded by the four enclosing sides 
 much the same as a window. 
 
 Now, if we look out of the window, and objects we 
 desire to look at are satisfactorily within the view enclosed 
 by the window-frame, we rest content; but if not, we may 
 move the head or crane the neck so as to see a bit more. 
 As we have not the same opportunity when looking at the 
 picture when finished, the greater need to get so much of 
 the view within the area of the picture as shall leave no 
 desire to see a little more on either side. 
 
 If this is done discreetly a person looking at the picture 
 is unconsciously satisfied, and for the time is oblivious of 
 
The Central Object. 17 
 
 the fact that the picture is only a little piece selected from 
 all the wide panorama, and forgets that there was anything 
 else in the world worth looking at. 
 
 It follows from this that the principal object in the 
 scene, not necessarily the largest or most interesting, but 
 that upon which the sentiment and the effect chiefly 
 depends, should be somewhere near to the centre of the 
 picture. On looking at a picture the eye is immediately 
 arrested by the more conspicuous items, such as high lights, 
 small, deep shadows, or any forms which are unusual or 
 which seem to separate themselves from the rest; and if 
 any such are allowed to come close to the edge of the view 
 included, the eye is attracted thereby to the edge of the 
 picture, and becomes at once conscious of the arbitrary 
 boundary which it might otherwise have forgotten. 
 
 It might almost go without saying that in all great 
 works there should be one chief and dominant idea; single- 
 ness of purpose or Motive goes far towards securing success ; 
 and equally in design or composition such as we are con- 
 sidering, a one chief and principal feature is preferable to 
 more than one, each or all of equal importance. 
 
 For the moment we are only concerning ourselves with 
 composition or design, which I have described as one of the 
 two essential factors in a picture ; and therefore, apart from 
 the fact that ifthe chief idea of the work centres upon some 
 object, that alone may give it importance, care should be 
 taken that not only its more or less central position, but 
 the relative positions of other objects, should assist in giving 
 predominance to that one point. 
 
 Let us take some example :— 
 
 Imagine Fig. 1 to be a finished picture, and then, closing 
 the eyes, open them again, and looking at this picture you 
 will find that the eye is almost simultaneously arrested by 
 the houses on the left, the shipping on the right, the bridge 
 in the middle, and the buoys and figure in the foreground. 
 Here, then, we have what may be termed a disturbing com- 
 position, in which the eye wanders restlessly from one point 
 to the other. Compare this with Fig. 2, in which from first 
 to last the eye and the interest rests on the group of houses, 
 and nothing seems to draw it away, except that now the 
 buoys bring our notice to the extreme lower margin, a dis- 
 
 ) 
 
 td 
 
18 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 advantage disposed of in Fig. 3. This is a first considera- 
 tion in composition. 
 
 s SOD RSE 
 — eS 
 
 It will be noticed that 
 in order to secure this 
 better composition two 
 or three objects of in- 
 terest have had to be 
 omitted, and one can 
 easily suppose that to 
 include the  fishing- 
 smack and the buoy 
 and figure all in the 
 same plate might be a 
 strong temptation; but 
 here self-restraint must 
 be exercised—a view 
 may include any number 
 of interesting facts, may 
 constitute a whole cata- 
 logue of important and 
 pretty items, and so be : 
 valuable as a view or i 
 
The Centre of the Picture. 19 
 
 as a record; but it would utterly fail as a pictorial com- 
 position. 
 
 Supposing Fig. 3 to be the view chosen, there are some 
 points to be noticed. Observe that the winding lines of the 
 shore have been made use of—-that is to say, the fact of 
 those lines falling as they do may have been sufficient to 
 decide our selecting the view. They, as it were, lead the 
 eye from the lower edge of the print towards the principal 
 object, and at the point led to there is a streak of light, 
 which further assists in retaining the attention. The hori- 
 zontal line which indicates 
 the base of the wall might 
 promote a feeling of the 
 picture being divided into 
 two portions, and would 
 draw the eyes to look left 
 and right—this effect is 
 somewhat overcome by the 
 old posts which cut into 
 and so break this line. 
 In Fig.3, however,a further 
 improvement is effected 
 by cutting out the objects 
 in the extreme foreground 
 which unduly attracted 
 the attention and drew 
 interest away from the 
 central area of the pic- Fig. 3: 
 ture. Next notice that 
 the principal mass which attracts the eye is not quite in 
 the centre, and designedly so. Why? Some writers on 
 composition give diagrams to show that the exact centre 
 of a picture is the weakest point, and argue that there- 
 fore the principal object should not be placed there. This 
 may serve as a rule perhaps, but inasmuch as we do 
 sometimes meet with a picture in which the chief object 
 is found in the centre, and is still satisfactory, [ prefer to 
 explain the matter as follows. 
 
 It is an acknowledged canon that in artistic matters the 
 art should not betray itself—that is to say, in composition 
 for instance, there should be no appearance of the thing 
 
20 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 having been planned. Let the intention to secure a 
 symmetrical arrangement once be self-confessed, and it 
 immediately seems artificial. 
 
 The composition may be ever so carefully worked out, 
 but it must appear unconsciously done. And so it will 
 be best in most cases to depart slightly from precise and 
 symmetrical arrangement, as though unintentionally, lest 
 the endeavour to obey artificial rules betrays itself. Suppose 
 we have three boats, we might perhaps be able to arrange 
 them as in Fig. 4, which would certainly be symmetrical, 
 
 Kia. 4. Fig. 5. 
 
 but in Fig. 5 the same end is gained, in that we yet have 
 an orderly group, but it no longer strikes one as being such. 
 
 For this reason I would carefully avoid laying down 
 definite rules or giving diagrams to work to as patterns, 
 because the beginner would be very likely to betray in his 
 work the evidence of working to a pattern. It may also 
 be noticed that in saying that Expression and Composition 
 are the two essential components of a picture I have placed 
 Expression first ; and I have done this because, whilst good 
 Composition is by no means to be neglected, yet if the 
 expression or sentiment of the picture be very finely done, 
 then I think so long as we avoid bad composition I do not 
 know that we need go further ; indeed, if the sentiment 
 
Suggested Lines. 21 
 
 suggested by the picture be only powerful enough, we 
 might almost ignore the rules of composition as generally 
 taught, for if the expression be forcible enough it might 
 absorb the beholder to the extent of making him un- 
 conscious of the composition. 
 
 The relative positions of objects in a view, as also the 
 objects themselves, all more or less resolve themselves into 
 or suggest lines, and it is by 
 choosing one subject or one point 
 of view, so that those lines com- 
 bine ‘in a manner pleasing to the 
 eye, that a good composition is 
 primarily secured. Thus in Fig. 6, 
 should it so happen that the lines 
 of the shore and the old mooring- 
 post seem, to repeat the lines sug- 
 gested by the group of houses 
 and the sea wall, giving the whole 
 a one-sided appear- 
 ance, then we must 
 change our point of 
 view; and if by so 
 domg we can get 
 something like Fig. 7, 
 now it will be seen 
 that new lines in the 
 foreground compen- 
 sate or balance the 
 others, and the roof 
 on the left balances 
 the principal mass 
 without, however, de- 
 tracting from its importance. As a further example, and 
 still having chiefly the question of the composition of lines 
 in our mind, let me recount an instance from actual 
 experience. 
 
 In Fig. 8 we have a sketch of a certain small river port, 
 Woodbridge, as I first saw it. Looking across a bend of 
 the river, the primitive wharfe and piers were seen against 
 a glowing western sky and appeared as an irregular dark 
 mass, over which, in varying degrees, the warm haze spread 
 
 So 
 
22 ; Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 like a transparent veil. The form of .the masses, the masts 
 of the schooner alongside, made a sufficiently symmetrical 
 and well-balanced group to please the eye, and the broad 
 
 Fia, 8, 
 
 river was at the flood and reached to my feet in an 
 unrufiled sheet, reflecting the beautiful colours of the clear 
 evening sky; but there was a feeling of separation; there 
 
 was nothing to lead the eye to the principal masses, which 
 seemed to stretch across the field of view like a dark band, 
 dividing it in two. This I knew would not do. Change 
 of position did not improve matters, for if I included the 
 
An Hxample. 23 
 
 bank of the river the relative positions of the roots, etc., 
 changed, and a good deal of them no longer came into the 
 field of view. I gave it up for that time. 
 
 My second visit was early in the day, and the river was 
 again at high tide. Now the light was in a different 
 direction and the wharves and piers were Just very common- 
 
24 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 place affairs, every detail of which stood out clear and 
 bright (Fig. 9). The sentiment, the feeling, was gone, and 
 had I seen the place like that at first I should probably 
 never have troubled to make a second visit, unless, indeed, 
 I had simply wanted a good recognisable view of Wood- 
 bridge quay, which I did not. 
 
 That day, by the time the sun had gone round to the 
 position in which [I first saw it, and which converted the 
 ugly and uninteresting buildings into beautifully expressive 
 masses of light and shade, the river’s rapid tide had ebbed 
 and begun to flow again, and the consequence was some- 
 thing like Fig. 10, the immediate foreground being oceupied 
 by a bank of mud and shingle which the flowing tide would 
 shortly submerge ; and whilst this bank certainly filled up 
 Some portion of the blank space of water it seemed to form 
 a dark mass which arrested the eye at a spot close to the 
 base of the picture; and so, as it were, interrupted the 
 attention being drawn to the principal subject of the 
 picture, 
 
 Yet another visit was made—this time at evening when 
 the tide was low ; and now the arrangement of lines was 
 totally changed—the foreground being composed mainly 
 of ridges of mud and sand, with little channels and pools 
 of water ; these by their form seemed to make a winding 
 path, along which the eye was invited to travel; the dark 
 mass of shadow no longer cut the picture in two, because 
 the shadow was continued downwards in the partly exposed 
 river bed until it gradually became broken up into spaces of 
 light and then separated in graceful curves (Fig. 11). 
 
 No doubt remained in my mind that the composition had 
 been worth the waiting for, and the picture “ Woodbridge 
 Quay” was made. In order to give full opportunity to 
 those foreground lines the shape of the picture was changed, 
 and as will be seen clouds were subsequently printed in ; 
 but that is a story for another chapter. 
 
 But one may say, “I should rather photograph beautiful 
 rippling water than streaks of mud and shining sand.” 
 Very likely, and if you want to photograph water, do so 
 by all means; but do not suppose that because, with a 
 natural British instinct, we most of us experience a sense 
 of pleasure at a broad expanse of water, that water is 
 
Pleasant Recollections. 25 
 
 of itself and under all circumstances picturesque. What, 
 after all, are the pleasant feelings which the mere sight 
 
 “WOODBRIDGE QUAY.” 
 
 of water call up? Is it not a recollection of past experi- 
 ences—boating, swimming, or some such memory? It 
 you had never seen or heard of water betfoce, what then ?¢ 
 
26 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Is it its brightness, smoothness, transparency, silent 
 flowing, and the fresh, invigorating breeze, which makes 
 you love the water? If so, then remember that these 
 attributes are actual physical facts, which may awaken 
 feelings and memories, or associated ideas, but do not create 
 new ones, 
 
 It matters not whether the desired lines forming the 
 composition are ridges of mud, channels in beaten gold, 
 a sheep-track through the meadow, metal tram-lines, or 
 a silvery stream of limpid water. As long as we 
 photograph things because they are customarily regarded 
 as pretty, or because they interest us, as long as we 
 photograph things or abstain from photographing accord- 
 ing to what they are, so long also shall we go on 
 photographing things in a way which will interest ourselves 
 or please others in proportion as we are able to recognise 
 the objects or feel interested because we know them to 
 be records of facts ; but we shall progress but little towards 
 the expression of ideas by means of our pictures. 
 
 A photograph of a sheet of water done in what we 
 may term the ordinary way, supposing there were no 
 such thing in the world as water, would not interest us— 
 we should not know what it was meant for. Is it not 
 a fact that 99 per cent. of average photographie views 
 or portraits are valueless if we do not know what or where 
 or who they represent, or, in the absence of such knowledge, 
 we still know that, being photographs, they do represent 
 something which had an existence and hence may promote 
 curiosity? But still the interest is founded on the fact that 
 they represent something real, and so their value is not 
 in themselves, but outside. 
 
 To make this matter clearer, look at any great painting. 
 Is the first interest which it stirs a desire to know where 
 the scene is? If a marine subject, do you feel very curious 
 to know if it represents the English Channel or the North 
 Sea? If a figure or a head (exempting, of course, portraits 
 for the present) are you not satisfied with the sentiment 
 of the picture, without asking who was the model? In the 
 case of such pictures as “‘ The Blind Fiddler” (Wilkie) “The 
 Doctor ” (Luke Fildes) “ Bath of Psyche” (Leighton) ‘* The 
 Soul's Awakening” (Sant)—I am purposely citing popular 
 
 oF. ee 
 
Seeing for the Sake of Seeing. 27 
 
 pictures—does any one want to know the names of the 
 individuals there depicted or the exact locality the picture 
 was taken from? In all probability the figures and scenes 
 are fiction. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the majority of pictures are from 
 nowhere. Even landscapes, though they bear the names 
 of places, such as ‘On the River So-and-so,” “ Near Such 
 a Place,” ete., are not true to the details of the scene, but 
 are largely imaginative, built up or founded upon fact. 
 
 In support of this view let it be asked, If the charm 
 of a picture depend on the actual nature or beauty of the 
 things represented, how is it that pictures so full of charm 
 are painted from scenes in our foulest city rivers, the very 
 barges and figures and all else being filthy and noisome ? 
 —for instance Mr. Wyllie’s Thames pictures and many 
 another. Is it not rather that, amidst all the grime and 
 smoke, there are forms, there are contrasts of light and 
 shade, capable of making us feel as the spick-and-span 
 primness of a park ornamental water cannot do. 
 
 I do not know whether my reader will feel the import- 
 ance of all this, but I must ask him to pay very particular 
 attention to it, because we shall at a later stage have 
 occasion to refer back to it, as also to the following, which 
 is largely borrowed from the writings of a distinguished 
 painter. The dignity of the snow-capped mountain—that 
 is the feeling with which it impresses us—is lost when it 
 is very distinct, but the joy of the tourist is to recognise 
 the traveller on the top. The desire to see for the sake of 
 seeing is with most people the only desire to be gratified ; 
 hence the delight in detail. And when evening mist, or 
 it may be wreathes of poisonous smoke, clothes the river 
 side and veils the buildings, so that what they are cannot 
 be seen, the meanest buildings, the tall chimneys, and the 
 warehouses, might be campanili and palaces—‘‘the whole 
 city hangs in the heavens and fairyland is before us.” 
 
 And to get back to my “ Woodbridge Quay ”_knowing 
 that it is full of faults and recognising that the half-tone 
 reproduction given here has knocked out of it what little 
 feeling I may have managed to secure in the original : still, 
 it may serve asan example; and the lines in the foreground 
 are sufficient, whatever they are composed of. I needed 
 
28 | Practical Pictorial Photography. | 
 
 those lines, and that light and shadow, and whether it was 
 the foul mud at the river's bed or anything else that 
 furnished them matters not. 
 
 If one did not know from experience that the bed of 
 a tidal river is usually muddy, and if you did not also 
 know that mud is an unpleasant fact when too close at 
 hand, the picture would not tell it you. You are judging 
 it from your knowledge of facts, not from the impression 
 or the effect it has when seen either in nature or on 
 paper. 
 
 In such a set of instances as I have given, doubtless the 
 painter might have got over a difficulty which the photo- 
 grapher could not. In the case of the first visit (Fig. 8) 
 by darkening the water in some portions he might have 
 prevented the group of buildings and quay from seeming 
 to cut the picture in two, and then across the water he 
 could have drawn such streaks and winding lines of ripples, 
 a flight of field-fares in their characteristic mode of flying in 
 a line, or in some such manner have accomplished what the 
 photographer must needs wait for nature to do for him. 
 Hence SELECTION in photography, or at least in landscape 
 and some other branches of work, often takes the place of 
 what in painting becomes voluntary COMPOSITION. 
 
 Of course there must be many occasions when change of 
 position, or waiting for light or tide or what not is of no 
 avail: there are many instances in the memory of all of us 
 when nature would not meet our wishes, and presently I 
 hope to show how then we must proceed to compel our 
 facsimile of unwilling nature to comply with our wishes ; 
 but for the present we must be content to say that if we 
 cannot get what we think desirable, then that particular 
 subject must be abandoned, for let it be remembered that 
 if we are ever so fond of the spot, be it ever so famous, or 
 quaint, or interesting, these things are of no importance as 
 a picture. In order to convey an expression of an abstract 
 idea, founded mainly on the effect of light, shade, and 
 atmosphere, we select our objects for this purpose; then 
 the objects themselves and for themselves are of no import- 
 ance, be they fairest flowers, stateliest trees, dingiest 
 wharves, dainty cottages, or grimy barges—no matter what 
 their nature, if they form a pleasing design and serve as 
 
Selection with a Pictorial Motive. 29 
 
 means to express the varying phases of lght and shade, 
 that is the only purpose for which we require them. 
 _ Hence a landscape, a figure, a group, is only a means 
 to an end, and a chisel or a hammer or other instrument 
 can but serve its purpose asa Means to an end; whether 
 it is valuable because it was used by Peter the Great 
 or curious for the quaint ornament upon its handle, it 
 is a chisel or a hammer still, and as a Means to an\end 
 is of no more value than the plainest of modern manfactuies. 
 IT have purposely put this rather emphatically because 
 whilst of course in some pictures the daintiness and beauty 
 of the objects themselves may please us, I want to insist 
 that such source of pleasure is of so little importance and 
 so non-essential that we may have a supremely beautiful 
 picture in which the objects composing it are not in 
 themselves possessed of beauty or interest. 
 
 If we are to select our subjects or arrange our groups 
 with a pictorial motive we must absolutely and entirely 
 sacrifice every other consideration, and be prepared to cut 
 out of our composition the prettiest and most interesting 
 item, if by so doing composition pure and simple is improved. 
 And if some subject you are attached to will not admit of 
 composition or will not admit of your treating it pictorially, 
 then photograph it if you wish, but never suppose that it 
 will form a picture. 
 
 EXPRESSION AND COMPOSITION. 
 
 Tt will be remembered that I have pointed out that in 
 a good picture there are two essential factors, Expression 
 and Composition. We might select a scene from nature 
 which, as regards the arrangement of its parts, the har- 
 monious combination of its ie and so forth, formed a 
 faultless composition; it is yet conceivable that our 
 representation might utterly fail to arouse any other 
 feeling in the beholder than a bare recognition of a 
 symmetrical and well-designed copy of such particular 
 scene. It would be a representation of physical facts, but 
 might fail to express or suggest any of those abstract ideas 
 which constitute the essential expression of a picture. 
 
 In contrast to this, as previously hinted, we can imagine 
 
‘“A DESERTED SHORE.” (First Print.) 
 
 enn 
 
DESERTED SHORE.” (Finished Picture.) 
 
32 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 a picture in which the expression of some idea and the 
 stirring of sympathetic feeling, might be accomplished, even 
 in the presence of a far less perfect composition. Indeed, 
 the feeling which it is intended the picture shall convey 
 may be told in so telling a manner as to make one 
 oblivious for the time as to whether the composition is 
 good or not, so long as the composition is not so distinctly 
 bad as to outrage one’s natural sense of design or in some 
 way attract and disturb one’s attention. Hence I have 
 suggested that some knowledge of the propriety of com- 
 position is desirable, not so much that all our pictures may 
 be surpassingly well composed as that we may keep safely 
 clear of bad composition. 
 
 The man who at once impresses as being so very well 
 dressed or so studiously well behaved is not so desirable 
 as he who in appearance or manners is merely void of 
 reproach. Even justice, charity, and humility, are no longer 
 virtues when too self-assertive. 
 
 How EXPRESSION MAY BE GIVEN TO A PICTURE. 
 
 The Expression in a picture depends chiefly on the relative 
 degrees of light and shade of its various portions, and also 
 upon the manner in which objects are represented, especially 
 as regards the amount of detail introduced.* 
 
 Take as an example the reproduction given here, in 
 which it was desired to convey the idea of the drifting 
 rain-storm, with the fitful gleams of sunshine lighting up 
 the water whilst the dreary landscape is enveloped more 
 or less in the passing cloud shadow, Compare it with the 
 second print made from the same scene—it is not only the 
 _ absence of the cloud, which is a strong feature in the former 
 representation, but is there not a good deal dependent on 
 the light and shade in the landscape portion? Again, 
 imagine what would have been the result had the position 
 of the sun been changed. and all the foreground of the 
 second example brightly lighted ; then the difference would 
 have been greater still. 
 
 An instance of the change brought about by the altera- 
 
 * See numerous references in Book II. 
 
Conditions which Awaken Emotions. 33 
 
 tion of the light was given on page 22, Figs. 8 and 9, 
 in which the morning light no longer made the scene 
 desirable. 
 
 If you will consider for a moment you will, I think, be 
 able to agree that nature does not always and under all 
 conditions appeal to our feelings or emotions—or at least, 
 some phases appeal very much more powerfully than others. 
 nature, therefore, is not always suitable for the making of 
 a picture, in which, as has been said, sentiment and emotion 
 are essential, and hence our task is to seek for and choose 
 those phases which do so appeal to our feelings. 
 
 I suppose most people are impressed when in the presence 
 of a beautiful landscape, seen in the stillness of a summer’s 
 evening, or a desolate seashore in the grey twilight of 
 dawn, or amidst the wild tumult of storm ; and the feelings 
 awakened are something apart from the interest in the 
 actual locality or the surrounding objects, and hence it is 
 not difficult to imagine that the same person who on such 
 occasions as mentioned may have felt a deep thrill, might 
 visit the same scenes under different conditions and fail 
 to be moved beyond the mere sense of enjoyment in fresh 
 air and sunshine, which might have been equally enjoyed 
 anywhere else. 
 
 Inasmuch as we cannot compel climatic changes we 
 cannot at will call down the shades of evening, or summon 
 the scudding storm-clouds, or command the inrushing sea, 
 or the delicate mists which hover mysteriously at the 
 coming of dawn, it follows that we must wait upon nature 
 to give us the opportunities we need. 
 
 The prettiest or most interesting prospect may lack the 
 conditions which awaken our emotions, and, lacking the 
 essentials of the picture, must be passed by. 
 
 The painter may make a sketch of a scene because the 
 composition alone pleases him, and then he may subse- 
 quently introduce an effect of light and shade, an impression 
 which he remembers having received in another place; but 
 the photographer must wait until nature itself offers both 
 these favourable conditions simultaneously, unless, as I 
 hope to show in a future chapter, the photographer can 
 modify and alter in his print or picture the unsuitable 
 effect into a suitable one. 
 
 3 
 
34 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 But for the present I am only dealing with selection, in 
 which I trust I have now made it clear nature itself must 
 meet us fully half-way. 
 
 To sum up then, and to put it into slightly different form, 
 it is not the facts in nature that the good picture aims at 
 portraving, but the effects of light and shade accompanied 
 by a pleasing arrangement. : . 
 
 But suppose we find a scene in Nature which is full of 
 beautiful feeling, and sufticiently complies with what has 
 been suggested as the principal rules of Composition, does 
 it follow that we shall be able to reproduce the scene by 
 photography in such a way that our picture will in its 
 turn convey to others the same feelings which the original 
 awakened in us or which we wish it to ? 
 
 Photography itself may err by inaccurately rendering the 
 relative tones in Nature. Then we shall have to ask, What 
 is “Tone”? and shall, I hope, presently see the importance 
 of studying it. 
 
 However skilfully done the picture will hardly succeed in 
 giving again the whole impression of Nature, so that it may 
 be necessary to exaggerate or emphasize some facts or 
 features. 
 
 If in the last case it be deemed necessary to emphasize 
 some effects in the picture, or if further we desire to import 
 some effect from memory or imagination which was not 
 present at the particular time, how far may this be done, 
 and by what means ¢ 
 
 The consideration of these points will bring us mainly to 
 deal with the picture itself—the print. 
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT, 
 
 To talk about the print, which is the last stage in the 
 photographic process, thus first may seen reversing the 
 usual order of procedure; but we must bear in mind that 
 we are regarding photography merely as being applied to a 
 certain end, and whether it be the manipulation of the lens 
 or the development of the plate, or any other part of the 
 process, every step must be taken with the final picture in 
 view; and until we have succeeded in getting a very clear 
 idea of the essential character of the picture, we shall not 
 
9 
 
 Colour Values. 35 
 
 be able to use our plates and lenses and other preliminaries 
 so as to best produce such character. 
 
 It has been just said that photography may err in its 
 rendering of the tones in nature when it becomes necessary 
 to ascertain what is meant by the term “tone,” and we 
 shall see why it is important that tone should form the 
 object of very careful study. 
 
 That photography does make grave mistakes has probably 
 become abundantly evident to the least experienced photo- 
 grapher ; but it is to be feared that many a one takes but 
 little trouble to ascertain the fact, or cares much when the 
 error is discovered. 
 
 Probably all my readers are aware that certain colours, 
 when photographed, do not preserve their relative lightness 
 or darkness as compared with other objects in the view. 
 Thus, for instance, red, and orange, and green, photograph 
 dark, whilst bright blue comes lighter. One might imagine a 
 mass of bright blue flowers with a green background which 
 appear as dark flowers on a lighter background, and our 
 photograph would give the reverse arrangement. There 
 are many instances in pictorial work in which such an error 
 might have inconveniently serious effects ; and whilst the 
 correct rendering of colours in their relative values, as they 
 appear to the eye, is one of great importance, it is to be 
 accomplished more by mechanical means than by any 
 special personal effort. 
 
 What are known as isochromatic plates are now avail- 
 able to all, in addition to which my own experience leads 
 me to strongly advocate a yellow screen behind the lens, 
 or between the two combinations. 
 
 The length of exposure which such methods necessitate 
 is by no means as great as seems generally supposed, and since, 
 even without resorting to plates of very high speed, shutter 
 exposures can be made out of doors, I fail to see what more 
 is required. 
 
 There are many who will say that with careful develop- 
 ment an ordinary thickly coated plate will do all that an 
 Isochromatic plate will. This may be so, but I am inclined 
 to think too many do not quite appreciate what colour- 
 correction in landscape work really means. 
 
 Closely involved with the question of colour values, and, 
 
36 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 indeed, inseparable from it, is that of “ tone ”—not, of course, 
 tone as the term is used by photographers to indicate that 
 of colour, as when we speak of “toning” a silver print, 
 but in the sense in which the artist uses it; and in pictorial 
 work there is no more important. subject. 
 
 Itis possible that the photographer may resent having a 
 study such as this imposed upon him, inasmuch as he will 
 say he has not the power of the artist to achieve right 
 or wrong tone; but he forgets that unless he has learnt 
 when the tones of a picture are right or not, he will not 
 know whether his work is good or bad, nor know what. to 
 try and overcome in future. 
 
 Jt is the knowing, when a work is done, whether it is right 
 or wrong that constitutes the main strength of the pictorial 
 student, and it is the absence of this knowledge which is at 
 the foundation of nearly all the bad photography one sees. 
 
 To show how important such knowledge is, let us take a 
 very simple set of examples. 
 
 Notice the relative lightness and darkness of a person’s 
 face and the white collar round the neck, assuming hoth to 
 be equally illuminated ; then, quite apart from colour, you 
 may note that the face is darker than the white linen. If 
 now that individual move from a lighted position into shade, 
 you will notice that the ‘‘ tone” of both becomes lower, that 
 is less light, but the relative tone may remain the same, 
 whilst very likely the relative colour values change. Now 
 look at an average portrait of head and shoulders —the kind 
 of portrait which is turned out by the dozen for five shillings 
 by a man who has had no artistic training—and you will 
 probably find that the relative degree of lightness and 
 darkness between flesh and white linen is altogether false, 
 and as a consequence to an educated eye the whole looks 
 chalky and unnaturally white; also, on the shadow side of the 
 face (if there is one), and in the shadows of the features, 
 there is not the amount of difference that we noticed in the 
 individual whose face we studied first. Here is obviously 
 an inaccurate rendering of relative tones. Now look up a 
 photograph in which some figures are seen against a strong 
 light—perhaps a rustic group with the sun shining behind 
 them. ‘ Oh,” some one says, “ how dark the faces are! They 
 look like niggers.” Well, now take an opportunity of studying 
 
White Skies. Or 
 
 such a group from life, and notice particularly the ‘ tone,” 
 the degree of lightness and darkness of the faces, seen 
 against the light. If you cannot carry the thing in your eye, 
 then make with pencil and paper an exact copy in shading 
 of the ‘‘ tone” of the faces and of the clothes, etc., and then 
 compare it with the tones of the picture in which “they 
 look like niggers,” and you may be surprised to find that 
 those dark faces are nearly, or perhaps quite, correct. 
 
 A very striking example of how photographers allowed 
 photography to falsely render relative tones is seen in the 
 skies of nearly all photographs until the last few years. 
 
 If you look at a view in which there is a white cottage 
 in strong light, or any other white objects, and then compare 
 the relative ‘“‘ value” or tone of the sky, even a light blue 
 cloudless sky, you will notice that the blue is relatively 
 darker than white; and yet photographers were content to 
 make all skies quite white wnéil they were taught to see the 
 mistake, and then they learnt what to try and avoid. 
 
 To show how exceedingly ignorant most of us are as to 
 relative tone, let us take one or two examples. Say we are 
 required to draw the figure of a man in open-air light, in 
 a black coat.. Thoughtlessly we should perhaps start to 
 make his coat black, because we preconceived it to be so; 
 but look at such a figure in reality, and you will find that 
 the folds and creases in the sleeves and elsewhere appear as 
 dark lines, hence it is evident that the body of the coat 
 cannot be black. A further striking example given as a 
 test case to art students, and which my reader may like to 
 try for himself, is that black velvet in sunlight is lighter 
 than a white cloth in the shade. 
 
 A piece of white paper is lying in the road, and if we 
 were to represent this we should probably make it as white. 
 But presently the sun shines out, and instantly the white 
 paper is much brighter and whiter. Obviously then it was 
 not white before, when we thought it to be. We take 
 people’s portraits in the subdued light of a room or even 
 in a studio, and represent their collars and cuffs as white 
 as our printing paper will let us—how is this for accuracy 
 when compared with our experiment of white paper in the 
 roadway ? 
 
 Such elementary knowledge as this is surely necessary 
 
38 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 for the development of our plates and to guide us as to how 
 far to carry our printing. 
 
 But when we come to the consideration of general out- 
 door effects we find the subject of relative tones far more 
 complicated and an inexhaustible field of useful study. 
 
 Take the following as an example :— . 
 
 Suppose we have a dusty road with houses on either side. 
 First note the tone of the road—it is light, and grey in 
 colour. Near the gutter on one side of the street is a clean 
 sheet of white paper. Compare the tone of this. Probably 
 it is the lightest spot in the whole field of view. Then watch 
 the street as the sun shines out from a passing cloud, cast- 
 ing the shadows of the houses all along one side, whilst the 
 other side is in the full sunshine. Now consider for a 
 moment. The shadow side has not become darker than it 
 was before the sun shone, but that part where the sunlight 
 falls unimpeded has become very much lighter, and makes 
 the shadow side seem darker. But the white paper, which 
 still remains in shadow, is no longer the highest light—the 
 sunlit, dusty road has outstripped it. But let a shower of 
 rain or a water-cart make the road wet, and the sunlit 
 road comes lower in tone again, though perhaps not so low 
 as it was before the sun shone. Meanwhile, probably the 
 white paper has remained unchanged, and is now lighter 
 than the wet road, even in sunlight. 
 
 Now look at the slate roofs of the houses and notice that 
 looking towards the sun the slanting roof seems very dark 
 against the blue sky, whilst where the swn shines on it, 
 it may be as light, or even lighter, than the sky, except 
 where there is a shadow cast by the chimney-stack the 
 white chimney-pots on which are distinctly lighter than 
 the sky ; but when the sun is covered they look darker than 
 the sky, whilst the entire roof descends to the tone of the 
 shadow of the stack, which therefore disappears. 
 
 Now these are but simple examples of relative degrces 
 of hght and shade, or tone, between certain objects, and 
 I have given them heré firstly in order to show the kind 
 of training to which we should subject our perceptions in 
 order to be able to tell when our pictures are or are not 
 correct in tone, and secondly to suggest how very ignorant 
 probably most people are who have not thought of these — 
 
The Effect of Atmosphere. 39 
 
 matters; and yet people will boldly assert that this or that 
 picture is not true to Nature, whilst it is more than 
 probable that they could not tell you whether such and 
 such tones were true or not—and on the correct rendering 
 of tone is the truthfulness of impression dependent. 
 
 It must I think be fully evident that without some 
 knowledge of this matter we might very easily get the 
 relative tones in our picture quite false and never detect 
 the fault. 
 
 It is to some extent a question of contrasts, and we know 
 how an under-exposed plate will ses2m to give harder 
 contrasts, whilst an over-exposed one will give the opposite 
 extreme; and some intensify it—and without knowledge who 
 shall say which is nearest to truth or at what particular 
 intermediate shall we stop ? 
 
 ToNE AND ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 The examples we have been considering have all been 
 objects close at hand. If we could now remove our stand- 
 point, gradually walking backwards, we should find the 
 differences of lightness and depth between the sunlit and 
 shadow sides of the road (and other objects similarly) would 
 gradually become less. 
 
 Dark objects become lighter and light ones darxer as 
 they become more distant. There are physical causes for 
 this into which we need not enter here. Sufficient to say 
 it is due to the intervening volume of atmospkere which 
 is of course increased as the object becomes more remote, 
 and so places a greater amount of atmosphere between it 
 and ourselves. 
 
 This same atmosphere also softens the crispness of out- 
 lines until at length details become all but invisible, and 
 extreme lights and darks meet in a uniform middle tone. 
 It is this that gives us the feeling of distance. Look out 
 over a wide expanse of country on an average day and 
 see if this is not corroborated. Look again during a par- 
 ticularly clear day, with the east wind blowing, and do we 
 not instinctively say, How near the distance seems ¢ 
 
 If now we have a picture in which the distance seems 
 to gradually melt into delicate grey, and we paint into the 
 
40) Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 distance a little white house or put in a little dark tree or 
 tower, do not these objects immediately seem to come 
 forward, to stand out, to appear near ?—as for instance in 
 the accompanying reproduction (Fig. 11 a), ss 
 
 Very great care should then be taken to see that distant 
 objects are rendered so as to appear distant—that is, in 
 correct relative tone when compared with the foreground 
 or nearer portions. 
 
 The effect of distance thus produced is what is termed 
 
 1G leks 
 
 Aerial Perspective. Now, as you probably are well aware, 
 there is another kind of perspective, a knowledge of which 
 is necessary in drawing (and some acquaintance with its 
 rules may be advantageous in photography, as will appear 
 presently). 
 
 You know that if you stand at one end of a straight 
 wall the line forming the top and that indicating the base 
 appear to converge as they recede until they meet, or would 
 do so if the wall continued far enough. ‘This point is 
 called the vanishing point. At one hundred yards’ distance 
 a man six feet high is so much smaller than a six-foot 
 man close to us: had there been a continuous file of men, 
 
Aerial and Linear Perspective. 4] 
 
 the lines formed by the tops of their heads and by their 
 feet respectively would be gradually converging. This we 
 may call Linear Perspective. 
 
 Now in aerial perspective we also have what we may 
 call a vanishing point, inasmuch as if, for instance, the 
 top of the wall were quite white and the base quite black 
 these two would gradually approach each other in loss of 
 intensity, the black growing lighter or greyer and the white 
 becoming darker and therefore greyer until both meet in a 
 common tint, both being in the same tone. 
 
 Here are some posts in which, apart from any question 
 
 eee : 
 ROSES SS if i 
 Fie. 12, 
 
 of size or linear perspective there is no room for doubt that 
 one and two are nearer than three, four, five and six, and 
 this idea is conveyed merely by their relative degrees of 
 lightness and darkness, and is due in nature to atmo- 
 sphere. We may of course have abnormal conditions of 
 atmosphere, when, as in the case of an east wind, as 
 already cited, distance looks ‘so near,” and whilst under 
 those circumstances we may feel curiosity and wonder at 
 being able to see, it is merely seeing for the sake of 
 seeing and not to be mistaken for the pleasure inspired 
 by a beautiful scene, as when we say of it, “‘ How restful! 
 how lovely! how grand!” 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, then, we see everything 
 
42 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 under the influence of atmosphere; but it is no unusual 
 thing to see photographie representations of scenes in 
 which somehow atmosphere seems to have been utterly 
 ignored and distant objects are so clear and appear in the 
 same tone as near ones, and the latter are only recognised 
 as nearer on account of their size or position. 
 
 This may be partly due to exposure, but more particularly 
 it is due to an indiscreet use of the lens and also to the 
 unsuitable printing process employed, to all of which matters 
 we shall return anon. Such photographic productions 
 must be familiar to all of us in which the objects or planes 
 do not fall one behind the other and in which the more 
 remote portions do not seem to go back; and in such — 
 examples I think we shall have to admit that the character 
 which in a picture may appeal to our feelings and im- 
 agination, is lacking. We may be able to see more, to 
 learn more particulars concerning the place represented, 
 but the poetry, the abstract beauty, we shall realise belongs 
 chiefly to the presence of atmosphere which in such 
 photographs has not been rendered—it might not have been 
 sufficiently apparent as to constitute mist and haze, both 
 beautiful in themselves, but present to a sufficient degree 
 to prevent the different planes from, as it were, sticking 
 together and appearing without perspective. 
 
 Aerial perspective may I think be said to be beautiful 
 in itself, apart from the fact of its giving objects a 
 natural appearance. Certainly distance, if well rendered, 
 gives a sense of pleasure to most minds. It may not be 
 easy to say why this is nor even necessary to account for 
 it. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin might find in this pleasure an indication 
 of spiritual hope and longing, as opposed to animal and 
 present life. For my part it seems to me that in looking 
 out on a widespread distance in Nature, and similarly in 
 a picture, the eye and the imagination are, as it were, led 
 on into the far-off, even as we listen to the gradually dying 
 cadence of music as it becomes more distant, never quite 
 sure when it has actually passed out of hearing. We 
 fancy we hear it again and again, imagination bringing 
 it momentarily back and followmg it to the vanishing 
 point. The louder a sound is, the more we recognise it a 
 
‘“ MELTON MBHADOWS. 
 
44 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 being nea; so the louder the “tone” of objects—that 
 is, the blacker or whiter—the nearer they seem ; and so if 
 in our picture we wish to give a sense of distance, we 
 must see that the darkest shadows and highest lights are 
 in the foreground: and because we may not be able to 
 materially alter things as the undiscriminating process 
 gives them to us, we must seek for and select those 
 scenes, those subjects, in which this arrangement of highest 
 
 Fie, 12 A, 
 
 and dzepest tones do come in the foreground, and then take 
 care that our process renders them with fidelity, so that 
 we may not lose the sense of their nearness or the feeling 
 of greater distance of other planes which it is intended 
 they shall give. An example is here given (Fig. 12 a), 
 The-necessity of becoming, as it were, steeped in a know- 
 ledge of this principle, so as to unconsciously work to it, 
 will appear when we are actually at work, especially in 
 landscape and similar subjects, where to a limited degree 
 only we are able to arrange its parts. Because we select 
 only a portion we arbitrarily cut out from the whole some 
 
Distance Affected by Local Colour. 45 
 
 little bit which appeals to us. It is quite conceivable that 
 in that small portion the relative darkness and lightness of 
 objects do not so distinctly comply with the rule laid down. 
 
 Return for a moment to the sketch of the posts (p. 41) 
 and suppose then that by chance 1 and 2 were posts of a 
 grey colour, whilst 3 and 4, and 5 and 6, were respectively 
 painted black and white—then perhaps, notwithstanding 
 the greying effect which the distance may have had on 5 
 and 6, yet their actual local colour would still leave them 
 as strong as the lighter-coloured posts, which were nearer 
 a circumstance which may defeat our endeavour to express 
 distance. 
 
 In the former case we depend for the success of the 
 impression on the general recognition that greyer objects 
 are more distant, but we cannot explain to the beholder 
 that certain posts or other objects are of such especial 
 local colour that they do not look as distant as they are, 
 and so we must resort to some trick, such as modifying print 
 or plate so as to bring the black and the white post into 
 the tone they would possess were they of more normal 
 colour, or we may choose our standpoint so as to include 
 some still nearer object which comes blacker still, and so 
 throws everything else into distance and thus restore the 
 harmony of relative tones which will explain itself to the 
 beholder. This little bit of heterodoxy must, however, be 
 accepted with caution, for it may be quite possible that 
 by careful rendering of all else in the picture the obtrusive 
 posts will explain themselves as black and white ; it is only 
 when the beholder is not likely to recognise the conditions 
 that such especial precautions need to be taken. 
 
 I have explained this at some length because we have 
 many similar cases in daily practice. 
 
 Thus a thick cluster of dark-foliaged fir-trees at a little 
 distance may, in an otherwise light-coloured view, appear 
 too dark, and so come too near unless full allowance be 
 made for the actual local colour of the foliage itself; and 
 even then it may be well if we can produce them a little 
 lighter than they truthfully should be in order to emphasize 
 or exaggerate the feeling of distance. 
 
 Probably all of us have experienced a like difficulty in a 
 dark bank or shore on the opposite side of a space of water 
 
46 Practical Pictorial Photography 
 
 —how dark it seems to come in our picture, and therefore 
 how unnaturally near it seems; but photograph the same 
 on a misty day, when atmosphere is palpably helping the 
 effect of distance, and then we shall realise the powerful help 
 that atmosphere is to us. (See reproduction below, and 
 compare with “ Peaceful Waters ” on next page.) 
 
 It must be remembered that after all in making a picture + 
 we are endeavouring to set down on one plane various 
 objects in such a way as to suggest an infinitude of varying 
 planes, and hence we are justified in selecting such con- 
 
 ‘“ BENFLEBT.” 
 
 ditions of nature as shall help us to give the impression of 
 truthfulness, even though it be not in particular cases 
 absolutely true to fact. 
 
 If nature in a caprice presents itself in a condition 
 unsuitable for pictorial representation, our knowledge and 
 judgment will prompt us to select some other scene or some 
 other time of day, when the conditions are more favourable. 
 Without by any means insisting on it as a rule, I might~ 
 at least suggest that when the atmosphere is heavily . 
 charged with moisture or when the sun is in such a position 
 as to make the veiling atmosphere particularly apparent, 
 we are more likely to meet with success, and then we have 
 
Tone and Local Colour. 47 
 
 yet a further resource—namely, in producing our print by 
 controlling the light action in such a way as to give us 
 what may not have been present in nature at the particular 
 time; but then most certainly will it be necessary for us 
 to have acquired by frequent study of every condition 
 of light and shade and weather, a very accurate knowledge 
 of what nature might have been on a favourable occasion, 
 lest in our artificial production of effects we exceed physical 
 possibility and our exaggeration is betrayed by its evident 
 falsehood. 
 
 I have now dwelt so long on this part of my subject 
 that I will defer reference to general tonality, as it is 
 effected by the sky, for a chapter specially devoted to 
 
 “ PEACEFUL WATERS.” [By M. F. ASTELL, 
 
 Sky and Clouds, and will conclude with a note which may 
 come here as an appendix, 
 Tone must be clearly distinguished for tint which in 
 monochrome is equivalent for local colour. Thus as my 
 hand rests on my white paper, my hand is darker than the 
 paper. This is a question of relative colour value, but flesh 
 and paper are both in the same tone, and the shadow side 
 of my hand is in the same tone as the shadow on the paper, 
 where it may be noted the difference in relative values is 
 -not the same as where both flesh and paper are in the 
 light. But the actual tint or value of paper and hand would 
 change if seen from a distance, and hence, strictly speaking, 
 tone is the relative lightness and darkness due to the effect 
 
48 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 of light governed by atmosphere,'and has nothing to do 
 with the relative lightness and darkness or relative value 
 with which various colours appear when compared with 
 each other. 
 
 THe View METER. 
 
 Before passing to the consideration of the use of the 
 lens in pictorial work, and as I want to make these 
 chapters as practical as may be, there are two matters 
 which may be named as influencing the good composition 
 
 Fig. 13; 
 
 or selection of our picture. The first is what is known 
 as a view-meter ; the second matter refers to the trimming 
 down of the print when it is finally made. 
 
 It is often singular to notice how unconscious the eye often 
 is of objects within the field of view which do not interest 
 it; and thus a photograph, when made without full and 
 careful examination of the focussing screen, may astonish 
 us as including or containing features we do not remember 
 to have seen in the original. It may be that whilst 
 looking at a view we do not notice that certain overhanging 
 branches of some trees close at hand protrude into the 
 field of view. The fact is the eye so easily adapts 
 
Separating an Object from its Surroundings. 49 
 
 itself that we can turn our attention and thoughts from 
 such intrusive objects and, ignoring their presence, enjoy 
 the scene just as well as though they were not there. _ 
 
 In such case as this a view-metre of simple construction 
 will show us at once whether anything we do not want 
 comes within the field. 
 
 The other case in which a 
 view-metre is serviceable is 
 when it is used to assist the 
 eye to separate a given subject 
 from its surroundings. 
 
 It is not always easy, when 
 looking at all the vast variety 
 of objects in Nature’s pano- 
 rama, to tell at once how any 
 one part of it will look when 
 detached from all the rest, 
 and merely as an assistance to the eye in this respect a 
 simple rectangular frame, made in metal, wood, or even 
 cardboard, will be very helpful. It will partake of the 
 form of a cut-out mount, the opening having its length and 
 breadth in the same relative proportions as the two sides 
 of the plates one usually uses. 
 (Fig. 13.) 
 
 Thus if we are using whole 
 plates, then we shall have a \ - 
 frame or view-metre, with an |i. AY Be ews | Pc: 
 opening 44 x 3} and the mar- \\ 
 gin all round about 2 inches 
 
 «leep. 7 
 Then, when selecting our 
 picture we merely hold it in Fiq, 15. 
 
 front of one eye, the other 
 being closed so as to include within the cut-out centre the 
 principal objects or group, which will then appear as in a 
 frame. The nearer it is to the eye the shorter the focus of 
 the lens to be used to include just that area; the farther 
 we remove it the longer focus lens must we use, or else the 
 more shall we have to trim off our print after we have 
 made it, so as to only leave the narrow-angle view. 
 
 As an assistance in selecting from the whole print just 
 
 4 
 
50 Practical Pictorial Photography. — 
 
 that portion which is worth preserving, it may be well to 
 have always at hand either four broad strips of stout | 
 brown paper or cardboard or two pieces forming a right 
 angle. (Fig. 14.) 
 
 Placing these upon the frsahen print so as to form a 
 sort of ‘frame for the portion which seems most desirable, 
 we may shift them about, alternately enclosing a larger or 
 smaller portion, until we make up our minds. 
 
 With these strips laid upon the face of the print as in 
 Fig. 15, place the whole at a little distance or pin it on a 
 wall—give it the utmost consideration and deliberation, 
 and then run a pencil round the inside edge of the 
 temporary frame and remove the print for trimming. 
 
 This relentless trimming down of the print after we 
 have had the trouble of making it, is perhaps one of the 
 most difficult tasks to reconcile oneself to. It is hard at 
 times, after having brought off a good print 15 x 12 to 
 find that, for the purposes of good composition, it must 
 be cut down to perhaps 8 x 6; but if by retaining the 
 whole we only have an. unsatisfactory composition, and 
 the whole print, be it never so perfect or interesting, is of 
 no pictorial value, we had better cut it down unsparingly 
 if then we get a picture, even though it be only a small 
 one. 
 
 THe Usr or tHE Lens 1n PictrortaL Work. 
 
 Remembering now all that has been said in the fore- 
 going with reference to the motive which underlies pictorial 
 work, and also the necessity of rendering tone, we have now 
 to consider how the lens may be best used to answer our 
 purpose. 
 
 I do not propose to deal with matters concerning the 
 principles and construction of lenses, but, assuming that 
 the reader knows the simple elements concerning the use 
 of a lens, I will endeavour to show which attributes of 
 ordinary lenses are useful to us, and which are not. 
 
 By persons with only the slightest knowledge of photo- 
 graphy, and basing their conclusions upon comparatively 
 poor examples of craftsmanship, the photographic lens has 
 been accused of falsifying perspective, by which is meant 
 linear perspective. . 
 
Relative Proportion. 51 
 
 That such alleged error is due chiefly to the ignorance 
 of those who use the lens rather than to the lens itself 
 should not I think be difficult to show. If photographers 
 grasped the simple principles of linear and aerial per- 
 spective, and had their perceptions of things been trained 
 to greater keenness, such errors had never been allowed 
 to creep in except in special circumstances, when, under 
 2 sort of compromise, false perspective might be tolerated 
 for the sake of other qualities from which it was inseparable. 
 
 With most of us, even without special training, there 
 is a certain instinctive sense of proportion, and thus we 
 recognise the relative distance of objects by their relative 
 size, 
 
 All my readers are probably aware that there are wide- 
 angle and narrow-angle lenses, so called on account of the 
 extent of the field of view they respectively include on a 
 plate of given size. Now it is because the short-focus or 
 wide-angle lenses produce a result which violates our sense 
 of the relative proportion of things that it has been con- 
 demned, and rightly so, for pictorial work. 
 
 If a wide-angle lens includes in the same size plate 
 double the area of another of narrower angle, it follows 
 that the wide-angle lens will include the same view as the 
 narrower plus so much more above, below, and on either 
 side, That part, then, which is identical will in the former 
 have to be so much the smaller in order to make room for 
 all this extra matter, and that additional matter which is 
 nearer to the lens—as, for instance, the foreground—will 
 necessarily be larger—but it is not exaggerated, it is only 
 as the eye would see it if the eye could include so large a 
 field; and by include I do not mean in the vague kind of 
 way in which the eye is conscious of many things outside 
 the proper range of its vision. 
 
 The inappropriate manner in which a wide-angle lens 
 behaves in landscape work is commonly seen when photo- 
 graphing a scene in which a road or river comes down into 
 the foreground at the base of the view, in which case, as 
 many of my readers have perhaps experienced, the width 
 of the road fills the entire base of the plate, and then, 
 rapidly diminishing as it recedes, appears out of proportion 
 and of exaggerated perspective. 
 
52 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 In such a case, note the nearest point in the foreground 
 which is included on the ground glass, and then, looking at 
 it again without the camera, compare the width of the 
 road at that point with the cottage or trees at a few hundred 
 yards’ distance, and you will find that the proportion is the 
 same as shown by the wide-angle lens on the ground glass. 
 The proportion of the width of the road in the foreground 
 to the more distant objects depends upon how near a point 
 you start from. One has only to bear in mind the fact 
 that as receding lines converge towards a vanishing point 
 or, what is the same thing, opposite approaching lines 
 diverge, to see that if you include in your angle of view 
 points, which approach yet nearer still, so their divergence 
 continues, 
 
 Now, with a narrower angle lens less is included in the 
 view, the foreground of the picture being formed by a 
 point more remote, and, in the case of the roadway, at a 
 point where the width of the road is relatively to the 
 cottage much less; yet the same size plate is filled. This, 
 indeed, is all the lens does do which the eye cannot—it, as it 
 were, takes a little piece out of the centre of the wide-angle 
 view, and magnifies it up to fill the same space as the 
 whole. 
 
 The wide-angle lens cannot be said to exaggerate per- 
 spective as it really exists, if we take into consideration the 
 angle of view included, and the fact that it thus places 
 objects really in very different planes (and therefore greatly 
 effected by linear perspective) in apparently the same plane ; 
 but the result violates our instinctive sense of proportion, 
 because our eye includes a narrow angle, and the brain 
 representing our focussing screen includes only that. 
 
 That this is so may be seen by photographing the same 
 view with a wide-angle lens and with a narrower one, on, 
 say, a half-plate, and then taking that part of the view 
 which the narrow-angle lens includes from the view taken 
 by the wide-angle lens and enlarging it up to half-plate 
 size. 
 
 This is shown on the accompanying three illustrations, in 
 which we have the same view taken with two different 
 lenses, and then a portion of that made with the wide-angle 
 enlarged to the size of the whole, which will now be found 
 
Apparent False Perpective. 53 
 
 to be the same as that taken by the long-focus or narrow- 
 angle lens. If, then, photography seems sometimes to give 
 
 No 1.—Taken with a Wide-Angle Lens. 
 
 false perspective, it is because we are not using a lens the 
 field of which agrees with that of our eye. 
 
 The recent cinematograph displays have afforded a ready 
 means of showing us what a difference there is between, say, 
 
D4 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 the figure of a man at a hundred yards’ distance and when 
 close at hand. Notice in some of these animated photo- 
 
 No. 2.—Same View as No. 1, but taken with Narrow- 
 Angle Lens, 
 
 graphs figures moving towards the audience—how, after 
 having moved a short distance, they seem to so rapidly 
 
Size of Near Objects. 55 
 
 increase in size, until they become gigantic as they come 
 close to one. Having noted this on the projection screen, 
 next apply the observation in the street, and you may be 
 surprised to find how rapidly an approaching figure seems 
 to increase in size as soon as it has advanced towards you 
 
 No. 3.—Marked Portion of Wide-Angle View Enlarged 
 (see p. 53) 
 
 a little way, until, when quite close, it is sufficient to blot 
 out the whole world. 
 
 One thinks of a postage-stamp as of very small area as 
 compared with, say, the doorway in one’s room, and yet, 
 holding the stamp in front of my eye, it shall eclipse one 
 
56 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 door panel, or two, or the entire door, according to the 
 distance at which I hold it. 
 
 The apparently exaggerated perspective of a wide-angle 
 lens, and the apparent false proportion between foreground 
 and distance, is the result of the lens including an abnormal. 
 amount of the view—it sees at one time, and includes on 
 one plate, what the human eye cannot. In order to include 
 the foreground close to one’s feet, the wide view left and 
 right, and the distance which such a lens includes, it is 
 necessary to move the head, to swing the human lens up 
 and down, right and left, in a manner equivalent to making 
 a series of views; and yet the camera lens includes the 
 whole series on one plate. | 
 
 A lens, then, of longer focus, and therefore narrower 
 angle, gives an image more nearly coinciding with the view 
 which, without effort, the human eye ordinarily includes. 
 Now in pictorial work what we require is not so much a 
 lens which will give a mathematically correct representation. 
 as one that is true to the mental impression which things. 
 give us. 
 
 It is a common remark that in a photograph, distant 
 objects, such as mountains or ships at sea, seem so dwarfed. 
 If, however, you take a view-meter frame as was described. 
 in an earlier section, and setting this up so as to include 
 with its frame exactly the same extent of the view as is 
 given by your lens on the focussing screen, and then 
 compare the relative size of objects in foreground and in 
 distance each to each and also to the total area of the frame- 
 enclosed space, you will probably find that, compared with 
 the size of the whole view, the lens’ rendering of distant 
 objects is correct after all. 
 
 How is it, then, that we do somehow feel that, in the 
 photograph, the lofty mountains at a little distance off 
 seem to dwindle down to the size of mole-hills ¢ 
 
 Consider for a moment what takes place as you watcl: 
 the ship which is sailing past at perhaps half a mile’s 
 distance. The ship, and little else, fills the whole of your 
 mental plate. With your eyes fixed on that ship and your 
 attention engrossed by it, it may astonish you when you 
 realise how very little else of the scene is clearly within 
 your range of vision. Our eyes shift to right or left so almost. 
 
Mental Focussing. a7 
 
 unconsciously and upon the very slightest impulse. As 
 we look at the ship and think about it, our mental focussing 
 screen, so to speak, includes practically nothing else, and our 
 mental attitude therefore for the moment is that of a 
 lens of enormous focal length, so great that the angle of 
 view is narrowed down to include only that one small 
 object which for the time fills the whole plate. Similarly 
 with a group of lofty mountains, though perhaps some 
 miles distant, as we look at them and think about them 
 we are unconscious for the time of anything else in the 
 landscape until we shift our eyes, be it ever so little, and 
 also shift our attention. Then we are doing by a series of 
 actions what the lens does in one. 
 
 The actual angle of view included by the eye has little 
 to do with it. We have rather to consider the angle included 
 by the mind, if we may so describe it. Our imagination 
 enlarges the particular object which absorbs our attention, 
 so that one might suppose that the best way to get a 
 photographic representation which would agree with our 
 mental impression would be to make our negative in the 
 usual way and subsequently enlarge just one particular 
 small portion. This might answer well enough up toa certain 
 extent, but that say in a group of mountains the imagina- 
 tion enlarges one part or one feature more than another. 
 We know the mountain peaks are lofty, and we think of 
 them so, and we mentally enlarge them, but not the cottage 
 at their foot, or the trees half way up. 
 
 Thus, for instance, we look at Snowdon from the east 
 and see its three symmetrically arranged peaks, one of 
 which we recognise as being loftier than its fellows—but 
 photograph it, or measure it, and we shall find how very 
 inconsiderable is its greater apparent altitude ; and yet our 
 mental impression is that of one peak distinctly higher 
 than the others, and if we drew a representation of the 
 group from memory we should probably at once betray this 
 imaginative aspect. 
 
 Take one more example. What is our idea of the rising 
 moon? Recall the painter’s rendering of it. Is it not 
 that of a great disc rising from behind the far-off horizon 2 
 But, holding your pencil at a little distance from your eye, 
 measure, as it were, the diameter of the moon as its large 
 
58 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 round image just clears the lowest film of mist and tne 
 diminutive hedgerows and trees in the distance, and then 
 compare the actual diameter with the nearer objects—trees, 
 houses, figures. Next look at the same scene on your ground 
 glass and see how the lens gives it. If you are in doubt, as 
 you probably will be, in finding how small the moon really 
 is, then by way of corroboration hold between finger and 
 thumb at a little distance from the eye the smallest coin of 
 the realm, and you will find it will quite eclipse the great 
 round face of the moon, whilst had you a moment before 
 attempted to sketch this scene you might have felt inclined 
 to lay a half-crown piece on your paper to draw a circle — 
 to indicate the moon, so much larger is the mental im- 
 pression of anything with which the mind particularly 
 occupies itself, : 
 
 Sooner or later, then, you will probably conclude that no 
 lens will give us things as our fancy depicts them; and 
 whilst this, inability to alter relative proportions as we 
 might sometimes wish to do is a source of regret, we may 
 take comfort in the fact that the unflinching truthfulness 
 of the lens gives us accuracy when we do want it, but 
 which, were we entirely self-dependent, we might not be 
 skilful enough to produce. Here, then, is a compromise 
 with which we must rest content. 
 
 As a rale, in pictorial photography a long-focus lens will 
 on the whole be most satisfactory. One might almost say 
 the longer focus the better, but that probably the length of 
 our camera-bellows will of itself set a limit. Moreover, it 
 will sometimes happen that with a very narrow angle we 
 may be unable to include some parts which seem to be 
 required to form a pleasing and well-balanced composition, 
 as also it will prevent our including tree-tops and tall objects 
 which we may desire. Here again, then, is a compromise, 
 
 I might suggest that a lens of 18 inches focal length is 
 a very useful instrument with a 74 x 5 plate; and I have 
 _ used with considerable satisfaction a lens of 25 inches on a 
 12 x. 10 plate, 30 inches ona 15 x 12. I donot'think in a 
 general way we need have our cameras especially con- 
 structed to admit of greater focal lengths than these, and 
 not many cameras will be found to much exceed such 
 extension as these figures indicate. 3 
 
A Single Landscape Lens. 59 
 
 The usual Rapid Rectilinear lens, although invaluable if 
 our photography is going to cover all kinds of work, will, if 
 used for pictorial purposes only, probably be of too short a 
 focus; but then it can be used with one combination only, 
 when great speed is not required, and its capacity as a 
 doublet with both combinations can always be held in 
 reserve for special cases. Were I to choose I should prefer a 
 Single Landscape lens, intended to cover a plate at least 
 one size larger than that with which I proposed to use it. 
 
 The chief objection that can be raised to single lenses is 
 that vertical lines are distorted or bent in consequence of 
 the non-correction of the lens. It may be said, however, 
 that in landscape and most out-of-door subjects in which no 
 very pronounced vertical lines occur near to the edge of the 
 plate, this defect will rarely trouble us, and if the lens 
 be stopped down the distortion is practically cured. Such 
 lenses are, moreover, inexpensive, which may be a further 
 recommendation. - 
 
 I do not think it is possible to give more definite advice 
 than that, so much must depend on individual circum- 
 stances ; and, as we shall see presently, angle of view and 
 size of image are not the only points to be considered with 
 respect to the lens. 
 
 PIN-HOLE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE LENS, 
 
 As my reader is probably aware, some prominent pictorial 
 workers recommend the abolition of the lens entirely and 
 the use instead of a minute aperture descriptively termed 
 a pin-hole. 
 
 It is not my purpose to here describe the making or the 
 use of the pin-hole: for such instruction I must refer my 
 readers to the writings of others. 
 
 As regards the relative size of the objects it includes 
 there is no difference between a lens and a pin-hole; the 
 objections to one apply equally to ‘the other. As with a 
 pin-hole there is no glass lens to defract the rays, and also 
 no point of focus, the plate can be set at any distance from 
 the aperture without either loss or gain in definition, the 
 difference being merely with angle of view included. This 
 is seen to be the case if one looks through a small hole in a 
 
60 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 card: the nearer the hole to the eye the wider one’s view — 
 that is, the shorter the focal length the wider the angle. 
 This is without limit, so that, did one’s camera admit of it, 
 the ‘‘pin-hole” might be racked out from the plate until 
 comparatively small objects in the centre of the view filled 
 the whole area of the plate. 
 
 The chief characteristic of the pin-hole photograph is 
 that we get a general suppression of focus in all parts— 
 the picture is nowhere quite sharp. If a sufficiently small 
 aperture be employed, we can get a degree of sharpness 
 
 Taken with a Pin-hole, by J. Chamberlain. 
 
 to delineate all objects with a recognisable degree of 
 accuracy, and without so much blurring as to create 
 confusion or make the blurring obtrusive. 
 
 It is often difficult and well-nigh impossible, when using 
 the lens, to get all planes in moderate focus without getting 
 one or some part excessively so, and similarly, if we avoid 
 excessive sharpness in each and every part, some planes, 
 such as the extreme distance or immediate foreground, so 
 broken up as to destroy form and structure. Then it is 
 that the pin-hole, with its equal focus in all planes and at 
 any focal length, seems to recommend itself; but if it be 
 
 7 
 
The Value of Detail. 61 
 
 desired to emphasize any object, by introducing more detail 
 there than elsewhere, then the uniform sharpness of the 
 pin-hole image fails us. 
 
 But the quality of the result obtained by using a pin-hole 
 to which its advocates attach most importance is the 
 suppression of sharp focus over the whole image, no one 
 plane being more sharply focussed than another. This 
 brings us to the consideration of 
 
 Focus, oR DEFINITION, AND TEE VALUE OF DETAIL IN 
 PicToRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 It is hardly possible that the student shall not already 
 be well aware of the continual discussion which is maintained 
 between those who require that a photograph shall be in 
 sharp focus all over, those who require that some consider- 
 able portion of the picture shall be sharp, but consent to 
 other portions, as for instance the distance, being out of 
 focus, and those who attach little importance to sharp 
 definition for its own sake, and in many cases prefer that 
 everything shall be not sharp. My duty here is to rather 
 set the matter before my readers from an independent 
 standpoint, and, assuming to begin with that we are 
 dealing purely with the pictorial side of photography, 
 endeavour to show the part which detail and definition 
 play in such work. 
 
 Much that has already been said under the heading of 
 Selection, and again under Tone and Atmosphere, must be 
 now borne in mind as applying here—especially this, that in 
 pictorial photography, as indeed in any picture, by what- 
 soever means, the pleasure it gives is not, or should not be, 
 merely the pleasure of seeing, nor the interest excited by 
 the recognition of familiar or curious objects. 
 
 In art the imagination and_ esthetic sense of the 
 beholder is appeated to by the representation of certain 
 facts, and those facts or objects are represented in such 
 a way and according to such design or arrangement as 
 the artist considers best calculated to produce upon the 
 imagination and senses a certain pre-determined effect ; 
 and whether photography is art or not matters not in 
 pictorial photography ; we are at least bent upon making 
 
O22). Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 it as near to an art as we can—that is, we desire to make 
 it artistic—and hence we must seek to practise it on similar 
 lines to those phases of admitted art which seem most 
 accessible, 
 
 From what has been said of the wide-angle lens it 
 might be concluded that, apart from the question of its 
 apparent exaggeration of perspective, it is a more perfect 
 instrument than another because it includes more, but 
 that, as has been suggested, we do not always want to 
 include so much. If, then, one lens portrays a view with 
 a greater amount of detail, it might be similarly concluded 
 that it was therefore a superior instrument, and so it would 
 be if a maximum amount of detail were required. The 
 question then comes, Do we in pictorial work require a 
 maximum amount of definition in our representations of 
 nature, or, to put it in another way, will our representa- 
 tions of concrete things convey the abstract ideas that 
 we desire them to, better in proportion to the amount of 
 detail depicted 2 . 
 
 I think I may leave the reader to answer this question 
 for himself after following me to the end of this section, 
 
 In trying to decide this matter, we must first get rid of 
 the idea that a picture depends for success upon its being 
 an exact copy of nature as we see it. I have already 
 devoted a good deal of space to the suggestion that it is 
 truthfulness to the general impression which a scene makes, 
 rather than to the physical facts, that the artist strives 
 after. 
 
 Many writers on the subject of Focus and Definition 
 have based their arguments upon what the eye sees when 
 looking at a scene, and thus each has found evidence in 
 favour of the particular method of practice which he 
 advocates, whether it be sharp all over, sharp only in 
 certain planes, or sharp nowhere. But it seems to me 
 that as long as we attempt to reconcile the appearance 
 of our pictures with what the eye sees we shall be 
 constantly in confusion. 
 
 Now, although it may appear at first glance rather far- 
 fetched, I would suggest as a basis for work that we 
 endeavour to focus so as to as nearly as possible reproduce 
 the mental picture instead of the visual one. I have tried 
 
The Mental Image. 63 
 
 to show that in the imagined size of mountains, moon, ete., 
 it is a mental picture not borne out by fact; and whilst 
 we are limited in our freedom of action by the non-selective 
 character of our instruments, yet if it be felt that in our 
 general mental impression of a scene there is less detail 
 than might actually have been there, in this we at least 
 can control our too-mechanical means. 
 
 It may also be remembered that the amount of detail 
 introduced into a picture does not depend wholly upon our 
 lens, but upon the selection of our subject and the conditions 
 of light and atmosphere under which we feel impelled to. 
 depict it. 
 
 Let us see how this thought helps us. As has already 
 been explained, nature is most pictorially suitable when 
 it is most impressive, as for instance at evening, at dawn, 
 under various~climatic conditions which partake more or 
 less of a dramatic or emotional character. 
 
 I can hardly suppose that any one will contest the state- 
 ment that nature appeals more to our feelings in the 
 quieter light of evening or twilight than it does usually 
 beneath the searching rays of the full noonday sun ; and if 
 we consider for a moment we may recollect that at these 
 times the mere position of the light, combined with the 
 atmosphere, destroys a great deal of detail which in the 
 penetrating light of noon is plainly visible. 
 
 Generally speaking, the maximum amount of detail and 
 clearest, sharpest delineation is visible at noon, partly 
 because of the brighter light, partly because the light 1s. 
 high up, and also on account of the air being drier and 
 atmosphere less apparent. And yet probably we can all 
 remember very beautiful pictures of eventide which have 
 made us feel very fully the quietude, peacefulness, the 
 repose of evening, and upon reflection we should not have 
 felt this any more had it been possible for the low evening 
 light to have revealed more detail. From which I think 
 we may at least conclude that abundant detail is not 
 an essential to a picture which stirs our sympathies and 
 feelings. 
 
 Next let us see what happens when detail is present. 
 
 Take up a good average specimen of the kind of photo- 
 graphs one may purchase at the popular visiting places, in 
 
64 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 which every object is sharply defined and every detail, every 
 line, is clear and distinct. Are you not involuntarily 
 compelled to a certain amount of interest or curiosity in the 
 view as it is there laid out? If the place is familiar to 
 you, are you not at once interested in recognising each 
 particular ¢ Whatare your feelings as you look atit? Are 
 they not recognitions and recollections? Does the photo- 
 graph create any new sensations outside and apart from 
 those which depend on the fact of the existence of the 
 particular spot? If you do not recognise the place, is not 
 your interest very feeble until you have ascertained the 
 name and locality ¢ And with this information youchsafed 
 —what then? Are you then inspired with much else than 
 a desire to go and see the place? Or you draw comparisons 
 between it and some others; or your curiosity is excited 
 on account of something you know respecting it, its history, 
 its buildings, its situation, or what not; and then you lay 
 it aside. The conclusion is, then, that the presence of 
 detail does not of itself constitute what we understand 
 as a picture, and, as in the previous case given, a picture 
 may be satisfactory even with detail lacking. 
 
 Suppose the same print were shown you, printed in such 
 a way as to have all the detail simply obliterated, what 
 would be the impression? In all probability you would be 
 quite indifferent to it? You might express surprise as to 
 what it was meant for; it is just probable that oyur own 
 imagination would, as it were, dream something out of it; 
 but in the main I think the conclusion we might draw 
 is that the mere absence of detail does not necessarily 
 constitute pictorial excellence. 
 
 Because, then, we may have seen some very successful 
 pictures produced, in which detail was suppressed, we are 
 not to suppose that by merely putting a subject out of focus 
 we shall therefore achieve pictorial success. This has been 
 a common error, and J would especially emphasize this, 
 that if our intention be to produce a pictorial rendering of 
 any scene, then, in focus or out of focus, “sharp” or 
 “fuzzy” are not to be regarded as parts of a process, 
 methods of procedure, to be employed as one employs 
 ingredients in the Developer to attain definite results. 
 
 In a very great number of cases, the very subjects and 
 
Detail and Pictorial Effect. 65 
 
 conditions which lend themselves best to the picturesque 
 are those in which little détail, at least in some parts, is 
 visible, and the sentiment of the thing, if there be any, 
 often rests in those very regions lacking detail. Obviously 
 there is but one way of reproducing such—as, for instance, 
 in the accompanying illustration. 
 
 I have endeavoured now to formulate three cases and 
 
 I will reiterate the conclusions in order to, as it were, clear 
 the ground. 
 
 First—A scenein nature may be very pleasing to the 
 senses and a picture of such a scene quite satisfactory 
 when a large amount of detail is wanting. 
 
 Second—The mere presence of detail may afford interest, 
 but does not of itself ensure pictorial success. 
 
 “SHA-MISTS,” 
 
 Third—The mere obliteration of detail does not of itself 
 ensure pictorial success. , 
 
 It would seem now that there is but one other aspect 
 to deal with, and that is to see if the presence of detail is 
 or is not directly advantageous to pictorial effect. 
 
 We have already instanced a case in which the repre- 
 sentation of much detail would be impossible, because, from 
 the nature of the light, there was little detail visible, and had 
 it been possible by any means to fill all the planes with 
 detail, it would not have been accurate to nature, even as a 
 facsimile record ; but what we have now to consider is, when 
 detail ts visible in the scene upon careful inspection, whether 
 it will not be a pictorial gain to suppress it. 
 
 I think perhaps the best way of arriving at a conclusion 
 will be for the student to make or, better still, to procure 
 
 wy) 
 
66 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 an ordinary photographic view of a pretty scene which is 
 in sharp focus throughout. It is useless for me to give a 
 reproduction here, because the very process of reproduction 
 would destroy or break up the finer detail. Refer now to 
 such a photograph, and if made on a highly polished surface 
 paper so much the better for the purpose. 
 
 In such a photograph is it not a fact that the two 
 mental impressions most powerfully excited are first one 
 of equally distributed interest and secondly one of wonder, 
 and perhaps admiration, at the marvellously clear delinea- 
 tion of all the minor facts? In neither case is there any 
 exterior idea promoted, and no appeal to imagination.* 
 
 The fact that sharp definition in many parts of the 
 picture attracts attention and interest to those several 
 parts is at once a violation of the expediency, or indeed 
 necessity, of having one object or region of prime importance 
 which was dealt with, with regard to Composition ; hence 
 it would lead us to conclude that sharpest definition should 
 be in one spot or plane only wherein is that principal object 
 to which we wish to give supremacy. But the presence of 
 very sharp definition in any part; and more especially of 
 all over, seems to immediately excite wonder at a reproduc- 
 tion more perfect and complete than any unaided hand 
 could make it, and then to excite admiration for the deft 
 craftsmanship and the fine process which makes such 
 rendering possible. 
 
 On these grounds alone, then, I should contend that by 
 the astonishingly clear rendering of detail in a general 
 subject we jeopardise the chance of our picture producing 
 an effect upon the imagination. 
 
 In pictorial representation, therefore, it will be found, in 
 most cases, best to suppress the maximum amount of 
 sharpness in all parts to such an extent that this, the 
 distinctive characteristic of the process, shall not be unduly 
 obtrusive ; but it may be advisable to obtain a greater degree 
 of definition in one part of the picture than in others, in 
 
 * T will ask the reader to read this paragraph twice over and give 
 it and the three or four paragraphs following really serious thought. 
 Read intelligently and not taken only literally I feel they embody 
 the whole argument as to suppression of focus as I, after some 
 years of sincere study, have come to understand it, 
 
The Case Against Small Stops. 67 
 
 order to assist in attracting attention to a certain central 
 object or objects upon which the design or composition 
 depends. 
 
 With regard to both these propositions no absolute rule 
 can be laid down as to how much or how little detail 
 should be included, or where the maximum amount (if it 
 be decided to give greater detail in one part than another) 
 should rest. It is entirely a matter to be determined by 
 the effect it is desired to give and how the individual con- 
 siders the effect is best secured. Herein it is seen that in 
 subjugating the photographic means to our pictorial aims, 
 more artistic judgment, or at least more individual taste, is 
 required, than in the ordinary practice of photography, in 
 which results, in accordance with prescribed standards, are 
 obtained by absolute methods and rules. 
 
 The differentiation of focus therefore—that as, introducing 
 more detail mm one plane than another—as also the total 
 suppression of focus in all planes, are only expedients and 
 are merely courses of action towards an end, and must be 
 resorted to only so far as the individual may think best 
 serves his end. | 
 
 The means by which maximum definition is obtained is 
 usually by the insertion of a stop or diaphragm; and this 
 introduces another consideration which has an important 
 bearing on the case. If you focus your scene with a 
 medium-sized stop, and then remove it, you will notice 
 that the total illumination increases greatly, but the 
 local intensity or brilliancy of high lights decreases, so 
 that the tendency of a small stop is not only to make near 
 and more distant objects equally defined, but also to 
 bring distance and foreground into equal brightness, thus 
 destroying tone and eliminating the effect of atmosphere. 
 
 In this is @ stronger case against the use of small stops 
 thar, the question of detail only. 
 
 Tam well aware of the great difficulty which the beginner 
 may experience in deliberately placing a view out of focus. 
 { know very well the charm and fascination which the 
 sharply focussed scene on the ground glass possesses; and 
 then, with this glamour overcome, just how much to put it 
 out of focus presents another formidable problem. The 
 very fact that no rule can be given, because every separate 
 
68 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 case must be a rule to itself, makes the difficulty the greater. 
 But a word of advice may be here offered, of a negative 
 rather than a direct kind. 
 
 I have suggested that sharp all over will in most cases. 
 mean uniform interest, and the awakening of curiosity and 
 wonder at the way in which it is produced. If, then, we 
 put things so far out of focus as to at once strike the 
 beholder that it is out of focus, then, again, the very 
 unusualness attracts notice to the way in which vt is done, 
 and the aim of the picture is as much defeated as when 
 all parts were astonishingly sharp. 
 
 That print, when finished, will be most successful, which, 
 being successful in conveying the intended idea, does not, 
 until deliberately examined for the purpose, strike the: 
 observer one way or the other as regards its sharpness or 
 method of production, so that one might almost formulate’ 
 the maxim that in proportion to the powerfulness of the 
 effect produced, the conventionality in its method of pro- 
 duction may, if desired, be departed from, because the 
 effectiveness and imaginative qualities blind one more: 
 completely, so to speak, to how it is obtained. 
 
 If focus is so far departed from as to form blots, irregular 
 forms, and destroy the general structure of familiar objects, 
 then at once the eye is arrested by the eccentricity and 
 grotesqueness of the whole, and the idea intended to be 
 conveyed is in danger of being missed ; so that between this 
 extreme, and the other of all-over sharpness, we have to 
 decide on our course of action in each separate case. 
 
 The destruction of tonality and atmosphere by the use 
 of small stops has already been referred to, and hence 
 if open aperture, or say F8 or F11, will not give us the” 
 desired amount of definition, it may be best to resort to 
 the swing back of the camera before stopping down the 
 lens, as by that means the softening effect of the large 
 aperture is retained. 
 
 Speaking from my own experience, the pictorial advan- 
 tages of using very large apertures was brought home to 
 me more by accident than intention, for I found that late 
 evening pictures in which, owing to the deficiency of light, 
 large stops or even open aperture of the lens had been 
 compulsory, invariably gave a better rendering of atmo- 
 
The * Pin-hole” as a Special Means. 69 
 
 sphere and therefore distance, truer relative tones and 
 therefore better perspective, and a roundness or modelling, 
 not present in those pictures made with smaller stops. 
 
 From the narrowness of angle, length of focus, and less 
 crispness of definition usually obtained with lenses known 
 as Single Landscape Lenses, I am led to recommend 
 objectives of this class for Pictorial work, the back com- 
 bination of a doublet being similar in nature. 
 
 A few words must here be said about dispensing with 
 
 lens altogether and using instead a minute aperture 
 already referred to as a Pin-hole. 
 
 It is I think possible to conceive some open landscape 
 subjects in which the composition and the distribution of 
 light and shade are in themselves sufficiently expressive 
 to render unnecessary the local concentration of attention, 
 and in such cases the pin-hole is a valuable auxiliary to 
 our means. Moreover, the unrestricted angle of vision, 
 that is the total liberty as to focal length or. distance 
 between pin-hole and plate, also gives desirable freedom, 
 and the disadvantage of the long exposure necessary 1s 
 perhaps compensated for by the manner in which the 
 pin-hole renders such moving objects as rippling water or 
 wind-blown trees and grasses. 
 
 We, may, then, regard pin-hole methods not as the 
 salvation of Pictorial Photography, as some would have us 
 think, not a method to be adupted in all cases, nor yet as 
 giving a picture wholly inartistic because without power of 
 differentiation of focus, as others have argued, but as an 
 occasional means to be resorted to when our judgment 
 and the special circumstances may determine. 
 
 T have now devoted more space to the subject of detail 
 or sharp focus than I should have thought necessary were it 
 not for the erroneous ideas which appear to exist. Possibly 
 in revolting from the too-vigorous insistence upon uni- 
 versally sharp focus of the earlier photographers, the 
 artistically inclined have been deceived, by the apparent 
 advantage of suppression of detail, into imagining that the 
 future success in pictorial photography lay entirely in such 
 methods, and have hence attached an exaggerated import- 
 ance to out-of-focus methods. It cannot, however, be too 
 clearly had in mind that the mere obliteration of sharply 
 
70 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 defined detail will not of itself, and in the absence of other 
 qualities, ensure pictorial success. 
 
 On the other hand, there are many people to whom a 
 photograph, be it ever so beautiful and full of feeling as a 
 picture, is displeasing if it is not full of well-defined details, 
 and they complain that they want to see things clearly, and 
 resent anything approaching indistinctness; it is equally 
 possible that a pictorial representation is something which 
 never will appeal to them. Many men are so constituted 
 that everything they see, every person they meet, is 
 immediately and instinctively submitted to a sort of analysis 
 and critical examination, and hence the absence of minute 
 particulars conveys a sense of disappointment. I do not 
 think the opinion of such critics in artistic matters should 
 be considered, their standard of excellence being directly 
 opposed to the artistic or pictorial standard. 
 
 Printing MErHoDs AND THEIR BEARING ON PICTORIAL 
 PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 It has already been explained that it is reversing the 
 natural order of things to speak of the print before the 
 plate and development, but in the particular application of 
 photography that we are considering, it is I think necesary. 
 Herein we have an example of the wide difference which 
 exists between photography as we are regarding it, and 
 as usually practised for topographical and other useful 
 purposes. In the latter uniformity is aimed at, in order 
 to secure which precise rules and formule are given and 
 must be followed; but in pictorial work every variety may 
 be required, and therefore every variety of negative needed, 
 and the processes must accordingly be modified to meet the 
 required end. It will therefore be best to be clear as to 
 the character of print we need, and then the deseription 
 of negative most calculated to give us such print, and 
 then consider what modifications in development, etc., may 
 be advisable. In other words, we must understand what 
 it is we want to get before we decide upon how to get it. 
 
 It might be expected that in this chapter I should give 
 the student some advice as to the most suitable printing 
 papers for pictorial work; but I shall do best perhaps by 
 
Advantages of Print-out Methods. 71 
 
 simply and briefly pointing to some of the excellencies and 
 defects in various familiar printing processes. 
 
 If our photography is to be merely a method of faultless 
 copying, then it were just as well if the whole process, from 
 the exposure of the plate to the final completion of the 
 printing, were entirely automatic, requiring no guidance 
 whatever, and so eliminating the possible clumsiness or 
 carelessness due to interference. For such purpose a 
 process that could be carried out and worked according 
 to rule of thumb would be all that could be desired ; 
 and in such case the fact that the progress of the print 
 could not be watched, as for instance in Carbon or Bromide 
 work, would be no disadvantage. 
 
 But in pictorial work the necessity of watching every 
 little step in the progress of the picture, so as to modify or 
 alter here and there in accordance as we think our idea is 
 being carried out, makes it of great importance that the 
 printing of the picture should be visible; and therefore in 
 this particular we should regard the silver printing papers, 
 such as albumen and gelatine or plain-salted papers, which, 
 as the reader knows, are what are termed “ print-out” 
 papers, as the ideal. But as more than compensating this 
 advantage there are to be considered the shiny, highly 
 polished surfaces of the first two and the question of whether 
 the silver-printed image does or does not give a correct 
 rendering of the relative tones secured in the negative. 
 
 The reader is probably aware that a certain quality of 
 negative is better suited to one kind of paper than another 
 —that is to say that from a given standard quality of 
 negative different printing papers give respectively prints 
 varying in density, contrast, and brilliancy. It is obvious, 
 then, that all cannot be equally true and all do not equally 
 well yield the precise quality of print most suited to convey 
 the intended impression. The objection to the shiny, highly 
 polished surface of albumen and gelatine papers is that, 
 besides the fact that the surface reflects false and disturbing 
 lights, the very polish and gloss has an artificial appear- 
 ance which, from its very superfine character, irresistibly 
 reminds us of its origin and nature. It attracts too much 
 attention to the means, to the handicraft, to admit of the 
 idea and feeling which the representation might kindle. 
 
 aoe Sia la 
 
72 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Admirable as the translucence of the albumen or the 
 gelatine film is for revealing detail and giving an almost 
 startling clearness to a view, these very characteristics seem 
 also to miss the rendering of atmosphere, and that slight 
 softening of outline which gives exquisite indecision and 
 suggestiveness to objects in nature; and hence, notwith- 
 standing the advantage which exists in being able to see 
 the printed image gradually growing under one’s hands, 
 it is more than outweighed by the other characteristics 
 referred to. 
 
 As regards the rendering of relative tones, the trans- 
 parency of its deeper shadows, and the variety of colours, 
 as well as the freedom from excessive gloss, carbon printing 
 must stand well in the favour of the pictorial worker, but 
 that comparatively little can be done to guide or control 
 the formation of the printed image, being as it is invisible 
 until after development. Moreover, unless considerable 
 skill be exercised, in landscape work at least, there is a 
 liability to heaviness unsuitable for lighter and more 
 delicate effects. 
 
 We are then brought to consider Platinotype, which, on 
 the whole, may be regarded as the most suitable for general 
 pictorial work. Its power of rendering relative tones and 
 atmosphere is perhaps unequalled, whilst, although every 
 one who has used it has sometimes wished that the un- 
 developed image were more visible, yet the pale, ghost-like 
 print made by the light is very much better than nothing at 
 all, and, indeed, may often be quite sufficient to guide us in 
 our endeavours to control the action of ight in a manner 
 to be shortly described. 
 
 The platinotype process of printing, moreover, gives us 
 a considerable variety of surfaces, from smooth ordinary 
 paper, to very rough, and a sufficiently wide range of colour 
 to answer most purposes. 
 
 That the process is not so difficult to work as many seem 
 to imagine I have endeavoured to show in a little book 
 devoted to the process which I published last year* in 
 which I gave full instructions for working it. 
 
 Bromide paper appears likely to become more popular 
 
 * Platinotype Printing : Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ltd., 1s. 
 
The Gum Process. 73 
 
 for purely pictorial work, since the more recent exhibited 
 results have shown that a certain flatness and poorness, 
 varied by an excessive harshness of tone, too long regarded 
 as inseparable characteristics, are not essential qualities. 
 
 J cannot close these brief references to printing processes 
 without naming the recently revived method known as the 
 Gum process ; but. until much more has been done, and its 
 powers have stood a longer test, I am not disposed to assign 
 to it any definite place amongst other printing means, 
 nor to forecast its success. Certainly it does seem that 
 the large amount of control which it is possible for the 
 operator to exercise over the printed image should make 
 it an especially valuable instrument in the hands of the 
 artist who, in order to convey some impression, desires to 
 produce an image which may be largely imaginative, with, 
 as it were, a comparatively small photographically formed 
 foundation or just as much of the light-produced picture 
 as he think fit to preserve. Inferior as a mechanical 
 printing method for ordinary photographic purposes, the 
 gum process may for a time at least be regarded as standing 
 apart for pictorial purposes, because the large amount of 
 personal control which must be exercised before it can be 
 said to show distinct advantages over other methods implies 
 that the controlling hand must be guided by an artist— 
 that is, a man of such large instinctive artistic taste that 
 one can hardly conceive that he would be able to produce 
 a better result by painting, and without the use of photo- 
 graphy at all, were he to devote the same skill and 
 endeavour to the employment of brush or pencil, instead of 
 photographic appliances. 
 
 We will now consider the manner in which control over 
 the formation of our print may be exercised. 
 
 PRINTING THE PICTURE AND CONTROLLING ITS FORMATION 
 FoR PicrortAL EFFEcT, 
 
 So long as our photographic printing is allowed to be 
 in a measure automatic—that is to say, so long as the print 
 is the mere effect of light acting on a sensitive surface 
 through a negative, the result being determined only by 
 natural laws—the man quite without artistic feeling or 
 
First Uncontrolled Print for Picture entitled 
 
 “TIDE BEREFT,” 4 
 
“TIDE BEREFT” (Finished Print). 
 
76 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 training has an equal chance of success with hiin who may 
 possess such feeling and training to a high degree. 
 
 The wonderful measure of truthfulness with which the 
 automatically produced image reproduces a beautiful scene 
 in nature is in its way so valuable that, bearing in mind 
 that probably the majority of photographers have not had 
 the opportunity of cultivating perceptions or training 
 themselves, by the study of art or even of nature, it will 
 probably be best for most of my readers, for a time at least, 
 to content themselves with endeavouring to secure good 
 Composition in their subjects, and selecting pleasing and 
 effective lighting, and with producing negatives in which 
 atmosphere is rendered and distance suggested by the due 
 subordination of detail, and then to print without any idea 
 of improving upon the direct and uninterrupted result 
 which such a negative will yield. 
 
 If after a while the picture-maker feels that in his print 
 this or that portion would be better if lighter or darker, 
 and after thoughtful consideration he feels sure that, from 
 observation of nature and the cultivation of taste, he 
 knows how much darker or lighter such parts should be, 
 if he had the power to control their formation, then it may 
 be worth while to ascertain whether or not he can exert a 
 power of control to the attainment of such end. 
 
 Probably every photographer has at times found it con- 
 venient to print one part of a negative more than another or 
 has covered another portion during printing, thus deliber- 
 ately making those portions lighter or darker, as the case 
 may be. The cultivation of this very elementary power is — 
 what I would recommend to every one who is conscious that 
 the ordinarily produced photographic image is not all that 
 he would wish it to be; and he will not have gone far 
 before he will probably be surprised at the enormous 
 difference which he can produce in his print, merely by 
 interrupting, and subsequently permitting, the action of the 
 light either over large regions of the negative or locally in 
 small parts. 
 
 In the illustration on page 74 we have an inlet of a 
 Suffolk river which has been left almost without water by 
 the receded tide, the wet mud and sand photographing very 
 light, as it reflects the sky on its smooth surface. The 
 
\ 
 
 An Example of Control. ey 
 
 resulting print, if left to itself, gave the whole of the bed of 
 the creek one bright light mass, in contrast to which the 
 dark banks and ‘brown, weather-stained grass of the 
 marshland on either side and beyond appeared unpleasantly 
 dark. In the print which is here reproduced, however, 
 the following course was pursued. 
 
 Along the middle of the muddy bed an irregularly torn 
 piece of paper was laid on the negative, whilst a piece of 
 tissue paper was cut to answer the shape of the grass land 
 beyond, and this also was laid on the negative. The print 
 is in platinotype. 
 
 The negative with the platinotype paper was then 
 subjected to light in the ordinary way until the little 
 cluster of trees and the house in the distance was considered 
 to be printed deeply enough, but before then the tissue paper 
 which was keeping back the printing of the grass was 
 removed, its influence having been exerted to a sufficient 
 extent. ‘The-upper portion of the picture was then covered, 
 whilst the lower part was allowed to print more deeply ; and 
 when it was deemed that this, too, had progressed far enough, 
 the whole was taken out of the printing frame and the 
 negative put on one side. 
 
 The printing frame having a stout piece of clear clean 
 glass in the front, the print was returned to the printing 
 frame with its face towards the plain glass. The upper 
 portion of the picture being now covered with brown paper 
 
 or other. opaque material, the lower portion was exposed to 
 
 light, but with the piece of paper which had been occupying 
 the centre of the river bed reinstated—the result of this 
 being that, in addition to the deeper printing which this 
 lower portion had already received, the light now tinted 
 ‘t all down still further, except where the piece of irregular 
 paper in the centre was interrupting the light. During the 
 whole operation the tissue and other paper interruptions or 
 masks were moved slightly from time to time, so as to 
 prevent any harsh outlines and edges from printing. 
 
 Now refer to the finished print as reproduced on page 75. 
 
 A patch of bright light has been secured in the hollow of 
 the muddy creek, which answers to the bright light in the 
 cloud above it. Thislight has been produced by holding back 
 printing in that particular spot, and has been emphasized. 
 
78 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 by tinting down the rest of the foreground. Again, the 
 relative tone of the level grass beyond appeared to be too 
 deep when printed from first, so it was made to print lighter 
 by interposing tissue paper for a short time. The printing 
 of the distance was stopped at the moment when it was 
 judged to be dark enough ; and thus the whole has been 
 produced by purely photographie means held under control 
 by the printer. A comparison of this with the companion 
 illustration made from an uncontrolled print will perhaps 
 make this more clear. | 
 
 It may be said perhaps that if the whole of the tide-bereft 
 creek came light in nature, as shown in the uncontrolled 
 print, why should any attempt be made to alter it, thus 
 making it untruthful to nature 2 
 
 It may be that the artist considered he could produce a 
 more effective rendering of the scene, or one which would 
 appeal to the feelings of the beholder more powerfully ; but 
 as a matter of fact, in the present instance the landscape 
 was taken when there was a perfectly clear, cloudless sky, 
 and the introduction of the clouds which it will be seen 
 have been used, made it desirable to produce in the light- 
 reflecting mud an effect which would emphasize the id a 
 of a gleam of light piercing the heavy evening clouds and 
 glinting here and there on the rill of water and wet sand 
 or mud. 
 
 It will now be seen that the picture as produced is a very 
 widely different thing to what the photographer witnessed. 
 He has practically created a new thing out of materials 
 gathered from nature; upon a foundation of fact he has 
 wllowed his imagination to build up an entirely fictitious 
 scene, and the truth of the effect will depend upon how 
 far bis perceptions have been trained by studying nature 
 at various times, so as to know how things might look 
 under certain circumstances. In such a picture the artist 
 may depart from actual fact, from what actually was, so 
 long as he does not exceed what might have been. | 
 
 But to know what might have been implies a considerable 
 knowledge of nature, a knowledge only to be gained by 
 a long course of study, and so I would say most emphatically 
 that if the photographer has not studied nature and does 
 not possess the requisite knowledge, he had far better be 
 
Improving on Nature. 19 
 
 content to let the self-produced photographic image alone, 
 lest his modifications and alterations result in a greater 
 absence of truth to fact than the uncontrolled print 
 possesses absence of effectiveness.* 
 
 Of course there are many instances in which but little 
 modification is required, the scene as seen in nature being 
 sufficiently satisfactory. So much the better; for let it 
 be remembered that as photography is our chosen medium, 
 then if photography unaided will give us the effect we want 
 there is no especial virtue in altering it. 
 
 There are modifications, such as a little shading down 
 here and there, mere trifling matters which may be more 
 safely attempted. 
 
 It is my place only to point out what can be done and 
 presently to suggest how it may be done. When, and to what 
 extent, must be determined by each and every individual in 
 each and every instance. There is certainly no possibility 
 ‘of a rule being laid down. 
 
 I will give one more example, and rather an extreme one. 
 Here are a series of four illustrations, and the story of 
 them is as follows. 
 
 One of the wide marsh lands of Suffolk; a group of trees 
 jast budding into earliest spring foliage; brown, withered 
 grass underfoot, sprinkled with the new springing blades 
 of green; a clear grey-blue sky on the afternoon of an 
 April day, which lighted up the narrow stream of water 
 coming down to my feet. The simplicity of the Composition 
 pleased me. It was very bright, very full of glowing 
 afternoon light—the rather quaint, straggling trees pos- 
 sessed something of poetry about them; and so two plates 
 were exposed, one with what I judged to be about correct 
 time, the other with about three times the exposure. 
 
 Then a long tramp home by the river wall and across 
 some miles of the same barren country, wondering the 
 while what I would do with my tree picture. 
 
 It was a day or two after that I experienced in the same 
 neighbourhood a very rough afternoon. Gusts of wind, 
 pitiless rain, interspersed with brilliant intervals when the 
 
 * This I feel to be sound advice, and I ask that it be taken to 
 heart by all such as doubt the justice or advisability of “ improving ” 
 nature. 
 
Cloud for “* SUNSHINE AND RAIN,” 
 
The Making of a Picture. 81 
 
 sun’s rays pierced the clouds, glancing here and there in 
 fitful patches of light, and anon bathing all the distance in 
 haze as the rain-soaked earth exhaled its moisture in the 
 moments of warmth, The effect out on the dreary marsh 
 Jand was very grand. It was one of nature’s most appealing 
 moods as the weird, weather-beaten trees bent and writhed 
 under the squall, and then glistened and seemed to laugh 
 again as the drift of sunshine passed. 
 
 [ thought about it a good deal. I developed those nega- 
 tives of trees taken under such different climatic conditions, 
 
 “SUNSHINE AND RAIN” (Combined Print). 
 (Lor finished picture see next page.) 
 
 half hoping that by some miracle the recollection of the 
 day of rain, storm, and sunshine might appear—so with 
 the second negative I kept the whole very thin, restraining 
 density in the high lights, thinking that perhaps I might 
 do something with it of which I had as yet only a half- 
 formed plan. 
 
 It was a month or so later that I photographed some 
 clouds in another district, when the dark bank of shadow 
 was riven here and there by shafts of light from the sun 
 
 G 
 
n 
 
 NIV GNV ONIHSNAS 55 
 
 _ 
 
The Introduction of Effects. 83 
 
 behind; and afterwards I bethought me to wed one of these 
 to my trees—it suited fairly well; but then came back the 
 old memory of the sunshine and:rain, and with it the desire 
 to express by means of these two negatives some of my 
 impression. 
 
 It merely meant shading one part, stopping back 
 another, accentuating the shafts of descending sunshine 
 by strips of paper, restraining printing to get something of 
 the idea of the luminous haze which veiled the distance, yet 
 not so much as to prevent the effect of dark rain-clouds and 
 shadows drifting close to earth in the right-hand distance. 
 Keeping a good deal of the foreground dark, I was able. to 
 accentuate the light in the patch of water in the immediate 
 front ; and so on, dodging, controlling, making three or four 
 prints in succession, until, after several trials, | had to be 
 content with the one here reproduced, and which I called 
 ‘ Sunshine and Rain.” A good deal has been lost in the 
 reproduction, but I hope it may serve to suggest how very 
 far the photographer is from being compelled to copy only 
 that which is before him. By means of photography he may 
 not, as the painter can, be able to introduce objects which 
 were not present, but he can introduce effects which may 
 express ideas more successfully than the same man could 
 with brush or pencil, lacking as he may the especial 
 aptitude for their use, 
 
 As in the second part of this little book I shall have 
 other examples to refer to, I will leave the matter for the 
 present. 
 
 A word now to those who ask, “‘ How is this to be best 
 done ?” | 
 
 In the first place, it is to my mind essential to have 
 some means whereby, with the least possible trouble, the 
 whole print can be viewed from time to time during print- 
 ing; not only this, but, for my own part, I do not think 
 it possible, especially with large prints, to rightly judge the 
 position of lights and shades, and their depth, and to tell 
 how the general design will come, unless one can set the 
 print up at a little distance and look at it with delibera- 
 tion. 
 
 With all but quite small sizes, then, I dispense with 
 printing-frames entirely, and, I give here the particulars 
 
84 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 of a method of printing which I first published in Zhe 
 Amateur Photographer, last November. 
 
 If I have succeeded in making this method clear, 16 will 
 be seen that it is not necessary for the print to be only 
 the same size as the landscape negative, but that if it be 
 thought desirable several inches more sky can be easily 
 added. ; 
 
 Now, as every one knows, to take the partly finished 
 print altogether from the negative in the printing frame, 
 and to attempt to return it, will rarely, if ever, be attended 
 with success, unless some special means be adopted for 
 securing the return of the print to exactly the same position, 
 a matter not easy to arrange. 
 
 There is another matter in respect to which the ordinary 
 printing frame with glass in front has proved unsuitable 
 to my purpose, when placing anything—such as the pieces 
 of paper referred to in the printing of ‘Tide Bereft,” or 
 cotton-wool, which I substitute sometimes—on some dark- 
 printing portion, to make it print lighter. Doing this 
 outside the glass front of the printing frame meant that 
 I could not get close enough to know exactly how it 
 would print, the printing paper being separated by the 
 glass and the thickness of the negative; and it is essential, 
 as already suggested, that at any time during the progress 
 of printing we should be able to remove, reduce, or alter 
 the material or mask used to intercept the light. 
 
 Another disadvantage in the ordinary printing frame 
 is that in producing delicate gradations and introducing 
 very subtle alterations, it will be necessary to examine the 
 print very frequently during its progress—perhaps in 
 bright weather, and at some stages, every half-minute—so | 
 as to get the precise depth of shade when tinting down, 
 etc. ; and the necessity of undoing the springs at the back 
 so often, and peeping at the turned-back print half ata 
 time, makes some simpler means desirable. 
 
 The following, then, is a substitute which I have found 
 successful for anything above whole plate, and a little 
 ingenuity on the part of the user should make it equally 
 practicable for smaller sizes. Some such particulars as the 
 following I published a few months ago in the pages of 
 The Amateur Photographer, and I am glad to learn that 
 
The Printing Frame Superseded. 85 
 
 since then many well-known workers have adopted. the 
 same means with great satisfaction. 
 
 First, a good stout drawing board. On this I stretch 
 a piece of felt or stout, soft cloth, or smooth variety of 
 flannel, two or three sheets of good brown paper, the 
 
 PRINTING WITHOUT A PRINTING FRAME. 
 
 thicker the better, and a sheet of tissue paper. On the 
 felt-covered board first lay the printing paper, which, as in 
 my own case, is usually platinotype, C.C. or R.S. In the 
 accompanying figure it is supposed that we propose to 
 print from say a 15 x 12 landscape negative, a print 
 
86 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 several inches more from top to bottom, so as to introdnce 
 more sky. The landscape negative is then laid on the 
 printing paper at one end, leaving a small margin of paper 
 at the bottom and on either side. This requires that the 
 paper be cut‘a little wider than the width of the negative 
 to be used. 
 
 Refer to the here in which AA is the drawing board, 
 covered as already described, B is the platinotype paper, 
 and CC the landscape negative. On each of three sides 
 of this negative two pins are stuck firmly into the paper, 
 transfixing it and securing it to the board beneath. These 
 pins must be placed vertical and so close to the negative 
 that it cannot be moved from left to right. The Bega te 
 is then pressed against the two pins at the base. 
 
 Should the negative be removed at any time, if it be 
 replaced so as to press against all six pins, it must be in 
 the same position as originally. Under the top edge of the 
 glass negative a strip of tissue paper folded two or three 
 times is “placed, This will prevent the sharp edge of the 
 negative from cutting or scratching the sensitive paper. 
 This is marked D in the figure. Over the uncovered portion 
 of the platinotype paper a sheet of stout opaque brown paper 
 is laid, as at E E. This is to come rather lower down than 
 the edge of the tissue paper D. 
 
 If the sky portion of the negative is opaque, and there is 
 no danger of its printing through, the whole may now be 
 put out to print. If, however, on the other hand, the sky 
 is a trifle thin, another piece of brown paper, as F, is placed 
 above all, and the lower edge bent up and roughly adjusted 
 to suit the outline of the landscape. This last sheet, F, 
 must be moved slightly from time to time, and if at any 
 time light should accidentally creep under the bent-up edge, 
 the paper, E, will stop its getting so far as to affect that 
 portion of the platinotype paper which is ultimately intended 
 to be used for the clouds. 
 
 When printing has proceeded a little while, it is my ~ 
 custom to take the board to the back of the room farthest 
 from the light, or into a room lighted by gas, and, lifting 
 the brown papers and negative quite off, set the drawing 
 board with the print attached on an easel or other suitable 
 Suppor examine it deliberately and from a little distance. 
 
Itetouching the Negative. EAs 
 
 By this means, although, as in platinotype, the image 
 may be only faint, one may get a better general idea of the 
 relative depth of various portions, and can better foretell if 
 on this side or that a light patch will prove offensive and 
 should be toned down. 
 
 After the necessary consideration, the negative and brown 
 paper can be replaced and further printing carried out if 
 desired. The cover, F, may be exchanged for a larger sheet 
 if it is deemed best, so as to cover portions of they negative 
 already printed deep enough, and_ local printing can 
 commence. ‘The landscape portion being finished, the pins 
 are drawn out and the cloud negative adjusted in position, 
 EE being of course now made to cover the landscape portion 
 and D to take the extreme edge of the cloud negative when 
 it comes below the cloud horizon of the view; and F will be 
 shaped and bent so as to shield the sky line of the already 
 printed landscape. 
 
 The felt-covered board is cleared, and the platinotype 
 paper attached thereto with drawing-pins at the four 
 corners, and a stout sheet of brown paper laid over the 
 whole. At any portion where a deeper shade is to be 
 produced, the brown paper is to be cut, torn, or a hole 
 made, and then with a cloth or cotton-wool, or even using 
 one’s hand as a shade, light is allowed to fall on such 
 portions. Here taste, judgment, and a little practice are 
 one’s only guides ; but the fact that one is working directly 
 on the surface of the print, and not through glass, will 
 make it easier. 
 
 Of course it will be desirable to return the board to the 
 easel frequently—-the more frequently the better, perhaps 
 —so as to keep a close watch upon the progress of the 
 print, and by keeping covered only those portions which 
 are to be kept light, and exposing for longer or shorter 
 those parts to be printed deeper, it should be apparent to 
 any reader that practically any alteration may be effected, 
 _ and any one may use the light almost as directly as though 
 one were shading down with a pencil or stump. 
 
 With landscape negatives I often retouch with pencil or 
 stump, or more rarely with a brush,-but always on the 
 glass side or back of the negative. 
 
 Then, with the arrangement above described, I not 
 
88 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 infrequently remove the retouching when the printing has 
 partly progressed, and put it on again or increase it, while 
 the printing is actually going on, exactly as I find the 
 result suggests is desirable. 
 
 it may be asked, ‘‘ How about getting contact between 
 negative and print?” In the case of large negatives the 
 weight of the glass negative itself is enough, especially if 
 the felt with which the board is covered is well and truly 
 laid; but if one feels doubtful about this, a few drawing 
 pins put round the edge of the negative will perhaps still 
 further press the negative tightly down. | 
 
 Practically anything which strikes one may be employed 
 to stop the light—cotton-wool, soft-cloths, paper, or anything 
 handy. 
 
 There is a difference in printing greater depth to any 
 portion with the negative and shading down without the 
 negative. In the former case we get a deeper and stronger 
 image, still preserving to a great extent the relative contrasts 
 between the lights and shades in that portion. This is 
 not always what we require. In order to concentrate 
 attention upon—that is, to emphasize, some particular spot, 
 it may be desirable to shade down and flatten some portion. 
 This is better done when the negative is finished with, and 
 then, laying a sheet of clear glass upon the print, cover the 
 whole with brown paper or an opaque black cloth, such as 
 a black velvet focussing cloth. We can then see the image 
 by raising the paper or cloth and determine what portion 
 requires attention. Then raise the edge of the paper or 
 crumple up the cloth, and, slightly moving it about with 
 both hands, shade this or that portion in, 
 
 Both with the negative in position and subsequently 
 without it, every part of a large print is, maybe, thus 
 printed in, piece by piece, a large print often occupying me 
 two or three days. 
 
 From time to time it is removed to a room where the 
 light is subdued or where there is gas-light, and it is pinned 
 to the wall and carefully considered, along with a roughly 
 printed trial print. Two or three sketches are here given, 
 showing how the paper or cloth is handled when any 
 portions of the print are being “ printed in.” | 
 
 No. 1 shows how an over-light corner of a foreground may 
 
Modifying the Print. SP 
 
 be tinted in by raising the corner of the brown paper cover 3. 
 and this beingraisedand lowered frequently,ensures gradation. 
 
 No. 2 shows how a streak of 
 water across a landscape may be 
 toned down, making it darker to- 
 wards the edge of the print, where 
 the paper js raised highest. This. 
 was done in 
 the case of 
 
 No. 1. the waterin 
 the picture 
 entitled ‘‘Feldee Shore,” page 2. 
 
 No. 3 shows how small, bright 
 lights, as 
 where water No. 2. 
 shines on small 
 pools amongst the sand at low tide, 
 may be emphazised. In this case the 
 brown paper covers the sky and some 
 loose, thin pieces of cotton-wool are 
 used to stop the light from encroaching 
 under the upturned edge of the brown. 
 paper. 
 
 No. 4. illus- 
 trates how: a 
 larger portion 
 of the view may 
 be shaded in, the hands manipulat- 
 ing a cloth which is occasionally 
 shifted to avoid 
 a hard outline. 
 
 No. 5 shows how a still smaller por- 
 tion may be shaded in by the same 
 means. Or the whole may be covered 
 with a sheet of opaque paper in which 
 a hole has been cut. 
 
 Once started, I doubt not that the 
 
 No. 5. ingenuity of each practitioner will sug- 
 gest any amount of variety in the 
 dodges that can be resorted to. 
 
 The greater ease in printing which this method gives 
 
 Yj, jj 
 SSCS 
 
90 Practical Pictorial Photography, 
 
 needs to be experienced before it can be realised. One feels 
 at once that the print is under one’s direction. Without 
 removing the negative and paper from the light, but whilst 
 printing is actually in progress, we may temporarily arrest 
 the action of any part by applying a dab of paint, a touch 
 with the stump and blacklead, or a bit of cotton-wool, and 
 remove it, or alter it, at any moment we think fit. 
 
 Having casually mentioned “paint” and “ blacklead,” 
 one is naturally induced to consider the question of hand 
 work in connection with photography. 
 
 The reader will please to notice that hitherto the control 
 exercised over the print is obtained by means purely photo- 
 graphic—by, as it were, simply taking the light in one’s 
 hand, so to speak, and using it, or not, almost as one might 
 handle a paint-brush, whilst the negative performs the 
 function of drawing. 
 
 It were easy enough of course to perform the same toning 
 down of lights and heightening others by applying to the 
 finished print washes of black paint or little patches of 
 white respectively, but that as soon as we commence to do 
 this we discover how all but impossible it is to perform it 
 in such a manner that the applied pigment does not betray 
 its presence. The texture of the printed image is of such 
 peculiar character that neither brush or liquid paint seem 
 capable of imitating it.. Probably the nearest counterfeit 
 to the appearance of a matt surface print, such as platino- 
 type, may be arrived at by using finely powdered blacklead, 
 or, better still, pulverised Conté crayon; but then we shall 
 be met with the difficulty of matching the colour of the 
 print. 
 
 The first and most conclusive objection, then, to working 
 by hand on the print is the difficulty of preventing the means 
 whereby the effect is produced from betraying itself. The 
 moment the eye perceives that the picture is produced by 
 other than the professed means, the effect, the appeal to 
 the imagination, is disturbed. Art seeks ever to conceal 
 the means by which its effects are. produced and the 
 method in which the work is wrought. 
 
 This is I think the strongest argument against hand- 
 work on prints. As to the legitimacy of such work I do 
 not think we need seriously concern ourselves—* legitimacy ” 
 
The Ethics of Hand-work. OT 
 
 implies the existence of a law. JI am unaware of any law 
 concerning the matter. There are customs and conventions ; 
 but customs pass, and conventionalities are generally wrong. 
 
 If, however, photographic pictures are entered in com- 
 petition with others, and the competition is for photography, 
 then obviously it is dishonest to take advantage of the 
 judge’s inability to detect the fact that certain work is not 
 only photography, but derives its chicf merit from some 
 alien method; for presumably hand-work is only added for 
 the purpose of attaining something better than the plain 
 photograph accomplished, and I would rather laws, customs, 
 and conventions were sinned against, than that a man 
 should be dishonest. 
 
 In works offered for exhibition, but not competition, even 
 though it be presumed that the results are produced by 
 photography, the deceit of hand-worked photographs is not 
 so poignant, more especially if no printed declaration 1s 
 required as to the work being purely photographic; but 
 as anything produced by after working-up might as well 
 be accomplished by utilising light instead of a pencil or 
 crayon, it is clearly negligence or laziness which leads 
 one to resort to direct hand-work, both of which in sincere 
 artistic work are scarcely less criminal than dishonesty. 
 
 _ On the whole, I would rather not pronounce sentence on 
 the question of hand-work on prints, preferring to leave it 
 to each man’s conscience to be the arbiter. 
 
 We are, then, driven to consider the legitimacy and possi- 
 bility of working on the negative. 
 
 In such case the difficulty of matching colour and texture 
 of print is got over, but another difficulty presents itself. 
 
 If, by colour or matt varnish or other body applied to 
 the negative, we seek to alter its printing density, either to 
 lighten or darken the image, very extraordinary judgment 
 is needed to foretell exactly the result of such application. 
 ‘Our paper masks and covers were movable and alterable, 
 which was one thing in their favour; and if photography 
 as usually employed admits of the use of “retouching” as 
 commonly understood, then he will be clever who shall 
 distinguish between the legitimacy of pencil and that of 
 pigment applied to the negative for a certain purpose: but 
 whatever the means, and wherever we think fit to draw 
 
92 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 the limit as regards the legitimacy of the thing, there is 
 no going beyond that line when emphasis reaches palpable 
 untruth or exaggeration. 
 
 CLoups.—THEIR Usr, AND PracticAL INSTRUCTIONS AS TO 
 How To PHorogRaPH THEM. 
 
 Artistically considered, there is no reason for any dif- 
 ferent treatment to be observed for the sky than for any 
 other part of the picture. By sky will be understood 
 generally to include all that which is above what is termed! 
 the sky-line, whether it be cloudless or cloudy. 
 
 Even after photographers awakened to the fact that a 
 blank white space no more represented sky than a similar 
 blank in the midst of a landscape would represent a grass. 
 field, skies and clouds were still regarded as something 
 
 quite apart from the rest of the picture, and, indeed, are- 
 
 still so regarded by the less advanced. 
 
 Let it be remembered that the earth has never been seen 
 except with a blue or grey sky or a canopy of clouds, and 
 hence the average mah has ceased to notice them. 
 
 The fact being once recognised, that a light object looks. — 
 
 dark when seen against a white or very light object, and a 
 moderately dark one light when a darker ground is behind 
 it, and then the importance of the sky—nature’s back- 
 ground—being in correct relative tone to the rest of the- 
 scene may be apparent. 
 
 Indeed, from much that has been said in the earlier 
 part of this book, no further reference should be needed, 
 neither should it be necessary to mention the existence of 
 ready-made “cloud negatives,” purchasable from most 
 photographic dealers. The person who would photograph 
 a landscape and then introduce a purchased cloud negative 
 would be acting quite as sanely were he to make his own 
 cloud negative and then use a‘ bought landscape! There is. 
 nothing to choose between the two. 
 
 The sky is as much an essential part of the picture as. 
 any other part of it, and indeed, in very many instances, 
 constitutes the key-note and important feature of the 
 whole idea. 
 
 Before considering the principles which must guide our 
 
 ae 
 
Exposure for Clouds. | 93 
 
 selection, treatment, and introduction of clouds, we may 
 devote a few moments to the question of cloud photography. 
 
 The difficuity which many beginners experience in 
 making negatives of clouds is not easy to understand, 
 except it be attributed to over-exposwre. When we con- 
 sider that probably with the most fearfully under-exposed 
 negative we ever saw, the sky portion came up promptly 
 enough in development, we may begin to get an inkling 
 as to the very brief exposure required for the average dry 
 plate to receive adequate light action from the sky. 
 
 Should any of my readers have failed to get useful 
 cloud negatives, and are close upon giving up in despair, 
 as I have known many to be, [ would recommend them 
 to forthwith take a slow plate, insert F 45 stop in the 
 lens, and make a quick shutter exposure on some well- 
 marked sun-lit clouds. Then develop with a slightly diluted 
 developer, and see what comes of it. Probably, if the clouds 
 be heavy, they will be a little under-exposed. Then, from this 
 as a basis it should not be difficult to get on the right road. 
 
 The next point is to remember that in the sky there 
 
 are some of the purest and brightest colours which nature 
 ever wears, except in flowers, and those colours are all 
 of a delicate kind. Were we photographing a similar 
 colour scheme anywhere else we should most probably use 
 isochromatic plates and a yellow screen as well. J think 
 it is Mr. Ruskin who says the purest colours are in skies 
 and clouds—he was probably thinking of Venice or 
 Coniston—but as a general rule it is very true. Then 
 remember how much more luminous the cloud colours are 
 than the fairest silks and satins ever seen. The greater 
 need then for isochromatic plates and yellow screen. 
 
 Now consider for a moment that next to the sun itself 
 the sunlit clouds are perhaps the lightest things ordinarily 
 met with, and the bright illumined edges are often con- 
 trasted with deep shadows. In a similar case elsewhere 
 we should fear halation and lack of gradation in the high 
 lights, and so should “back” our plates. A ‘backed ” 
 plate then, ischromatic, used with a yellow screen, may be 
 taken as the full panoply of armour preventative of failure 
 when photographing clouds. <A proportionately longer 
 exposure may now be given. 
 
94 Practical. Pictorial Photography. 
 
 As regards development we should remember that how= 
 ever vivid the cloudscape appear there is ever present that 
 softening effect of the great intervening veil of atmosphere. ~ 
 The nearest clouds are still very distant, and they are not 
 cut out of solid material, but consist of rounded masses of 
 vapour, hence we should in development use every means 
 in our power to get a different result to that which we 
 should seek if developing a negative of some terrestrial 
 body. 
 
 As a general rule, then, the developing solution may be 
 considerably diluted, or a minimum of the density-giving 
 constituent employed, 
 
 If nearly clear glass represent shadows in the landscape, 
 then the deepest tones: in the sky may well be rendered by 
 a veiling or “fogging,” about equivalent in density to the 
 distance in the landscape. Think of this from a common- 
 sense point of view, and you will, without further hint from 
 me, keep your cloud negatives thin—yet not too thin—and 
 avoid extreme contrasts ‘and solid high lights. 
 
 Clouds in landscape may be secured in two ways. First 
 by rendering the clouds present at the moment of taking 
 the landscape or other view on the same negative. Secondly 
 by printing-in some clouds from a separate negative. 
 Exposure dodges and development formule have been 
 recommended for securing clouds and view on the same 
 plate, and whilst these may or may not be successful the 
 principal.thing advanced in favour of such practice usually 
 is that thereby we secure the entire scene true to nature. 
 Now if the reader has followed me thus far, he will have 
 learned that from a pictorial point of view mere truth to 
 nature does not of itself constitute good art ; but there are 
 other considerations. 
 
 If we are to look to clouds as being part of the whole 
 scene, and are to use them, as we certainly should do, to 
 assist in the Composition as well as in helping to emphasize 
 the idea or sentiment, then it is not to be supposed that 
 the clouds present at the particular moment or on the 
 particular day that we visit a certain scene, are just such 
 as will serve this end. 
 
 Clouds are incessantly altering, skies are ever changing, 
 and the sky of any one particular time is no more just 
 
Clouds and Landscape on Same Plate. 95 
 
 the most desirable than are the particular figures of all the 
 varied passers-by that chance to present themselves to our 
 view at the moment of selecting our picture. | 
 
 Suppose, then, we wait until the clouds are suitable—then 
 
 probably the effect of light and shade on our landscape 
 which we desired will have passed away; but, waiving 
 this even, we may ask whether, in those photographs in 
 which Clouds and Landscape are preserved on the same 
 plate, something is not lost and sacrificed in the one in our 
 endeavour to secure the other? Or perhaps a compromise 
 has been arranged, and both are a little below what they 
 might have been, had they each had undivided and exclusive 
 care. 
 - We may often enough get a plate from which the’ 
 clouds print as well as the landscape—but do they print 
 to the same depth as they would have done, had not 
 development been continued a little longer for the sake of 
 the landscape @ 
 
 We need set up no rule, but I would warn the pictorial 
 worker against placing an exaggerated value on the negative 
 which includes both clouds and landscape, for the two 
 reasons that probably for the sake of such a negative we 
 may be induced to put up with a cloud form which is not 
 just as fine or suitable as we might select if we had more 
 freedom, and also because we may also be led to accept 
 a depth of tone in printing which would not satisfy were 
 we printing from a separate negative. 
 
 It may be said that by controlling printing this latter 
 objection is removed. | 
 
 That is so, and so I repeat, there need be no rule; but 
 I caution the student against forming a false idea of the 
 value of such a negative. | 
 
 ‘In a properly exposed negative, if the colour values 
 have been corrected by the use of isochromatic plates and 
 coloured screens, then a blue or grey sky will be rendered 
 in the negative as semi-transparent, and will print in half- 
 tone. We cannot render the landscape colours and tones 
 correctly without similarly rendering the sky to something 
 approaching the same extent. This will be a trouble when 
 we elect to print in clouds from another negative, and it 
 will be necessary to paint out the sky, so that it prints 
 
96 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 white unless we can dexterously cover it whilst printing 
 the landscape portion. 
 
 We may now consider clouds under five heads—Perspec- 
 tive, Tone, Illumination, Composition, and Expression, 
 
 PERSPECTIVE OF CLOUDS. 
 
 It must be remembered that clouds, as they travel hither 
 and thither in mid air, are as much subject to perspective 
 as are terrestrial objects. 
 
 Many people would seem to think of the sky with its 
 clouds as though it were a painted canopy or curtain 
 covering our heads or let down behind the landscape as a 
 background. 
 
 A little thought, however, will show that both aerial and 
 linear perspective play as important a part in the heavens 
 as on the earth beneath. . 
 
 But the extreme variability of size, shape, and depth 
 of colour or density, which is largely the source of colour, 
 makes it impossible to frame any rules for the student’s 
 guidance, and hence the greater need for careful observation 
 and study, noting the change both in tone and in form 
 between a cloud overhead or midway between the zenith and 
 horizon and the same or similar cloud when in the far 
 distance, that is at the horizon, the alteration in tone being 
 due chiefly to the intervening atmosphere through which we 
 see the horizon clouds as through a veil, whilst the change 
 in form is due to the different position in which we view 
 them as compared with clouds above our heads, whilst the 
 diminution in size is due to their remoteness, 
 
 Imagine yourself standing on the floor of a long, lofty 
 gallery, from the ceiling of which are suspended a long row 
 of gas-globes—looking up to those overhead we see the 
 lower concave surface, each globe being separate; but as 
 the row of globes recedes from us we see them closer to- 
 gether, until one nearly eclipses the next beyond, and we 
 merely see a long series of lower edges. At the same time 
 they rapidly diminish in size, as they become more remote 
 (Fig. 16), 
 
 Now instead of gas-globes apply this to clouds on a day 
 when the sky is filled with broken, scattered clouds which 
 
Perspective of Clouds. oF 
 
 travel across the heavens like a flock of sheep with cream- 
 coloured fleece. Reduced to a very simple diagram, do they 
 not conform somewhat to the following—Fig. 17?— whilst 
 immediately overhead we have great 
 flocculent masses of irregular form. 
 With these clouds over his head 
 the landscapist need have nothing to 
 do unless it be to gaze and wonder 
 and dream. Obviously such clouds can 
 never come into the same field of view 
 as any landscape picture, and hence it 
 should not be necessary to say that if 
 by chance we should have a negative 
 of clouds higher in the heavens than our ordinary angle 
 of vision would include when viewing a landscape, such 
 negative can never be used. I have endeavoured to show 
 this by a diagram in which the angle 
 dear ,-.... included can at the most only be 
 a ) . from B to the base formed by the 
 ees ’ foreground and mid-distance—that 
 ee is, the highest clouds we see when 
 te looking at a landscape are those 
 which appear to hover over the 
 middle distance. From that point, 
 then, up to the zenith, the heavens 
 are not within our field of view, and the picture will be 
 represented by the vertical line which includes from the 
 point in the foreground marked A and the point on the 
 heavens marked B. I think the 
 diagram will now explain itself. Sot ean aca 
 As a further illustration, let Bee eee 
 us consider the following. Sup- eer 2 
 pose. we have a cloud negative .~ 
 similar to Fig. 17, the illustra- ;*“*——s»™ 
 tion above, and we print it . _ 
 into a landscape thus—Fig. 19. Fira. 18. 
 This must be wrong, because 
 we are using on the horizon a cloud the form of which 
 belongs to a cloud much nearer. The sky line can only 
 cut such a cloud when itis a high hill or other object, as 
 tall trees, etc., near at hand. Then it would be right, as 
 
 ZENITH 
 
98 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 in Fig. 20, in which case the horizon of the Cloud Negative 
 coincides with the horizon of the landscape, but that it is 
 
 = ca SK 
 
 weet : 
 
 ae 
 fae 
 
 Fig. 20. 
 
 not: visible, being shut out. by the hills the sky line of which 
 is much higher up than the horizon. SS pee ae ; 
 
The Study of Cloud Forms. 99 
 
 This may serve as a very safe rule; that, whether our 
 landscape view shows us the horizon (formed actually 
 by the spherical figure of the earth passing out of sight, 
 and hence only existing in comparatively flat. country) or 
 not, the horizon of: the cloud negative should be made to 
 agree with the imaginary horizon of the landscape, If 
 this rule be adhered to, the clouds seen above the landscape 
 will at least be in true perspective. 
 
 Now, whilst the foregoing diagrams and examples may 
 be readily applied to clouds of a certain kind, and may thus 
 form a basis for our subsequent studies, there are very 
 many cloud forms and conditions of sky for which it will 
 be all but impossible to give rules and diagrams ; but if the 
 examples given have made it clear that the appearance 
 of a cloud changes, and must change according to its 
 position with regard to ourselves as it passes from zenith to 
 horizon, then I shall leave it to each student to constantly 
 and deliberately study clouds under all conditions, as also 
 in all positions, until his eye becomes accustomed to the 
 various forms, and is. thus able to detect at once any 
 mistake, should it be committed. Pepe 4 
 
 As has been pointed out, the cloud masses vary so much 
 that mere relative size alone will not in the picture 
 sufficiently suggest distance, and even form alone may not 
 be all-convincing, owing to the fact that cireumstances and 
 the capriciousness of nature may even present us with 
 phenomenal cloud forms which appear at variance with all 
 preconceived notions and all such rules as we may have 
 been able to build up from our previous studies. It may 
 be as well to avoid phenomenal and eccentric cloud-scapes, 
 availing ourselves rather of those clouds which help to the 
 idea and effect we wish to convey. 
 
 There is, however, another factor which may help us, 
 and that is aerial perspective. 
 
 The higher the clouds are from the horizon, the nearer 
 they are to us, and hence proportionately of greater in- 
 tensity, greater in contrast of light and shade, this bemg 
 due to the fact that as in aerial perspective of distant 
 landscape, already referred to, the more remote an object 
 the greater amount of intervening visible atmosphere. As 
 a general rule, therefore, the lights and shadows of clouds 
 
100 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 near the horizon are less vivid than in clouds higher 
 up. Exceptions to this rough rule will be found when 
 the source of light is near the horizon, as in sunset and 
 sunrise, also when there is a gathering of local storm- 
 clouds which may hover over the distance as a dark pall, 
 when there is fair weather and light, transparent clouds 
 near to us. 
 
 No matter how dark the night or how cloudy the day, 
 with some very rare exceptions, upon opening the eyes the 
 first impression is that the heavens are much lighter than 
 the earth, and we may hence deduce the following rule: 
 distant clouds are lighter than distant landscape, and the 
 same applies to middle distance and other parts. Exceptions 
 may be found when the sea forms the horizon, and is 
 strongly illuminated from the sun in certain positions, when 
 the sea will appear as slightly lighter than the clouds 
 beyond ; but, remembering that distance not only lightens 
 shadows but also lowers lights, the very lightness of the 
 sea in such a case makes it appear nearer than the sky, 
 and the same end is accomplished. In rare cases, if the 
 sun be behind the observer, the distant land may catch a 
 powerful ray of sunlight, whilst the clouds overhanging it 
 may remain in shadow, and hence light buildings, yellow 
 cornfields, etc., may appear lighter than the distant clouds, 
 but they at the same time gain in an appearance of near- 
 ness. In any case, the most careful observation must be 
 made, and the knowledge gained put into practice, to the 
 end that our distant clouds appear to pass beyond and 
 behind the distant horizon which they of course actually 
 do. 
 
 The relative lightness and darkness of distant and mid- 
 distant clouds have been referred to, and it may be noted 
 that there are no clouds equivalent to the foreground, 
 because our angle of view does not include the very nearest 
 clouds; moreover, the clouds above us are more remote 
 than the foreground at our feet. The little diagram 
 already given may make this suggestion more useful 
 (Fig. 18); thus the clouds which come at the top. of 
 our picture are in reality only the clouds over the middle 
 distance. 
 
ILLUMINATION OF CLOUDS AND THE DIRECTION OF Licut.* 
 
 This is another matter that will need careful study, 
 because the earth, having only one chief source of light, 
 it follows that if clouds be printed into a landscape, both 
 must show evidence of being lighted from the same 
 direction. 
 
 If the landscape is lighted from the left, shadows being 
 east on the ground towards the right, then must the 
 clouds be also lighted from the left, the right-hand side of 
 the cloud masses being in shadow. ‘To use in such a case 
 clouds with the sun evidently above them, will, upon a 
 little consideration, be seen to be an absolute incongruity. 
 
 If we can only school ourselves to regard the clouds 
 as an essential part of every picture, and not as a sort of 
 mounting or finishing touch, the enormity of the clouds 
 being lighted from any other than the exact same point 
 as the landscape, should appear as great as though we had 
 in the same view a cottage lighted from the left, a tree 
 lighted from the right, and shadows in the foreground 
 falling away from us, showing the sun to be behind us, 
 
 To the unpractised eye it may not always be easy to 
 say at once, on looking at a print from any negative, 
 precisely from what direction the light is coming. Such 
 knowledge can only come from training the eye and 
 accustoming oneself to natural effects by frequently 
 Observing them. 
 
 It may be said by some that by securing clouds and 
 landscape on the same plate, any incongruity may be 
 avoided, and that being accurate to nature, all that can 
 be required is attained. This is not, however, the case, 
 because -nature often produces combinations and effécts 
 which on paper appear incorrect. Thus, for instance, we 
 may have a case of evening, when the setting sun is quite 
 obscured by thick clouds, whilst a rent in the clouds 
 in the north or east may give the appearance of the sun 
 being behind the clouds in the north or east, in which case 
 it would, although untrue, be better to print in the north 
 
 * Numerous practical references to this and other matters in 
 Cloud Photography will be found in Book IT. 
 
102 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 or east light into the west, so as to give it the appearance 
 of the sun’s being in that position—truthfulness in appear- 
 ance being more important than truthfulness to fact. 
 
 CoMPOSITION AND CLOUDS CONSIDERED AS AN Afb TO 
 7 . EXPRESSION. 
 
 I need say but little under this heading, having already 
 spoken of Composition and Selection. generally, having also 
 pointed out that. clouds must be regarded as an integral 
 part of the whole picture, so that what applies to one 
 part applies to another. - : : . 
 
 NSt. 
 
 Fic. 21.—No, 1. 
 
 _ Hence, whether we photograph clouds on the same plate 
 as. the scene, or fit them in from another, the moment of 
 exposure in the. former case, and the choice of the cloud 
 inthe latter, must be. determined by a full consideration 
 for pleasing design or: Composition, and also with a care 
 that the feeling or idea of the scene is carried out, and 
 as far as possible increased by the clouds employed. 
 
 As regards Composition, a landscape which was. not well 
 balanced or symmetrical of itself may be made desirable 
 by the introduction of suitable clouds, yet would it hardly 
 
Composition of Clouds. 103 
 
 be correct to say of the completed picture that it would be 
 badly composed but for the clouds, because, as the clouds are 
 part of the whole picture, the whole must be condemned or 
 praised according as the whole is good. In like manner one 
 would not say of a man that he would be good-looking but 
 for his face. Be sce 
 
 As examples will be given and explained in Part II. 
 of Composition of Clouds and their Assistance in Expression, 
 only one or two general instances need be given here. 
 
 In the accompanying sketches, No. 2 is preferable to 
 No. 1, because in: the first the general lines of the clouds 
 repeat the lines formed by the bank of trees and the 
 
 We p 
 WAL 
 
 on fe Heys ya: Wf 
 
 TAN, 177 
 Hy LO) vse ey fee 
 
 Fic. 21.—No. 2. 
 
 path, and so give the whole a one-sided appearance, 
 whereas in No. 2 the lines counteract or balance. So also 
 in No. 3 the forms of the clouds repeat to some extent the 
 shape of the trees, and leave the right-hand side vacant 
 and empty; but in No, 4 this space is filled, and the 
 Composition seems. better balanced again. It will be seen 
 that in No. 3 the trees are illuminated from the left, 
 whereas the sun is indicated as being in front of the 
 spectator. In No. 4 the illumination of the trees agrees 
 with the position of the sun. 
 
104 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 It should be a point for careful consideration, then, that 
 with due consideration for perspective, lighting, etc., those 
 clouds should be chosen for a landscape which, together with 
 the landscape, will make a well-composed, well-balanced, 
 and symmetrical whole. 
 
 The expression which clouds may be said to give is an 
 almost impossible thing to illustrate. In a dreary and 
 impressive landscape of winter, amongst the moors or weird 
 fen-lands, bright sunlit clouds, which seem to dance with 
 fairy lightness in the airy heavens, would not be so 
 well calculated to carry out the sentiment of the scene as 
 
 Vf yy; 
 Ay Wy 
 
 a 
 
 MO 
 
 ¥Fr@, 21-—No, <3. Fig. 21.—No, 4. 
 
 wind-torn and ragged clouds, dark with rain and rent here 
 and there by shafts of sunlight. The calm peacefulness of 
 evening by the river would be best seen with the long bars 
 of grey and purple cloud restful and still: the rustic scene 
 of wayside cottage, children playing, the sheep grazing, the 
 
 denizens of the poultry-yard rejoicing in the shallows of — 
 
 the brook or road-side pool, the whole an embodiment of 
 simple country life and the gladness of summer—with such 
 the most appropriate sky will be that over which the light 
 fleecy clouds glide in the glorious flood of sunlight. 
 
A Grey Sky Somerimes ADVISABLE. 
 
 It must not be supposed that it is always necessary to 
 present our landscapes with an attractive and well-defined 
 arrangement of clouds; on the contrary, it will often 
 happen that the effect of a scene is best emphasized by 
 a mere grey tint representing a covered sky or even a 
 blue, cloudless sky ; but this is a very different thing to 
 rendering it as a white blank. Because our picture includes 
 sO many square inches above the representation of the 
 landscape, it does not necessarily follow that that space 
 must needs be occupied by incident and detail any more 
 than that every portion of the landscape needs to be 
 crammed with objects of interest. If it is felt that the 
 interest, or the effect, in the principal subject is enhanced 
 by subduing the sky and clouds, and that the introduction 
 of bright lights and pleasing forms above the horizon would 
 distract and take attention from the principal interest, then 
 by keeping the clouds subdued and quiet in character, they 
 will as directly assist the Composition as if they were 
 deliberately chosen to help the Composition ; but observation 
 of nature will have taught us that a grey, cloudy sky, or 
 a clear blue one, is not of a. uniform tint throughout, but 
 that the same conditions which we have seen makes the 
 clouds lighter at the horizon than at the zenith, affects the 
 blue sky, making it lighter and darker as it stretches from 
 the distance to above our heads; and this gradation must 
 be carefully observed and reproduced if we would prevent 
 our grey tint from looking like a solid flat wall. 
 
 Should our landscape negative print with a blank white 
 for the sky, then this may be tinted down by exposure to 
 light, either without a negative or with a plate which has 
 been fogged or exposed to a blank sky, or other even tint ; 
 the latter course is the better, because the character of 
 the deposit, caused by printing without an intervening 
 tinted glass, appears often different to that of the rest of 
 the picture. If, on the other hand, our landscape negative 
 has a sky portion semi-transparent, which prints through, 
 and so tints the sky of the print, this will do as well, so 
 long as the gradation from horizon upwards is shown. 
 
106 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF NEGATIVE3. 
 
 From all that has gone before we ought to have gleaned 
 a general idea as to what we require in pictorial work, 
 and with this knowledge we shall probably seek to secure 
 negatives which will help us to this end. 
 
 Tt will be best to at once cast aside’ all preconceived 
 notions as to what constitutes a good negative. A good 
 negative is one thing, but a negative tHat will enable us to 
 get a good picture is another, In the first case the negative 
 may be admired for its own sake, but in the second place 
 it is merely a means to an end, and may even be a very 
 poor negative as a negative. 
 
 Tn order to secure true rendering of colour values, it has 
 already been proposed that isochromatic plates be used, and 
 with a yellow screen of greater or less depth. 
 
 As a general rule a very full exposure will be best, taking 
 care that in the end no part of the landscape, not even deep 
 shadows, is represented by quite clear glass. ns 
 
 It is demonstrable that even from the deep shadows 
 some light is reflected, and whilst the higher lights may be 
 much over-exposed before the feeble light reflected from 
 shadows has any appreciable effect on the film, that is a 
 matter we must endeavour to correct afterwards. . 
 
 Slight over-exposure is, then, to be sought rather than 
 feared. | | fine 
 
 The typically good negative which is set up as a pattern 
 to most beginners is brilliant and clear, having the high 
 lights nearly opaque, and the shadows nearly clear glass. 
 Such a negative, with most of the printing methods in 
 common use, will fail to give gradation in the high lights 
 without burying the lower tones in intense darkness ; hence, 
 generally speaking, a thin negative, one with a minimum 
 of contrast and density, yet with just sufficient to give the 
 amount of contrast required in the print, should be aimed 
 at; but it must possess very soft gradation throughout. 
 
 Another reason for desiring a thin negative is that whilst 
 in dodging or controlling the printing we can keep back 
 the printing—that is, we can make portions print lighter— 
 we cannot so easily print other parts darker, hence it is-as 
 
A Useful Developer. 107 
 
 well to have a negative which will print darkly, on which 
 we Can, as it were, build as we think fit. 
 
 Moreover, I have pointed to the desirability of keeping 
 watch over and guiding the action of the light during the 
 whole time the print is forming; hence a thin, that is a 
 quick printing one, is the only thing that will not try the 
 patience of an average person. 
 
 There is, of course, no reason why any developing formula 
 should not be equally serviceable so long as it is manipu- 
 lated so as to produce a soft, thin negative. 
 
 As I have given some recommendations on practical 
 matters, I may as well give the formula I have used now 
 for some years with all kinds of plates ; and I want nothing 
 better. 
 
 Nol. 
 Pyrogallol 1 ixey A 
 Potassium Bromide . : ; : eh 
 Potassium Metabisulphite : ; les 
 Water to make ; : : ites bees 
 No. 2. 
 Ammonia ‘880 . 2 OS, 
 Water Shae 
 
 For use take one dram of each to from 3 to 6 ozs. to 
 water. 
 
 In cases of negatives which I have suspected of slight 
 under-exposure, or when the subject. promised to come 
 hard, I have used with great satisfaction a very weak 
 Rodinal developer, using two or three times the amount of 
 water recommended for ordinarv purposes. 
 
 If the reader now asks what do I think of this paper 
 or that process, of this brand of plates or of that? Is 
 intensification or reduction to be resorted to? Are enlarge- 
 ments as good as direct work ?—I have but one answer to 
 all, and that is that only those methods are good which 
 will give you a satisfactory realisation of the idea you have 
 in mind. Any paper or process which will do this is good. 
 if an enlargement from a small negative seems to give a 
 
108 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 fairly satisfactory expression of the idea intended, and the 
 smaller direct print fails, there is your answer; and neither 
 the writer or any one else has any knowledge which can 
 give you a better. 
 
 Size, the mere number of square inches, of a picture, 
 counts for nothing. A small picture may be quite as 
 satisfying as a large ; for remember that, as compared with 
 the size of the mountain itself, the difference between a 
 picture of it, thirty inches long, and one of six inches, Is 
 less than trifling. | 
 
 I will now ask the student to follow me to the second 
 part of this little book, in which he will find several 
 photographs by various authors reproduced, and criticism 
 accompanying each, in which I have endeavoured to show 
 more directly the application of the principles and rules 
 given in the foregoing pages. 
 
 Ve 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
Co 
 
 Nracr pRINT® | 
 ‘GRape paper: , 
 
Amateur Phctographer Library—Advertisements. xi 
 
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THE CHEAPSIDE HAND CAMERA. 
 1901 Models Greatly Improved. 
 
 This well-known camera I have 
 this season improved by fitting same 
 with 2 sunk levels, improved form of 
 Iris to Lens; adjustment to Shutter, 
 and also 2 Bushes, to enable same 
 to be used on Tripod in horizontal 
 or vertical position. The body is 
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 by indicator at back of camera. 
 Shutter can be adjusted from 1‘icth 
 to r‘6oth of a second. 
 
 Fitted with Rapid Achromatic View Lens and Iris i a 26/= 
 ” rea ” ” ” x ob 94% 34, 6 Plates .. oe .. 18/6 
 is » Rapid Rectilinear and Iris Pneumatic Release to Shutter .. .. §3/6 
 
 JAPANNED METAL LANTERN, THE TOURIST. 
 
 With 3-wick Re- | 
 fulgentLamp,4-in 
 Condenser, and 
 Acromatic Front | 
 Objective with 
 Rack and Pinion 
 Adjustment | 
 (which is also 
 useful for taking 
 4-plate portraits). 
 in Box Complete, 
 18/- 
 
 Ditto Russian iron __ Half-Plate Camera. 
 
 4-wick lamps in- 
 stead of 3-wick, 
 2/- extra. 
 
 Junior Lantern Sets. 
 
 Well-finished Russian Iron MagicLantern. _ “tted with Carriers for }plates, Clips 
 
 Fitted with Oil Lamp, Reflector, Sliding at sides, and Hinged Shutters. 
 Tubes to Lens, with 12 coloured Slides, | 
 assorted subjects, complete in handsome — 
 
 Including Three Mahogany Double 
 Dark Slides, the }-plate slides being 
 
 Rapid Rectilinear Lens, with 
 
 aaa | Iris Diaphragms, 3-fold 
 te Satire th codigo? i —‘ SlidingLegStand.. .. 47/6 
 > 3 a 7/6 & 9d. | Camera only andi Slide... 25/= 
 | 
 
 Vice! A 9/6 S 9d. on a » 3 olides .. 31 = 
 117 & 118, Cheapside and Milk Street, E.C. 
 
 Please send for Illustrated Lists Free, 
 
Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. Xxili 
 
 SILVER MEDAL, PARIS, 1900. 
 The New Carbon 
 OZOTYPE. Printing Process, 
 without Actinometer Transfer or Safe Edge. 
 
 A distinctly visible image is printed upon any good paper coated by the 
 worker with the patent Ozotype Sensitising Solution. This initial photograph 
 is fixed by simply washing in water, and can at any time be pigmented by the 
 application of a coloured pigment plaster in a bath containing a very dilute 
 solution of Acetic Acid and Hydroquinone. The development is conducted as 
 in the ordinary Carbon process. The results are in the highest degree artistic. 
 
 THE PATENTED SENSITISING SOLUTION and PIGMENT 
 PLASTERS, in a variety of colours and sizes, can be obtained at most 
 Photographic Dealers, or from 
 
 THE OZOTYPE COMPANY, 
 
 4, Weedington Road, Kentish Town, 
 . LONDON, N.W. 
 
 « FOTONIC” Blotting Paper 
 for [Pbotographbers. 
 
 “A capital material for drying prints; stout, durable, absorbent, 
 and without fluffy surface."—Amateur Photographer. 
 
 To be had from any Photographic Dealer, or direct from 
 
 L. S. DIXON & CO., Ltd., 
 
 38, CABLE STREET, LIVERPOOL. 
 
 mt PHOTO-AUTOCOPYIST 
 
 A simplified form of Collotype, without elaborate Plant, furnishing from Negatives 
 an unlimited number of Splendid PERMANENT PRINTS, in any colour, on 
 glazed or matt surface papers, equal to SILVER, PLATINOTYPE, or BROMIDE © 
 PRINTS. Great saving of time and expense. From 558 
 _Usethe BLACE AUTOCOPYI $'I for reproducing 
 Circulars, Plans, Sketches, Music, in permanent black and solid dzvzes, egual 
 to LITHOGRAPHY. Superior to all other devices. [rom 358. 
 Use the ** SELIVL ER. ’’ COPYING PRESS AND BOOK COMBINED, 
 for retaining a perfect copy of every important Letter. (48. 6d. letter size). 
 Please write for Specimens, or call and see these useful Inventions. 
 
 THE AUTOCOPYIST CO.,°* “sRseHoETS te 
 
XxIV Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. 
 
 292, High Holborn, London, W.C. 
 
 Supplies 
 PHOTOGRAPHIC GOODS OF 
 EVERY DESCRIPTION 
 
 t 
 
 zi SPECIAL CASH PRICES 
 
 or on a 
 
 UNIQUE SYSTEM OF EX- 
 TENDED PAYMENTS 
 a large number of 
 SECOND-HAND CAMERAS 
 are interchanged 
 or taken IN PART PAYMENT FOR 
 NEW ONES 
 and there is there- 
 
 fore always a LARGE SELECTION AVAILABLE, 
 
 A Postcard stating requirements will bring all information. 
 
 Standard Books on thg bantern 
 and lantern-dlidg Making. 
 THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. 
 
 By T. C. HEPwWorRTH, F.C.S. A Practical Guide to the working of the 
 Optical (or Magic) Lantern—either as an Educational Instrument for 
 Exhibition Purposes, or as an Enlarging Apparatus for Photographers. 
 With full and precise Directions for Making and Colouring Lantern 
 Pictures. 35. 6d., postage 3d. 
 
 THE LANTERN-SLIDE MANUAL. 
 
 By JoHn A. Hopces, Author of ‘‘ Elementary Photography,” 
 ‘*Practical Enlarging,” etc. A complete Practical Guide to Lantern- 
 Slide Making by all processes. With numerous diagrams. Crown 
 8vo, cloth. 25., postage 3d. 
 
 London: HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld., 52, Long Acre, W.C. 
 
Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements. XXV 
 
 Books You Should Have. 
 
 THE DICTIONARY OF PHOTOGRAPHY. By E. J. Watt. Revised by Tuos. 
 Boras, F.C.S., F.1.C. Eighth Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. net, postage 4d. 
 
 A FIRST BOOK OF THE LENS. By C. WeLzBorNeE Pirer. Crown 8vo, cloth 
 boards, 2s. 6d. net, postage 3d. 
 
 PICTURE-MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. By H. P. Rosinson. Fourth Edition, 
 Revised. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net, postage 3d. 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. By Jonn Anprews, B.A. A Handbook to Artistic 
 
 Photography. Illustrated with Six Collotypes. Crown 8vo, 200 pages. 3s. net, 
 postage 3d. 
 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE (Handbook to). By T. Perkins, M.A. Ecclesiastical 
 and Domestic, for Photographers and others. Profusely illustrated. Crown 8vo, 
 cloth, 220 pages. 3s. 6d. net, postage 3d. 
 
 PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY. By Georce Fritz. Translated by E. J. Watt, F.R.PS., 
 
 Author of ‘Dictionary of Photography,” ‘‘Carbon Printing,” etc. 3s. 6d. net, 
 postage 3d. 
 
 PLATINUM TONING. By Lyoner Crarxk. Fifth Edition. This book contains full 
 working instructions how to use Clark’s Toning Process, and much very valuable 
 information on the sensitising of every kind of paper and vehicle, with directions 
 for printing and toning in many colours. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 CAMERAS, LENSES, AND SHUTTERS. Full of valuable information for all Photo- 
 
 graphers. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY. By C. J. Learer, F.C.S. Third Edition. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 SHORT CHAPTERS ON ART PHOTOGRAPHY. By H. P. Rosinson. Third 
 
 Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 ME oto AND DEVELOPERS. Complete Practical Book of Instruction in 
 
 odern Development. By Gro. E. Brown. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 THE ART OF RETOUCHING. By J. Husert. Tenth Edition. A knowledge of 
 Retouching is really necessary. Crown 8vocloth. 1s. net, postage ad. 
 
 ELEMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY. By Joun A. Hopces. Third Edition. “ /¢ 7s the 
 
 most complete Beginner's Friend yet published.” Crown 8vo, cloth. ts. net, 
 postage ad. 
 
 CARBON PRINTING. By E. J. Watt. Fourth Edition. A complete Treatise on 
 the Subject. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 WET COLLODION, and How to Work It. By C. W. Gamerz. First Edition. Con- 
 taining simple directions for making Negatives and Positives on Glass and 
 Ferrotypes. Crown 8vo, cloth. rs. net, postage 2d. 
 
 THE LANTERN, and How to Use it. By Goopwin Norton. Second Edition. 
 Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 PLATINOTYPE PRINTING. By A. Horstey Hinton. A simple book on the 
 process. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage ad. ; 
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTE BOOK AND CONSTANT COMPANION. By Rev. 
 ' F.C, Lampert, M.A. Contains 250 Practical Hints, Formule, Expedients. Crown 
 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage ed. 
 
 PHOTO-AQUATINT; or, THE GUM-BICHROMATE PROCESS. Second Edition. 
 
 By ALFRED MASKELL and RosBertT Demacny. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth. 
 Is. net, postage ed. 
 
 London: HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld., 52, Long Acre, W.C. 
 
Xxvi Amateur Photographer Library—Advertisements, 
 
 = 
 
 Books You Should Have—cContinued. 
 
 ANIMATED PHOTOGRAPHY: The “A BC of the Cinematograph. By Cecit 
 Hrpwortu. Illustrated with specially-prepared Diagrams. Crown 8vo, cloth. 
 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. By G. A. T. Mippreton, A.R.I.B.A. Crown 
 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 MOUNTS AND FRAMES, and How to Make Them. By Rev. F. C. Lampert, 
 M.A. With many Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage ed. 
 
 PRACTICAL PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Parti. By A. Horstry Hinton. 
 
 Profusely illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 PRACTICAL PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Part II. By A. Horstey Hinton. 
 
 Profusely illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 THE PERFECT NEGATIVE. By Rev. F. C. Lampert, M.A. A Series of Chapters 
 on After-Ireatment of the Negative. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s. net, postage 2d. 
 
 OZOTYPE, By Tuomas Manty. A Practical Treatise on this New and Beautiful 
 Process. Crown 8vo, cloth, rs. net, postage 2d, 
 
 COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY. By A. E. Smirn. Contains the Theory of Colour 
 Photography, with full instruc'ions for making Screens, Prints, and Lantern 
 Slides. Crown 8vo, cloth. 1s, net, postage 2d. 
 
 LANTERN-SLIDE MAKING. By Rev. F. C. Lamsert, M.A. 142 pages of informa- 
 tion, with full and precise directions for Exposure, Developing, oning, etc., etc., 
 with a Chapter on “Framed Lantern Slides.” Crown 8vo, cloth. ts. net, 
 postage ad, 
 
 London: HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld., 52, Long Acre, W.C. 
 
 Amateur Photographer 
 
 THE ONLY JOURNAL 
 which devotes Special Attention to 
 
 PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY: 
 Also i 
 PRACTICAL AND ELEMENTARY ARTICLES 
 By all the Best Known Writers of the Day. 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 EVERY FRIDAY. PRICE 2d. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION RATES. 
 6 months, 7s. 6d., post free. 12 months, 15s., post free. 
 
 London: HAZELL, WATSON & VINEY, Ld., 52, Long Acre, W.C. 
 
Amateur CT Se haa Ae aes ata tisements. Xxv1 
 
 THE «“ WOLIDAY ”’ 
 oe Ean LAMP. 
 
 A really good Portable Lamp for 
 
 Amateur Photographers. 
 
 Equally useful for changing plates when 
 tour ing, or for the Dark Room. 
 
 PRICE 10/6 each. 
 Candles, 1/- per box. 
 
 Also the well-known 
 
 WS PRICE 21/- va 
 = PACKED FOR 
 HOLIDAY LAMP, TRAVELLING. Candles, 1/6 per box. PERFECTION 
 OPEN FOR USE, LAMP, 
 
 Of all Photographic Dealers. If cannot obtain, write to 
 BENHAM & FROUD, L™., cronies st. Lop 
 w= 89 Chandos St., LONDON,W.C. 
 
 Since 1877 the “London” Plates have been used by the 
 foremost workers, both Amateur and Professional, 
 in all parts of the world, and under various and 
 trying conditions. 
 
 To-day they are known everywhere as being unequalled 
 in facility of Manipulation and excellence of results, 
 and ofttimes the only plates usable under extreme 
 climatic conditions. 
 
 WRATTEN & WAINWRIGHT, Croydon. 
 
 The only EUROPEAN HOUSE IN INDIA Dealing wholly in 
 Photographic Goods Imported from Reliable English Firms. 
 ORDERS RECEIVED AND EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY. 
 Agents for ROSS, Ltd., LONDON. 
 KODAKS AND FILMS STOCKED. 
 The Only House for Tourists. 
 
 JOHN BLEES, 
 
 18 CHOWRINGHEE ROAD, Near the ) 
 CALCUTTA, INDIA. Grand Hotel. 
 
~ Xxvili: Amateur Phatorrasher Library—Advertisements, a ee 
 
 eS en eS A 
 
 NATURAL COLOUR 
 HOTOGRAPRY. 
 
 (SANGER SHEPHERD PROCESS.) — 
 
 A simple, inexpensive, and reliable process based upon sound scientific principles, 
 for obtaining photographs of any object in its natural colours, taithtuily reproducing 
 every shade and tint, in a manner absolutely satisfying to the eye. Every detail of 
 the process has been ‘worked out in accordance with accurate measurements, without 
 which no successful results can be obtained. With the measured colour filters, 
 not only crude primaries but the most delicate and subtle compound colours, can be 
 reproduced with ease, 
 
 No special lantern required, as the slides can be seen in the hand either by day or 
 artificial light. The slides are perfectly transparent, and brilliant pictures can be 
 shown on a 1o-foot screen with Limelight, or up to 20 feet with the Electric Light. 
 
 A number of examples are always on view at our premises. 
 NATURAL COLOUR ‘LANTERN SLIDES, STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS, and all 
 APPARATUS and MATERIAL for working t the process NOW READY.. 
 
 Experimental Outfits trom .. Bb = , £2 -2 0 
 Standard Outfit for Taking - 4 Ls 4100 
 Ditto for Printing and Developing | : ; : 440 
 
 MEASURED LIGHT FILTERS FOR THE THREE-COLOUR PROCESS. 
 
 Utter Royal Photographic Society, 1899.) 
 quare or Circular, 1 to 6 inches diameter, 
 
 SOLE MAKERS OF 
 
 THE CADETT ABSOLUTUS AND CILVUS LIGHT FILTERS 
 
 For the SPECTRUM Plate. 
 
 Giving Photographs which represent the luminosity of all colours exactly as seen by 
 the eye. All sizes, Square or Circular. 
 CAPS AND FITTINGS stocked in SEVERAL PATTERNS, See Circulars. 
 
 DARK ROOM LANTERNS IN THREE FORMS. 
 
 For Gas, or Incandescent Electric Light, fitted with 10 by 8 safe Light for the 
 Spectrum Plate, 12s, 6d. For Oil, 13s. 6d. 
 SPECIAL AGENTS FOR THE CADETT 
 
 SPECTRUM PLATE. 
 
 QUARTER PLATE to 15 x 12 always in stock, 
 
 THE SANGER SHEPHERD UNIVERSAL DEVELOPER. 
 
 Sample Tube, with Booklet on Development, Post Free, 7 stamps. 
 
 ORTHOCHROMATIC LIGHT FILTERS OR SCREENS for all Brands of Plates, 
 CAMERAS FOR ALL PURPOSES, PHOTO SPECTROSCOPES. 
 CAMERAS AND LIGHT FILTERS FOR PHOTOMICROGRAPHY. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS ON APPLICATION. 
 
 SANGER SHEPHERD & Co., 
 
 Manufacturers of Scientific Apparatus, Cameras and Stands, Rotating Seclors, 
 Instruments for the measurement of Light and Colour, Speed Determination, 
 
 FacTORY AND OFFICES: 5, 6, & 7, GRAY’S INN PASSAGE, RED LION STREET, 
 HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
Publications by HAZELL, WATSON, & VINEY, Ld., 1, Creed Lane, E.C. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 PICTURE-MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. By HPs 
 ROBINSON. Fourth Edition, revised, with additional chapters on Instan- 
 taneous Photography and the Persistence of Vision, and Naturalistic 
 Photography. Crown 8vo, cloth, 160 pages. 25. 6d., postage 3d. 
 
 ae 
 ONE HUNDRED PHOTOGRAPHIC FORMULA, The 
 
 indispensable companion to the Laboratory. With useful. Appendix. 
 Crown 8vo, paper covers. . 6d. . 
 
 Oe 
 THE OPTICAL LANTERN AS AN AID IN TEACH- 
 
 ING. By C. H. BoTHaM.ey, F.1.C., F.C.S. With fourteen Illustra- 
 tions. 6d. 
 
 er 
 
 THE GELATINO-CHLORIDE OF SILVER PRINTING- 
 OUT PROCESS, including directions for the production of the Sensitive 
 Paper. By W. E. Woopgury. Crown 8vo, cloth. 25., postage 3d, 
 
 re eS 
 
 EVENING WORK for AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS. 
 By T. C. HEPworTH, F.C.S. Illustrated with Camera and Pencil by the 
 Author. Crown 8vo, cloth, 200 pages. 25. 6d., postage 3d. 
 
 a ee 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE LANTERN. By T. C. Hepwortu, 
 F.C.S. <A Practical Guide to the Working of the Optical (or Magic) 
 Lantern. With full and precise Directions for Making and Colouring 
 Lantern Pictures. 35. 6d., postage 3¢. 
 
 EE enn ee 
 THE LANTERN-SLIDE MANUAL. By Joun A. Hopcss. 
 
 Author of *‘ Elementary Photography,” etc. A complete Practical Guide to 
 Lantern-Slide Making by all processes. Crown 8vo, cloth. 25., postage 3d. 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. By Joun AnpREws, B.A. 
 
 A Handbook to Artistic Photography. Illustrated with six Collotypes, 
 Crown 8vo, 200 pages. 35., postage 3d. 
 
 SR pp ar eae rege eR A 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE (Handbook to). By T. Prr- 
 KINS, M.A. Ecclesiastical and Domestic, for Photographers and ot hers, 
 Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth, 220 pages. 35, 6d., postage 3d. 
 
| “THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER ” "4 |= ae ey 
 . No. 1. PLATINUM TONING. By Lyons: Crark. Full 
 
 working instructions how to use Clark’s Toning Process, and sales 
 ire 
 
 _ valuable information on the sensitising of every kind of paper and vehicle, — 
 with directions for printing and toning in many colours. Crown 8v0, ae 
 
 < cloth. 45., postage 2d. 
 
 Bvo, cloth. Is, postage 2d. 
 
 Pee F.C.S. Photography is exhaustively treated coe a paella ; 
 point of view, and valuable . ee research is described. ‘Crown 
 
 on H. P. Rosinson. Profusely illustrated, and written in acuhoeen . 
 language, clearly demonstrating the art side of Photography. oe 8vo, 
 Liat ot I5., postage 2d. Oh ae 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth. IS., postage 2d. 
 
 A eck of cua is really necessary, ey Mr. Hehe: have 1 
 prevailed upon to write a special book of instructions, illustrated 
 examples. His long experience as a poles! B scleg ae alifies. 
 y to o undertake the task. Crown ae. cloth, ‘ ) 
 
yee 
 : 
 
 CHICAL PICTORIAL 
 
 re ear 
 
 " 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY, — 
 
 , 
 
 CP a a ata | 
 
PART I. 
 Contains a simple statement of the theories which govern 
 pictorial work in photography, and working instructions 
 as far as it is possible to reduce it to practical rules. 
 
 PART II. 
 Contains numerous types and examples, showing the applic- 
 ation of the practice and theories given in Part I. 
 
 Parts I. and II. handsomely bound wm one volume, 
 stiff cloth boards, price 28. 6d. 
 
PRACTICAL 
 PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Part IT. 
 
 TYPES AND EXAMPLES, AND FURTHER 
 PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS IN THE 
 APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY 
 TO ARTISTIC ENDS. 
 
 BY 
 A. HORSLEY HINTON, 
 
 _ Editor of “ The Amateur Photographer. Author of ‘* L’ Art Photographique 
 dans le Paysage,” ‘‘ The Handbook of Illustration,” 
 * Platinotype Printing,” etc. 
 
 [AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS LIBRARY NO. 18.] ae ee 
 ie y | 04 
 LONDON: f Ps 
 PY lo ln lo 
 HAZELL, WATSON, & VINEY, Lp., On 
 1, CREED LANE, LUDGATE HILL E.C. ' <4 
 
 1898. 
 
Aractical Hictorial Photography. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 TN Part I. of this little work I have endeavoured to 
 
 place before the reader, in as concise a manner as I 
 felt the subject would allow of, the general principles 
 governing the application of photography to pictorial ends, 
 and I described various methods for its practice ; and now 
 in a second part I purpose enlarging upon some special 
 points, and by reproducing certain photographs will 
 endeavour to demonstrate the principles laid down, and 
 the practice described, by criticising these prints. 
 
 Now whether we are speaking of Composition, or the 
 delineation of detail, or the rendering of tones or what not, 
 it will, I think, be patent to every one that, no matter how 
 many examples one may show, and no matter how typical 
 and representative these examples may be, it will certainly 
 happen that the reader endeavouring to profit by the 
 lessons given, and the instances shown, will sooner or later 
 find it difficult to apply either to some particular view or 
 subject which he himself is endeavouring to render in- 
 telligently ; hence it is not sufficient to merely give some 
 chosen examples as patterns, but one must go further, and 
 after showing why some pictures are good, an effort should 
 be made to describe the principles, the compliance with 
 which secures approbation. 
 
 The practice of Pictorial Photography cannot be taught 
 by a Kindergarten system; the mere comparison with 
 typical examples must be accompanied with a right 
 understanding of underlying principles and theory. 
 
 1 
 
2 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 The student commonly asks the teacher to be more 
 practical, and whilst as stated in Part I. I have sometimes 
 felt that writers on the artistic aspect of photography 
 have too often, like the reformers of religious creeds, led 
 their followers into a condition of disbelief and unrest, and 
 then left them to find out for themselves how to live up to 
 new and vague beliefs, so many writers on Pictorial 
 Photography have told us what to avoid without saying 
 why, and have then told us what to do without showing 
 how. 
 
 It is these omissions which, so far as the limited pages 
 of a little book permits, I want to make good, feeling that 
 the whole subject contains three courses of study all 
 equally important. The reader may be told what to do, 
 and may ke vouchsafed instructions as to how to do it, 
 but behind both these the student must be asked to 
 recognise the importance of learning why certain courses 
 should be adopted—and with this threefold motive in view 
 I will proceed. 
 
 I must assume that my reader has already perused 
 Part I., to which frequent references will be made, and 
 the best proof that he considers the matter worth study 
 exists in his intention of now reading Part IT. 
 
 Fipetiry to NATURE AND JUSTIFIABLE UNTRUTH. 
 
 The photographer who commences the laudable pursuit 
 of artistic photography, as compared with him who first 
 begins to paint a picture, is generally speaking in a vastly 
 different position. He has not already studied those elements 
 and principles of artistic practice which form the basis of 
 the Art Student’s curriculum; and even if the painter has 
 not passed through a course of preparatory study, he has 
 thought over it, has watched the work of others with a 
 yearning to do something similar, so that much that he would 
 otherwise have had to learn has become practically part of 
 his own nature long before he has acted upon such instincts, 
 and thus both he and still more so, the student who has had 
 definite training, unconsciously act upon certain principles, 
 forgetting even the existence of such guiding rules; just as 
 a man writes with more or less regularity in alternate 
 
Founded on Facts. 3 
 
 thick and thin strokes, though not doing so in conscious 
 obedience to the rule, ‘“‘Up strokes thin, down strokes 
 thick,” given him in childhood. 
 
 What in childhood may be the obedience to arbitrary 
 rules becomes in the man, assisted by the fitness of tools, 
 an instinctive performance; and similarly, what the 
 photographer has to be urged, persuaded and argued with, 
 to do, are often matters which the artist never needs to 
 think about, because it would be unnatural to him not to 
 act in unconscious obedience thereto. 
 
 But, generally speaking, the photographer who to-day 
 is trying to make pictures has been otherwise employed 
 all the week, and not a year ago had perhaps never heard, 
 or at least had not understood, such terms as ‘“ tone” 
 “chiaroscuro,” ete., and had only regarded pictures as 
 illustrations of places, or as part of the usual wall decora- 
 tions of a living room. 
 
 Probably one of the things which in this way comes 
 almost as a shock to the photographer, but which the Art 
 Student has long since ceased to question, if indeed it 
 ever occurred to him that it could be otherwise, is this, that 
 to be able to say of a representation that it is ‘exactly 
 like Nature” is by no means equivalent to saying that it 
 is a fine picture. The painter or draughtsman will produce 
 something which is sufficiently like some familiar objects 
 to leave no doubt as to what it is intended for; but so long 
 as the effect is one which appeals to the spectator’s esthetic 
 sense, absolute fidelity, revealed upon a close examination 
 and analysis, is of secondary importance, or may be even 
 held as a matter of indifference. 
 
 It must ever be borne in mind that the prime object of 
 all fine arts is to please through some or other of the 
 emotions which it stirs. 
 
 It is the same for instance with the historical romance 
 which, founded on fact, departs from history just so far 
 as may be required to produce a dramatic and appealing 
 story; but notice this, the departure from fact 7s not made 
 wantonly, but only as the writer requires to carry out his 
 scheme, nor is it departed from so as to be ridiculous, 
 Alexander the Great is not represented as crossing swords 
 with the last representative of the Royal Stuarts, nor does 
 
4 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Hereward the Wake perform his wondrous ride on a motor 
 car, however thrilling such incidents might have been made ! 
 
 In fiction, in drama, in painting, the so-called “ artistic 
 licence” must not be claimed and acted upon to such a 
 degree that the recognition of falsity overwhelms, or is felt 
 superior to the pleasure, interest, or emotions which are 
 stirred. 
 
 For instance, in a picture it should not be possible for 
 any one on seeing it for the first time to say, “ That would 
 be a very beautiful picture if such and such were not so 
 unnatural”; it should rather be that one says, “That’s 
 very fine, very beautiful, it quickens one’s feelings; this 
 or that may not be quite true, but no matter, it’s a lovely 
 picture !” 
 
 I am laying great stress upon this matter here, because 
 T am anxious to at once remove from the photographer's 
 shoulders the onus of supporting his every picture with 
 irrefutable evidence as to its being “true to Nature.” 
 After all, let it be remembered that “truth to Nature” 
 can only mean truth to our knowledge or our recollection 
 of Nature, both of which in the best of us is but limited, 
 whilst absolute fidelity to some of Nature’s freaks or to 
 some of her more unusual moods would be resented by 
 the purist as “untrue.” 
 
 Here then comes the question, who is to be the judge as 
 to whether in a given picture the departure from absolute 
 truth is, or is not, inferior to the degree to which the 
 esthetic sense is appealed to ¢ 
 
 The first critic must be oneself; the man who produces 
 the picture is the first who must ask himself whether in 
 trying to get a certain effect, that is, in striving to appeal 
 to the feelings of others, he has sacrificed any truth to such 
 an extent that it presents anything like a glaring fault. 
 
 Conscious of the methods he has adopted, it may be 
 almost impossible for him to lose sight of this or that 
 feature obliterated, or some portion modified ; on the other 
 hand, blinded by the intention or carried away with a 
 certain amount of success attained, the picture producer 
 may be very apt to excuse in himself some inaccuracy and 
 expect pardon from others for some distinct fault. 
 
 Here is the difficulty, the same occurs at various crises 
 
Self-Reliance. 5 
 
 in every one’s life, when he or she is called upon to decide 
 on a certain course of action, and stands or falls thereafter 
 in his own and others’ estimation. 
 
 This as applied to simple picture-making may for the 
 moment sound like high-faluting nonsense and impractical 
 theorising—but I would assure the reader it is no such 
 thing. 
 
 The student must learn self-reliance, must train himself 
 to judge his own work from outside himself, that is, apart 
 from his own inclinations and prejudices. 
 
 The lack of such self-culture is painfully evident even in 
 the work of advanced workers, who ever and again exhibit 
 work with which the most lenient critic must find fault— 
 blinded by some measure of success in attaining his purpose, 
 or over confident in his acquaintance with nature, he has 
 overlooked, or has been led to condone, some conspicuous 
 error. 
 
 Next, then, we may seek the judgment of others; and 
 here the photographer is exposed to exceptional difficulty. 
 I say this, being well aware of the existing condition of 
 affairs in photography, and knowing too the kind of pillory 
 in which every effort at pictorial photography is placed by 
 those who have regard only for the scientific aspects of 
 the craft. 
 
 I have no intention of introducing into these pages 
 controversial matters, but something on this topic must 
 be said if this book is to be a practical guide to the novice. 
 
 I have recently said elsewhere that the critic or judge 
 should be one who has given evidence of being able to 
 produce something in the same field as the works he is 
 called on to pass judgment upon, thereby establishing his 
 qualification to speak. Now I am quite aware that in 
 other matters than photography we have critics who are 
 not themselves craftsmen. Especially is this the case in 
 fine arts, where some of the most honoured critics and the 
 most trustworthy judges are not themselves artists in the 
 sense of practitioners, but they are men who have studied 
 the subject. Unfortunately in photography our critics 
 for the most part are men who, though eminently 
 skilled in photography itself, yet until latterly, when 
 photography has progressed in artistic directions and is 
 
6 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 being applied to artistic ends, would never have dreamed 
 of voicing an authoritative opinion on a picture. 
 
 Tt is such eritics as these, doubtless thoroughly sincere 
 from their own point of view, who are constantly throwing 
 obstacles in the way of the pictorial photographer, con- 
 demning a work, the intention of which is pictorial, on 
 the grounds that it is not a perfect example of modern 
 photographic achievement, or scorning it because they 
 judge it to be “untrue to Nature.” The aspirant in 
 pictorial photography must first of all endeavour to satisfy 
 himself, and then, if not confident of his own decision, let 
 him submit his work to those who are in sympathy with 
 his aspirations, and who will not impose qualities which 
 are unnecessary and which are not required in other art 
 methods. 
 
 But to return to the avowed purpose of this chapter— 
 we will endeavour to get some clearer idea as to the kind 
 of truth it is justifiable to forsake and the sort of fidelity 
 it is essential to observe. 
 
 It was enunciated in Part I. that the departure from 
 fact in photography consisted mainly of omitting details, 
 and it was also stated that some untruth may be permitted 
 in the direction of exaggeration or emphasis, but only so 
 far ag such emphasis did not make itself overwhelmingly 
 felt as unnatural. . 
 
 I give here an example, a picture entitled “ Day’s 
 Decline,” though I do so with some reluctance, being fully 
 aware that it is far from being wholly satisfactory. 
 
 In this case effect of a more or less dramatic <ind was 
 attempted, and whether or not this has been attained with 
 too great a sacrifice of truthfulness I will leave it to others 
 to decide. 
 
 The first negative was taken of the landscape portion 
 under a clear and cloudless sky, and the lowering clouds 
 indicative of gathering gloom were added subsequently. 
 In order to secure concentration, the light was allowed to 
 remain on the group of grasses and a spot to the right in 
 the water, only the lower portion being shaded down during 
 printing, as also the middle and more remote distances. 
 This was of course achieved in the course of printing. 
 
 It is quite open to question whether save by a freak or 
 
DAY’S 
 
 DECLINE, 
 
8 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 almost phenomenal light, such an effect could possibly be 
 with such a cloud-scape. The light in the water—a 
 valuable point in the composition—is not of course a 
 reflection of any visible part of the sky ; whilst if it be 
 argued that a rent in the clouds behind the observer might 
 illuminate the rushes, then it is doubtful whether the 
 deeper shadow below would be possible under ordinary 
 conditions. J know and admit that such objections would 
 be- perfectly reasonable, and I may even admit that in 
 perpetrating such it was “sailing close to the wind,” but 
 with the material I do not see how else the effect aimed 
 at could have been achieved. 
 
 On the other hand one might take up a line of defence ~ 
 in this way: given that all the rest of the sky above and 
 behind one was clouded over except for a solitary rent 
 in the clouds, from which light fell on the grasses, the 
 light effect of which was helped by their own local colour, 
 then perhaps the effect would be a natural one. Again, 
 many local influences might well produce the patch of 
 light in the water which perhaps looks like, but need not 
 be, reflection of light in the sky. We must all have seen a 
 broad streak or larger region of apparent bright light on 
 water which was in deep shade, and received no light, the 
 same being caused by the disturbance of its surface by 
 wind or some other local agency. It is one of the artist’s 
 most cheerful missions to seek for and to seize upon when 
 found the exceptional conditions in nature which go to form 
 a pleasing design or composition. 
 
 As soon as the charge of unnaturalness requires 
 argument to sustain it, then it may be concluded that it 
 is not so great as to constitute a glaring fault, and if it 
 has been resorted to deliberately and for a definite purpose, 
 and further if the effect could not reasonably have been 
 secured by any other means, and finally if the end, a good 
 composition, has been gained, then the old contention of the 
 end justifying the means would seem to have been made 
 good and we may well take a lenient view. 
 
 But this is not the serious departure from truth which, 
 from the preamble, the reader may have expected I should 
 instance. Yet it should be pointed out that inasmuch as a 
 picture has to do chiefly with effects of light and shade, and 
 
Emphasis or Hauaggeration. 9 
 
 less with hard topographical facts, such as the position and 
 relative size of objects, such untruths are departures from 
 the most essential components of the picture. 
 
 For another example will the reader refer to the 
 illustration given on page 2 of Part I. entitled “ FrLpEE 
 SHoreE.” Here it might well be said that the clouds are 
 much heavier and darker, as compared with the landscape, 
 than one sees them in Nature, and perhaps such objection 
 is perfectly just; but such heavy clouds were purposely 
 introduced in order to emphasise the weird, dreary effect 
 which the lonesome locality suggested, and hence the 
 angry character of the clouds was deliberately exaggerated, 
 just as in ordinary language we may not be content 
 with saying great, or gigantic, but—though with some 
 grammatical licence it must be admitted—we say “a 
 great, big thing,” or the “ huge, gigantic form,” ete. Such 
 forms of speech are more expressive, and we convey our 
 idea at the expense either of truth or of conventional rules. 
 
 In ‘‘ Feldee Shore” it may perhaps be said that the 
 falsification or exaggeration of the depth of the clouds has 
 been carried to the utmost justifiable limit; a very little 
 more and the impossibility of the thing would have been 
 immediately apparent, and then it would have been 
 unquestionably wrong. 
 
 Of course the argument might be advanced that in some 
 phenomenal aspects of nature, such as during great and 
 severe storms, the clouds seem to be more solid than the 
 earth, and to momentarily suggest such impending doom 
 as the earth being swallowed up of the firmament, but 
 this would not serve as a justification, it is not for art to 
 record meteorological phenomena; ‘“ Feldee Shore” is not 
 suggested as a rival to the summit of Sinai when the 
 wandering tribes gazed awe-struck at the demonstration 
 of the Creator’s presence, the purpose was not to suggest 
 that “ Feldee Shore” is to be the arena of the last scene 
 in this world’s present dispensation, but merely to 
 emphasise the gloom and the wildness of a lonely, storm- 
 racked shore. If in this or other picture the effect is 
 palpably overdone, then the picture is a failure; if on the 
 other hand the idea is conveyed without blatant falsity, 
 then, whether the clouds are darker than we regard as 
 
10 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 usual in such lozalities where clouds especially congregate, 
 or not, the mere physical accuracy need not be questioned. 
 
 As showing how it may be necessary to depart from the 
 truth as it is rendered by the most approved lens, reference 
 may be made to the photographic rendering of distance. 
 
 I should imagine that even the least experienced 
 photographer must, at some time in his practice, have 
 known the disappointment of seeing what appeared like 
 a very beautiful distance come so small in the photograph 
 as to deprive the whole picture of its interest, and of the 
 very raison @étre of its being made ; and yet if we carefully 
 measure the various parts of the view as it is rendered in 
 the photograph, and do the same with the actual scene 
 as we see it, or as it is reflected in a mirror, we shall find 
 that the relative proportions of distance and nearer objects 
 is absolutely correct. 
 
 It is “true to Nature” and yet wholly unsatisfactory 
 as giving the idea we had of the scene, and fails entirely to 
 reproduce our impression of it. 
 
 As has been said, a careful comparison of the print with 
 Nature will show that the lens is not at fault, and hence 
 we are brought to the conclusion that whilst the pho- 
 tograph has rendered things as our eye saw them, our 
 mental impression or the idea which the mind received 
 was not identical with the visual impression, and as it 
 often happens that the sentiment or the pictorial quality 
 of a picture depends on our mental impression of a scene, 
 it becomes necessary to consider if it be not possible to 
 reproduce scenes not as we see them, but rather as we. 
 think we see them; that is, in accordance with the effect 
 they produce on our imagination. 
 
 To make this more clear, take the reproduction here 
 given of a scene on the estuary of the River Blackwater, 
 and entitled “‘ Windless Grey.” 
 
 This picture was produced under the powerful effect of 
 scene which seemed to so singularly bear in upon one 
 the great emptiness and solitude of this strange region at 
 a time of absolute windless calm, and an all-pervading 
 grey tint; especially beautiful was the extreme distance in 
 which belt after belt of trees and low hills fell one behind 
 the other in subtlest difference of delicate grey. That 
 
A Photograph and a Sketch from Memory. pe 
 
 distance was a thing on which the eye delighted to dwell, 
 especially for its exquisite harmony and arrangement, 
 and with the very simple foreground, the winding lines 
 in which seemed to lead the eye away into distance, one 
 felt it was a scene worth depicting in the hope of being 
 able to suggest the pleasing sentiments it created. 
 
 In the large original print from which the little 
 reproduction is made, I think a good deal of the strange 
 feeling of solitude and calm is successfully caught. But 
 what has become of the distance but for which the picture 
 would probably never have been made? It has diminished 
 down to little more than a narrow grey line. Even on 
 the ground glass of the camera it did not somehow look 
 so small. 
 
 If instead of a photograph I had made a sketch, I am 
 sure something like the accompanying would have seemed 
 to faithfully represent what one saw, in which it will be 
 noticed the distance assumes a much greater importance; 
 probably had one drawn it from memory shortly after 
 leaving the actual spot, and whilst the recollection and 
 impression were quite fresh, the distance would have been 
 drawn even larger in proportion. 
 
 The inability of photography to render great distances 
 and a wide panorama in a manner which seems satisfactory 
 is, I believe, patent to every practical photographer ; but 
 I find that amongst very many at least this inability is 
 attributed to the false perspective of the lens. The error of 
 this I tried to illustrate on page 53 of Part I.; and if we 
 hold a mirror in front of a scene, and if the reflected image 
 in the mirror include exactly the same field of view in- 
 cluded in the photograph, we shall find by measurement 
 that the seemingly untrue photographic rendering is 
 perfectly accurate. Except of course when we use a lens 
 of exceedingly short focus. 
 
 We are here then presented with a problem in pictorial 
 practice: how to render certain scenes by means of a 
 faultlessly true mechanical method in a manner which 
 shall accord with the false image impressed upon our mind ; 
 or, to put it differently, in such a way that the image 
 odrtrayed shall produce the same impression which, false 
 or true, the original scene produced on our imagination. 
 
(Pe > 
 
 ATID SSHIGNIAM ,, : 
 
‘XUVOALSA UALVMMOVIEC AHL NO HOLOMS TIONGd V 
 
14 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 To suggest to his own mind and to the minds of others 
 the impression which a scene created, and not to simply 
 portray the bare physical facts, is the aim of every artist, 
 a principle which seems to have been lost sight of, or never 
 properly understood by the majority of those who are 
 using Photography as a means to art, and I shall have 
 occasion to revert to this again presently. 
 
 The instance given of an apparently diminished distance 
 is one for which it is not easy to give a remedy, for it 
 would seem that what we want to do is to portray one part 
 of view on a larger scale than another, and to do this with 
 such complete control as to be able to carry out every 
 passing caprice. But if it has not yet been accomplished, 
 there is no reason to despair of its attainment, especially 
 considering that the whole matter of applying photography 
 to purely artistic ends is in such a state of infancy, and 
 that this idea of deliberate violation of truth to fact, for the 
 sake of securing truth to ideas, has hardly yet been put 
 into practice. 
 
 The first thought that occurs to one is that, with a little 
 skill, negatives might be printed in combination, the 
 distance on one being photographed a larger size than the 
 foreground, etc., on the other, but this would probably be 
 far from satisfactory even if done with consummate skill. 
 
 It must remain at present as a problem yet to be 
 solved, and I shall be content if in my reference’ to it I 
 awaken the reader to the fact that whilst it may seem 
 an inherent fault in photography, yet it is not to be 
 set down to the error of the lens in drawing, and need 
 not therefore be looked upon as an inevitable misfortune 
 not to be grappled with. 
 
 One hint may here be given perhaps, and that is, that 
 if a distance be rendered with every detail sharply defined, 
 it does, on looking at the print, seem more insignificant 
 than when rendered in mere broad tones of varying depth, 
 which may or may not be accounted for by the fact that 
 objects and figures seen in fog or mist do often loom larger 
 than when seen in clearer light. I have in my mind a 
 sketch by Turner where the figure of a man is seen 
 through the smoke and the haze of a middle distance and 
 is when analytically considered ridiculously large, yet the 
 
Suppression of Less Important Features. 15 
 
 inaccuracy does not occur to one until carefully considered, 
 and the figure seems perfectly true. 
 
 The readiest and most incontrovertible method which 
 the photographer has of giving importance to portions of 
 the picturs which the imagination would enlarge, is by 
 suppressing in point of prominence the other and _ less 
 important parts, such prominence and suppression being 
 attained by the respective raising or lowering of their 
 relative tone. 
 
 Under printing methods and the control of the print, 
 something was said concerning this in Part I., and we 
 may now take some further examples. | 
 
 If we take as an instance a forest scene, it is because it 
 may have come within the reader’s experience to have 
 chosen for his subject some great tree-stem, which, towering 
 aloft amidst all the many other tree-trunks, appeared, 
 by its striking form and greater size to stand alone 
 amongst its fellows, and only when we come to look at it 
 in the camera do we find that our plate, even when our 
 narrowest angle lens is used, will include many other 
 neighbouring trees, the presence of which we had previously 
 overlooked, and on the camera plate they all look so nearly 
 of equal prominence that our one selected tree is diminished 
 in importance. 
 
 This is a somewhat parallel case with that of a 
 diminished distance previously cited, and we will see how 
 we can deal with it so as to get in the print something 
 more nearly the impression the tree made upon the mind 
 when we selected it as our subject and before the lens 
 disillusioned us. 
 
 We have here three prints from the same negative, the 
 first being the direct result, and the other two the out- 
 come of controlling the print so as to give something more 
 nearly our first impression of the scene, and it should be 
 noticed that additional prominence has been given to the 
 one tree chosen, first by lowering the tone of the surround- 
 ings, and secondly by raising the tone of the tree itself, 
 -and also slightly suppressing the surroundings ; both these 
 methods have in some measure attained the end sought, 
 but I think it can be shown that the latter is for various 
 reasons the better. 
 
NT. 
 
 DIRECT UNCONTROLLED PRI 
 
 5, 
 
THE SAME with the Surroundings of the Chosen Tree Shaded 
 down by Light. 
 
THE SAME, but the Prominent Tree Less Printed, whilst the 
 Surroundings have been Shaded Down, 
 
A Thin Negative is Best. 19 
 
 It should be remembered that in lowering or raising the 
 tones in a print we are trifling with the truthful rendering, 
 and whilst the justification of such a departure from truth, 
 if with a deliberate purpose, is the object of this chapter, 
 it should hardly need to be said that there is no merit in 
 the sacrifice of truth itself, it is only to be permitted as 
 a means to accomplish a definite end, and should therefore 
 be indulged in as little as possible. If, then, with our 
 woodland scene we shade down whilst printing everything 
 except the one tree to which it is desired to give prominence 
 and emphasis, we are greatly in danger of making the 
 general tone of the entire picture too dark and heavy, 
 moreover we are emphasising the tree by a negative 
 process—that is, we are doing it by denying prominence 
 to everything else. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we start by locally treating the 
 negative so as to make the tree print a little lighter, and 
 then shade down all the rest of the picture, so great a 
 degree of shading down will not be required as in the 
 previous case, and our end is gained by a kind of com- 
 promise between the two. 
 
 For such purposes as this a thin negative is much to be 
 desired—one which prints rapidly, and which if left alone 
 provides as it were the middle tones of the picture—and 
 on this one may build up the higher tones without even 
 then getting anything like solidity and hardness. 
 
 With a thin negative the deeper printing of those parts 
 which are needed to be printed darker is not so great a 
 tax upon one’s patience. 
 
 As to the increase of density which may be given locally 
 to make some part or parts print lighter, such, for instance, 
 as the tree-stem in the foregoing case, something should 
 perhaps be said. 
 
 Intercepting the light by using paper masks, etc., was 
 dealt with on pages 74 and 89, ete., in Part J., and for small 
 objects the retouching pencil may be used with discretion. 
 
 Again, we have the well-known method of applying 
 Matt varnish to the back of the negative, and if no 
 objection is made to these methods and we have so far 
 overcome whatever prejudice we may have originally felt 
 as against “doctoring” the pure photographic negative, 
 
20 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 then possibly we shall see no reason for not resorting to 
 what seems to me a still better way of strengthening the 
 lights, and that is by applying water-colour paint to the 
 glass side of the negative. 
 
 As a further example I may say that the picture 
 entitled “Melton Meadows” was assisted in the way 
 described. The two tall trees were the chief motive of the 
 picture, and appeared to stand prominently out from their 
 surroundings; yet when the negative was made they 
 seemed to have been robbed of their distinction, to restore 
 which a little colour was dabbed on to the back of the 
 negative, and when the print was so far finished the 
 negative was removed, and the shadow -behind these two 
 tress and on the right-hand side was made a little 
 deeper. | 
 
 Probably every portrait photographer resorts to some 
 such “dodge” for making a face lighter or other similar 
 purpose, and he finds that the application of water-colour | 
 paint in ever so thin a wash makes so much difference to 
 the printing density that blue is commonly used as being 
 a quick printing colour, the effect of which is therefore not 
 so great; an equally dense layer of blue and of red to any 
 portion of a negative would print very differently, the red 
 shutting off the light action much more powerfully than 
 the blue. 3 | 
 
 The best way of applying the paint is not by taking it 
 from the cake or pan of pigment with a brush, but to 
 first of all thoroughly mix a little on a palette or saucer 
 so as to get it even and of a uniform consistency, then 
 put it on by dabbing with the soft part of the finger tip, 
 unless the portion is so small as to render a brush point 
 necessary. Get it on as evenly as possible and then let 
 it dry. This it will do in a very few minutes, and by 
 then breathing upon it steadily the whole of the paint on 
 ‘the negative is brought into an equally semi-dissolved 
 condition, and with a clean finger point or a tiny dabber 
 made of chamois leather we can not only modify and 
 weld the layer of paint as our taste may direct, but what 
 is of more importance, we may soften off the margins of 
 the patch of paint that no edges may show in the print. 
 
 The different degree of light interference between blue 
 
The Use of Tracing Paper. 21 
 
 and red also affords a power which we may be glad to 
 avail ourselves, in some cases using the red where a very 
 marked degree of lightening is desired, or blue where only 
 a trifling difference is needed. 
 
 Local intensification, as with Mercury or similar means, 
 is not easy to manage, moreover as it affects the film itself 
 an error cannot be remedied, and it should be borne in 
 mind that it does not raise the tone of the entire object 
 to which it is applied in the same way as with the methods 
 above referred to; it “intensifies,” that is, it raises the 
 lights, but simultaneously increases the contrast between 
 the lights and darks. There are cases in which this 
 property may be advantageously resorted to. 
 
 I should also here repeat what was said on page 87, 
 Part I., as to the difference between printing deeper, with 
 the negative in position, and shading down any portion 
 without the negative. In the first case we get a deeper, 
 darker image, but its prominence is not thereby suppressed 
 in the same way as it is by removing the negative and 
 shading down by exposure to light, in which case we get 
 a flattening effect which tends, if carried far enough, to 
 nearly obliterate the printed image. 
 
 Yet another method, exceedingly useful in shading down 
 portions of a print, the outlines or forms of which are more 
 or less intricate. It is as follows: Cut a piece of clean 
 glass the exact size of the negative and cover it on one 
 side with tracing paper as fine and grainless as you can 
 _ procure. 
 
 Having made a print from the negative you next lightly 
 sketch on the tracing paper a general outline or diagram 
 of the whole subject, and then, using a BB pencil or crayon 
 and stump, cover those portions of the diagram corre- 
 sponding to the parts which you do not wish to shade 
 down, and leave as plain tracing paper the regions to be 
 shaded. ; 
 
 Now place the untoned print face upwards on a board 
 or sheet of glass or other perfectly flat surface, and above 
 it lay the tracing paper—covered glass—glass side next 
 the print, taking care that the rough sketch or diagram 
 exactly corresponds with the photograph below it. Now 
 expose this to the light for a few seconds. 
 
22 Practical Pictorial Photography — 
 
 The portions over which the blacklead or crayon forms 
 a protection from the light will not be affected, but those 
 parts which are merely covered by the glass and plain 
 tracing paper will quickly become shaded down. 
 
 It will of course at once be apparent that this shading 
 down or protection will take place in proportion as there 
 may be much, little, or no protecting blacklead, and thus 
 varying degrees of shading may be easily arranged. 
 
 By this method, capable of considerable variation, small 
 high lights may be preserved in the midst of dark sur- 
 roundings, and vice versd, whilst in like manner clouds from 
 a second negative may be printed into the most intricate 
 outlines, the tracing paper being in such case detached 
 from the supporting plain glass and transferred to the 
 cloud negative, where it constitutes a mask or protection 
 to the. objects which have been stumped in whilst the 
 clouds are printing into the unprotected spaces. : 
 
 My reader may now be prepared to acknowledge the 
 necessity or desirability of altering and modifying the 
 image as produced by lens and sensitive plate, but may 
 yet feel that the power of modifying being confined to the 
 mere alteration of relative tones is still so limited as to 
 render anything like a wide use of photography for 
 purposes of artistic expression impossible. | 
 
 I would like therefore to suggest how much more 
 extensive our power of control might be if only more 
 photographers ‘were disposed to try, the example here 
 given being intended only as a finger post to suggest a 
 possible road along which the photographer might travel 
 to altogether unknown possibilities. 
 
 Most readers will be already acquainted with the 
 method of printing from a combination of negatives, by 
 which Mr. H. P. Robinson produced so many of his’ earlier 
 works, a figure or group of figures being printed from a 
 separate negative into a space blocked out and left blank 
 in the previously printed landscape or other scene. 
 
 The purpose of Mr. Robinson’s plan was to introduce 
 or add some object to the picture, but why should not 
 the same course be pursued merely to leave something 
 out ¢ 
 
 Here, for instance, is a print of a landscape with sheep, 
 
wae 
 
 LANDSCAPE AND SHEEP. 
 
 ‘* A PASTURE BY THE SEA,” 
 
24 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 but the animals to the extreme left seemed to spoil the 
 composition, and moreover appeared objectionably large. 
 
 These, then, with a small portion of the surrounding 
 meadow were blocked out on the negative, which when 
 printed from left a white patch, and into this by a second 
 operation a portion of the grass from another part of the 
 same negative was printed in—result several sheep removed 
 entirely, as witness the second print here produced, entitled 
 ‘‘ A Pasture by the Sea.” 
 
 Who shall say to what extent this might not be carried ?¢ 
 With patience and some skill the entire landscape might 
 be changed, and all kinds of objects not required might be 
 left out. 
 
 A further case is here given of undesirable portions left 
 out in the printing, in this instance the vacant space 
 being occupied chiefly by a cloud. 
 
 In the following example, ‘“‘ Westwards,” the spectator is 
 supposed to be looking out to sea, whereas the negative 
 employed was taken looking across a river, the opposite 
 bank of which came as an ugly dark line. This is shown 
 in the adjoining illustration. 
 
 In this instance the upper part of the negative was 
 merely covered by a piece of paper during printing, so as 
 to block out the offending bank and part of the water, 
 the paper being above the negative, and not between it 
 and the printing paper, so that a hard line was avoided. 
 Now notice that the cloud negative employed, also here 
 reproduced, does not account for what is intended to 
 represent the sunlit distant sea. This was produced simply 
 by carefully shading the edge of one image into the 
 other, and is therefore purely a fiction, and is absolutely 
 and literally “drawing by light,” which is surely the 
 purest kind of photography ! 
 
 This brings us to rather dangerous ground, for it may 
 suggest whether a negative made by camera and lens is 
 always an essential, or indeed if a negative at all is needed 
 so long as we can produce a lght-painted image at our 
 will, 
 
 But such a line of thought or of practice it is not my 
 intention to pursue here, nor indeed does it come within the 
 province of this little book. 
 
“ WESTWARDS.” 
 The Completed Picture. 
 
Cloud Negative used for 
 “ WESTWARDS.” 
 
 Landscape -Negative used for 
 | “ WESTWARDS.” 5 
 
 (Note the Distance, which in the Finished Picture has been, — 
 Stopped out.) ie: 
 
Agreement between Clouds and Landscape. 27 
 
 One further reference to the picture “ Westwards” may 
 not be inappropriate just here, and that is, that whereas 
 the idea it is intended to convey is that of looking out to 
 sea over which in the western sky the sun is declining, the 
 real point of the compass towards which the camera was 
 directed when the lower part of the picture was made 
 was as nearly as possible due south, and not westward at 
 all, moreover the sun was fairly high in the heavens at 
 about 2 o’clock on an August afternoon. 
 
 Whether these departures from truthfulness to fact 
 are apparent or not it is not for me to say, but. this 
 particular picture was selected by a committee of judges, 
 comprising four well-known English painter-artists, and 
 purchased by their advice for the permanent tollection of 
 the Royal Photographic Society, and so perhaps it is fair 
 to conclude that it is free from any very glaring errors. 
 
 This leads us naturally to the further consideration of 
 clouds and the agreement which should exist between 
 them and the landscape to which they are wedded. 
 
 CLOUDS IN THEIR RELATION TO THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
 A good deal has already been said in Book I. as to 
 the forms of clouds assisting in the composition of a 
 picture, and reference was also made to certain ideas or 
 sentiments which cloud forms conveyed, and stress was 
 laid upon the very evident necessity for the clouds being 
 illuminated from the same point in the heavens as that 
 from which the source of light falls on the landscape, 
 and yet in the picture just reproduced and described it 
 was admitted that whilst the landscape was taken under 
 a sun only two hours past the meridian, yet there has 
 been employed a sunset sky, and no very great incongruity 
 is observable. 
 
 Justification must be sought in the fact that ‘no very 
 great incongruity is observable.” 
 
 So long as the sky appears to agree with the landscape 
 we need require nothing more, for there is no particular 
 merit in the mere achievement itself of having secured 
 absolute accuracy. Many teachers have made a great 
 point of requiring that the clouds used with any par- 
 
98 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 ticular landscape should be taken as nearly as possible at 
 the same time, from the same point of view, and, under 
 identical atmospheric conditions. 
 
 The fallacy of such doctrines may perhaps be seen when 
 one remembers that we may be looking to the South at 
 noon, and if the heavens in that direction are overcast by 
 heavy clouds, and the sky behind us is clear, the chief light 
 falling on the landscape will come from the North, where 
 
 SALT MARSHES—ESSEX. 
 
 at noon the sun in this hemisphere never could be, so that 
 fidelity to Nature at some particular moment may in the 
 picture seem utterly wrong. 
 
 We may remember to have seen some photograph — 
 
 which has called forth criticism as to the falsity of the 
 lighting, which criticism has been immediately met by the 
 defence, “It must be right because it is quite true to 
 Nature, the clouds are on the same plate as the landscape.” 
 
 Such defence is utterly futile; the purpose of a picture 
 
Local Colour and Light and Shade. 29 
 
 is not to astonish people by the record of some unuusal 
 phase of Nature. An effect the truthfulness of which 
 needs to be upheld by arguments and proofs is by the 
 existence of such necessity at once pictorially condemned. 
 
 A picture whether or not it is really true to fact must 
 above all things appear true. 
 
 Local colour being in photography translated into mono- 
 chrome, may often appear as light or shade, thus reeds and 
 grasses in autumn, being whitened and withered, may 
 appear in our picture to be brilliantly illuminated—clusters 
 of dark green plants may seem like objects in shadow. 
 In the accompanying illustration entitled “Salt Marshes 
 —KEssex” the disposition of dark and light portions ap- 
 peared to me to give the appearance of a landscape as 
 seen looking towards the source of light, and accordingly 
 a sunset cloud of a somewhat sombre character was em- 
 ployed, whereas as a matter of fact the sun of a late 
 afternoon was immediately behind the camera shining 
 full on to the landscape. 
 
 Many such instances might be given, and if at last the 
 agreement of landscape and cloud does not seem quite 
 perfect it may be possible to improve it by discreet shading 
 down or heightening a light here and there. 
 
 But let it be very clearly understood that such a course 
 must only be pursued with the greatest care and with 
 great self-restraint ; and, moreover, it can only be safely 
 followed by those who have cultivated an intimate know- 
 ledge of the effects of Nature; for only then will the 
 operator be able to say what falsities to fact have the 
 appearance of truth, and are hence permissible. 
 
 Because I am conscious of the danger to which the 
 beginner is exposed by such liberty and licence as I have 
 suggested for the photographer, and am alive to the fact 
 that the whole doctrine may be a pitfall to the beginner, 
 I would repeat again and again the caution, and strongly 
 advise the student to be content with depicting very 
 simple effects, and never attempt to act upon the fore- 
 going suggestions until he is sure that he has gained 
 sufficient intimacy with Nature to avoid making ridiculous 
 mistakes, 
 
 My object in saying as much as I have on the possible 
 
30. Practical: Pictorial Photography. 
 
 legitimacy of an untruth to circumstance and fact is to ~ 
 endeavour to widen the circumscribing limitations which 
 have too often been imposed upon the photographer. I 
 would wish to give him absolute and entire freedom from 
 all those rules and regulations belonging to the craft, to 
 overstep which has so often secured for ithe production, 
 no matter how pleasing, the condemnation implied by the 
 remark, “It isn’t a good photograph.” As a specimen of 
 photography, as an example of photographic recording it 
 may not be good, yet may it be a good picture, the latter 
 not necessarily comprising the two former, 
 
 But to return now to the subject of clouds ; their 
 importance in a picture seems even jin the present en- 
 lightened age to he misunderstood—their value under- 
 estimated not merely as representing Nature when joined 
 to a view, so much better than a blank white space would 
 do, but also as furnishing a right key to the other lights 
 and shades, and also in the way they assist the sentiment 
 or poetry of the picture. 
 
 Take as an example the picture reproduced on page 4 
 of Part I., and given here again for the purpose of com- 
 parison. 
 
 The intention of the picture may be gathered from the 
 title ‘“‘ Requiem,” even if the work does not sufficiently 
 suggest the idea—an impression of the solemnity and 
 peacefulness which must at some time or another have — 
 stolen in upon the senses of every impressionable person 
 who has watched the passing of day. The materials em- 
 ployed in the present case are simple- enough. A battered 
 vessel of an ancient type—not a modern trim-built yacht, 
 which would rather suggest speed, activity, and smartness— 
 a landing-stage of an equally elementary kind devoid of 
 modern engineering appliances, the flat sandy or muddy 
 shore devoid of any objects which might imply the haunt 
 of fisher-folk or the rendezvous of men; there are two 
 mooring-posts, and even they are bent and falling to 
 decay. Yet with all this the print from the first negative, 
 that containing the landscape portion, quite fails to convey 
 the idea in our - mind, or at least does so incompletely ; and 
 again, if reference! is made to the next illustration of the 
 eloud only, it will be gathered that the attempt to 
 
“ REQUIEM.” 
 
THE SUBJECT NEGATIVE FOR “REQUIEM” BEFORE THE 
 CLOUD IS PRINTED IN. 
 
a?) ae 
 a 
 
34 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 suggest the last upward stream of light from the expiring 
 sun is introduced by artifice during the printing, whilst 
 the lower portion of the foreground has been shaded 
 down, the light just behind the hull of the boat slightly 
 strengthened or kept back whilst printing the rest of the 
 subject, and one or two further modifications made as taste 
 at the moment directed. | 
 
 Such is the story of this very simple picture's creation. 
 
 - 
 
 HER LAST MOORINGS. (By F. W. Smith.) — 
 
 Here, too, is another picture by Mr. F. W. Smith, and 
 reproduced from the pages of Zhe Amateur Photographer, 
 in which the sentiment is much the same. 
 
 Who can doubt the value of the clouds in this case? the 
 heavy masses indicative of impending doom, the light in 
 the distance out of which the decaying vessel has sailed 
 and left behind with the dead days of its joyous life at 
 sea. In the feelings awakened one forgets the mere objects 
 portrayed ; but let this same scene be coupled with a bright , 
 
The Fitness of Certain Clouds. 39 
 
 sunny sky and sprightly clouds, and the commonplaceness: 
 of the ugly hulk and untidy shore would at once appear. 
 Thus it is that because at their best our methods are: 
 feeble to convey fully the emotions and sentiment of 
 Nature that the photographer inclines rather to dramatic 
 and strongly appealing cloud effects, that even though 
 something of their beauty is lost, yet much still remains. 
 
 A WET DAY. (By Charles Inston.) 
 
 Yet delicate and quieter cloud-scapes have their use, 
 though it may often require a more cultivated eye and 
 mind to understand and appreciate their meaning. The 
 vigorous cloud effect, if well done, rarely misses its mark 
 and appeals to all. 
 
 Thus here is a portion of one of Mr. Charles Inston’s 
 clever portrayals of a wet-street scene, in which the leaden 
 greyness of the sky conveys its meaning and is an adequate 
 impression. A strong and vivid cloud effect would have been 
 out of keeping, and would not so well have suggested the 
 
36 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 dull, damp days which to dwellers in cities are infinitely 
 more depressing than where the drizzling rain comes from 
 cloudy skies of a cleaner colour, and a freshness of atmo- 
 sphere is the result of continuous rain instead of choking 
 air and sodden smoke-wreaths too heavy to float away. 
 
 In one of the above examples it was shown that an 
 effect of light in the clouds or sky might be introduced 
 by artificial means, but 1 would not wish this to give 
 sanction to the wholesale manufacture of artificial cloud 
 effects. 
 
 One not infrequently hears it recommended that clouds 
 may be painted on the negative or produced by scattered 
 tufts of cotton-wool. But where is the photographer who 
 can paint clouds on a negative Q 
 
 Even suppose the photographer possess artistic skill to 
 paint at all, well, he must be almost a conjurer who can 
 paint them reversed—that is, in negative. Think of all 
 the subtle gradations of tone, and the variable yet definitely 
 determined forms, of the clouds. The shape of the clouds 
 is not a haphazard matter. There is as much rule and 
 symmetry as in the forms of flowers or the incomprehen- 
 sible irregular regularity of the waves of the sea, But 
 “anything will do for clouds” seems to be the creed 
 of some, and such an one thereby demonstrates his utter 
 incompetence to prescribe or to act otherwise than by strict 
 adherence to rules and implicit obedience of Nature. 
 
 But I propose to leave the subject of cloud photography 
 here and pass to some examples of the ever burning 
 question of definition and the delineation of detail, in the 
 hope that they may make more clear the principles which 
 were laid down at some length in Part I. 
 
 Tur CONSIDERATION OF SOME EXAMPLES OF SHARP AND 
 SuPPRESSED DEFINITION. 
 
 It is hardly to be wondered at that for a long time 
 the majority of photographers were so reluctant to re- 
 linquish the power of defining objects with microscopical 
 sharpness, inasmuch as this power was the remarkably 
 distinguishing property of the lens-drawn image with which 
 no other method could vie; but in dealing with this subject 
 
Atmosphere Obliterates Detail. ae 
 
 we must have in mind the principle already referred to: 
 several times in these pages, namely, that the purpose of 
 a picture is not veracity to fact so much as truthfulness to 
 idea ; that is to say, it is not a question of what the eye 
 sees nor even what the brain imagines, but it is a question 
 of what kind of production best awakens in the mind of the: 
 beholder the ideas which the maker of the picture desires: 
 him to receive. 
 
 On the next page is a representation of one of those 
 beautiful atmospheric effects which London and other 
 great cities, with their smoke-ladened air and the misty 
 emanations of their rivers, produce, when buildings rise 
 mysteriously from out the veil, which at one point hangs 
 in pall-like folds and in another floats like gossamer 
 in: the struggling rays of a half-concealed sun. The 
 mystery and indecision of such a.phase makes it attractive 
 to the imaginative temperament, and in the present case 
 we may suppose that the producer desired to convey to 
 others by his picture some of the feelings which the original 
 scene inspired, 
 
 Now it chances that the tall buildings piercing the haze 
 like minarets of a fairy palace are the towers of a famous 
 building, to wit, the English Houses of Parliament, yet 
 methinks it will be admitted that whatever charm the 
 little picture possesses is in no way dependent on the fact 
 that it is the historic buildings which are included; they 
 are merely shapely masses of shadow which form a pleasing 
 composition and are a means of conveying the idea intended, 
 and so we accept the picture without ever thinking of what 
 the objects are which go to compose it. 
 
 If a likeness, that is, a faithful representation, of the 
 Houses of Parliament had been desired in this case, is it 
 likely the photographer would have chosen such a day, such 
 a condition of light, or such a point of view, as he has done ? 
 It may therefore be concluded that the motive at least 
 was to secure a pictorial effect; and, that being so, would 
 whatever pictorial merit the print does possess: have been 
 either greater or less had those grey towers been the 
 steeples or minarets of any other building ? 
 
 In this particular instance it must be acknowledged that 
 the obliteration of detail is the result of atmospheric 
 
38 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 conditions rather than the voluntary performance of the 
 photographer; but suppose it had been possible for him. 
 to have represented those towers in the manner in which — 
 the accompanying fragment is done, in which every minute 
 architectural detail is shown with microscopical distinctness 
 (allowance must here be made for the fact that in the 
 half-tone reproduction process detail is somewhat destroyed) 
 
 Would it, then, have been possible to have equally 
 
 LIGHT AND DARKNESS. (By J. Bulbeck.) 
 
 ignored the intrinsic interest attaching to a fine piece of 
 architecture, and have only received the impression of light 
 and shade which was the aim and intention of the picture? 
 In the foregoing case the photographer has grasped, or 
 submitted to, the favourable conditions presented by Nature, 
 and has represented things pretty much as he saw them. 
 Suppose now, however, with the experience thus gained, | 
 he at another time elect to produce on an unfavourable 
 occasion a purely fictitious and imagined (or it may be a. 
 
Arbritrary Obliteration of Detadl. 39 
 
 remembered) effect, he would have learnt that the oblitera- 
 tion of detail assisted the sentiment to subdue the local 
 interest, and he would, by manipulating lens or plate, 
 seek to suppress 
 
 detail which on the 
 
 past occasion mere 
 
 atmospheric — condi- 
 
 tions had suppressed 
 
 for him, and it was 
 
 probably by some . 
 such process of train- 
 
 ing that the photo- 
 
 grapher first received 
 
 the hint from Na- 
 
 ture that for purely 
 
 pictorial work elabo- 
 
 rate definition of de- 
 
 tail was not essential 
 
 to, but rather de- 
 
 structive of, a picto- 
 
 rial rendering. 
 
 Yet it must not 
 be supposed that the 
 mere obliteration of 
 detail and the sup- 
 pression of sharp 
 outlines without a 
 deliberate intention 
 is in itself a virtue. 
 
 A haphazard blur- 
 ring, such as may be 
 secured by jarring 
 the camera during 
 exposure, or by print- 
 ing from the wrong 
 side of a glass ne- 
 gative, is mere trick- 
 ery, which depends on a chance for arriving at a better 
 effect than the photographer had the knowledge or skill to 
 produce by deliberate and well calculated action. The 
 utmost care and forethought, and no little manipulative 
 
 HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
40 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 skill, are necessary to control the defining power of the lens _ 
 or the detail printing power of a sharply focussed negative. 
 
 Of such infinite variety are the effects of Nature, and 
 so varied the intentions of the artist, as also must be the 
 manner in which he may choose to convey his ideas, that 
 it is quite out of the question to prescribe or give any 
 rules as to what degree of suppression of detail should be 
 tried for, or in what particular plane or in part of the 
 picture focus should be sharpest. It has been often said, 
 and that not without some reason, that the maximum of 
 sharpness in a picture should be in and about the principal 
 object, the reason being that the eye is prone to be arrested 
 and the attention drawn to the sharply defined portion. That 
 is to say, the eye is attracted to detail and wonder or 
 interest stimulated by an exhibition of technical or manipu- 
 lative skill. Whilst by no means wishing to subscribe my 
 acknowledgment of this as an invariable rule, yet if it be 
 generally a wise course, and if the reason for sharply 
 focussing the chief object hold good, then it will be evident 
 that the advice sometimes given to focus sharply on the 
 foreground, and gradually less as the planes of the picture 
 appear to recede, must be ignored; the principal object is 
 not often in the immediate foreground, but that detail 
 does arrest attention is, I think, somewhat borne out by 
 the following two examples. 
 
 In the first we have a foreground composed largely of 
 the litter of broken branches, stems, and tree twigs, strewn 
 in the way by the boisterous gambols of winter’s winds 
 and rain, and these various points of light and shade catch 
 the eye and produce a restless, almost irritating sensation, 
 so that the attention fails to proceed further into the 
 picture except by an effort. . 
 
 In the second example much of these obstructing details 
 are cleared away, and I think we shall be conscious of a 
 very different effect. 
 
 But notice, the details in the first are not excessively 
 sharp, so that it is not only a question of sharp definition, 
 but merely of the presence of obtrusive detail in an un- 
 desirable place. 
 
 It may perhaps be said that the most useful and practical 
 lesson would be furnished were I to here present two 
 
 ee aoe h 
 
When Detail is Invisible. 4] 
 
 identical views, one in which detail is produced and the 
 other in which it is suppressed; but I would point out 
 that if a scene be photographed with a small aperture, 
 and when the light shows up all detail, and then again 
 with a large stop when the light merges most of the detail 
 into broad masses, shadow and the change of light, makes it 
 no longer the same subject. As a matter of fact I am 
 inclined to think we have most of us somewhat mistaken 
 the real point at issue when discussing the focus question. 
 
 Speaking from personal experience, I find, on looking 
 through numberless productions, those subjects which I 
 have produced without sharp detail are for the most part 
 those in which, from the condition of light, little or no 
 detail was visible; and the choice of those particular 
 subjects and the determination to present them was decided 
 by the very fact that light and shade was formed in bold 
 masses and no abundance of detail was visible and the effect 
 seemed good. 
 
 In other cases when detail was visible, I find, at least in 
 some cases, my negative renders such detail sharply, but 
 with an absence of strong contrasts between the minute 
 lights and darks, and hence when printed the definition of 
 small details is lost and all is merged into something which 
 might be described as a broken half-tone; and so, whilst 
 reiterating my reluctance to. give anything like a definite 
 rule, yet I think one may safely say that when a particular 
 scene abounds in visible detail then photograph it so as to 
 give all such detail clearly defined, if—and this is the 
 important qualification—if such a scene when translated 
 by photography gives anything more suggestive than a mere 
 copy or record of a natural scene. 
 
 Let me try and make this clearer. If I witness what to 
 me is a pleasing effect on an occasion when little detail is 
 visible, and I depict things as they are, am I to be blamed 
 for having left out details which were not there to be left 
 out? And if, taking a hint from this circumstance, I learn 
 that absence of detail is an accompaniment of certain 
 pleasing effects, may I not on some other occasion, when 
 detail is visible, try, by voluntarily suppressing it, to get 
 the effect which I witnessed when detail was not visible ¢ 
 Should I not be merely profiting by past experience ? 
 
A WOODLAND SCENE, WITH AN ELABORATE FOREGROUND. 
 
 ot 
 
THE SAME SCENE, TAKEN FROM THE SAME POINT OF VIEW, 
 BUT FOREGROUND MADE SIMPLER. 
 
44 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Here are two parallel views taken from nearly the same 
 standpoint, the stop and other mechanical conditions being 
 the same. . 
 
 In the first the sun was nearly in front of the lens, thus 
 throwing the tree and cottage into shadow, little or no 
 detail being visible; in the second the light is behind us, 
 and the view full of detail. 
 
 Neither, perhaps, can be called a picture; but I think 
 it will be recognised that as conveying some suggestion of 
 the sentiment of the scene the idea of broad evening 
 
 shadows, of cool reflections, merely perhaps as a design 
 or composition more or less decorative, the first is pre- 
 ferable, but as a record of the place, a likeness which one 
 would recognise; the latter is the better, but record and 
 recognition are not pictorial qualities. | 
 
 And so, as an attempt to bring all this to something 
 like a definite conclusion, may we not say that the most 
 appealing phases of Nature are those when the conditions of 
 atmosphere and light subdue excessive detail and soften 
 definition; and hence in those productions founded on 
 
Two Extremes. 45 
 
 Nature, but which do not profess to imitate her, but only 
 to re-create the feelings and thoughts which she stirs. 
 Should we not, according to our own judgment, follow the 
 hints and examples which she gives us ? 
 
 We have here two favourable examples of two opposite 
 methods of treatment, each satisfactory in its way; the 
 former by Mr. F. A. Levett, in which an abundance of 
 detail is given, and yet the various planes are well preserved. 
 
 It is a pretty, dainty little picture; the two figures on 
 the bank draw the eye, perhaps, a little too much to one 
 side, and the cattle in the water would of themselves form 
 a stronger point of attraction if the figures had been 
 omitted. The detail which is nearly everywhere abundant 
 is not felt to be obtrusive because it is not crisp and hard. 
 
 In the second example by Mr. Robert Gray we have 
 quite the opposite extreme; all detail is suppressed, the 
 picture relying for success on its general design and the 
 manner in which the tones of the various planes come one 
 against the other. Diffusion of focus has not been carried 
 so far as to destroy form or structure. Each part sufficiently 
 explains itself; the bank, the trees, the water, the middle 
 distance, and the more remote church tower and crown 
 of trees. The effect was deliberately and intentionally 
 sought, and after all it is only as one may see Nature at 
 times, and that time one‘of her most emotional and poetic 
 moods, namely, at dawn or late evening—possibly the 
 pretty little river scene by Mr. F. A. Levett will find the 
 greater number of admirers. The less conventional, more 
 ambitious, and perhaps more subtle production by Mr. 
 Robert Gray will, however doubtless please the few whose 
 appreciation is in an inverse ratio to their number. 
 
 Next let us consider the accompanying reproduction of 
 Turner’s painting of ‘“ Windsor Castle.” Has not the 
 master here chosen a time and a phase of Nature when but 
 little detail is visible and what there may have been is yet 
 kept subordinate to the general masses of light and shade ? 
 Windsor Castle would have been more recognisable if 
 painted under some such conditions as the Parliament Clock 
 “Tower was photographed under on page 39. But no, the 
 Castle itself is mainly in shadow, so also is the hill and 
 the nearer trees. Even in the boats, the figures, and the 
 
(20007 “Wg hg) ‘aNOe Kava , 
 
(‘hosp ‘MA 20Qog ig) ‘MOT SI NAS DNINGAD AHL NOH M 
 
48 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 horses there is only a sort of suppressed definition which 
 is forgotten in the presence of the great masses of the rest 
 of the picture. 
 
 But here my space and possibly my reader’s patience 
 requires me to leave this question of Definition. 
 
 Some EXAMPLES IN COMPOSITION. 
 
 So much space was devoted in Part I. to the subject of 
 Composition that it should be needless to here enlarge 
 
 WINDSOR CASTLE, (rom the painting by Turner.) 
 
 upon the more or less definite rules which seem to have 
 arisen out of a consideration of pleasingly composed 
 arrangements in Nature, or in pictures which have received 
 universal acceptance, for it should be understood that the 
 rules by which we now teach good Composition are not 
 rules arbitrarily formulated and laid down, but they are 
 the result of the careful examination of good pictures. 
 Notable pictures have been produced by the Masters, 
 which have pleased successive generations and people of 
 all kinds. And if we ask why these pictures please, and 
 
A Studied Nonchalance. 49 
 
 what common qualities can be found in them which may 
 account for widely different works being equally pleasing, 
 it then appears possible to discern certain principles of 
 design running through all or nearly all good pictures. 
 
 There are some of us to whom rules of Composition 
 are quite unnecessary. There are some to whom design, 
 balance, and harmony are purely instinctive, with whom, 
 were they to draw a picture, it would be as difficult not 
 to draw what will appear symmetrical and harmonious 
 ’ in composition as it would be unnatural to employ the left 
 hand to hold the pencil. 
 
 From such as these and the paintings of the Masters the 
 less naturally gifted learn the methods which result in 
 good composition, and the photographer then selects those 
 views in Nature which conform as nearly as possible to 
 such rules, but should reject, and allow no other con- 
 sideration to make him hesitate about passing by all 
 such scenes which do not compose well, that is, which 
 do not fall in with the rules which the older Masters 
 have made by their own works. 
 
 The sense of composition or design is to a greater or less 
 degree part of the artistic temperament, and will therefore 
 be instinctively followed by the artist, and it is this that 
 makes it difficult to teach composition to the person of 
 whose temperament it is not a part. It will not be 
 sufficient to learn the rules and principles; they must 
 be learnt so that they become part of our very nature, 
 and then it is that we shall be able to act instinctively and 
 almost unconsciously under their influence. 
 
 The student, who has perhaps industriously studied the 
 subject and has mastered the rules, knows them as perfectly 
 as the sixth-form boy knows and can rattle off his Latin 
 verbs, sets forth to apply his knowledge and put the 
 acquired rules into practice, and the consequence usually 
 is that his productions all betray the conscious observance 
 of a code of rules. Hence I emphasised the sentence in 
 Part I., page 20, that “ there should be no appearance of 
 the thing having been planned.” Let the endeavour to 
 secure a good composition be once self-confessed and it at 
 once seems artificial. | 
 
 With those to whom the instinct of design seems un- 
 
 4 
 
50) Practical Pictorial Photography. x 
 
 attainable, the detection of the superficial and acquired 
 knowledge may be foiled by slight departure from rule, 
 so that the fairly satisfactory result may appear to have 
 been accidental. 
 
 In like manner, if in a sketch I were to introduce a 
 figure walking along the road, I should not put him 
 immediately in the centre of the broadest, most open part 
 of the road, but a little on one side, or even partly hidden 
 by the bend of the road or some other obstruction, as 
 though quite by accident. Thus one hides the artificiality. 
 Hence that often quoted sentence, A7rs est celare artem. 
 
 My purpose in now giving some few examples of com- 
 position, good and bad, is in order that I may point to the 
 good and bad features for the benefit of those who still 
 find a difficulty in making the composition superior to the 
 interest in a view; and it is probable that by constantly 
 analysing pictures in this way the feeling for good com- 
 position will more surely become instinctive than by any 
 other means; but I must caution the student not to seize 
 upon these examples and their leading features and then 
 go forth and endeavour to get just these features into 
 his own photographs, but rather gather up a complete 
 storehouse of hints and suggestions until he becomes 
 saturated as it were with the subject, then his own work 
 and independent actions will be instinctively actuated by 
 the rules absorbed, which will have become no longer a 
 code of rules, but a new sense by which to be actuated. 
 
 Consider for a moment this parallel case, and I think 
 the meaning will be clearer. The literary student studies 
 standard authors, and reads all kinds of good literary 
 composition, not that in his own ultimate work he will 
 quote sentences word for word, nor even slavishly imitate 
 style, but by gradually accustoming himself,to good phrases 
 and composition of sentences he may develop and cultivate 
 his own latent powers. 
 
 Perhaps the chief consideration in composition, that 1s 
 in the arrangement of the parts of the subject selected, is 
 that the whole should be self-contained, well knit together 
 with no parts or lines calculated to scatter the attention 
 and disturb the eye. 
 
 It is in the clever manner in which the various parts 
 
 ~ 
 
 ~ 
 
ON THE THAMES—EVENING. (By W. L. F. Wastell.) 
 
52 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 of a building are proportioned which makes the eye ‘rest 
 upon it with pleasure and satisfaction. Let but some part 
 be too large or too small or too prominent for the rest of 
 the structure, and the eye, unconsciously perhaps, is 
 sensible of a want of -harmony and experiences a sense,of 
 unrest. 
 
 In the little group of boats on the Thames, by Mr. W. 
 L. F. Wastell, (see previous page) the forms of the boats not 
 
 ON THE SHORE—-MERSEA. 
 
 only group together symmetrically, but the principal lines 
 in each converge towards somewhere near the centre, and 
 so draw one’s attention to one point. Had another boat 
 or any other prominent object been allowed to intrude, at 
 the right-hand edge, for instance, this effect would not be 
 so complete. In this particular subject the point towards 
 which attention is drawn is occupied by a notable object, 
 the now familar Tower Bridge. This still further serves 
 to rivet attention—in many cases, however, we find the 
 principal point towards which the eye is led not oceupied 
 
Position of the Horizon. D3 
 
 by any very prominent object, the chief object being, 
 perhaps, well to one side or the other. 
 
 We then have an example of a justifiable departure from 
 rule for the sake of some particular purpose to be fulfilled. 
 Take, for instance, the illustration on the previous page, 
 “*On the Shore—Mersea.” We have here lines leading into 
 the picture with beautifully easy curves; and the other 
 lines for the most part converging with almost remarkable 
 symmetry. 
 
 Yet the most conspicuous object is the tree to the left 
 with the attendant gate and dyke; possibly it would have 
 been better had this group been a little farther from the 
 edge, but even then the winding and converging lines 
 which are such a leading characteristic would not have 
 carried the attention thither. Here we have what appears 
 to be a violation of the acknowledged rules of composition. 
 
 If in such a stretch of lonely barren shore the intention 
 of the picture has been to convey something of that sense 
 of widespread dreariness and solitude which pervades the 
 place, was not this one way of doing it? The lines lead the 
 thought not to dwell on some pretty or interesting group, 
 but to the emptiness of the far-off horizon. 
 
 Perhaps we may learn from this that the principal lines 
 of the picture, about which a good deal was said in Part I., 
 may not lead to the principal object, but may serve to 
 emphasize the pervading feeling. 
 
 Of a somewhat similar character is a very pleasing little 
 rendering of misty air by Mr. Alfred Jeffreys, entitled 
 “Misty Morning,” but that one feels it would have been 
 better could the pathway which leads into the picture, 
 and which is eventually lost in the curtain of mist which 
 forms the chief motive, lead more to the centre and not so 
 far to the left. Still-the principle is the same; and notice 
 also that the inclusion of the bunch of grasses, ete., in the 
 foreground accentuates the dim mystery of the hazy distance. 
 
 It may perhaps be commented that in the last two 
 examples ‘the horizon line divides the picture equally, and 
 that this is contrary to old-established rules. 
 
 To this I should have to say that there are many occa- 
 sions when dealing with subjects in marshy and flat country 
 where this violation of an ancient canon seems unavoid- 
 
Cshasfar ‘pr patfiy ig) ‘“SNINGOW ALSINW V : , 
 
Mere Compliance with Rules not a Virtue. 55: 
 
 able, nor do I consider it necessarily a drawback. If the 
 force of the composition and the interest centred in it be 
 sufficient to make one unconscious of the fact that the 
 horizon line falls midway between the base and the upper 
 limit of the picture, I see no need for regret. 
 
 Of course there are people who look at a picture merely 
 to see if it complies with certain written laws, and condemn 
 or praise accordingly, as though the strict observance of 
 rules were of itself an artistic virtue. 
 
 It should be remembered: that I have suggested how 
 the canons of art and the rules of composition have come 
 to us, namely, that they are, as it were, an abstraction 
 and compilation from the admittedly good works of past 
 masters in art, and are recommendations for the guidance 
 of the student who is in the dark without a guide, then 
 it may be seen that if a pleasing effect anda good picture 
 can be secured, even at the expense of some artistic rule, 
 and further, if we acknowledge that rules in composition 
 and in art generally are but as guides to the tyro and to 
 the less capable, then there will be greater merit if, having 
 gained some proficiency and skill, we are able to secure a 
 _ fine result in defiance of rules. 
 
 What is true of the position of the horizon is equally 
 so of any prominent vertical line which the composition 
 may comprise. A notable example of this was seen in a 
 clever study of a London street as produced by Mr. 
 Eustace Calland, in which the vertical trunk of a tree 
 was allowed to cut the composition exactly into two equal 
 portions, and yet so satisfactory was the rendering of light 
 and shade, texture and of atmosphere, that few noticed 
 what to others was felt to be an almost impudent violation 
 of the rules of composition, as evidence at least that Mr. 
 Calland was not alone in his alleged crime, I some time 
 afterwards came across a signed photogravure reproduction 
 of a painting by so notable a modern painter as Maitland, 
 in which a very similar and indeed almost facsimile subject 
 was treated in much the same spirit, and with the same 
 offending tree dividing the picture in two. Suppose no 
 such rules existed would, in such cases as have been cited, 
 the vertical and horizontal lines have called up comment ¢ 
 I think not; and if, then, a successful and pleasing picture 
 
56 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 be achieved, which only offends on account of the violation 
 of some arbitrary and artificial law, the less such laws 
 burden us the better. 
 
 The violation of a so-called rule, if it does not proclaim 
 itself immediately, but needs looking for, may be judged 
 as no violation at all, equally the composition which needs 
 apology, and the good points explained, is not a good 
 composition at all. Its balance, symmetry, and harmony 
 of design should be seen at once, its well-proportioned parts 
 should strike the senses instantly. 
 
 THE EVENING EBB. 
 
 Hence a good plan when deciding the merits of one’s own 
 work is to hang it at some little distance, in a good light, 
 and at a sufficient distance for us to lose sight of the exact 
 objects, and then, closing the eyes, open them suddenly on 
 the particular picture, and so determine whether the first 
 impression is of a self-contained, well-balanced arrangement 
 of light and shadow. 
 
 This resolving of the picture into a black and white 
 design or plan seems to present a difficulty to some, and 
 yet there is no course of self-instruction more useful ‘than 
 endeavouring to translate any subject into its light and 
 shade masses. 
 
Example of Scattered Lights and Shades. 57 
 
 If we look at a view with half-closed eyes we see the 
 scene through the eyelashes, and details being lost sight of, 
 the whole view resolves itself into masses, and it is this 
 which I should recommend the student to set down on 
 paper like a very broad, rough sketch. 
 
 «« This does not imply any ability to draw or sketch, be- 
 cause all that is needed is to set down on a scrap of paper 
 simple patches of black in varying intensities. 
 
 Take, for instance, this subject entitled ‘The Evening 
 
 Ebb,” and, were we to resolve this into its black and white 
 composition, we should have something like the illustration 
 on the opposite page. 
 
 This primitive sketching may be accomplished with a 
 pencil and paper of any description; but as it is often 
 desirable to work rapidly, and just smudge in, as it were, 
 the black and white spaces whilst standing to consider the 
 subject, a stick of lithographic chalk or of charcoal will 
 be perhaps better, whilst white blotting-paper furnishes a 
 very sympathetic surface to receive the broad touches of 
 charcoal or crayon. 
 
58 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that these rough sketches are 
 going to be of any direct photographie service. ~Their 
 intention is to train the eye to resolve every scene into 
 its light and shade composition. : 
 
 In the example given above it will be seen that the 
 way in which the masses of black and white are grouped 
 forms of itself something like a well-arranged symmetrical 
 design, but what would be the result of trying a similar 
 course with the next view—‘ A View at Conway ”? 
 
 Half close the eyes and look at this print, and you will 
 
 A VIEW AT CONWAY. 
 
 perhaps at once see the difference. The masses of dark 
 are scattered and ‘all over the place.” There is no 
 possibility of bringing them together. Such is the effect 
 of a bad composition, or rather of a view which does not 
 compose at all. . . 
 
 Capital exercise may be found if the student persists 
 in looking at every scene he encounters during his daily 
 movements. In just this way he needs not to actually 
 put anything down on paper, but he should consider every 
 street, scene, and whatsoever else he passes, asking himself 
 
Chqjas! 
 
 aysaT hg) 
 
 ‘CNOWHOIY LY AVG ALSIW V 
 
60 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 what would be the design, what the arrangement of parts, 
 were this or that translated into black and white masses. 
 
 Soon he will learn that some views—such, for instance, 
 as those on which the sun fully shines—are so broken up 
 with little sparkling lights and small patches of shadow 
 that it is practically impossible to translate it into light 
 and shade masses. Then he may conclude that, with some 
 rare exceptions, those subjects are out of question for the 
 pictorial photographer. 
 
 It is the subjects which might be imitated by pieces of 
 paper of varying depth of colour laid one over the other, 
 which are the subjects that will give more readily the 
 greater satisfaction. 
 
 Look, for instance, at the sTinstrataon on the previous 
 page, a view on the Thames below Richmond Bridge. 
 
 This is made up of very little more than some four or 
 five tints or tones coming one against the other. 
 
 If we call the faintest tint of the most distant trees 
 and the bridge No. 1, then the next nearest trees and 
 the trees on the opposite side of the river are No. 2; next 
 the largest tree and the lighter parts of the boats form 
 tone No. 3, whilst the stronger shadows and the far deepest 
 points of shadow in the boats and the mooring posts make 
 up Nos. 4 and 5 
 
 Thus the whole picture is resolved into some 4 or 5 
 varying degrees of shade, each filling a definite space 
 and each acting on the other, making its neighbouring 
 tone appear nearer or more remote as the case may be. 
 Imagine all these spaces filled up with the glittering and 
 infinitely varied lights and shades which would appear were - 
 the light to move round so as to shine full on the scene, 
 and the myriad leaves in the trees and thousand and one 
 little details of woodwork, cordage, and all the rest of the 
 medley which would go to make up boats, landing-stage, 
 etc., and where would the broader masses of light and 
 shade as now seen disappear to? Would the effect be 
 as pleasing? A more useful, more interesting, more 
 instructive view might result, but would not its pictorial 
 qualities suffer even to extermination ? 
 
 I think it is now time I passed to giving some practical 
 hints as to the selection of one’s subject, making especial 
 
Change of Light and the Result. 61 
 
 reference to the varied aspect of the same scene under 
 different conditions, also pointing to how a different Motive, 
 prompted by the conditions of the moment, may lead to an 
 entirely different picture. 
 
 Some PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON THE SELECTION OF THE 
 SupyJEcT AND A Nore ON THE SuBsect oF Mortve. 
 
 To begin with, I fear that the average photographer, 
 and certainly the beginner, is too easily satisfied, and I 
 should like to see such cultivate a more fastidious judg- 
 ment. The tendency seems to be, on arriving at a given 
 spot, to at once set up the instrument, and with only a 
 little time spent in choosing the point of view to forthwith 
 expose the plate and pass on to the next station. 
 
 When recently I met a man at work with his camera, 
 and he told me that he had come to this particular spot 
 that day because about a year before he had exposed two 
 or three plates there, but had felt that he had not made 
 the best of the subject, and so had returned to try and 
 improve on his previous efforts, I felt a certain amount 
 of respect for so persistent a worker ; yet I also felt that 
 had he exerted more care, and considered longer before 
 making those exposures a year ago, the twelve months 
 might have been saved and the second visit rendered un- 
 necessary. | 
 
 I do not think that many early workers fully realise 
 the enormous difference which a passing cloud or the altered 
 light within an hour or two may make to a scene, nor do 
 they avail themselves of these changes sufficiently. 
 
 As a very elementary and not very striking example take 
 the illustration on next page—‘ Pastures by the Sea,” No. 2. 
 
 Compare this with the illustration going by the same 
 name and reproduced on page 23. Compare them closely 
 and notice how many little differences there are which 
 together go to make up a widely differing total result, and 
 yet these two were from plates in the same double dark 
 slide, and exposed within ten minutes of each other. 
 
 The chief difference is due to the alteration in’ the clouds 
 and the light resulting therefrom. 
 
 For this reason the photographer may welcome a day 
 
62 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 when clouds are abundant and chase each other across the 
 sky, giving one: moment an all-pervading flood of un- 
 interrupted sunshine, the next a short period of gloom, 
 and anon chequered drifting lights and shadows, here a 
 gleam of sunlight, there a passage of shade, each changing 
 places in a moment, and then repeated as new clouds take 
 the places of their predecessors, and imitate their effects on 
 the earth beneath. 
 
 If on such an occasion we stand and watch we shall 
 notice how first one clump of trees shines out with the 
 
 PASTURES BY THE SEA, NO, 2. 
 
 transient light, then another, first there is a long line of 
 light in one place, next the gleam of sunshine is further 
 off and in a totally different position. 
 
 Watch, then, and decide under which of the many 
 changing aspects the scene is best—-best as regards the 
 arrangement of lines and the contrasts of its masses—and 
 then place the dark slide in position and wait for the 
 desired effect to repeat itself. 
 
 Consider also how great is the effect of season and 
 weather. 
 
 On the following pages are four illustrations of the same 
 object, and that a not very promising one, which were 
 
WASHINGTON’S MONUMENT ON A RAINY DAY. 
 
64 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 reproduced in The Amateur Photographer from The Photo- 
 graphic Times of -New York, and I give these here, not 
 only as direct examples, but as a suggestion for what I 
 
 ON A MISTY MORNING. 
 
 i 
 
 think must prove to be a most profitable course of self- 
 cultivation and study. wn . 
 
 I would recommend that some subject within easy reach 
 of one’s home be fixed upon and photographed on every 
 
Different Phases of the Same Subject. 65 
 
 | possible occasion when light, season, weather, or what not, 
 are likely in any way to effect a change of appearance— 
 
 ON A SNOWY AFTERNOON. 
 
 * morning light, noon and evening, under a clear sky, and on 
 a grey covered day, and again under heavy storm clouds, 
 in rain, in fog, and in snow time. 
 
 D 
 
66 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 A series of prints from a long series of exposures made 
 under these varied conditions would soon open one’s eyes to 
 
 ee 
 
 BY NIGHT. 
 
 the vast difference which results from an altered environ- 
 ment, and after a while it would be possible to form a 
 
 fairly clear idea as to how this or that scene would look 
 Jike under altered conditions. 
 
Subsequent Treatment. 67 
 
 We might then find ourselves, on some occasions, wishing 
 for altered conditions, saying to ourselves, “If only the 
 weather were so and so, or if the sun were further round, 
 how much better this subject would be.” Thus we form a 
 definite idea as to what we desire, and it may be it will 
 be possible for us to attempt that same subject at another 
 time when, if our anticipations are right, the effect will 
 be better, but, if not then, when once we have thus clearly 
 in our mind what would be an improvement, we may, 
 
 i 
 | 
 | 
 
 ppbv 
 
 when printing, be able to deliberately effect some alteration 
 
 or modification which we had wished Nature would do 
 for us. 
 
 In selecting our subject then we have two things to 
 consider. First, is it as good as the existing conditions 
 will let it be—that is, have we chosen the point of view 
 which, with the present conditions, shows at its best 
 pictorially, and secondly, if taken from this point now, are 
 the alterations we would like, weather or light, to make 
 for us of such a kind that we can introduce them for our- 
 selves when printing, and, if so, what are those alterations ? 
 
68 Practical Pictorial Photography. 
 
 Now then we have need of the note book, or even of the 
 sketch book, in order that we may have a guide when 
 this particular negative is in hand for printing hereafter. 
 
 In a former case the sketch was spoken of merely as a 
 means of training the eye to resolve natural scenes into 
 their black and white masses; now, however, the sketch 
 may actually serve as a memorandum of some effect to be 
 produced, or of some modification to be made. 
 
 ar 
 
 A LOWLAND STREAM. (By Hector #. Murchison.) 
 
 “Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, — ; mt 
 And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows.” 
 
 As an instance of an ill-composed subject taken with 
 a definite view to subsequent alteration, the accompanying 
 print (see previous page) may serve, in which a subject, with 
 lines running unpleasingly out of the picture on the right, 
 was taken with the intention of shading this down after 
 printing, as has been done in the second illustration, and 
 this same principle, not only as regards the shading down 
 of a little bit of water, but in countless ways when in 
 modification of the print is possible, may be acted on. 
 
 Whether the photograph proves of a pictorial character 
 
—— =. 
 my 2 
 
 Conclusion. 69 
 
 depends directly and almost exclusively upon its motive, 
 by which I mean the mere fact of a-subject being well 
 grouped, or pretty, or interesting, is not enough. The 
 motive which will give the production its pictorial character 
 is the lightness, the dreariness, the wildness, the mystery, 
 or the gloom; and thus let it be well had in mind that the 
 same subject may serve as the medium for many motives 
 and each motive will constitute a different picture as in 
 the ‘“ Washington Monument” and other examples given. 
 
 These pages have now extended beyond the originally 
 intended limit, and whilst perhaps to some it may seem 
 that there has been too much writing about little matters, 
 I cannot find anything now.that I could cut out without 
 omitting something which I think it desirable my reader 
 should hear. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
Publications by HAZELL, WATSON, & VINEY, Ld., 1, Creed Lane, E.C. 
 
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