PRICE TWO SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE. £1 PHOTOGRAPHIC HANDY-BOOKS. No. V. PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. BT H- P. ROBINSON. LONDON : PIPER & CARTER, 5, CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN, E.C. P. MEAGHER, Photographic Apparatus Manufacturer. 'International Exhibition, 1862— Highest Award Photographic Society of Scotland, 18«3-Only Mbdal AXA/Aomo J % r l? ^national Exhibition, 1865-Medal AWARDS. *< North London Exhibition, 1865— Only Prize Medal Dublin International Exhibition. 1866 -Highest Award Paps Universal Exhibition, 1867-Only Medal for Cameras {Edinburgh Photographic Society, 1877-Only Medal Faa CambraS MEAGHER'S NEVTlFO^^ This CAMERA is similar in construction to the well-known Binocular Camera, and possesses the following advantages over the existing Landscape or Kinnear form of CaSa --No ^ewJ are required for fixing ; the focussing is effected from the back by the screw adlusWnWhJ focussing -screen is attached to the camera, and the bellows body is ^ parallel 3 TmI^I^ iound of great advantage when using wide-angle lenses. It is available T eSrVor ill *ZmH- or field, the range of focus permitting the use of thrshortest-foon^tprin ill he WJ^angle, Doublet, or View Lensesfalso for the C D V p tZet^et ' ^ * '** This Camera is used in the Government Photographic Departments, and by nearly all the best Amateur and Professional Photographers ; and has been adopted by nearly every Maker of, and Dealer in, Cameras, both at home and abroad. See the — various Illustrated Catalogues These Cameras were selected by Captain Abney, R.E.,F.R.S., forthe Photographic Equipment of H.M.S. Challenger," the American Boundary Commission, and the Arctic Expedition. 8) 9 9 10 10 12 12 15 15 18 18 24 24 Camera and one Size. Double Back only. by 6k £5 19 0 -.. „ 8| 6 14 0 „ 7 6 10 0 7 4 0.. , 8 , 10 , io , 12 7 0 0 7 14 0 8 8 0 9 3 0 , 12 10 10 0 , 15 12 0 0 , 16 17 15 0 21 0 0 ,28 0 0 , 18 ; 20 i 24 Single Swing Back extra. 0 15 0 0 15 0 0 15 0 0 15 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 5 0 15 0, 1 10 0 1 10 0 1 15 0 1 15 0 2 5 Double Swing Back extra. Brass Binding extra. 1 10 0 ... 1 0 0 32 0 0 ... 2 5 0 ... 1 10 0 ... 1 10 0 , ... 1 10 0 ...2 0 0 ...2 0 0 ... 2 10 0 ... 2 10 0 ...3 0 0 ...3 0 0 ... 3 10 0 ... 3 10 0 , ... 4 10 0 ... 4 10 0 Russia Leather Bellows extra. 0 18 0 Single Backs for Wet Plates each 0 0 ... 0 18 0 .10 0 .10 0, .15 0 .15 0 . 1 10 0 . 1 10 0 .200 .2 0 0. . 2 15 0 , 2 15 0 . 3 12 6 . 3 12 6 . . 0 18 0 0 18 0 .. . 1 10.. . 1 10.. . 1 7 0.. . 1 7 0.. . 1 17 6 . 1 17 6 .. . 2 10 0 ., . 2 10 0 .3 0 0.. 3 0 0 2 0 4 0 . 4 0 . 8 0 . 8 0 . 10 0 . . 1 12 0 . , 1 14 0 . .2 5 0. . 2 10 0 . .350 Extra . Double Extend- Backs ing . each. Fronts. .15 0...1 15 0 . 1 8 0...1 15 0 . 1 8 0...1 15 0 ;. 1 12 0...2 0 0 1 12 0...2 0 0 1 14 0...2 2 0 0...3 5 0 001 2 2 0...3 10 0 * 2 15 0...5 0 0 3 0 0...5 10 0 4 0 0...6 10 0> I 3 10 0 ... 4 10 0...7 0 0 4 15 0 ... 5 15 0...8 0 ct f ... 5 5 0 ... 6 6 0...8 10 0 ^ • Fitted with extending fronts, the single combination of the Rapid Symmetrical or Rapid Rectilinear Lenses can be used, and the camera can be available for copying The wood used in the manufacture of the above cameras is carefully prepared and selected from a well-seasoned stock, averaging 50,000 feet, cut into the various thicknesses required t JS™?^ P a8t J w enty-five years, a large number of these cameras have been exported lo India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China, and Japan; and are also in lue at the Government departments at Chatham, Woolwich, and South Kensington A large number of satisfactory testimonials have been received from amateur and professional photographers from all parts of the world. f«h«m»mm 21, MANTTFAOTORY- SOUTHAMPTON ROW, HIGH NOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. PICTUEE MAKING PHOTOGRAPHY. BY H. P. ROBINSON, AUTHOR OF "PICTORIAL EFFECT IN PHOTOGRAPHY," LONDON : PIPER & CARTER, 5, CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN, E.C. 1884. [all rights reserved.] LONDON : PIPER AND CARTER, CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN, E.C. PEEFACE. It has been said of Gibbon, the historian, that he did not always sufficiently distinguish between his own person- ality and that of the Roman Empire. I am afraid that the following chapters may be open to a similar objection. I fear that a great deal more will be found concerning my own personality and productions than a modest writer would willingly admit ; but this cannot easily be avoided. The nature of the information to be conveyed, and the lessons to be inculcated, demand that I should teach the results of my own experience, and suggest that the pictures which have been the outcome of that experience would be the most suitable illustrations. It will be evident that pictures which have been actually produced by photography will better show the peculiarities and limitations of the art than any other method of illustration. That photography should be not only the recorder of bald prosaic fact, but also the means by which something akin to imagination or fancy — real live art — may be worthily embodied, has been the one aspiration of my life. To this end, my aim has been, in the following chapters, to induce photographers to think for themselves VI PREFACE. as artists, and to learn to express their artistic thoughts in the grammar of art. It is not the fault of the art of photography itself that more original pictures, exhibiting many of the qualities shown in other arts, are not pro- duced. The materials used by photographers differ only in degree from those employed by the painter and sculptor. The illustrations, with the exception of one or two, owe their existence to photography. Without the help of the processes by which substitutes for woodcuts can be quickly and cheaply made from pen-and-ink sketches, a book of this kind could not be so effectively illustrated. They make no pretension to be refined examples, and their purpose will be served if they make more clear the words I have written. The full page illustrations are by Sprague's Ink process, by which photographs from nature or drawings are translated into lithographs. I have great pleasure in acknowledging my indebted- ness to Mr. Henry Blackburn — who, in his well-known and highly appreciated Exhibition Catalogues, was one of the first to use the photo-etching processes extensively — for permission to use some of the blocks from his admirable illustrated catalogue of the National Gallery, a book that should be in the hands of every photographer who desires to improve his knowledge of art. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L Gelatine Plates and their Uses 1 CHAPTER II. Our Tools 7 CHAPTER III. Composition 16 CHAPTER IV. Light and Shade 23 CHAPTER V. In the Field 37 CHAPTER VI. What to Photograph 41 CHAPTER VII. Models 49 CHAPTER VIII. The Genesis of a Picture 53 CHAPTER IX. The Origin of Ideas 62 CHAPTER X. Subjects.— What is a Landscape? ... 70 CONTENTS. PAGE. CHAPTER XI. Figures in Landscape 77 CHAPTER XII. An Effect of Light 84 CHAPTER XIII. Sunshine 88 CHAPTER XIV. On Sea and Shore 93 CHAPTER XV. The Sky 100 CHAPTER XVI. Animals 106 CHAPTER XVII. Old Clo' Ill CHAPTER XVIII. Portraiture Without a Studio 117 CHAPTER XIX. Strong and Weak Points of a Picture 121 CHAPTER XX. Conclusion ... 125 illustrations. A Merry Tale v Frontispiece Wayside Gossip To face page 47 A Nor' Easter .. ... „ 97 "Is it a Dog?" ... „ 110 The be ft in this kind are but IWio-ws : Jljworft are no worfe, if Imagination ame^d tWem.-Mafe-Awe. *t PICTUEE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. CHAPTER L GELATINE PLATES AND THEIR USES. That this little book on " Picture Making " is not a treatise on chemistry, ought to go without saying ; yet it is so much the custom, in books intended to teach the art, to make photo- graphic pictures a matter of scales and weights, molecules and atoms, achromatism and astigmation, that it seems necessary to state that art begins where chemistry and optics leave off, and that there will not be one word of technicality, except where it is necessary for the elucidation of pictorial effect, in this book. Cameras and processes are but the. material or mechanical appli- ances of the art, its pencils and pigments, its paper, panels, or canvas ; as such they will be referred to ; but to. go into the matter of manufacture of materials would be quite foreign to my purpose. Why should it be necessary in these days of dry plates for the photographer to prepare his own materials ? It makes him no more an artist than it would add to the reputation of a Eoyal Academician if he ground his own paints. It is probable, indeed, that the work of both painter and photographer would suffer if they made their own colours, brushes, plates, and lenses. It is not easy to suppose that either of them could com- mand the experience or plant of the manufacturer. There was B 2 PICTTJRE MAKING BT PHOTOGRAPHY. a time when neither painter nor photographer could obtain materials fit to work with if they did not prepare them them- selves ; but in the case of the painter that difficulty was removed many years ago, and for the photographer it disappeared when all other methods of taking a negative died, almost a sudden death, at the birth of the gelatine process. Just as there are those who take a delight in cooking their own dinner, there are some who enjoy making their own dry plates ; but with most persons the cooking would take away the appetite and spoil the dinner ; so would the plate-making dry up the energy to use them properly. It would, perhaps, be well for the student to read up the sub- ject and gain some acquaintance with the materials he uses, but, so far as plates are concerned, a theoretical knowledge should be sufficient. Of course he must know how to use the materials supplied to him, how to develop a negative or print an impres- sion, but he need not make his plates or albumenize his paper. Again there comes in the analogy with the painter. It is proper for both artists to know something of the history of their art, and of the tools they employ, but for practical work the photographer need no more make his own plates or developer than his lens or camera. My advice, then, is, buy your materials as ready made as you can get them of those whose business it is to supply them, and confine your attention to the study of how to use them. But whether you make your own plates or buy them, I shall assume that you know how to make them into negatives. It has been the fashion with writers on photography to apply the term, " A new power," to nearly every invention or sugges- tion made in connection with the art. This honorable title has sometimes been deserved, of tener not ; but it cannot be denied that, taking one advantage only, the rapidity of exposure allowed by the gelatine plate confers a distinct and very real new power on photographers. The discovery enables them to produce, on the one hand, quite new effects, and on the other GELATINE PLATES. 3 gives them the means of securing old effects with greater ease and certainty. The process being much quicker than any hitherto discovered, is admirably adapted to all subjects which require, or will admit of, a very short exposure ; those, for instance, taking that fraction of a second which it is usual, but not quite correct, to call instantaneous. This quality alone of course opens up a vast mine of subjects that have hitherto been only feebly attempted. Still, it has its disadvantages also. Instantaneous pictures, of a sort, have become so easy of accomplishment, that our exhi- bitions are flooded with them. These photographs may be very useful to painters, because they are real bits from nature, real machine views, at least ; but they are not art. Yet if you look through an acre of them, you will find every now and then yoa will come upon a gem. Put these selected gems aside as you find them, and after you have been through the collection, turn your attention again to the few selected prints. You will be astonished to find that although the scores of sea views were all so apparently alike that they appeared to be all done by the same photographer ; by some happy accident the selected few were better than the others ; that the best pictures were owned by one or two, or at most three, good names, and that you had selected all their works which had been mixed up with the rest of the collection. This would, I think, conclusively prove that even in such subjects as apparently refuse to allow the photo- grapher to have any control over them," the artist photographer will compel circumstances, and make his art-knowledge felt even in an instantaneous shot at a passing effect in nature. Many of my readers will remember, or be happy in the possession of, the beautiful little pictures of the sea, by Mr. Mayland. These little gems were not the result of haphazard chance, but of months of careful waiting ; and nothing was accepted as good enough in the way of a subject, but those arrangements of sea and sky which lent themselves to pictorial effect by forming 4 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. themselves so that they should agree with the laws of composition and chiaroscuro. Nothing but a sound knowledge of those laws, and constant practice, will enable a photographer to make the immediate and lightning-like application of them which is neces- sary in instantaneous photography. In photographing scenes con- taining groups of figures, like the most interesting series of London from an omnibus, by Mr. Cobb, the best artists will get the best pictures. A photographer without a knowledge of art would simply " fire into the brown of them," as a sportsman would say, and trust to luck ; while a photographer who knew some- thing of the rules of composition would wait until his figures arranged themselves to advantage, and would know when was the best moment to pull the trigger of his camera. Soon after the new plates came into use, there arose a con- troversy as to whether the new system would ever take the place of the wet process in simple landscape. It was thought the negatives would not give the peculiar crispness and sparkle, combined with sharpness, which had been a characteristic of the old process. And at the time there appeared to be sufficient reason for this doubt. But since then, it has been triumphantly shown, in thousands of landscape photographs, that it not only could give all the old effects, but added new charms when skilfully employed. There is more of what artists call " quality " in a good gelatine negative than in one on a collodion plate, and the freedom from the worries incident to a wet process gives the photographer more opportunity of looking at the aesthetic side of his art, and ought besides to prolong his life. The new system has its difficulties, but pinholes, lines in the direction of the dip, dirty plates and their effects, fogging, drying of the film, oyster-shell markings, dirty fingers and spoiled clothes, and many other worries, are gone. Besides these advantages, the photographer has now the opportunity of making his landscapes into veritable pictures by the addition of figures. This we all know was possible with the GELATINE PLATES. 5 old process, but the loss occasioned by the moving of the figures owing to the long exposure was serious, and there was very little chance of getting the spontaneous effect in the figures we now see in so many landscapes; while to introduce an animal, a cow, horse, donkey, or dog, was to attempt a forlorn hope. "We have thus open to us new subjects. Animals, and incidents of rustic life, afford a wide range of subjects now suitable for our art that previously could not be attempted. It is true we have always had portraits of animals, but they have nearly always been portraits of individuals brought up for the purpose of having their likeness taken — the prize bull, the favourite horse, or the pet dog. "We can now visit the animals at home, and make pictures of them while pursuing their ordinary avocations, such as cattle in a farmyard or cooling themselves in a stream during the noonday heat, horses ploughing, pigs feeding, deer in a park and — what has not yet been done quite successfully, but which is possible — pigeons flying, or just alighting to be fed. It is now so easy to catch what might be called the accidental beauties of nature. Hitherto, before the tent could be erected, and the plate prepared, the cloud that partly covered the land- scape, and gave a beautiful breadth of light and shade, was gone ; the figures that gave point and life to the view had moved on, or the waggoner with that picturesque waggon and team of powerful horses could not wait. But perhaps the purpose for which quick dry plates are found of as much advantage as anything else is in photographing in- teriors. There are many places where the wet plate with its rain of silver drops is tabooed. Museums and picture-galleries, well-furnished houses and yachts, are now open to the camera, while as for quality, the results have never before been approached. In professional portraiture it is every photographer's experi- ence that he used to lose a certain percentage of sitters because he could not take them quickly enough, even on fine days, by the 6 PICTUEE MAKING BY PHOTOGrEAPHY. old process. Young children, nervous people, and occasionally some who are afflicted with diseases, such as palsy, which prevent them sitting the necessary time, were usually the causes of these vexatious losses. This percentage is now, by aid of the new plates, either very much reduced, or wiped out altogether. Sub- jects that at one time I should have looked upon with despair, I now anticipate with pleasure. Subjects that were once almost out of the question are now possible, and the merely possible of the old time are now easy. Very little more is now required than a knowledge of what will make a picture, and a capacity — rarer than some people would think — for making up your mind. That the photographer may acquire the faculty of making up s his mind, and that he may know that it is made up rightly, is one of the objects for which this book is written. Although I do not mean to interfere with the teachers of tech- nical photography, there is one point in connection with dry plates I cannot refrain from giving ; it is this : — Do not make experiments in the field ; you will have enough to do to make pictures. Some photographers will have a different kind of plate,, of varying degrees of sensitiveness, in each slide. This is scien- tific experiment, if you like, but not picture making. Find out by trial at home a make of plate that you think will suit you, and keep to it. It is easier to get good pictures with rather in- ferior plates, if you know them, than with first-rate ones of which you have no experience. I will not go so far as to say don't try to get a better kind of plate than those you are using — that would be to stop all progress — but do not change for the sake of change. CHAPTEE IL OUR TOOLS. The introduction of dry plates has revolutionized photography in more ways than one. The immense increase in rapidity has rendered many of the quick-acting lenses — triumphs of the optician's art — almost useless, and in time those prodigious efforts of the camera-maker's genius and French polish, in which some photographers delight, will be looked upon as curiosities, or burnt as lumber. It will be found that the camera of the future will run more to lightness and adaptability. I have always protested against the weight some manufacturers have imposed on photographers, and am pleased to see them working in the right direction at last. There was a time when it was impossible for photographers to get a camera made to their liking, except by the village carpenter. The despotic manu- facturer who never used a camera in his life, insisted that he knew better what a photographer wanted than he did himself, and the unfortunate operator had to submit. Many years ago, a famous African traveller asked me to inspect a photographic outfit which had been prepared for him by order of the Government. What he really required, in my opinion, was about thirty pounds weight of apparatus and materials, neatly packed in a small box, or, to be liberal, say another ten pounds for glass — cost : not more than forty or fifty pounds. It was not necessary that the 8 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. photographs should be of a large size ; and with an outfit similar to this, any intelligent photographer, other circumstances agreeing, ought to be able to give a pretty good idea of Africa. "What really was provided was contained in several enormous cases weighing nearly a ton, and which cost several hundreds of pounds. Amongst other absurdities I found that the collection contained three pounds of ammonia (at that time occasionally employed for correcting the nitrate bath, and of which a few drops would have been sufficient), and only one pound of hypo, notwithstanding that there was a ream of album enized paper supplied ! I said to the traveller's brother, who was to have been the photogiapher of the expedition, " You had better leave this little lot at home, and save yourself the trouble of dropping it into the first jungle you come to." The expedition sailed a day or two afterwards, and there was no time to make any material alteration. This grand set of Spanish mahogany, French polished, brass-bound for hot climates, &c, apparatus, with the accompanying laboratory of every chemical, liquid or solid, that the wildest scientific imagination could suggest as possibly useful in the art, never came back, nor was a single picture ever sent home. Apparatus should be, above all things, light and easily worked ; and at the same time there can be no objection to its being cheap ; but I do not insist upon this, and low-priced articles are seldom cheap. It is, perhaps, more economical to obtain perfectly efficient tools at once than to begin with " cheap sets." These " sets " are useful in inducing people to begin photography, but they are soon discarded for something better. It looks so wise and inexpensive to get everything complete for fifty shillings, and all photographers know how difficult it is to give up the art, or to stand still, when they have once begun. The constant fascination photography exercises over its votaries is one of the curiosities of the century ; it is the only thing that has not gone out of fashion during the last forty years. OVR TOOLS. 9 The apparatus for the traveller, to which I have alluded, was for out-door work. The arrangements for studio work were still more complicated and clumsy. Let us visit, by way of illustra- tion, an enthusiastic amateur friend whose studio is fitted up with all the luxuries in the way of apparatus that wealth can supply. I find myself about to take a card portrait. I focus the first half of the plate for a full-length figure. Here I meet with a difficulty at the outset : ingenuity has devised a snare, into which I immediately fall. Attached to the lens is a cone, in- tended to prevent unnecessary rays of light entering the camera, and fogging the plate (a difficulty I never met with, under any -circumstances, at home) ; inside this conical shade is a shutter for exposure, worked from the outside by a brass knob (this knob being round, your only means of knowing whether the shutter is up or down is by looking inside from the front) ; the shutter is hinged from the top, and, when opened, is caught with a spring ; to make the spring hold, you have to give the shutter a jerk as you expose the picture, which makes the camera vibrate. "When I am in the act of focussing, down comes the shutter. This is set up again with greater care, and the slide inserted. The sitter, who is the only one in the room who has an oppor- tunity of seeing or knowing, except from memory, discovers, just in time, that the shutter is open, for with these cones, as I have explained, the operator can only tell if the lens is open by looking in at the front ; the round knob gives him no indica- tion. Before the intended exposure is quite over, the spring gives way again, and the shutter falls. If these cones must be nsed, the shutter should be hinged at the bottom, so that, when open, it might fall ; there would then be no danger of a prema- ture and fatal termination to the exposure ; and if the shutter was allowed, when shut, to incline towards the lens, there would be no necessity for a spring, and, consequently, no danger of vibrations. The card picture was followed by an attempt to take a life- 10 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. sized head on a 20 by 16 plate. It took two strong men and a guide to haul forth the large camera on rollers. This camera and stand is the master-piece of its maker. The back has more ingenious movements than I could ever learn the use of, although I have given up my mind to finding out all the dodges ; the front is a complicated system of brass and woodwork ; the sides are panelled ; the stand is made of heavy oak ; it rises up and goes down, it tips forward and backward, and looks to the right and to the left. The sitter is placed, and we attempt to focus him — but now comes a difficulty. This camera, made by one of the first makers in the world, especially for taking life-sized heads, with all its complicated motions, has none whatever for meeting the requirement for which it was made. The focus is obtained by a screw by which the front of the camera, carrying the lens, is pushed in and out ; not a bad form for small cameras, but anyone who has tried to focus an object of the full size with an arrangement of this kind will know that it is impossible to do so. An image of the size of the original is produced by the lens being equi-distant from the object and the ground glass, and when the lens is made to move between the object and the plate, no focus can be got. The only way to get focus under these circum- stances is to move either the camera or the sitter, both trouble- some operations, especially when the camera is too heavy to move, and the sitter so well posed that any alteration may be for the worse. At length a make-shift sort of image is got, not exactly of the size required, but we are too exhausted to try further. The plate is put in the slide, which, being so heavy, is with difficulty placed in the camera, and then — something gives way somewhere, for the front of the camera falls a few inches. It is found that one of the blocks of wood, which had been inserted to stop vibration, has fallen out ; for it is a peculiarity with these heavy stands, theoretically made to be very rigid, that they, from their many complications, vibrate more than commoner and simpler ones. The picture OUR TOOLS. 11 is at last exposed. The developing is a difficulty, for the violent struggle with the camera has exhausted me, and made my hand shake. The sitter, also, has become very tired, and looks stupid. The end is, the negative is destroyed, and none of us has pluck enough to try another. Thus superfine apparatus may defeat the best intentions. This is a faithful relation of a scene that occurred some years ago. The apparatus is now rotting in an out-house. I have shown what apparatus should not be ; let us now try to arrive at what it should be ; and I have great pleasure in noticing that a vast improvement has taken place in the designs of cameras and other apparatus during the last few years. The makers have at last listened to those who have to use the tools, and it is now possible to obtain, without much trouble, cameras and other implements that are easy to carry and a delight to use. If a photographer is to do the best arid most artistic work of which he is capable, he must keep his head clear and level, and be enabled to devote his chief attention to his subject, and the consideration of the best method of treating it. His tools and materials must be so arranged that they play into his hand ; this, at all events, is what I find necessary in my own practice. I take some large sized pictures ; but I do not possess a camera up to the 15 by 12 size that I cannot pick up and run away with with ease, or that has any loose pieces to mislay or leave at home. A camera, then— we will take a field camera, for example, as this book is chiefly on out-door work— should be light, so that it may be easily transported from one place to another with no unnecessary fatigue to the operator. A tail-board camera is the form I prefer. There should be no loose pieces ; bolts should be used, where possible, instead of screws ; the focussing glass should be hinged; the back should swing one way only— -that is, so as to give the foreground a better chance of being in focus. 12 PICTTJBE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. I prefer it when it opens much wider than it is usually made to do, say inches in a 10 by 8 camera; this is especially useful in pictures of the sea. The swing the other way, usually em- ployed for correcting the vertical lines of buildings when the lens has to be tilted up (and which camera makers will insist upon your having, whether you want it or not), is so rarely required, as to be practically useless in ordinary cameras, and only adds to the weight. I cannot call to mind any occasion on which I have wanted this movement ; yet I have had to carry it about with me for flve-and-twenty years ! There is a new way of making the camera-back, lately introduced, which is very compact. It is easily worked, but too complicated for description. The plate slides should be of the solid form — that in which the shutters pull completely out. This is a capital invention, for which, I believe, we are indebted to America ; the slides are better and cheaper than those of the old book form. The word " slide' ' should be a misnomer. It is not necessary that the plate-holder should be pushed its whole length, often in danger of sticking in the groove ; a slight catch will hold the largest holder securely in its place. * The front of the camera should be made so that the lens may be raised when it is necessary to cut off a piece of the foreground. The piece to hold the lens should not run in grooves, but should be made to fit in its place with a spring. A cone, to lengthen the focus, may be also made to fit the same place. This cone should be made to reverse and turn inside the camera, fitting the same grooves, for convenience of travelling. The camera should be easily unpacked, and ready for use at a moment's notice. Photography is not the leisurely pursuit it was in the days of collodion. Subjects continually occur in a country walk that will not admit of delay. Cameras are now made so that, by touching a bolt or a spring, the tail-board falls down, another bolt fastens the side-piece, and it is ready to fix on the tripod in a few seconds. Sufficient extension should be arranged to OUR TOOLS. 13 allow the use of long and short-focus lenses. Small cameras are better focussed with a rack-and-pinion — large ones, with an endless screw. The stand should be a tripod of the lightest construction that will admit of steadiness. Finally, the camera should be so light-tight that it may be used in the sun without any covering. The solid holders are quite safe, and the other parts should not require to have a black cloth wrapped round them. There are times when your subject may vanish while you are blundering over tying out light that should never have the chance of getting in. A perfect camera should be beyond suspicion of admitting light. In the larger sizes of this new form of slide, there is danger of admitting light if the slide is not withdrawn or returned very evenly. If part of the slide is pulled out while the other end of it is keeping open the spring that shuts out light as the shutter is withdrawn, light must be admitted. In this case, a black velvet sleeve, made so as to slip easily on and off the end of the slide with elastic, is a perfect protection. In use, it should be fixed on to the end of the slide, and the shutter pulled into it. It may then be removed, as it "is only during the pulling out or replacing of the shutter that light can get in. What particular lenses to use for various purposes has always been a knotty point. As I don't suppose that many of my readers will care to supply themselves with a whole battery of lenses, I think it sufficient to say that the rapid rectilinear or symmetrical form is the best for general purposes. It would also be useful to have a wide-angle single landscape lens. I usually take two or three different kinds of lenses with me, but, practically, I find the rapid rectilinear does most of the work. It is necessary to guard against the entrance of light through the diaphragm slit in "this lens. The little light that comes through the aperture, which never hurts a collodion plate, fogs a gelatine film, especially if the camera is kept waiting any length of time for exposure with the shutter withdrawn. A guard 14 PICTUEE MAKING BY PHOTOGEAPBY. fastened with an india-rubber band not only kee ps out the light, but prevents the diaphragm slipping out. For photographing seas and skies, some other method of exposing the plate than the simple and primitive one of taking the cap off the lens with the hand is necessary. Many in- genious contrivances have been invented for this purpose ; but I know of none better than the simple drop shutter. This should be made to go off by pressing a button, or with a pneumatic ball and tube. The shutter dropping of its own weight will be quick enough for most purposes ; but if it is necessary to give a quicker exposure, any degree of velocity may be attained by the application of springs made of india-rubber bands of different strengths. There is one tool which has not yet been invented, but which would be of great use — I mean a portable head and body rest that would pack with the tripod. Its great merit, apart from efficiency, would be lightness. Prom my experience with head- rests (whose chief virtue, hitherto, seems to have been in weight) it seems almost absurd to suggest a portable form of this useful but much abused instrument ; but I think something might be con- structed in which mechanical contrivance might take the place of weight. Something based on the principle of the tripod might be put together for use in difficult cases, for of all the disappoint- ments that occur to the photographer, I don't know a greater than for him to find, when he develops at home a plate he ex- posed hundreds of miles away, that he has got a marvellously fine picture in every respect except that it was entirely spoilt by the movement of one of the figures. I think that everything in photography has, in skilled hands, been reduced to a certainty, or as near a certainty as is possible in this world, with the exception of the steadiness of the sitter. If this could be attained, a great advance would be gained. The shortness of exposure at which we have now arrived is certainly in favour of steadiness ; but it is a fact that, if a figure moves during a OUR TOOLS. 15 second's exposure with a quick plate, the blurring is as great as if the exposure was of a minute's duration. There is an unconscious and almost imperceptible swing about a standing figure, especially if in a difficult pose, that would be checked by a very slight support for the head and back. The expression of the figure also would be better if supported. When a model has given all his thoughts to keeping still, he looks like it. This is the cause of most of the stiff attitudes for which photographs are famous. The figure tries to get into a good position for accomplishing rigidity at the expense of ease and grace. CHAPTER III. COMPOSITION. Veey little true artistic work can be done without some know- ledge of the laws of composition. A picture by one ignorant of these rules may occasionally come right and be effective, but he must not expect a series of such accidents to occur. TTo real success can be hoped for that is not based on a knowledge of the laws which govern the arrangement of a picture so that it shall have the greatest amount of picturesque quality. There is no royal road to success in art. Innate good taste is some- times relied on, but it is a poor substitute for knowledge. Nothing but a fair acquaintance with the rules of art — at least so far as regards composition and light and shade — will enable a photographer, however intelligent, to succeed in always making the best use of the subjects he may find for his camera. These rules, as far as they can be applied to his art, I have en- deavoured to make clear to the photographer in a former work ; * I will not, therefore, enter into the more complicated branches of the subject, but it will be convenient to give a short sum- mary or outline here, and refer the student for fuller information to " Pictorial Effect." * "Pictorial Effect in Photography/ ' by H. P. Robinson. Piper and Carter, 5, Castle Street, Hoi born. COMPOSITION. 17 The object of composition is to present the subject of your intended picture in an agreeable manner ; it is to art what grammar is to literature, and a picture ill-composed is equivalent to a book written in slip-shod English. The principal objects to be sought are harmony and unity, so set forth that pleasure may be given to the eye without any sacrifice of the truth of nature. This is done by the preservation of a harmonious balance of lines, and light and shade. By a proper distribution of lines and masses, the principal parts in the picture will be brought prominently forward, and those of less consequence will retire from the eye, and will support, or act as a foil to, the chief objects of interest. In short, the grand fundamental laws of composition may be summed up very briefly. They are unity, balance, and the adaptability of the whole to breadth of light and shade, by which the principal object in a picture — such, for instance, as the head in a portrait — is brought forward most pro- minently, yet united with the other parts, so that the eye may first see the point of chief interest, and be gradually and agree- ably led over the picture. If you will examine any of the pictures produced by great artists during the last three hundred years, you will find that the arrangement of them is all more or less based on a few very simple forms, and these forms may be traced running through all kinds of pictures, from the simplest landscape up to the grandest historical subject. And if you care to go back more than two thousand years, you will find that the laws of composition, as we have them now, must have guided the sculptors of that time. The Frieze of the Parthenon, by Pheidias, in the British Museum, is a fine specimen of formal composition, showing subtle beauties of the most intricate and scholastic order. These forms partake of the leading idea of the triangle or pyra- mid, the diagonal line and its contrasts (which is a variation of the same thing), and the circle with its modifications. Of the first importance in composition is balance. All lines c 18 PICTUKE MAKING BY PHOT OGBAPH Y. should be balanced or compensated. Without a due regard to this important quality a picture would appear ready to fall to pieces. Example : — Lines running in one direction, whether parallel or otherwise, would give a weak and awkward appearance. A sense of falling is conveyed to the mind by lines repeating each other thus //// When lines of this character occur, it will be always found possible to produce compensating lines in other parts of the picture, thus y^/ \ or if lines run diagonally down a picture thus ^/f? a compensation for the lines A is found in the line B.* There are many ways in which oblique lines may be com- pensated, in a great measure depending on the ingenuity and skill of the artist. Here are some examples. In the lane scene, the falling lines of the foreground tree on the right are supported by the opposing lines of the more distant trees on the left. The sheep also greatly aid in preserving balance. In the lake scene, a different disposition of balancing lines is shown. The lines of the near rocks and foreground oppose the lines of the mountains, and the dark foreground contrasts and sends back the extreme distance. COMPOSITION. 19 The diagonal line is very suitable as a framework on which to construct a composition ; but the base of the angle must be sup- ported. This may be done by the opposition of lines as already shown, or by contrast, which in art often supplies the place of balance. In the sketch from a photograph by Mr. Mayland, the darkest spot — the boat — is opposed to the highest light, and, being the nearest object, is opposed to the most distant, thus giving effect to each other by contrast ; and the boat, being at the base of the angle, supports the whole and acts as a kind of key to the entire framework of the composition. If the student will imagine the boat removed, or cover it with his finger, he will find that the composition will fall to pieces. The fishing village will appear to have nothing to support it — no solid foundation. The lines running to a point in the distance appear to want collecting together and regulating ; the distance appears to come forward, and parts do not take their proper relation to one another. This form of composition, with its endless variations, is most valuable to the landscape photo- grapher, because it is more within his control than any other. It must be a very awkward landscape that would not admit of a contrasting or balancing spot of either light or dark, and this can nearly always be supplied by a figure or figures. Lines for the purpose of contrasting the leading forms of the view may be supplied by the sky ; in the last illustration the lines of the clouds are made to oppose the lines of the village, and the 20 PICTUEE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. direction of the lines of the old fisherman who is setting out his nets on the shingle to dry also serves to contrast the leading lines of the composition. The next illustration, Sir A. W. Callcott's " Dutch Peasants returning from Market,' ' in the National ^Gallery, shows the application of these rules in an important picture. The diagonal composition will be easily seen, so also will be the balancing spot — the girl in front — and the contrasting lines of the clouds. Turner's "Fighting Temeraire" is also composed on the same lines, which the student will now be able to trace for himself. Surely this picture of the grand old fighting ship being tugged to her last berth, perhaps to be broken up, by the business-like little steamer, is the most pathetic ever painted from which humanity is absent. It is not necessary that the ruling point, or key-note, should be at the side of the picture, and under the extreme distance. It will be found, by an examination of the best landscapes, to vary very considerably ; but if it be an important object, it will never be found exactly in the centre, or under, or in a line with, COMPOSITION. 21 any other important or prominent form of the same size or character. Here are two other variations of the use of the balancing spot. In the first instance, the spot is obtained by a black figure— in the other, by a white swan. It is not absolutely necessary that the landscape should rigidly follow the diagonal line — there are endless variations of the principle ; but I give this, the plainest and clearest of all the jules of composition, prominently, because it is a key, which, 22 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. once mastered, will enable the student to unlock the secrets of the most complicated designs, and render his future studies easy. It would be useful practice for the student now to study some good pictures with a view to analysing their composition as far as he understands it at present. Perhaps the most readily accessible would be illustrated books. The student may rely on any illustrations by Birket Foster as being sure and certain guides to good composition. If he can get any of these — they are very plentiful — let him look for the balancing spot, and learn to recognize it under all its disguises. He may be quite certain that it is always there. I never saw the slightest sketch by this popular artist that was deficient in balance, and his subjects are usually within the reach of the photographer. We now come to the consideration of pyramidal forms, art extension or multiple of the diagonal line, very suitable for the arrangement of single figures and groups, but which also applies to landscape — and, indeed, every other branch of art. For the purpose of elucidating this method of composition, it would be well to analyse a picture that has already been produced by photography. "We will, therefore, take the frontispiece of this volume, "A Merry Tale" — like Touchstone's Audrey, " A poor thing, but mine own." If the student feels a desire for going further into this part of the subject, he will find it much* more completely detailed in " Pictorial Effect" in a minute analysis of Wilkie's " Blind Fiddler." In pyramidal composition the group should consist of a series of irregular pyramids. A perfectly symmetrical group would want variety, and be too formal and stiff. These series of pyramids should be contrasted and balanced in various ways, and yet so joined together as to produce unity and harmony ; the whole arrangement should lend itself to an agreeable breadth of light and shade, and leading sinuous lines should run through the composition, leading the eye from part to part, and uniting the whole together. COMPOSITION. 23 The great thing in making a picture is to have an idea ; but we shall come to that further on. At present we have only to consider the mechanical arrangement of a group ; but every picture should have some leading idea — some special fact — to which the parts lead up and intensify, and nothing should be allowed to come between the spectator and the leading idea. In "A Merry Tale," the story-teller forms a pyramid in herself, the arm and hand contrast the pyramidal line, and lead to the other figures of the group. The hand — a point on which the whole group depends — had to be made conspicuous. The figure in a straw bonnet forms a pyramid in herself, and repeats with variation, or echoes, the principal figure. Repetition is a fine quality in composition, but too subtle a part of the subject to enter into here. This figure, in combination with the figure behind her, makes another pyramid. This form is also empha- sised with the stick, which is of further use in affording a straight line contrasting with many curves, and in being part of a curved leading line extending down the stick through the basket, and uniting the story-teller to the rest of the group. The head of the standing figure forms the apex of the complete pyramid, which is contrasted by the figure lying on the bank. The foreground objects serve to balance the composition, and are analogous to the "spot" so often referred to, and help to connect the figures. It would have been better if the basket and jug had been moved a little more to the right, and the jug a little nearer the camera. The grouping would also have been improved if the upright tree (which is useful as a contrasting straight line) had been a very little more to the right. It would then have been the apex (as it nearly is now) of another pyramid, uniting the whole picture. Another fault in the grouping is, that the path is too nearly in the centre ; this could have been easily altered by a slight movement of the camera. The last thing to notice is, that the whole of the figures are combined by a circular base line, making the whole into a com- 24 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. pact group. The composition of this picture is further referred to in Chapter VIII., " The Genesis of a Picture," in which it affords an opportunity of showing how a picture originated and was carried out. There are many other things to consider in the study of com- position, such as repose, fitness, symmetry, repetition, variety, unity, subordination, truth, expression, proportion, &c. ; but the primary necessities — the simple law of balance and contrast — will be sufficient here. It is a maxim in art, that art should conceal the art. This simply means that there should not be an ostentatious display of knowledge. That picture which looks most like nature to the uninitiated will probably show the most attention to rules to the artist. As Leslie says in his u Painter's Handbook," " The axiom that the most perfect art is that in which the art is most concealed, is directed, I apprehend, against an ostentatious dis- play of the means by which the end is accomplished, and does not imply that we are to be cheated into a belief of the artist having effected his purpose by a happy chance, or by such extraordinary gifts as have rendered study and pains necessary. On the con- trary, we always appreciate, and therefore enjoy, a picture the more in proportion as we discover ourselves, or are shown by others, the why and the wherefore of its excellencies ; and much of the pleasure it gives us depends on the intellectual employ- ment it affords." CHAPTEE IV. LIGHT AND SHADE. It might be said that a knowledge of the most effective arrange- ments of light and shade would be of little use to the landscape photographer, in consequence of the little control he has over the lighting of his subjects. It is true that he cannot throw the light as he pleases over his subject, any more than he could really move mountains if they interfered with his composition ; but a knowledge of how to mass light and shade, to which the name of chiaroscuro has been given, will enable him to know better what will make a good picture, and to select with more certainty. The photographer, like the engraver, produces his effects by light and shade ; he owes nothing, legitimately, to colour, and being deprived of the latter attractive element — which covers so many defects in painting — his chiaroscuro need be the more perfect. The word chiaroscuro, derived from the Italian, and meaning light-dark, by no means clearly conveys the idea of what it is intended to express. Usage has, however, reconciled us to the use of the term to express, not only the means of representing light and shade, but the arrangement and distribution of lights and darks of every gradation in masses in a picture, so as to 26 PICTURE Mi^ m BY PHOTOGRAPH!". produce pictorial effect, just as the word composition is used to express the pictorial arrangement of lines. The chief object to attain by the help of chiaroscuro is breadth of effect, by dividing the space into simple masses of light, shade, and gradation, preventing that confusion and perplexity in- cident to the eye being attracted by numerous parts of equal importance at the same time, and to place before the spectator at the first view the principal object represented, so that the eye may see it first, and be gradually and insensibly led to examine the whole picture ; to keep parts in obscurity, and to relieve others, according to their pictorial value. It should also be of use to aid the sentiment and expression of the picture. It is admitted by all writers on the subject, that mere natu- ral light and shade, however separately and individually true, is not always legitimate chiaroscuro in art. Howard, in his use- ful " Sketched s Manual,' 9 to which I am indebted for several hints in this chapter, advocates the use of " arbitrary and arti- ficial shadows," when necessary, for pictorial effect, " whether possible to be found under such circumstances in nature or not," and he gives an instance in a picture of Eonington, in which, for the purpose of obtaining a wedge-formed mass of dark, a shadow is thrown upon a cliff that could not by any possibility be there. This might have been allowable fifty years ago ; but since photography has taught art to have some regard for the truth, I should hesitate to add a shadow to a picture if I could not find a natural excuse for it. Eut the excuse need not be included in the picture — the light from a window, for instance, may be shown without showing the window — any more than it would be always necessary to show the sun when sunlight is represented. Yet we have the great example of Sir Joshua Eeynolds for the artifice. In many of his pictures will be found broad masses of shadow, which could only have been thrown by the sun, while the lights are such as would be given by ordinary daylight. LIGHT AND SHA.DE. 27 This is false to nature, but we cannot help admiring the effect, which is well shown in this sketch of Robinetta, from the picture in the National Gallery. In nature, generally, light is shed indiscriminately on all things; subordinate objects may be brought forward promi- nently, and important features may be cast into shade. It is not so with art. Art must select and arrange, or it is no longer art. A work of art is a work of order. But, although separate, unse- lected truth may not be true art, true art requires that there shall be no absence of truth. In no part of art is judicious selection of more consequence than in the choice of light and shade, especially in photography, because chiaroscuro so governs the effect of a picture, that a subject may be either beautiful or the reverse, as I shall endeavour to show further on, according to the way in which it is clothed in light and shade. Chiaro- scuro not only adds a beauty to perfect outline, but transmutes ugly, and sometimes disgusting, subjects into artistic gold. Rembrandt's pictures, often ill-drawn, and absurd in design and 28 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. invention, always vulgar in choice of form, are of priceless value for their marvellous chiaroscuro. In short, a heautiful picture can be made out of ugly materials, if we can throw over them the glamour and witchery of perfect chiaroscuro. As I have already said, the principal object to attain is breadth. It is, perhaps, necessary to explain that this does not mean a broad space cf equal light or shadow ; that would result in flatness, as will be evident to the photographer if he will take a view with the sun shining behind his camera. He would find that he would get a flat mass of detail without shadow or relief. It would be very different if the sun were so situated in rela- tion to the view as to give a broad simple light over part of it, the rest being in shadow. In the sketch, the sun is setting to the left out of the picture, the foreground is in shadow, and the sky rather dark but full of gradation, leaving the mountain in a fine breadth of sunshine. This is one of the most agreeable effects in art. I may as well point out here, as I want to insist on its value all throughout this book, that the composition in this sketch is balanced against the light distance, and towards the end of the falling lines by a balancing spot ; in this instance, it consists of a combination of the lightest light and darkest dark in the picture. The word breadth is used in contradistinc- tion to the term spottiness, and equal lights or equal darks would look spotty. Just as a degree of irritation to the touch LIGHT AND SHADE. 29 arises from uneven surfaces, so all lights and shades which are interrupted and scattered are more irritating to the eye than those which are broad and continuous. It must not be supposed from this, that extreme contrast in light and shade in the proper quantity, and in the right place, is not agreeable, for upon con- trast and opposition much of pictorial effect depends ; but it is the nickering lights and perpetually shifting glare of ill-managed chiaroscuro that keep the eyes in a state of constant irritation, and distract the attention from the subject of the picture. Objects which in themselves possess no interest, are frequently made to delight the eye from their being productive of breadth. Some pictures, though bad in every other respect, but possessed of breadth, attract and arrest the attention of the cultivated eye ; while others, admirable in detail and colour, but in which the harmonizing principle is wanted, will often be passed over as uninteresting. Light and shade varies so with the subject, that it can scarcely be reduced to anything like a system. We speak of the laws of art, but it is very difficult to formulate them. There are a few general arrangements, however, which the photographer would find valuable to have always before him, and they are only, as it were, duplicates of the laws of composition. The centre is the weakest point of a picture. Neither the principal object nor the chief light should be situated in that place where lines drawn from the opposite corners would inter- 30 PICTUKE MAKING BY PHOTOGBAPHY. sect. A position either immediately above, below, or at the side of this point, would better satisfy the requirements of pictorial effect. In the left-hand illustration on the last page, the regu- larity of the shape destroys all picturesqueness. The one on the right, on the contrary, affords every facility for pictorial effect. There is concentration of light, breadth, gradation, and variety. When the light spreads through the picture, it should never be allowed to form a horizontal or vertical line. This refers to the general mass of light as shown in the diagrams. The horizontal bars of light seen at sunset are often very beautiful, so also are the lines of the sea, which give a sentiment of repose to be produced in no other way ; but, even in these cases, the lines of the clouds are better broken by the contrasting shapes of foreground objects, such as trees in landscapes, masses of cloud or the masts of a vessel in sea views. In short, when the light falls, or is spread diagonally, it is more picturesque than when it is arranged horizontally or vertically. It is desirable that all lights should have a focus, just as light ialling on a globe is more brilliant in one small spot than on any other part ; and all lights should be treated as parts of a whole, and subordinated in various degrees to the principal light. The illustration — " Showery Weather," by F. E. Lee — represents a simple plan of chiaroscuro much used by many artists, and is beautiful from its simplicity. The lightest light is opposed by the darkest dark, and the light fades away from the focus in LIGHT AND SHADE. 31 overy gradation of middle tones. The two extremes of black and white assist each other by contrast, and produce a forcible -effect with great breadth. It will be found that the beauty of effective light and shade consists chiefly in wedge-shaped masses ; in the diagram, the whole mass of shadow takes this form. The effect may often be seen in moorland scenery, or a flat country, or at the seaside when the cliffs take this shape ; but, of course in this form, any subject may be included. The shadow of a cloud may be thrown over the distance, while the foreground may be in sun- light, or the effect may be caused by a belt of trees, or ships, or a city. A mass of extreme dark will be found very useful in 32 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGKAPHY. the foreground to give support to the wedge and expanse to the distance. If the mass in the foreground consists of an object in which are combined the extremes of black and white, it will throw the rest of the picture — consisting of gradations short of black and white — into harmony, by creating a focus, as it were, more k brilliant than, and over-mastering, the other lights and darks. Turner's pictures are often composed on this principle. In "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Italy," a single mass of extreme dark of agreeable form — the stone-pine — is relieved against a light sky ; and some bits of extreme light are introduced into the foreground, while the rest of the picture is composed of gradations within the extremes of darkest and lightest. In this arrangement, Turner imitated Claude. The next sketch is from a beautiful little picture by Claude in the National Gallery — " The Annunciation " — in which the student will trace the same disposition of light and shade. These pictures are types of many others by the same painters. The application of this principle LIGHT AND SHADE. 33 may be reversed. A single mass of light may be relieved against a dark background. But although there should be a principal light or a principal dark in every picture, this light or dark should not stand alone. No light should be allowed to be single or isolated, but should be repeated or echoed — not in its full force or quantity — there must be no rival near the throne — but in inferior degree. The wonderful charm of Rembrandt was not brought about by the startling use of extreme darks and lights. It was by the subtle use of repeated lights in marvellous gradations that this great master of chiaroscuro worked his enchantments. These reflected and repeated lights — repeated, however, in a lower key — harmonized and mellowed the violence of the extremes of light and shade, which are always to be found in his pictures. This is well shown in the sketch of his " Adoration of the Shepherds." Although the child occupies so small a space in the picture, it is the spot which instantly attracts the attention. The bright light is opposed by the strong dark of the kneeling figure, and the light is diffused with the greatest skill through the rest of the space. The chiaroscuro of this picture is not D 34 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. unlike that shown in the diagram of diagonal light and shade on page 29. The next illustration, from a drawing by E. "W. Topham, shows the application of the rules of art we have been discussing ; it is a fine example of breadth, and is so arranged in its lines as to admit of very effective chiaroscuro. The student will now be able to easily analyse the composition ; the pyramidal principal group, balanced on the. one side by the door, with its straight upright lines, and on the other by the cupboard in the wall, this being properly kept subordinate to the first-mentioned, which is the primary balance. The bundle hanging from the roof over the bed is not without intention, but is placed there to form the apex of another pyramid, which corrects the formality of the chief group. It will be noticed that the deepest dark — the old woman's head — is brought into immediate contrast with the highest light — the baby in the bed. Another contrast is also obvious here — youth and age. The other portions of the pic- LIGHT AND SHADE. 35 ture are kept in varying, but intermediate tones, thus securing the greatest amount of brilliancy and breadth. It is probable that in the original drawing the sky, seen through the open door, was more subdued in tone. There is a sentiment in the composition and chiaroscuro quite apart from, yet very suit- able to, the subject. Having given a short outline of composition, and light and shade, we will now endeavour to put the knowledge gained into practice. CHAPTER V. IN THE FIELD. Befoke you go out with the camera in your hand, it would be well to decide what you intend to do. A camera, if of any size, is but an encumbrance the first time you inspect an unknown district in search of subjects. A note-book and pencil are much more appropriate implements, and a view-meter may be useful, but the camera is best left at home. Of course, I know that when you are hurried, as on a tour, you have no time to make these preliminary arrangements ; but, under such circumstances, you are not so much looking after pictures, as endeavouring to secure reminiscences of your travels, in the nature, as it were, of sketches. Our present object is to make pictures. Equipped, then, with note-book and pencil, you may go forth prospecting. When you meet with a scene that strikes you as giving unusually fine opportunities for obtaining a good picture, don't throw it away by making a careless use of it, such as taking it at the wrong time of day, or without the necessary figures and accessories to make all out of it that can be made. Don't leave the arrangement of it until you want to expose the plate. Think it all out thoroughly before the time of action comes, so that you may have nothing else to do but to execute when the moment arrives — when the weather is propitious and all things- IN THE FIELD. 37 are conducive to a successful result. "Waste your time and plates as much as you like, but don't throw away a fine subject. Besides being the nearest road to success, it is a saving of time to " think before you leap." As an illustration of how time may be saved by preliminary inspection, I may state that in addition to walking several miles, I once exposed thirty 15 by 12 plates in nine hours. These were all landscapes with figures — each, more or less, telling a story. A few of the plates were used for duplicate exposures, so as to make more sure of difficult or favourite subjects; but twenty-two of the resulting pictures have since appeared in exhibitions, and some have taken medals, so that their quality must have been up to a certain mark. This rapidity is easily accounted for. We were staying at a country house, and had been troubled with unsuitable weather for eight or ten days, and had little else to do but look out subjects and make a complete study of them. So the work was all cut and dried when the fitting day arrived. And what a day it was ! It was worth waiting for. The light seemed to alter to suit every effect I desired. A slight sketch was made for each picture, the subject and title decided, the models selected, and the exact place and pose assigned to each figure. There was nothing left to be done, speaking metaphorically, but to turn the handle and grind out the tune. When a view is selected, you should consider it as a painter would if he were going to make an important work of it. You have not so much power of modification as he possesses, there- fore your skill and ingenuity must make up for the loss. In most cases, there is more to be done than some photographers are aware. The chiaroscuro is very considerably in the photo- grapher's hands. It is proverbial that everything will come to him who knows how to wait ; and if he is not hurried— and I am not writing for the American tourist— he can select from twenty different effects of light,— from the long shadows of early 38 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY . morning, through the almost shadowless noon, to the softened lights and deepened shades of coming evening. The composition, also, is capable of great modification. Variations of a foot or two in the point of view will often very materially alter the arrangement of the lines and masses. The removal of the limb of a tree or less obtrusive twigs and branches, will sometimes disclose a picture which scarcely existed before. The opening of a gate may serve to give variety of line and opportunity for figures that did not previously exist. I have even seen the flood-gates of a weir opened, so that a photo- grapher might obtain the effect he required. When all has been done that can be done, take yet another look round to see that nothing has been forgotten. Above all, don't trust to your memory for anything. Make sketches and notes, so that nothing may be left to chance ; you will then be free in your mind to proceed with the selection of your next subject. As there are no two things alike in nature, no two blades of grass, nor even two accurately corresponding sides of the same face, it is difficult for me to be very particular and minute about the arrangement of any special view or views, and what I have to say will consist a good deal in negative advice. I can only refer you to the last two chapters, in which some idea of the guiding principles of composition are sketched, and hope they will help you to arrive at success. I can, however, refer slightly to some subjects that have not yet been much hackneyed or made the common property of every photographer, like the ruins of our castles and abbeys, our churches and waterfalls. This, by-the-bye, reminds me that I did not notice any repre- sentation of Conway Castle in the last exhibition of the Photo- graphic Society. We miss our old friend. The venerable ruin has never been absent any previous year. Kenilworth and Warwick, however, were still to the fore. Enough use has not been made of the sky. We sometimes see a photograph of a good sky with a bit of sea — witness Mayland's IN THE FIELD. 39 splendid " Sea and Cloud,' ' and the use of a second negative in ordinary landscapes has fortunately become common, notwith- standing the opposition the method met with for several years — but we seldom see what might be called a sky picture ; that is, a picture the principal subject of which is the sky, the land and figures taking a secondary position. Here is a slight sketch of the kind of effect I mean. The full-page illustration to Chapter XVI.— " Is it a dog? " — is also an example of same effect. The sheep and foreground occupy little more than one-third of the space, and the larger portion is occupied by the sky. The peculiar charm of aerial phenomena is too much neglected. The clear, bright day, when all objects are sharply defined, is still the sort of weather in which the photographer delights. But there are lovely pictures to be got in the mist, though the oppor- tunities for these effects are rare. Some years ago I rose very early each day for a week in the attempt to get a group or two of mushroom gatherers in the morning mist. But " the breezy 40 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. call of incense-breathing morn " was wasted, and I was not rewarded for my constancy. "Who has not seen and admired the beautif ill, dreamy, indefinite effect of mist among the nearly leafless trees of autumn, when the sun, trying to pierce through the vapour-laden atmosphere, has reproduced a scene from fairy-land ? Such a scene as this I saw a day or two ago. I was out with a shooting party, and was one of what is called the " forward guns." I was waiting at the end of a beautiful cover. A fine mist partly obscured everything, but so slightly that the strong sunlight penetrated and illuminated the foreground, which con- sisted chiefly of a light, broken clay bank that gave great breadth, and threw back the mist-enveloped trees. A keeper in dark brown velveteen, with a black retriever at heel, listening to the beaters working their way from the far side of the wood, added life to the scene, and gave point to the composition. It was a quite possible subject. I was forgetting all about the shooting, when a dead pheasant plunged at my feet, and awoke me from my dream. In the selection of a view, great attention should be paid to the foreground. The foreground is of so much importance that I do not hesitate to say that if a view is not well-fitted in this respect, it can never be an effective picture. An uninteresting plain of smooth meadow, for instance, is sufficient to ruin a view, however beautiful the middle distance and distance may be. A landscape photograph seems to require a good foreground more than any other kind of picture. Other parts of the scene must compose well, and be in harmony, but it is not necessary that they shall be of importance, while, if the foreground be weak or ill-composed, no strength or importance in other parts will save the picture. It is fortunate, however, that the foreground is just that part of the scene over which the artist has most control. It is not every subject that has a good foreground ready made, but it is IN THE FIELD. 41 often within the power of the photographer to do well with apparently very indifferent materials. A spot of black or white pnt in the right place may turn a poor subject into a perfect picture. "What the spot shall consist of must be left to the in- genuity or readiness of the photographer. It may be a human figure, or a bird, or a beast, or a fish — in one case I have actu- ally seen it consist of a fish — but the requisite balancing or con- trasting spot, whether white or black, or both, must be got, as has already been insisted on in the chapters on composition, and light and shade. It would be useless to go into any detail as to the arrangement of foregrounds — the disposition of each can only be settled as each case arises ; but I here give an illustra- tion of how one of the mo3t uninteresting foregrounds has been ameliorated by the introduction of figures. In, this case there was a pretty, varied belt of trees in the middle distance, and a wooded height in the distance ; the fore- ground was a plain piece of park-land, with useful clumps of gorse and bracken scattered about ; but a photograph of this would have no claim to be a picture. The simple introduction of a couple of figures with some little action in them breaks up 42 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. the plainness of the field, gives interest, and accentuates the composition. It will be well to remember that the more simply and broadly foregrounds are treated, the better will be the result. Indeed, it cannot be too strongly impressed on the photographer that the more simple his subject altogether — if he aims at fine art — the better it is adapted to his means. The best painters are often content with the simplest subjects; the inexperienced are too apt to select the most ambitious themes. The young painter struggles with the highest flights of history (or he used to do so, he is wiser now), but the great artist often finds the highest art in the simplest subjects. It has been well said that "true genius was never better displayed than by certain great landscape painters in the happy simplicity of their noblest subjects." The student having now made up his mind what he is going to do, may go and do it. He should see that his mechanical arrangements are so complete and easily accessible that he will scarcely have any necessity to think of them ; but for fear he should have to do so, let him put his hands in his pockets and get an assistant to look after the luggage, for it is not easy to arrive on the ground capable of good work if you have been doing duty as a heavy porter on the way. All preliminaries should be so complete that no doubt or hesitation should be possible. The battle should be fought and the victory won before the cap is taken off the lens or the trigger of the shutter is pulled. CHAPTEE VI, WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH. " What is beautiful must be decided by each man for himself r and at his peril/ ' says an able writer. " There are some who maintain that all nature is beautiful. Fortunately, we can now disprove this monstrous position by our daily experience of photographs. Even if they were quite true in effect, form, or expression, they would often be more or less ugly. They are usually planned and made by men of some chemical knowledge, but tasteless, and entirely unacquainted with fine art. Conse- quently, the photographers unconsciously offer us the mean and ugly mixed up with some beauty." The writer, of course, refers to unselected nature, or nature selected without intelligence. The photographer can have no claim to the proud title of " artist" if he is content to take things as they are. Art has been said to exist in all nature, and we have only to learn the art of seeing it pictorially, to re- produce it in our paintings and photographs. This is true enough as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. As I think I have said before, a work of art is a work of order, and if the artist is to put the stamp of his own mind on his work, he must arrange, modify, and dispose of his materials so that they may appear in a more agreeable and beautiful manner than they would 44 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. have assumed without his interference. In the field the artist may select the time of year, the time of day, the direction of light, the conditions of the weather — for which he has sometimes to exercise one of the greatest qualities of a photographer, patience — the point of sight, and to a great extent the arrange- ment of the masses. Figures may be introduced to join two masses of either light or dark together, and to give life and motion to the scene, scale to the parts, balance to the composition, and — it is only carrying the thing a little further — a house may be pulled down or a tree uprooted. That this is not a fanciful state- ment, I may say here that I once employed two men a day in clearing a wood to afford access to a particular scene I wanted to photograph. In the studio the effects are still more under the control of the operator. The arrangement of light, the pose, backgrounds, accessories, are in his hands, and, if he is a master, he can also within limits control the expression of his sitter. In this chapter on " "What to Photograph/ 7 however, we will forget the studio, and keep out in the fresh air. In taking local views, art must, to some extent, be sacrificed to utility. It is not essential that a local view should be pictorial. If some picturesqueness can be secured, so much the better ; but the object is to give a portrait of the place. If a castle is the object, it must be made to appear bold and prominent, and, above all things, clear. Atmospheric effect, so beautiful in other pictures, must not be allowed to interfere with the clearness oi a local view. If a distant mountain comes in the scene, it must be made to look as large and prominent as possible. If a church is the subject, it is more to the purpose to show every porch and window than to get a good effect of light and shade. But my object in these chapters is to help the student to make a picture which may have a just claim to be called a work of art, and local views in their intention are more nearly allied to maps and plans. Nevertheless, a careful study of the rules of art will enable the photographer to improve these useful productions, and WHAT TO PHOT0GEAPH. 45 the very fact of representing them may add interest to a scene. As Browning says : — " For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love First when we see them painted, things we have passed Ferhaps a hundred times, nor cared to see' 1 A local object need not be taken at its worst. The ugliest thing with which man has disfigured nature— a square block of stuccoed house— may have to be photographed ; it may be the first hotel in the town, for instance, and an important local view. I have seen such an object taken squarely in a full light, when it would have been easy to get it in perspective by moving the camera a few feet I purposely give a plain and bald example, that the eff&et may be more easily seen. The principle may be applied to most subjects. Many photographers find it difficult, even in the most beauti- ful country, to find anything to photograph, whilst others cannot turn in any direction without seeing subjects for their art. The only difference is, that the first- mentioned have learnt to see, and the others have not. Subjects, or the materials for subjects, abound everywhere ; but the art of seeing them is a cultivated sense, and does not come by nature. It is a great fallacy to suppose that all art, even very good art, is the work of what is vaguely called genius, except that genius which has been admirably defined as the capacity for taking infinite pains. I willingly admit that the greatest art is the 46 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPH 5T. product of inborn genius — added to labour — but there is very little work in any art that touches the highest point, and, there- fore, little that is not the product of acquired talent. The constituents of a picture are plentiful, but they have to be found and arranged. A picture may contain a vast amount of landscape material, without being in the strict sense of the word a picture. It may contain a sufficient number of facts to make up half-a-dozen pictures, without being one in itself. There must be something more than imitation. Imitation, merely, is not sufficient for art, though it is a great requisite, and, in photography especially, is a factor which must not be left out of the reckoning. It must never be lost sight of, although Euskin says that the pleasure resulting from imitation is the most contemptible that can be derived from art. It is at once weak, indolent, and spurious art which breaks down the natural for the sake of the artificial ; it is easily detected, and the trick exposed. At the same time imitation is no more to art than grammar is to language. But imitation may be subordinated, even in our imitative art. Literal fact may give way to higher truth. It has been the practice for photographers, especially the least experienced, to select fine scenes in nature for the purposes of their art; while simpler subjects, if properly treated, are much more likely to yield picturesque effects. A collection of views of cities, or other famous places, will pass from the mind and be only remembered as a set of very fine photographs ; while a few simple photographs of bits of country with a figure or two, well posed and lighted, will dwell on the mind for years. Why is this ? It may be explained in two words — " human interest." There is the interest in the figures themselves apart from the artist, then there is the interest in how the artist has done his work. Then, perhaps, the title will help, as it should do. There is no scope for a title in a view ; you can only call it by the name of the place it represents ; but in pictures of incident, WHAT TO PHOTOGBAPH. 47 although the subject should describe itself, the title is not unimportant. Some of the finest effects are those which consist of broad masses of light and shadow. Breadth of effect is one of the most pleasing qualities in art ; it harmonizes everything, and will give beauty to the ugliest objects. A great deal may be done by selecting the time of day. A subject that may be flat and weak with the sun shining full on it in the morning, may have every element of the picturesque in the afternoon, with the sun shining from the side, or behind the view. To select a view with the sun shining in the front of the lens was once thought to be most unorthodox. It used to be a direction to the young photographer to have the sun at the side of the view, perhaps a little in front. It is curious how we all run in grooves. It is only during the last few years that photographers have shown any disposition to throw off their trammels, and take their pic- tures where they found them so lighted as to be most conducive' to pictorial effect. It is but recently that photographers have dared to try to be original, and then only after a good deal of il showing how." In connection with the effect of lighting just referred to, I give a full-page illustration from a picture I have called Wayside Gossip." I had often considered this particular view as to its capabili- ties of affording a picture, and given it up as not containing sufficient interest. It was nearly south, and I had either seen it in the morning or the evening, when the light fell flatly upon it. But one day I passed the place at noon, and found it changed as if by magic — " the daily miracle of the sun " — into a most picturesque scene. The trees, formerly an uninteresting collec- tion of stems and leaves, were transformed into broad masses of shadow, delicately tipped and outlined with silvery light. The foreground was a fine breadth of light. There was little thought required to decide where the figures ought to go. The spot on the lake-dam, where the two figures are seated, seemed to insist 48 PICTUBE MAKING BY PHOTOGBAPHY. that some figures should be placed there. After one plate had been exposed, it struck the photographer that a third figure would add variety and interest, and, perhaps, a title, so another model was added to the group — the standing figure resting on a stick — and a second plate exposed without moving the camera. If my reader has an opportunity of seeing a full-sized print of this picture, he will notice the almost stereoscopic effect of figures lighted in this manner. The standing figure in particular seems to come quite solid from the background. This is due in a great measure to the edging of light round the figure which this kind of lighting gives, and the gradation in that part of the landscape which forms the immediate background. Gelatine plates practically open up a new world to the photo- grapher. He can get at subjects that hitherto he could "not approach, and he can depend upon securing them, whether nature is playing with thunderstorms or sunbeams, with considerable certainty. He is also in a much readier state to take a picture when called upon suddenly, than the old process would allow. This should induce him to take advantage of what may be called the accidents of nature. Many of these accidental effects have never been well represented in photographs; such as a rain- cloud, for example, or the weird effect of cloud shadows passing over hill and valley. Transient atmospheric effects are always worth securing; so also are animal studies. It would be impossible for a photographer to decide beforehand that he would do a picture of cows in a stream ; but he should be ready to avail himself of such a chance if it should occur. As another instance of accidental effects, I may mention that I have several times exposed a second plate on a view contain- ing water, because, after the first had been exposed with the water still, a puff of wind had ruffied the lake in places, and added surface to the mirrored depths. Quick plates enable the photographer to see the beauty of these accidents in nature. In the olden time — say four or five years ago — a puff of wind would have been considered a nuisance. CHAPTER Y1L MODELS. It is only of late years that photographers have given anything like adequate attention to the figures they introduce in their landscapes. Anything that happened? to be at hand, from a Cockney tourist to the porter who carried the camera, was once thought quite good enough for every occasion. Now, I am glad to see, something better is thought necessary, and if this is not obtained, the photograph is a very ordinary photograph indeed ; and is usually, if admitted at all, passed over in an exhibition as a common-place production. The sins against fitness become fewer every year, while anything really vulgar in taste is extremely rare. There are those who go for absolute purity of production, unmitigated nature, who will admit nothing in a picture but what is indigenous to that picture, so to speak; but Art, according to Lord Bacon, is man added to nature, and unmiti- gated nature is certainly not art. I do not fear to say that nature alone, as a picture, has far less interest than the same nature represented by a great artist. " What are you painting?" said I to one of my painter friends when we were out on a certain painting and photographing excursion; "your sketch does not seem, if I may be excused the criticism, to be exactly E 50 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. a coloured photograph of the scene you have before you." " I am not painting a local view," was the reply, "I am painting what nature suggests to me." Now, as regards models, I seldom find the " real thing " to quite answer my purpose. The aboriginal is seldom sufficiently intelligent to be of use, especially if you have " intention" in your work. I remember a case in Wales very much to the purpose. Some artists who were of our party came home from a walk one day, enthusiastic about the beauty of a girl they had seen in a field two miles away, planting potatoes. I must go next day and photograph her. I went, and found they had not exag- gerated; she really was a beauty, and her clothes also were lovely, both in colour and in dilapidation. Knowing how shy the Welsh peasant is, I got the gamekeeper who carried my camera to speak to her first, and I approached the subject warily by beginning an agricultural talk with her mother. After a time I got the girl to stand for a picture, but it was a dead failure — all the "go" was gone out of her, and she looked as frightened as a hunted hare. After another trial, she objected to be tortured any more, and ran away. I persuaded her mother to bring her to the house next day. She came, and I got the housekeeper to talk to her, and left her for an hour to get used to the place and people. I then tried a picture. 1 posed her by the side of a pool with picturesque surroundings. Naturally she had a most winning smile, but I could not succeed in calling up anything better than a scowl. I got a fine picture in every respect, except in the one essential — the expression. But if fine nature, in the way of natural models, is not to be obtained, art supplies the remedy, as I am now going to show. I am quite conscious that I am laying myself open to the charge of masquerading, but art is a state of compromises and sacrifices, and I cannot but think that what is lost in absolute unrelenting naturalness when substituting trained models for MODELS. 51 the newly-caught raw nature, is compensated for in many ways. Graceful figures, if not over-done, give an ideal tinge to the picture that lifts it above the cleverest transcript of mere prosaic fact. My models may be called to some extent artificial, but they are so near the real thing as to be taken for it by the real natives, just as the trout does not seem to know the difference between the natural and the artificial fly. One day two of my models were walking across the park, and a game-keeper, seeing them for the first time, made after them, shouting in the high tone that sounds like quarrelling to the stranger when he first hears it in "Wales. As they would not stop he did not hesitate to give way to all he knew in both languages, and did not cease to vituperate till, getting near them, he found to his dismay they were " the daughters of the house.' ' This, I think, shows that our imitation is sufficiently like the original for artistic purposes. My models are trained to strict obedience, and to make no suggestions. If the photographer has really got an idea in his head, he had better carry out that idea. Any interference, even from superior intelligence, is sure to go wrong. Some people are wonderfully patient under the application of information ; but I confess that I am so peculiarly constituted that the most admirable advice, when I am in the middle of posing a group, quite upsets the ideas I had, and I don't find it possible to adopt those offered. Therefore, from my own experience, I would recommend that, if a friend feels the twitchings of sufficient skill to offer advice, you had better allow your candour to exceed your courtesy, and order him off at once. Two heads knocking together produce anything but harmony. In speaking of my models in what I have written above, I allude to those that have appeared in many of my pictures the last few years. They are not always the same persons ; in fact, I get as much change in that respect as possible, to avoid mono- 52 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. tony. It is almost as difficult to get variety in dresses as in persons. I always endeavour to secure a picturesque dress when I see it. It is not always easy to explain what you really mean when you meet a girl in a lonely country lane, and you offer to buy her clothes, but a little perseverance and a good offer usually succeed. A country girl's dress is not often worth more than eighteenpence, and if you turn the pence into shillings, and look business-like all the time, you may make pretty sure of walking off with* the property, or, at all events, getting it sent to you next day. Some models require considerable education, others take to it at once. One young lady, who had no thought of sitting, and I no thought of asking her to do so, as she was then almost a stranger to me, made one of the best models I ever photographed. We had no intention of photographing, but the camera was in the house, and half-a-dozen plates, and we had nothing better to do. The first picture she posed for is represented in the sketch. "We had no costumes with us ; but a sun bonnet bought in Eegent MODELS. 53 Street, and intended to be worn while playing tennis, was as picturesque as one made of calico in the country. A white apron borrowed from a servant, and a handkerchief tied round the neck, transformed the dainty young lady into a comely country maiden. She was posed against a tree by the pond, and told to look a thousand miles away, and think of the future, and the result has been considered a success. The same model half-an-hour afterwards, with very little change of dress, made a very good representation of a Puritan maiden standing by a window in an old oak-panelled room ; and the remaining four plates were used up to like advantage. Young children make good models ; but you must capture them wild. To ask their mothers if you may have them is fatal. They insist on dressing them in their Sunday-school clothes to " have their pictures took." Now a dirty country child is often a delightful lump of picturesque humanity; but when it is " washed and dressed all in its best," it is about the most priggish bit of nature I know. It loses all its freedom, and becomes stiff and awkward. Old people are often very useful in landscapes. With them, as with children, you may take the real native. It is between the age of ten and thirty that the genuine peasant is so difficult to manage. Sometimes a model will suggest a picture. Everybody knows the story of Eejlander and the model for his wonderful u Head of John the Eaptist in a Charger." Eejlander saw this head on the shoulders of a gentleman in the town in which he then resided. The curious thing is, that he did not so much see the modern gentleman as always the picture which the head suggested. It was some months before the artist ventured to ask the model to lend his head for his purpose, and years before he obtained his consent. The result, from an art point of view, was splendid, and, considered photographically, a mystery. One of the best models I ever employed was an old man of 74. 54 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. He was a crossing-sweeper. I should never have accomplished one of my best works if I had not seen him sitting at a table in my studio, waiting till I could talk to him. I not only saw the old man there, but, mentally, the old lady, and the interior of the cottage, although, as it happened, he was sitting before an Italian landscape background. The old man, by his attitude and expression, gave the germ of the idea ; the old lady had to be found, and the cottage built, but they appeared to me then quite visibly and solidly. This was the picture called " When the Day's Work is Done." I believe a great many pictures originate in the same way, of which more in the next chapter. CHAPTER VIII. THE GENESIS OF A PICTURE. It will bring the subject of picture-making more home to the student if I take a picture that has been really done in photo- graphy, and describe its life-history from its conception to its realisation in a negative. And, first of all, how do subjects originate ? In great part this question is very difficult to answer. Many of my pictures arise before my mind's eye in a most inexplicable manner, and remain there till I lay the ghosts by making sketches of them. 1 see these " Breams that wave before the half -shut eye" absolutely and definitely, and can recal them when I please. They come like a dream, but do not fade away till they are done with. I often try to trace any circumstance that might have given birth to the thought contained in the visual design, but can seldom come to any satisfactory conclusion. But to go much into this part of the subject can have little of interest or use for the student. These visionary images come without rhyme or reason ; the designs that will most instruct the learner will be those that come from both these proverbial causes— those, in fact, which have some tangible cause, that can be traced and assigned, for being born. 56 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. Most designs obtain their origin from suggestions found in nature. A picturesque bit of landscape will almost certainly suggest to the artistic eye where a figure or figures should be placed ; this will lead on to the questions : What are they to do, how should they do it, and how be dressed ? Then the sub- ject ought to appear to the artist, and it will do so if he tries his best to see it, although it might be only a poor or hackneyed one ; he will find that experience will improve both the quantity and quality of his ideas. It is astonishing how practice assists the imagination. That art breeds art is a well-known aphorism, and it is as true that subjects breed subjects. The picture you last produced leads up to the jiext, and the better you make it the better will be those that follow. The student after much practice will find himself half unconsciously storing up hints of wayside beauty and suggestive facts, and composing them in his mind into pictures, always with an eye to their possibility in photography. In my own practice I never now feel at a loss for a subject. They seem to come naturally when required, but this is the result of experience rather than a natural gift, for I remember many years ago being for a whole twelvemonth without a single idea. Neither could I work up one by any means. I tried every device I could think of. I read a great deal, visited pic- ture galleries, and tried to borrow thoughts from illustrated books, but all to no purpose ; no workable idea would arise. I was fallow for about a year, and then the faculty returned, and has always been more or less present. This I put down to con- stant use, and I mention it for the encouragement of the young beginner, who may occasionally find that his mind is a blank. It would be almost reasonable to suppose that the more of your ideas you used up, the less you would have ; but this is not the case. I know this not from my own experience only, but from questioning many artists. Sometimes incidents you meet with in the streets, or in country THE GENESIS OF A PICTUBE 57 walks, will suggest subjects ; not necessarily the actual incident one sees, but something that may be worked into some other scene, with perhaps many alterations. Sometimes a fine pose may be seen, or a lovely bit of light and shade ; sometimes an expression or a quaint costume; all these things should be noted for future use. No suggestive bit should be allowed to escape ; all should be sketched or noted. It is good practice also to try to analyse why the pose is beautiful, or the light and shade effective. This a knowledge of the rules of light and shade and composition will enable you to do, and to do this easily, the student will find an added pleasure to his life — another feather to the wing of his artistic flight. We will now take a picture that has been really produced by photography, and see how it was conceived and finished. To analyse and dissect a picture in a cold-blooded way, as I am going to do now, is to rob that picture of any poetry it may contain, and leave nothing but a mechanical interest ; but I know no better means of conveying the information ; I will, therefore, take one of my own — that one I have called " A Merry Tale " will be suitable for the purpose. The frontispiece is an ink-process reduction of this picture, and will assist the reader in understanding what follows. In the drawing-room of a country house in North "Wales five young ladies in evening costume were amusing themselves after dinner. One of them was relating some funny circumstance to the others, who arranged themselves in a picturesque group round the story-teller. Here was the germ of the picture. A few seconds sufficed to make a sketch of the composition. The illustration is a reproduction of the jotting in my note-book, and I may remark, by the way, that the practice of making rough sketches of composition and light and shade is very useful, especially if accompanied by a few descriptive notes. It teaches the student how to observe, if it does no other good. Correct drawing is by no means necessary ; the " effect " is what should 58 PICTURE MAKING Br PH0T0GB APH Y . be noted. To return to the picture. By an easy transition the mind easily changed the young ladies into peasant girls, and suggested suitable surroundings. A sketch was made of the arrangement, and the dress for each figure decided on. In select- ing the costumes, the light and shade of the group, and its rela- tion to the landscape, were not forgotten, neither were the acces. sories— the baskets, jug, and stick. The colours were taken into account only as to how they would translate into black and white. It was arranged that the group should form part of our work for the next day ; but, as often happens in the mountainous dis- tricts of Wales, man proposes, and the weather imposes : the morning opened with a deluge of rain, which continued more or less for several days. Those days were not wasted, for young ladies now-a-days can not only play tennis, but some of them can shoot and throw the fly, to say nothing of ratting and ferreting! At last the storms were over, and the sun shone again, but with a great deal more wind than a photographer thinks pleasant. However, we determined that we would have some pictures, good or bad, that morning. We were getting hungry for 1 THE GENESIS OF A PICTURE. 59 work, and a conscientious photographer is as anxious to make a good bag as a sportsman, but a photographer's desire for picture- making is nothing to that of a set of really enthusiastic models. Mine, I know, go into the business with the greatest energy. Off we started to a quiet lane about a mile away. The photo- graph conveys no idea of the picturesque effect of the five girls jn their humble but brilliantly-coloured garments. The effect of colours under the green hedgerows and through the fields was quite beautiful. The choruses sung on the way had, perhaps, nothing to do with photography ; but the foxgloves and other wild flowers the singers gathered came in very useful in the picture. Arrived at the selected spot, the camera was unpacked, and the models placed approximately in their proper places, interfering branches cut away, and everything got ready, so that the last moments might be devoted to the quite final touches, expressions, and other little things. The sun shone a cold steelly blue, and the wind was so troublesome that we had some thoughts of giving it up after all ; but we decided we had taken too much trouble to go home without spoiling, at least, one plate. Now for the arrangement of the group. The girl to the left was sitting up at first, as will be seen in the sketch, but being a young hand at the business, she could not control herself, and, enjoying the fun, threw herself back on the bank screaming with laughter. This was a happy accident, which much improved the composition, and was seized immediately. She was at once shouted to to keep her place, which, being an easy one, required little further thought on the part of the photographer, who could now turn his attention to the other figures. The seated figure, the one in the straw hat, was a steady old stager with plenty of experience and no nerves ; she required but a moment's attention. The next figure, always dramatic in pose, and with a charming expression, is, perhaps in consequence of her other good qualities, rather shakey as a sitter. She required 60 PICTTOE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. a rest of some kind. The stick was useful here, and was c immense value in the composition. A bit of straight line t contrast a number of curves is always effective. This settle the three figures that were easiest to keep still. The standin pose being by far the most difficult to keep— for a standi^ figure without a rest often sways like a pendulum— was lef until last. The figure telling the story was now settled the pose came easy, the model being an admirable story teller, and thoroughly up to her business; but it was neces- sary to give all possible effect to the hand, for the hand, ii well placed, would do more towards showing the intention of the picture than anything else in it. It, in a way, leads the chor J of expressions. It emphasizes the situation, —it makes you feej the girl is speaking. It was so arranged that, to make it more conspicuous, it should appear partly in sunlight and partly in shadow, and every leaf or twig that came behind it was hurriedly removed. The standing figure, who could not be expected to keep the pose for above a minute or two, was placed last. The jug, basket, and foxgloves, which form the key-note of the composition in the foreground, had been previously arranged, and all was ready. But a last glance from the camera showed the photographer that the tree was exactly over the head of the standing figure, and cut the composition into two parts. This would never do. But instead of moving the model the camera was moved. This corrected the error to some extent. It would have been better to have moved it a little further, but it was feared the other tree would interfere with the story-teller. A few last words— at the special request of the models I use fictitious names-" Now, girls, let this be our best picture Mabel, scream ; Edith, a steady interest in it only for you • Flo, your happiest laugh ; Mary, be sure you don't move your hand, or all the good expressions will go for nothing; Bee, I will say nothing to you, but leave you to fate. Steady ! Done'' " and two seconds' exposure settled the matter. I scarcely ex- THE GENESIS OF A PICTUBE. 61 ,)ected a successful result, the thing was so difficult ; but as the ^ind was blowing almost a gale, I did not care to try another plate. As it happened, I found, when I developed the plate a .'ortnight afterwards, I had got a good negative. The sky was .vhite and blank ; but the use of a second negative, delicate and lot too obstrusively printed, soon put this matter to rights. This seems a long story to tell ; but the picture was exposed in mder six minutes from the time the models first took their places. This quickness is one of the secrets of success, but when your picture is to include figures it should not have the appearance of hurry, for " hurry hinders haste," and, besides, has the effect of flurrying your models : it should be the result of a perfect know- ledge of what you want to do. A model should never be kept waiting longer than is absolutely necessary. It is better to give up little things rather than to lose a fine effect. CHAPTEE IX. THE ORIGIN OF IDEAS. 'No writer on art, as far as I am aware, has ever ventured to say anything on the question of the conception or origin of subjects for pictures or other works of art. Euskin, it is true, in his seldom-read second volume of " Modern Painters," treats of the Imaginative Faculty, but in this he soars far above the head of the ordinary reader. The origin of ideas is, perhaps, a meta- physical rather than an artistic matter, and should be left to the writers on what is called "pure reason; " but there is, perhaps, a word or two to be said in connection with the subject that may be appropriate here. New ideas, or what may be supposed to be new ideas, are often thought to be the suggestions of sudden inspiration, but they more ordinarily grow or are evolved from antecedent facts. In the last chapter I showed how a certain picture originated and was carried out. There are many other ways in which ideas may occur. And I must explain before I go on, for fear of misunderstanding, that I am not presumptu- ous enough to be trying to teach the art of imagination, which is impossible, but how the imagination may be encouraged, stimulated, and strengthened. Some people have a sort of dor- mant imagination, which only wants waking up to be of great value. " Subjects sometimes start up in the most unexpected manner. THE OBIGIN OF IDEAS. 63 I well remember one that occurred a few years ago. We were walking'through an orchard on our way to photograph a scene that had been previously selected, and had to pass through a door in a fence into the road. One of my models, who had a stick in her hand, ran forward to open the door, and, when it was open, turned round to greet us as we passed, quoting, laughingly, the old nursery rhyme : — " Open the gate and let her through^ Tor she is Patty Watty'' s cow. " What> lovely pose she fell naturally into as she spoke ! I give a little illustration of it, but the sketch only faintly recals the 64 PICTURE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. original. The title was, " For the Cows." This must, of course, be secured at once ; no sketching and leaving till another day was admissible. Thanks to the advantages of the gelatine process, and a camera that is ready for action in little more than a minute, an exposure was made before the pose had lost its freshness, or the smile died on the face. But, on the other hand, thanks also to the disadvantages of dry plates as then made, the picture was not good enough to exhibit ; the emulsion being much thicker on one part of the plate than another, the picture was not quite up to exhibition pitch. The film was uneven in the wrong place! These uneven films sometimes give good effects. I once took a medal with a picture that had very little to recommend it to the attention of the judges, except a startling arrangement of chiaroscuro which I attributed entirely to the unevenly coated plate. In the photograph to which I have just referred, the subject appeared with all its surroundings complete, and did not require any alteration or correction ; but some subjects occur in which THE OEIGIN OF IDEAS. 65 the figures are not exactly in situ, and these must be treated with thought and judgment. Shortly after the ' ' Tor the Cows " was taken, I saw the same model on the bank of a stream, shout- ing to her companions, " Can I jump it ? " Here was a subject at once ; but the background was ugly and unsuitable. Another was at once hunted up, and found. As it happened, the nook in which the figure appears was inaccessible to the model ; she could neither jump the water, nor get to the appointed spot in any unaided way. But a trifle like this should never be allowed to stop enthusiastic photographers. My models and helpers are often more enthusiastic than I am myself. In this case, the helper I had with me picked up the young lady in his arms, and waded across the stream with her. Adaptation from the works of others is a delicate process which I can only suggest in a very vague way. There are some painters who will copy a photograph and call it their own in the most unblushing manner. Even if that photograph should con- tain a perfectly original idea, something never thought of before, they will argue — "Oh! it's only an accident in nature the machine has met with ; it is impossible for it to be the photo- grapher's own thought — they never think, because they use a machine." But whatever painters may think it right to do in this way, I would caution the photographer to be honest, or, anyway, not to indulge in wholesale robbery. It is not right, for instance, to dress up a figure exactly like a figure in an en- graving, give it the same pose, and, in fact, reproduce the en- graving as nearly as your means permit, and then exhibit the photograph as your own original thought. On the other hand, I consider it legitimate to " convey " a hint from a painting or engraving. A slight hint may originate a perfectly new design ; but it is nothing less than a crime to carry off ideas wholesale and call them your own. It is difficult to get quite new incidents even in this kaleido- scopic world of ours ; and we should find, perhaps, that they 66 PICTCTBE MAKING BI PHOTOGBAPHY. would not be understood if we did. Sir Joshua Reynolds said that it is by imitating the inventions of others that we learn to invent. "William Morris, in his lectures on " The Lesser Arts," boldly says : — " I do not think it too much to say that no man, however original he may be, can sit down to-day and draw the ornament of a cloth, or the form of an ordinary vessel or piece of furniture, that will be other than a development or a degra- dation of forms used hundreds of years ago." If Solomon was right that there was nothing new under the sun, nature also teaches us that everything that has the appearance of novelty is not really new, but simply a variation on some previous form evolved from something that has gone before. Evolution, there- fore, in picture-making, I hold to be right ; but the picture you produce from the germ you have adapted should no more resem- ble the original in composition or subject than a man resembles a gorilla. There may be a suspicion of likeness ; but it should suggest only a far-off relationship. Anthony Trollope, in his autobiography, tells us that all his plots were of his own devising, except one, which was drawn out for him by his brother. His remarks on originality of sub- ject come in very appositely here. " I mention this particu- larly," he says, " because it was the only occasion on which I had recourse to some other source than my own brains for the thread of a story. How far I may have unconsciously adopted incidents from what I have read, — either from history or from works of imagination, — I do not know. It is beyond question that a man employed as I have been must do so. But when doing it I have not been aware that I have done it. I have never taken another man's work, and deliberately framed my work upon it. I am far from censuring this practice in others. Our greatest masters in works of imagination have obtained such aid for themselves. Shakespeare dug out of such quarries where- ever he could find them. Een Jonson, with heavier hand, built up his structures on his studies of the classics, not thinking it THE OEIGIN OF IDEAS. 67 beneath him to give, without direct acknowledgment, whole pieces translated both from poets and historians. But in those days no such acknowledgment was usual. Plagiary existed, and was very common, but was not known as a sin. It is different now ; and I fc think -that an author, when he uses either the words or the plot of another, should own as much, demand- ing to be credited with no more of the work than he has produced." Then what vast numbers of subjects are to be got from reading ! I like to reduce all I have said to practice, or to give a definite example. I will, therefore, take a poem, and en- deavour to show how subjects are suggested by it. I take 'Gray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard," because it is so well known, and has been so well " worked" by artists. Twilight has not been so much used as a theme for photo- graphers ; yet it is perfectly easy now to produce all the effects to be noted at the close of day. "What could be more sugges- tive for pictures of this sort than the opening of Gray's poem? It is so well known that I will not quote it ; but can anything be finer or more, poetical for a picture than that called up by the lines : — " Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds. 19 And there is scarcely a bit of country in England that would not offer materials to illustrate the lines. To London photo- graphers they are especially available — as, if they want literal fact, Stoke Pogis, where the poem was written, is within easy distance, and the actual scenery may be used, especially the " ivy-mantled tower." But the scene that Gray had before him when he wrote the poem is not necessary. A prosaic, f act-givin photograph is not required; the sentiment of the scene i* the quality the student must endeavour to secure and repre- sent. 68 PICTUEE MAKING BY PHOTOGRAPHY. The poem is full of picture-giving lines ; some are so plainly descriptive, such as — " The ploughman homeward plods his weary way" — as to require no effort of the imagination to see them at once ^ others are suggestive, and all the more valuable on that account. Of this kind is the line —