STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 I 
 
" To htntf who in the love of Nature holds communion with 
 her visible forms, she speaks a various language" 
 
 W. C. Bryant. 
 
\ 
 
 STUDIES 
 
 IN 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 OF 
 
 1 MECHAE : 
 
 'DESMEW 
 
 JOHN ANDREWS, B.A. 
 
 ro ;] 0 8 6 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON, cl- VINEY, Ld., 
 I, CREED LANE,- LUDGATE HILL, E.G. 
 
Printed by Hazeii, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
TO 
 
 ALL LOVERS OF ART AND NATURE 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 T N the first few chapters of this book I have 
 endeavoured to consider the claims of 
 Photography to rank as an original Art. Now, 
 a great deal has been written on this subject 
 which has given rise to much angry discussion, 
 artists and critics, as a rule, until lately maintain- 
 ing that in no sense can Photography ever be 
 an art at all ; while the advance-guard of photo- 
 graphers claim to produce work in monotone 
 as artistic, if not more so, than that of many 
 painters. As usual, the truth probably lies 
 between the extremes. The brush in the hands 
 of a competent artist will produce results such 
 as no photograph can approach, because they 
 are the direct reflection of the individual genius 
 
 vii 
 
viii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the painter ; as Emerson finely says, " Art 
 is Nature passed through the alembic of man." 
 On the other hand the camera will produce 
 transcripts of Nature with a fidelity and beauty 
 to which no human work can attain. They are, 
 in fact, sister arts ; one is the original genius of 
 the family, and the other the patient drudge. 
 
 But the advance-guard of photographers seem 
 to imagine that by new devices in pinholes, 
 focussing, and printing, they will be able to 
 rival art in its own sphere ; we think this is 
 a mistake. Much has been done, and immense 
 strides will no doubt be made in the future, but 
 the very nature of things will prevent photo- 
 graphy from ever taking her sister's place, or 
 becoming more than an art of reproduction. 
 
 Photography, essentially, is a machine-made 
 art, though it makes all the difference in the 
 world who guides the machine. A photo- 
 grapher who is also an artist will produce 
 incomparably finer work than one who is not ; 
 but do what he may, he will never produce 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ix 
 
 work that will compare with the original crea- 
 tions of the real artist in his own line, for Art 
 is poetry, and sees Nature through that ideal 
 light that " never was on sea and shore," while 
 photography has more or less to content her- 
 self with the " light of common day," And she 
 may well be content therewith, for while it is 
 given to few — very few — of a generation to 
 produce original art work that will live, the 
 beauties of Nature reproducible by the camera 
 are within the reach of all. Each art is more 
 or less distinct from the other, and beyond a 
 certain point they will not combine ; but that 
 each can be, and is, of the greatest use to the 
 other is becoming every day more apparent. 
 Art teaches us the rules of composition, per- 
 spective, and light and shade, and shows the 
 photographer how they may be applied ; and 
 photography reproduces every detail and appear- 
 ance of Nature the artist demands, with a 
 truth to which he cannot aspire. 
 
 In the following pages (which are for the 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 most part reprinted from the Photographic 
 Quarterly^ and other reviews) the author has 
 endeavoured to elucidate the principles above 
 referred to, and to add thereto some practical 
 remarks which he trusts will be found useful 
 to the photographer who aspires to produce 
 more artistic work, and to the artist who, wise 
 in his generation, does not disdain the very 
 material assistance which photography can 
 give. 
 
 St, Aubins, 
 
 Jersey, 1892. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY . . .II 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY . . . .28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR . . . -35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LIGHT . . • 48 
 
xii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ; PAGE 
 
 THE ARTISTIC USE OF A HAND-CAMERA . . 62 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 COMPOSITION 71 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 LIGHT AND SHADE . . . . . .82 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 PERSPECTIVE 94 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE . . . . I05 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE STUDY OF NATURE . . ' . . . I20 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STUDY OF ART I40 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PORTRAITS . . . . . . .156 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ATMOSPHERE 1 72 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC FACTORS . . . . 180 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA . . 188 
 
 b 
 
STUDIES IN PH0T(3(#^Mf. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY, 
 
 " Let Nature be your Teacher." 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 OT SO very long ago the above heading 
 
 would have been treated with derision in 
 artistic circles. But this is rapidly being changed. 
 Artists must look to it ; say what they will about 
 selection, idealism, and expression, the photo- 
 graphy of the new or impressionist school, and 
 in the near future too, will run them close in 
 monotint pictures at all events ; and suppose 
 we achieve colour, what then ? 
 
 It is a singular thing that for the last forty 
 or fifty years photography, artistically speaking. 
 
2 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 has been almost stationary, and while immense 
 advances have been made in chemicals, lenses, 
 printing processes, and all material appliances, 
 art and artistic feeling have been conspicuously 
 absent. The ordinary photographs of thirty 
 years ago were as good (some think better) than 
 the ordinary photographs of to-day. Look at 
 any collection and see. 
 
 With the exception of Mrs. Cameron's studies, 
 which were the product of great artistic feeling 
 and an original method, there is little of art to 
 be seen in the past history of photography. 
 There are three chief causes for this : excessive 
 or obtrusive detail, want of atmosphere, and the 
 absence of artistic education and feeling. The 
 childhood of photography (and it has been a long 
 one) is, however, passing away ; on every side 
 artists and educated people are working with 
 hand and other cameras, and are astonished to 
 find latent capabilities which they never dreamt 
 of in the much-despised photography. 
 
 Let us consider shortly, the above-mentioned 
 
ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 3 
 
 defects of photography as an art process, and 
 point out some of the methods now being tried 
 for their removal. 
 
 I. Obtrusive Detail, — This is what so delighted 
 us in the early times : it was all there, every 
 stick and stone, down to the high light in a fly's 
 eye. Independently of art or picture making, 
 the result often is marvellously beautiful : look 
 at the texture of rocks and fabrics of all kinds, 
 the exquisite drawing of all natural objects, such 
 as delicate grasses, ripple marks on sand, almost 
 the bloom if not the colour of flowers can be 
 caught ; think of the delicate representation of 
 the higher clouds, and the fall and wash of 
 ocean waves. No human work can approach 
 this. Well might Mr. Ruskin say, speaking of 
 monotint, " The perfection of work would be 
 tinted shadow, like photography without any 
 obscurity or exaggerated darkness." 
 
 And all this beauty is produced by the very 
 perfection of the lens ; in fact, photography 
 suffers from " the defects of its virtues." It is 
 
4 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 too good ; it tells us too much. The Pre- 
 Raphaelites made the same mistake, and in 
 trying to reproduce all the details of a subject 
 defeated their own aims. How then are we to 
 get rid of this superfluous detail in photography? 
 Several methods have been suggested : the 
 simplest of them is the plan of not using the 
 lens at its sharpest focus, — very beautiful effects 
 may be obtained in landscapes by this method ; 
 another plan is what is called pinhole photo- 
 graphy, or the suppression of the lens altogether.* 
 A third plan is reversing the negative in print- 
 ing, or printing through ground glass or tissue 
 paper, — very soft and beautiful effects may be 
 produced by these methods, and the atmosphere 
 of nature suggested. The result obtained is 
 sometimes not unlike French monotone pictures, 
 or the first blot or lay-in of a picture, which often 
 suggests more of nature than the finished work. 
 
 * A very interesting paper on Pinhole Photography by 
 W. A. Maskell will be found in the Photographic Quarterlyy 
 Vol. II., No. 5. 
 
ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 5 
 
 With all these methods, however, the diffi- 
 culties of selection and composition remain, and 
 these are only to be overcome partially by care- 
 ful thought and study of the work of the great 
 masters. Instead of taking so many pictures, 
 how much better it would be to take a few 
 carefully considered ones ! — the subject should 
 be thought over and visited at all lights, and a 
 sketch of it is of great use in deciding what to 
 take in and leave out. Another useful plan is 
 to study the subject in a Claude glass ; those 
 who have never used one will be surprised and 
 delighted at the beauties it reveals. 
 
 2. Want of Atmosphere. — This arises chiefly 
 from the inability of photography to render the 
 true scale of light and shade ; as Mr. Hamerton 
 says, it is " unable to make those subdivisions 
 in the scale which are necessary to attain relative 
 truth." 
 
 Now, the effects of light and atmosphere are 
 the most beautiful things in nature, and are 
 the aim and despair of all artists worthy of the 
 
6 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 name. They are the very poetry of landscape ; 
 as Mr. Leslie well says, " Rocks, trees, mount- 
 ains, plains, and waters are the features of land- 
 scape, but its expression is from above, — hence 
 the paramount importance of the sky in land- 
 scape." And here much is to be learnt from 
 observing the practice of good painters : Turner 
 and Constable were always studying the sky — 
 " going out skying," the latter calls it, and the 
 photographer should do likewise. 
 
 Every landscape should have its appropriate 
 sky, — it is the keynote of the picture. In Mr. 
 Robinson's works on Artistic Photography will 
 be found some admirable remarks about skies, 
 and how to obtain them, and print them when 
 obtained. 
 
 The great difficulty is so to moderate the 
 actinic power of the sun as to get the sky and 
 the landscape both fairly represented ; the sun is 
 a treacherous ally, — while he is painting in our 
 foreground he quietly rubs out the sky, and the 
 result is vacuity. Here too we may learn of 
 
ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 7 
 
 artists, who always prefer the morning or even- 
 ing effects ; then it is that the landscape assumes 
 breadth and repose, and unnecessary details are 
 hidden in the advancing shadows. 
 
 Not to speak of the magnificence of sunset 
 and sunrise, how beautiful is the repose of 
 twilight, when a deep calm settles down on sea 
 and shore ! This is the best time for landscape 
 photography, the hour just after the sun has 
 set ; of course longer exposure is required, but 
 the most beautiful and poetical effects may be 
 obtained. A dull day too, if not too dark, is 
 admirable, and much better than the glare of 
 sunlight, as the most tender half-tones can be 
 secured. But to get these effects a photographer 
 must be an enthusiast as well as an artist ; he 
 must learn to watch and wait, and to count his 
 failures as gain if he gets even a little nearer 
 to his ideal. 
 
 Corot, the great French painter, used to get 
 up at three o'clock in the morning ; and see 
 how beautiful his pictures are, how^ redolent of 
 
8 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 the dawn. After all, it is a question of artistic 
 feeling, and it is a great mistake to suppose 
 that without this you can produce artistic work. 
 This artistic feeling must, however, be improved 
 and restrained by education, and the best edu- 
 cation is the careful study of nature and the 
 works of the great masters of landscape art, 
 such as Turner, Constable, Cox, and De Wint 
 amongst our English painters, or Corot, Dau- 
 bigny, Millet, and Rousseau amongst the French. 
 By the careful study of the work of these men 
 and comparing it with nature, much may be 
 learnt of composition and light and shade, and 
 must surely have a vast influence in the forma- 
 tion of sound taste and the improvement of 
 photography. 
 
 This brings us to our third point, viz., the 
 great advance that has taken place in artistic 
 taste during the last thirty or forty years. In 
 the matter of photography alone (for to this our 
 remarks are confined), we see that vast strides 
 are being made ; many artists and people of 
 
ARTISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 9 
 
 educated taste are now included in the ranks 
 of amateur photographers, and the works ex- 
 hibited at the annual and other exhibitions 
 show marked advance. In a review of a recent 
 exhibition of the Photographic Society the Times 
 says : It illustrates very forcibly the distinct 
 improvement which has recently been effected 
 in printing methods, and it shows a marked 
 advance — consequent to some extent on that 
 improvement — if not in the artistic capacities of 
 photographers, at all events in their powers of 
 producing the most artistic results with the 
 appliances at their command." This is very 
 encouraging : certainly the greatest advances 
 have been made in the printing and reproduc- 
 tion of photographs ; numerous methods have 
 been invented, and in many cases most beautiful 
 results obtained. The day of the old silver print 
 is passing away, faster, if possible, than the prints 
 themselves, and platinotype, sepiatype, autotype, 
 and other processes are taking its place. The 
 results are to be seen everywhere in the illus- 
 
lO STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 trated books and art magazines. In fact, it 
 would be almost safe to predict that the days 
 of wood and steel engraving for the purpose of 
 book illustration are numbered. Certainly in 
 future all scientific works will be exclusively 
 illustrated by the aid of photography. The 
 truth is that artistic photography is behind the 
 times ; the printer has gone ahead and is wait- 
 ing for his artistic ally. That he is coming up 
 rapidly is certain, and everything that can be 
 done to assist his progress will be hailed with 
 delight by all true artists, whether they call 
 themselves painters or photographers. 
 
0^] 686 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 All the arts have a common bond of union and relationship 
 to each other." — Cicero. 
 
 A GOOD many years ago, when the collodion 
 
 process was perfected, and Photography 
 became a popular amusement, it was prophesied 
 that the art of Painting would go out, especially 
 portrait painting. This prophecy has, however, 
 not been verified ; and it has been perceived 
 that while to some extent Photography and 
 Painting are sister arts, and run in parallel 
 lines, yet they each have a sphere of their own, 
 and can render to each other most valuable 
 assistance. 
 
 Let us consider some of the methods by which 
 each art materially assists the other. 
 
 First. The aid Photography lends to Art, 
 
 II 
 
12 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 It has been said by Mr. Hamerton that "Thoto- 
 graphy is a most useful and curious invention, 
 and of the greatest value for the record of plain 
 facts about persons and places, but is not a fine 
 art at all, and can never be made one." This 
 statement is somewhat exaggerated, though un- 
 doubtedly it rests on a basis of truth. 
 
 As a record of plain fact it is useful to an 
 artist by enabling him to complete his picture by 
 means of added detail ; but no amount of detail 
 or facst77ule, either in a landscape or portrait, will 
 make a picture, because the representation of 
 nature by painting is an ideal work created by 
 the genius of man — it is a selection of idealised 
 forms endowed with life by means of light, 
 shade, and colour. Emerson has well expressed 
 this when he defines Art as " Nature passed 
 through the alembic of man." How far this 
 record of natural facts can be of use to a painter 
 depends very much on the individual genius 
 of the artist. Some artists make great use of 
 photographs, while others use them scarcely, or 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 1 3 
 
 not at all. The advance of Photography, how- 
 ever, rather increases than diminishes the labours 
 of the painter, as nowadays trees, rocks, and 
 skies, and all natural objects must be represented 
 in a more naturalistic way than they were a 
 hundred years ago. Mr. Leslie has remarked 
 in his " Academy Lectures," that " Photography 
 may tend to relax the industry of inferior 
 painters, but it will stimulate the exertions of 
 the besty for much may be learned from it if it is 
 used as a means of becoming better acquainted 
 with the beauties of nature, but nothing if 
 resorted to only as a substitute for labour." 
 Owing to the great rapidity now attained by 
 the use of gelatine plates and shutters, etc., most 
 valuable and useful effects of light and passing 
 clouds, expression, animals and birds in motion, 
 waves and boats, etc., can be obtained ; and 
 these are of the greatest value as records of 
 things that pass away. 
 
 In the reproduction of works of art of all 
 kinds Photography has done, and is doing, 
 
14 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOCxRAPHY. 
 
 immense service to art and artists. The pro- 
 cesses are innumerable, and some have been 
 brought to great perfection. The Autotype 
 Company have published a magnificent series 
 of reproductions of the drawings and pictures of 
 the old masters, and in The Portfolio and other 
 magazines of art will be found specimens of the 
 heliogravure and other processes. These are 
 printed from ordinary negatives on to steel and 
 copper plates, or wood blocks specially prepared, 
 and are finished by the work of the engraver. 
 
 Drawings and works in one tint can be most 
 successfully reproduced, and some artists work 
 specially for such reproductions, which are 
 largely used for newspaper and book illustra- 
 tions. Pictures in colour are not, however, so 
 successfully reproduced by Photography, owing 
 to the salts of silver not being equally sensitive 
 to all the rays of the spectrum. This is one of 
 the causes of the failure, or rather of the limita- 
 tion, of Photography in representing natural 
 objects ; the result is that they are false in local 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 1 5 
 
 colour. Great advances, however, have been 
 made in what is called isochromatic photography, 
 that is, the reproduction of the equal tone of the 
 different colours, by the use of certain vegetable 
 extracts and organic dyes with the gelatine 
 emulsion.* 
 
 The true contrasts of light and dark of nature 
 are not to be reproduced by Art or by Photo- 
 graphy ; in Art they can only be suggested by 
 great economy of light, as flake white, the 
 brightest light, is dark grey. Photography does 
 not economise, and the result is blackness in 
 shade, and vacuity in light. Many artists have 
 their pictures photographed before sending them 
 in to exhibitions, and these copies form a most 
 valuable and instructive record of an artist's 
 
 * Isochromatic plates are now much cheaper than they were, 
 and are coming into general use. A very complete article on 
 " The Relation between Absorption and Sensitised Plates," 
 by Prof. Acworth, will be found in the Photographic Quarterly^ 
 Vol. II., No. 7. See also Captain Abney's article in the 
 "Encyclopaedia Britannica," last edition, "Photography," in 
 which his own researches and those of Vogel, Eder, Schuman 
 and others, are fully described. 
 
1 6 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 career. We believe Mr. Du Maurier makes 
 great use of Photography. All his drawings for 
 Punch are done in pen and ink three or four 
 times the size required, and reduced by Photo- 
 graphy. He took to this course some years 
 ago, as he felt his eyesight failing, and has found 
 the result most satisfactory ; besides, he is able 
 to preserve his valuable original sketches, which 
 would otherwise be destroyed in the engraving. 
 
 We have heard a good deal lately about 
 Photography in Natural Colours, and if photo- 
 graphs true in their local colours can be produced, 
 the art will be revolutionised and become of 
 much greater assistance to artists even than it 
 is at present. Scientific men, however, differ 
 as to the possibility of this ever being done ; 
 but we have seen so many wonderful things 
 accomplished by science in the last few years, 
 that it would be very rash to predict anything 
 to be impossible.* 
 
 Another branch of reproduction is that of old 
 
 * See post^ Chapter IV. 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 1 7 
 
 manuscripts and inscriptions, thus rendering 
 popular and permanent things that are of a 
 perishable nature. Old coins have been repro- 
 duced in a very artistic and beautiful manner, 
 and the authorities at South Kensington and 
 the British Museum have published a number 
 of photographic reproductions of many of the 
 beautiful works of sculpture, metal, glass, lace, 
 and china, etc., contained in those collections. 
 All these things must be of immense use to 
 artists and students. 
 
 I am not aware that portrait painters use 
 Photography much, but I have seen a very suc- 
 cessful portrait painted almost entirely from 
 several photographs. As a rule Photography 
 tells us too much. A very clever lady, Mrs. 
 Cameron, produced some most artistic photo- 
 graphic portraits of Tennyson, Watts, and others, 
 and she defeated the obtrusiveness of photo- 
 graphic detail, by putting her subjects a little 
 out of focus, which gave them a massive breadth, 
 not unlike the effects produced by some of the 
 
 2 
 
1 8 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 old masters. Mr. Hamerton says that this is 
 the nearest approach to fine art that Photography 
 has yet attained. 
 
 With regard to landscape painting, a photo- 
 graph of the intended scene is not of much 
 assistance to an artist who has time and patience 
 to complete his studies of detail and effect out 
 of doors. Sir J. Millais, I believe, paints his 
 large landscapes entirely out of doors, with the 
 assistance of a wooden house specially con- 
 structed. There is, however, much to be learnt 
 by comparing a sketch or the most careful study 
 with a photograph of the same subject, especially 
 with regard to scale ; the artist habitually 
 exaggerates the height of buildings and mount- 
 ains, while a photograph in this respect gives 
 or should give the truth of nature. 
 
 Photographic groups^ of course, are much 
 more difficult than single figures ; and, however 
 interesting they may be as mementoes, their 
 artistic value is not very great. For fancy 
 figure subjects, 1 do not think Photography of 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 1 9 
 
 much use. The late Mr. Rej lander, who was an 
 artist by profession, made a special study of 
 fancy subjects in Photography, but the result 
 was not very successful. The photograph is far 
 too realistic for this purpose, and suggests the 
 make-up of the theatre. 
 
 Even Mr. H. P. Robinson, who has written 
 some very useful manuals on Pictorial Photo- 
 graphy, says that historical subjects are impos- 
 sible ; and he wittily adds, " Queen Anne is dead, 
 therefore you cannot photograph Queen Anne." 
 
 Secondly. The assistance Art renders to 
 Photography. The principles of Art, if rightly 
 understood, are of the greatest importance and 
 assistance to a photographer. We hear and 
 read a great deal about chemicals, and lenses, 
 stops, and exposures, shutters and devices of all 
 kinds, but little of the art of composition and 
 arrangement of light and shade and pictorial 
 effect. 
 
 What we all want is more study and thought, 
 and not so many photographs. So much has 
 
20 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 been written about Art and its so-called princi- 
 ples by Mr. Ruskin and other critics, that there 
 is little left to say of any use. I venture, 
 however, to offer the following observations : — 
 
 With regard to portraits. Here we have the 
 best models in the works of Titian, Raphael, 
 Vandyck, and our own Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 and Gainsborough. What they chiefly aimed 
 at and attained was the character of their sub- 
 ject ; the treatment and accessories were of 
 secondary importance — in fact, they thought 
 out their pictures. Speaking of the portrait 
 painters of his day. Sir Joshua Reynolds re- 
 marked — and one would almost fancy he must 
 have been thinking of the modern professional 
 photographer — " They have got a set of postures 
 which they apply to all persons indiscriminately, 
 the consequence of which is that all their 
 pictures look like so many signpost paintings." 
 
 We all know the story of the man who 
 painted all his friends, and when they were 
 hung up discovered that they were all profiles, 
 
ART IN RELATION TO "PHOTOGRAPHY. 21 
 
 and all looked the same way. Monotony 
 should be avoided, and the best effect of light 
 and shade suitable to the subject secured. 
 
 Very effective portraits can be taken indoors, 
 by or near a window, with the blind partly down 
 so as not to have too much top light. The 
 difficulty is the shadowed side away from the 
 light ; but if a white screen of paper or a sheet 
 is held parallel to the window behind the sitter, 
 very soft reflections may be obtained. 
 
 A portrait should fill up most of the space 
 in a picture, otherwise it will look insignificant. 
 If you look at any fine old portraits or old coins 
 you will notice how the head nearly fills the 
 canvas or the coin. Backgrounds should be as 
 simple as possible. Green baize or a blanket 
 make a very good background, and a plain 
 background is much preferable to the fancy 
 rockery work and other abominations we see so 
 much of. In any case the background should 
 harmonise with the subject. 
 
 If you look at the backgrounds of the great 
 
22 vSTUDlES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 portrait painters, you will see that they are 
 thought out with the greatest care. 
 
 If more than a head is attempted, an easy, 
 unstudied, and natural attitude should, if 
 possible, be secured ; but we all know how 
 difficult this is. There is also the difficulty of 
 preventing the hands and feet being out of 
 focus, and making the portrait a monstrosity. 
 Hands should always be shown if possible, as 
 they are very characteristic, and beautiful if 
 rightly done. In fact, it has been said you may 
 always detect the work of a good painter by the 
 way his hands and feet are painted. 
 
 As to landscapes. — Here, again, monotony 
 should be avoided, and the compositions of the 
 great masters studied. And here Art has a 
 great advantage over Photography, as great 
 painters like Turner and others place their trees, 
 clouds, architecture, etc., about just as they 
 please when composing a picture ; while Photo- 
 graphy takes in everything before it. Still much 
 may be done by a little care and thought. 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 23 
 
 There are numerous so-called rules of com- 
 position laid down by writers on Art, such as 
 the law of repetition, the law of principality, 
 the law of contrast, etc. ; * but instead of 
 dwelling on these, I would rather refer to Mr. 
 Prout's definition of composition, which he says 
 " is the grouping and arrangement of pictorial 
 materials to obtain the unity of an entire ex- 
 pression " ; or Mr. Ruskin, who says : " Com- 
 position means literally and simply putting 
 several things together so as to make one thing 
 out of them. Thus a musician composes an air 
 by putting notes together in certain relations ; 
 a poet composes a poem by putting thoughts 
 and words in pleasant order ; and a painter 
 composes a picture by putting thoughts, forms, 
 and colours in pleasant order." If we cannot 
 always succeed in arranging our pictures to our 
 satisfaction, we need not despair, for Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds says that " composition is the greatest 
 difficulty the artist has to encounter." 
 
 * See Chapter V. 
 
24 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Light and shade should be carefully studied, 
 and the effects of morning and evening light. 
 It is good practice to take the same subject 
 under different lights. Rembrandt is the great 
 master of light and shade. 
 
 The sky is so beautiful, and may be made of 
 such great assistance to the composition of a 
 picture, that it should never be neglected. By 
 means of proper shutters and stops I think 
 more might be made of the sky than photo- 
 graphers usually do. 
 
 Effects of light and waves in motion, etc., can 
 be admirably reproduced ; though, owing to the 
 unequal sensitiveness of the silver salts, these 
 effects look like very beautiful moonlights, and 
 are commonly sold as such. 
 
 Mr. Hamerton has summed up the objec- 
 tions to Photography, from a purely artistic 
 point of view, as follows * : — 
 
 * In his " Naturalistic Photography " (p. 284) Dr. Emerson 
 has combated these assertions of Mr. Hamerton in his usual 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 2 5 
 
 1. Falseness of local colour, throwing the 
 lights and darks of natural colouring out of 
 tone. 
 
 2. Falseness in light and shade, not being 
 able to make those subdivisions in the scale 
 which are necessary to attain relative truth.* 
 
 3. Falseness in perspective and proportion, 
 owing to the imperfection of lenses. 
 
 4. Literalness and incapacity for selection 
 and emphasis, which are antagonistic to the 
 artistic spirit. 
 
 Art has similar limitations : — 
 
 I. Local colour. No two people see colour 
 exactly alike ; therefore the exact colours of 
 Nature are not represented. Also there is 
 
 energetic style, but he does not throw much fresh light on the 
 matter. No doubt plates and lenses are much improved since 
 Mr. Hamerton wrote in i860, but the principles he then laid 
 down are incontrovertible, and as true now as they were 
 then. 
 
 * See an article by Mr. H. Dennis Taylor on " Nature's Light 
 Scales as Rendered by Photography," in the Photographic 
 Quarterly^ Vol. III., No. 9. 
 
26 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 the inability of any pigments to represent the 
 strength and beauty of natural colour. 
 
 2. Representation of the scale of light and 
 dark is but a compromise and suggestion at the 
 best. 
 
 3. Imperfection in drawing and perspective, 
 which is common to all human work. 
 
 4. Failure and weakness of the power of 
 selection and emphasis, owing to the incapacity 
 of the artist. 
 
 With all its limitations, however, Photography 
 is a most beautiful and interesting art. Its 
 pursuit leads us to the study of chemistry, the 
 laws of light and optics, and offers a wide field 
 for clever manipulation and the exercise of 
 ingenuity in a thousand ways ; and when we 
 remember that in science the goal of to-day is 
 the starting-place of to-morrow, who can say 
 what Photography may not achieve in the 
 future ? 
 
 Let us, therefore, utterly discountenance the 
 idea that there is any antagonism between 
 
ART IN RELATION TO PHOTOGRAPHY. 2/ 
 
 Painting and Photography. They are both 
 members of the same family, and if both have 
 their limitations it is because nothing is perfect, 
 and all that we can do is but an aspiration after 
 that ideal perfection to which we may never 
 attain. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY, 
 
 "But who can paint 
 Like Nature ? Can imagination boast, 
 Amid its gay creation, hues Hke hers ? 
 
 Thompson. 
 
 S far as we can understand it, " Naturalistic 
 
 ^ Photography " is an attempt by a number 
 of earnest workers to reproduce the mystery 
 and beauty of nature under poetical aspects, and 
 in accordance with the rules observed by the 
 masters of Art. This, some may think, is a 
 large order ; perhaps so, but the success already 
 attained is a sure earnest of what may be done 
 in the future. A glance at the illustrated books 
 and papers, or at the walls of photographic ex- 
 hibitions, shows that art ideas and motives are 
 stirring the photographic world ; and though no 
 
 28 
 
NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 29 
 
 reasonable person imagines that photography 
 will ever equal or supersede brush work, still 
 there is a field, and a wide one, it may profitably 
 occupy. 
 
 There is a vast amount of rubbish written 
 about art and idealism, and other " isms," but 
 the wise man knows that there is no royal road 
 to excellence, and distrusts the man or the school 
 who advocates " the true and only method " of 
 representing nature ; in fact, as all roads' lead to 
 Rome, so all good methods will produce good 
 art ; but we must never forget that in art, as in 
 everything else, nothing is perfect. There is 
 light and there is also shade. If this were more 
 often remembered we should have less dog- 
 matism, and our progress would be far easier ; 
 there would be less friction and fewer " dust- 
 heaps." 
 
 But some will ask. How are the mystery and 
 poetry of nature to be reproduced by the camera ? 
 How can you regulate your machine ? Well 
 you must ask the engineer ; and this brings us 
 
30 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 to the most important point of all, and that is, 
 that without artistic perception and education 
 you will get no artistic work — ex nihilo nihil 
 fit. As W. Hunt, the American painter, well 
 says, " It takes a painter to make a picture, it 
 takes a painter to appreciate a picture." 
 
 But granted — and what a concession ! — the 
 artistic vision, let us consider what can be done, 
 and remember that we are only now at the be- 
 ginning of things ; new inventions and processes 
 are brought out every day, and the artistic 
 worker will not be slow to press many of them 
 into his service. 
 
 First, then, in the selection of a subject. 
 Now here the artist's knowledge of composition, 
 perspective, and light and shade is of immense 
 assistance. He knows what will make a picture, 
 and by repeated trials will select the best point 
 of view, the best lighting, etc. Take, for 
 example, such a simple subject as a ship or two 
 in a harbour. Now, if you photograph this 
 subject broadside-on and in ordinary daylight 
 
NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 31 
 
 you will get, what you deserve, a most ordinary 
 result. But get the ships in perspective, lying 
 along the quay wall with the evening light 
 behind them, reflected with all their spars in 
 the harbour, and they will form a beautiful 
 pyramidal group, which, if your exposure is 
 right, will yield an artistic picture. The same 
 knowledge of perspective and composition may 
 successfully be applied to all subjects, and yet 
 Dr. Emerson tells us that composition is " futility 
 itself ! " See, too, what may be done by the 
 clever and artistic introduction of figures and 
 skies — if you know how. The artist, w^hen com- 
 posing a picture, treats his materials like pieces 
 of a puzzle, and plays them about at pleasure, 
 and if this latitude is not permitted to the 
 photographer, still he has sufficient for almost 
 all practical purposes. Again, as to values ; see 
 what variety may be produced by judicious ex- 
 posure. Photograph, for instance, a road scene, 
 with a lofty bank of trees on one side, and a fine 
 sky beyond, varying the exposure from of a 
 
32 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 second, say, to two or three seconds, and see the 
 differences in the values in the sky and trees 
 you will obtain ; it will be time well spent, and 
 the plates will not have been wasted. By 
 practice of this sort the engineer^ as we called 
 him above, will thoroughly learn the capabilities 
 of his machine, and will make it produce the 
 tones he requires, just as a musician masters his 
 instrument or an artist his materials. 
 
 Passing by the question of alteration of values 
 by development, about which there is consider- 
 able difference of opinion, we come to the subject 
 of suppression and omission of unnecessary or 
 objectionable details. Now, here much may be 
 done by judicious choice of position, but much 
 more by the careful observation of suitable 
 atmospheric conditions. The advancing shades 
 of evening will conceal much and give breadth 
 to the picture ; this is the time when the mystery 
 and poetry of nature are best seen and felt, and 
 much of it may be secured by photography. 
 Dull and misty weather is also advisable for 
 
NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 33 
 
 some subjects. Atmospheric effects can be 
 splendidly rendered by the camera, and every 
 artist acknowledges their immense value in con- 
 cealing objectionable details. 
 
 All these things should be carefully considered, 
 and novel effects and combinations experimented 
 upon. Surely, here is a wide field for the exer- 
 cise, not only of technical skill, but of artistic 
 talent. 
 
 The old school may say it is not legitimate 
 photography. Well, let them. We remember 
 when the use of body colour in water colour was 
 considered illegitimate, but we have outgrown 
 that. If the result be beautiful and artistic, few 
 will care to question the means employed. An 
 artist employs glazing and scumbling to alter 
 and modify his tones, and why should not a 
 photographer employ all methods at his disposal 
 for the same purpose ? Granted that the limita- 
 tions of photography are great, it must be the 
 photographer's aim to reduce them, and every 
 day something is being done in this direction. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 In the above remarks we have indicated 
 something of the aims and the methods of the 
 naturalistic school in the production of the 
 negative, and when we turn to the subject of 
 printing and reproduction we find remarkable 
 advance, and a wide opening for the exercise of 
 artistic taste, such as printing on matt surface 
 and rough papers (not necessarily touched up, 
 as Dr. Emerson says, by clumsy hands) — in 
 fact, not touched up at all, but judiciously 
 adapted to the subject when suitable. Again, 
 bromide prints and enlargements, platina print- 
 ing, and the numerous methods of producing 
 plates and blocks for illustration, all point in 
 the same direction, viz., the artistic representa- 
 tion of nature by means of photography. Let 
 us, then, take courage and go forward, learning 
 from success and failure, and ever remembering 
 the witty Americanism, applicable to photo- 
 graphy as to other matters, " Never prophesy 
 unless you know/' 
 
Op 
 
 CHAPTER IV. * 0 3 6 8 B 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR, 
 
 " Mocking the air with colours idly spread." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 ^ I ^HE subject of colour in art and science is 
 ^ one of extreme subtlety and difficulty. 
 This arises from our very imperfect knowledge 
 of the origin and nature of light, and of the 
 chemical results it produces. To obtain photo- 
 graphs in the colours of nature has been the 
 dream of experimental photographers for the 
 last fifty years, and it may well be that it will 
 take fifty years more before the problem is 
 solved, if it ever be. 
 
 Let us consider shortly what colour is sup- 
 posed to be. We know that Newton succeeded 
 in dividing a ray of light by means of a prism 
 
 into a number of coloured rays ; and it has since 
 
 35 
 
36 
 
 been discovered that these coloured rays are 
 transmitted to the retina of the eye in waves 
 of different lengths, and with a varying but 
 almost inconceivable velocity. For instance, of 
 the extreme violet rays there are calculated to 
 be 727 billions of vibrations per second, and of 
 the extreme red rays 458 billions. The length 
 of these waves has also been calculated in frac- 
 tions of inches, and it has been found that the 
 violet rays are the shortest and the red rays the 
 longest. Every coloured ray, therefore, has its 
 own wave-length, and each wave has its own 
 rapidity. These waves, according to the undu- 
 latory theory of light, are supposed to be 
 generated in an elastic, impalpable medium 
 called ether, which pervades all space, even what 
 we call vacuum. The movement of this ether 
 is caused by the sun or other source of light, 
 and on reaching the retina causes, we know not 
 how, the sensation of light or vision. The sensa- 
 tion of colour, however, depends on the length 
 and rapidity of the wave. It has also been dis- 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR. 
 
 37 
 
 covered that beyond the red end of the spectrum 
 there are longer invisible waves possessing con- 
 siderable heating power, and that beyond the 
 violet at the other end of the spectrum there 
 are shorter waves also invisible, possessing a 
 great degree of chemical or actinic energy. 
 
 The colours produced by the analysis of light 
 have for the sake of distinction been called 
 transient colours, while the colours of all natural 
 objects have been called inherent colours or 
 pigments, and these have been defined as " the 
 material basis which decomposes light so as to 
 transmit only some of the coloured rays " : for 
 instance, a sheet of white paper reflects, roughly 
 speaking, the whole of the rays, and produces 
 what we call white ; and if we cover the paper 
 with a wash of any colour, say cobalt, then, 
 roughly speaking, all the rays will be absorbed 
 by the cobalt except the blue rays, and the 
 result produced on the retina we call blue. All 
 sensations of colour received from coloured 
 objects are produced in this way, by the reflec- 
 
38 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 tion of some of the rays and the absorption of 
 others, the more transparent a colour is the more 
 the rays are absorbed, and the more opaque it 
 is the more they are reflected. The structure 
 and surface, and the thinness or thickness of the 
 coloured body also materially affect its capacity 
 for reflection and aborption. 
 
 But what is the property of the object that 
 enables it to reflect or absorb the particular 
 rays? Here again we are at the end of our 
 knowledge. It has been suggested that each 
 ultimate atom is compounded with one or more 
 atoms of oxygen or hydrogen, and that the fading 
 of a colour is caused by the dissolution of this 
 union, and that the colour, so to speak, rusts. 
 Besides this, most substances in nature are com- 
 posed of structural elements, called molecules, 
 which are in turn made up of two or more 
 (sometimes a great number) of dissimilar atoms. 
 Thus each molecule of the colouring principle of 
 carmine is composed of nine atoms of carbon, 
 eight atoms of hydrogen, and five atoms of 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR. 39 
 
 oxygen, bound together, and the colour of car- 
 mine depends entirely on the intactness of these 
 molecules. The reason of the bleaching of colours 
 in sunshine is that each colour can only stand a 
 certain amount of vibration, and the vibrations of 
 the luminous ether in sunlight being much more 
 rapid than those of ordinary daylight, the colours 
 are, so to speak, shaken to pieces. Mineral 
 colours consist of few atoms, while vegetable 
 colours consist of many, hence the comparative 
 instability of the latter. It has also been sug- 
 gested that the retina consists of separate bundles 
 of nerves susceptible to the different waves of 
 colour, but anatomists have not hitherto been 
 able to confirm this. 
 
 Let us now consider the problem of the pro- 
 duction of natural colours on a photographic 
 plate. When Vv^e look on the ground-glass screen 
 in the camera, we observe an inverted represen- 
 tation in natural colours of the object or view 
 before the lens. This is a mere reflection, pro- 
 duced according to certain well-known laws of 
 
40 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 optics ; and if in place of the ground-glass screen 
 we insert a plate, film, or paper coated with an 
 emulsion of collodion or gelatine with bromide 
 or nitrate of silver, and expose the same to the 
 rays of light, and subsequently develop the 
 latent image in a dark room, we obtain a nega- 
 tive picture in which all the lights are repre- 
 sented by shades, and the darks by spaces of 
 more or less transparent glass. The light has 
 in fact set up an action or rearrangement of the 
 particles of silver out of which the image is 
 subsequently built up or developed. In reality 
 the film of silver has become more or less 
 opaque where the light has acted. This action 
 is so delicate that the faintest shades of nature 
 are reproduced. But this beautiful light and 
 shade picture is by no means accurate, and this 
 is owing to the different effect certain colours 
 in nature have upon the silver film. For instance, 
 green and yellow and red objects appear in the 
 print too dark, while blue and violet objects 
 appear too light in tone. The reason of this is 
 
PHOTOGRArHY AND COLOUR. 
 
 41 
 
 that the actinic or chemical power of the sun's 
 rays is not commensurate with the visual power. 
 This to some extent can be remedied by the use 
 of certain colouring matters in conjunction with 
 the silver emulsion, and the objects of nature 
 can thereby be reproduced in truer relation as 
 to light and shade. 
 
 But there is no trace of colour in this, though 
 it may be that some of these orthochromatic 
 processes may hereafter lead to the discovery 
 of the secret of the reproduction of colour ; but 
 it is scarcely conceivable that silver emulsion 
 can be so affected by any known substance as 
 to reproduce and retain the hues of nature. For 
 consider what the problem is : on the ground- 
 glass screen there is a reflection, not of the 
 primary colours simply, but a coloured repre- 
 sentation, containing an endless mixture of 
 colours acting and reacting upon each other in 
 constant variety, and so producing the image of 
 the scene. And how is the sensitive film to be 
 so acted upon chemically as to reproduce these 
 
42 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 innumerable variations of colour ? Besides this, 
 many substances which reflect the same tints 
 to the eye may have a totally different power 
 of reflecting or absorbing the actinic rays, so 
 that the similarity they present to the eye may 
 entirely disappear in the chemically produced 
 picture. As we remarked before in the light 
 and shade pictures, the chemical and the visual 
 rays are not commensurate. 
 
 The following table gives a very good idea of 
 the difference in activity between the visual and 
 chemical rays, taking i,ooo as a maximum in 
 each case : — 
 
 Luminous (rays). Actinic (rays). 
 
 Dark Red . . o . . . o 
 
 Red . . . 32 . . . 5 
 
 Bright Red 94 ... 10 
 
 Orange . . . 640 ... 50 
 
 Yellow . . . 1000 . . . 100 
 
 Green . . . 480 . . . 200 
 
 Blue . . . 170 . . . 500 
 
 Indigo . . .31 . . • 1000 
 
 Violet . . . 6 . . . 650 
 
 Ultra Violet . . o . . . 450 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR. 
 
 43 
 
 It will be seen from the above remarks that 
 the difificulties to be surmounted in reproducing 
 a coloured representation of a given view or 
 portrait in the camera are enormous ; and we are 
 not aware that any such has ever been produced 
 up to the present time. It is quite true that 
 the solar spectrum has been repeatedly produced 
 in colours on silver plates, and an interesting 
 account of the experiments of Seebeck in 1810, 
 Sir J. Herschel and others, will be found in 
 Mr. Hunt's " Manual of Photography," published 
 so long ago as 1854. Fuller accounts of these 
 experiments will be found in the papers con- 
 tributed to the Royal Society by Sir J. Herschel 
 in 1840, and in Hunt's " Researches on Light " 
 (1854). The results, however, were uncertain 
 and not capable of being fixed. M. Becquerel 
 also has made a vast number of experiments 
 with silver plates in connection with voltaic 
 batteries, but the results produced were not true 
 colours, but what are called colours of thin plates 
 produced by interference of light, and analogous 
 
44 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 to the deposits of oxides on the surface of metals. 
 M. Becquerel states that plates prepared with 
 iodide or bromide of silver will not give photo- 
 graphs in natural colours. 
 
 Mr. Meldola, in his " Chemistry of Photo- 
 graphy," states that the result produced is an 
 oxychloride, that the apparent resemblance to 
 the natural colours of the spectrum produced in 
 the film is an accidental coincidence, and that 
 there is no physical connection between the 
 vibration period of the ether waves and the 
 colours assumed by the product ; and he adds, 
 " of the chemical nature of these differently 
 coloured products we know absolutely nothing." 
 Colours of stained glass have also been repro- 
 duced on plates and paper more or less perfectly, 
 but M. Becquerel does not appear to have dis- 
 covered any method of fixing any of his coloured 
 photographs. A very interesting article on the 
 subject will be found in the " Year Book of 
 Photography" for 1890. Mr. Robinson also 
 claims to have obtained colours through coloured 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR. 
 
 45 
 
 glasses on an emulsion of collodion chloride of 
 strontium and nitrate of silver, but the exposure 
 required several hours to obtain the colours, and 
 they do not appear to have been capable of 
 being fixed. Captain Abney in 1880 proved 
 that the production of the colours by photo- 
 graphic means resulted from the oxidation of 
 the chloride of silver ; thus they are not true 
 colours, but are due to the effect of interference 
 of light. 
 
 M. Lippmann, of Paris, has also succeeded 
 in reproducing the colours of the spectrum and 
 colours of glasses ; these, he states, are produced 
 on dry plates with a very fine grained film, and 
 the light, which is a very strong one, is reflected 
 from a mirror at the back of the camera after it 
 has passed through the film. M. Lippmann 
 claims to be able to fix these colours by ordinary 
 methods. These coloured spectra have been 
 exhibited in London ; and at a meeting of the 
 Camera Club recently held. Captain Abney 
 stated that he had been invited by M. Lippmann 
 
46 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 to investigate his methods of working, and he 
 adds, " I have seen his coloured spectra, and 
 there is no doubt that the colours are due to 
 interference, and are not what I may call true 
 colours, since they vary according to the angle 
 at which the plate is held, and they show next 
 to none, if any at all, by transmitted light." 
 
 We are still, therefore, as far off as ever from 
 the reproduction of the colours of nature in the 
 camera, and it must be remembered that the 
 so-called coloured results that have been pro- 
 duced have been obtained from the compara- 
 tively pure colours of the spectrum very highly 
 illuminated, and with long exposures. Now, in 
 photography from nature we have a condition 
 of things totally different : the colours are all 
 mixed together, and are largely contaminated, 
 so to speak, with white light, the time of 
 exposure is necessarily brief, and the illumina- 
 tion is comparatively feeble. When such men 
 as Captain Abney, Mr. Meldola, M. Becquerel, 
 and others, who have made thousands of experi- 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOUR. 
 
 47 
 
 ments with all known substances, tell us that 
 with our present knowledge the thing is impos- 
 sible, we are bound to bow to their superior 
 knowledge ; and, however delightful it would be 
 to be able to reproduce the colours of nature, 
 for the present, at least, we must rest content 
 with our black and white pictures ; yet not with- 
 out hope that in the future further discoveries 
 will solve this question, as they have in the past so 
 many problems which were declared insoluble. 
 
 0 II 6 8 6 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 *'Hail! holy light, offspring of Heaven first-born." 
 
 F all the great powers of Nature, to a 
 
 photographer, light is the most important 
 and interesting ; and yet how little we know of 
 its nature, its origin, or its effects ! But the 
 study of photography has certainly taught us 
 something of the nature of light. For instance, 
 our photographic chemists have experimented 
 with most known substances, and demonstrated 
 the effects of light upon them ; opticians have 
 improved and perfected lenses of all kinds to a 
 remarkable degree ; while astronomers, workers 
 with the microscope and the spectroscope, and 
 others, have utilised photography largely as a 
 recording instrument, and in some cases most 
 
 Milton. 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 49 
 
 important discoveries have been made with its 
 aid. Besides this, the extreme rapidity with 
 which photographs can now be taken has given 
 us a clearer idea of the enormous velocity of 
 light than we possessed before. Even the vibra- 
 tion of an insect's wings and a bullet in its flight 
 can be reproduced by the camera as if at rest, 
 and shutters can now be constructed working at 
 the enormous rapidity of -g^o of a second ; but 
 this is nothing compared to the rapidity of light, 
 which has been calculated at 190,000 miles in a 
 second, for in the -^^o part of a second, a space 
 of time itself inconceivable, light would travel 
 380 miles. 
 
 We have also been able to analyse light into its 
 component coloured rays, and even to measure 
 the length and rapidity of each coloured wave. 
 All this is very marvellous, but we are still ignor- 
 ant of what light is. Newton imagined that it 
 consisted of innumerable impalpable particles 
 shot out from the sun — this is called the corpus- 
 cular theory ; but Huyghens maintained that light 
 
 4 
 
so STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 could only be explained by " supposing it to 
 be a vibration-like sound " — this is called the 
 undulatory theory ; and Young and others have 
 worked out this theory, and established it on 
 a scientific basis ; in fact, the undulatory 
 theory alone accounts for and reconciles most 
 of the facts that have been observed about 
 light. 
 
 To support this theory we have to suppose 
 that the whole of space, even what we call 
 vacuum, is filled with an elastic invisible sub- 
 stance called ether, in which the waves of light 
 vibrate. But what sets this ether in motion ? 
 This brings us to the source of light — viz., the 
 sun ; and it is supposed that this universal ether 
 is kept in motion by the revolution of the sun 
 on its axis. Scientific investigators have, by the 
 aid of the spectroscope and of careful observa- 
 tions during eclipses, been able to make many 
 important discoveries about the nature and com- 
 position of the sun. We now know that the 
 sun is an incandescent body, having a diameter 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 51 
 
 of 882,000 miles, at a distance from the earth of 
 95,000,000 miles, and its light, travelling at the 
 enormous rate of 190,000 miles a second, takes 
 minutes to reach the earth. These figures 
 convey but little idea to the mind ; but if we 
 can imagine a circle twice the size of the moon's 
 orbit round the earth, that circle would be about 
 the circumference of the sun. The sun itself is 
 surrounded with a luminous atmosphere called 
 the photosphere, though of its nature and com- 
 position we know little, and during eclipses flames 
 have been observed projected to a height of 
 40,000 or 50,000 miles. 
 
 There are also dark spots continually passing 
 across the face of the sun, and these are sup- 
 posed to be vast openings in the photosphere. 
 These spots pass across the sun and reappear 
 on the opposite side in a period of about 25 
 days, thus proving its revolution. They have 
 been observed to be more frequent in some 
 years than in others, and are supposed to be 
 periodic, and influence the climate and heat of 
 
52 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 our summers ; and this will probably account 
 for the actinic power of the sun being greater 
 in some years than in others. One of the most 
 remarkable discoveries about the sun is that 
 of the late Mr. Nasmyth, who observed that 
 the surface of the sun consists of separated 
 insulated objects of the shape of willow leaves ; 
 and Sir John Herschell considered that these 
 organisms were evidently the immediate source 
 of heat and light. And these objects have been 
 found to be each at least a thousand miles long 
 and several hundred miles broad. The sun has 
 also been weighed, and found to be considerably 
 lighter than the earth, and the spectroscope 
 shows that it contains most of the metals and 
 gases familiar to ourselves. To return to the 
 immediate subject of the sun's light. It is known 
 that light increases in intensity, like the force of 
 gravity, according to the square of the distance ; 
 and as we are 95,000,000 miles away from the 
 source of light, its intensity at the sun itself is 
 simply inconceivable. And this wonderful light 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 53 
 
 is being thrown out on every side, rayed out 
 into the infinite ; the merest fraction of it lights 
 up our planetary system. What becomes of the 
 rest? and how is this enormous furnace sus- 
 tained ? These questions may never be answered, 
 but their consideration cannot but elevate our 
 minds, and give us loftier ideas of that Divine 
 Intelligence who said, " Let there be LIGHT," 
 and there was light* 
 
 There are other immediate sources of light 
 besides the sun, though no doubt they may all 
 be ultimately traced back to his influence : for in- 
 stance, heat, friction, chemical action, electricity, 
 
 * A new theory has recently been started as to the nature 
 of heat and light, which is enough almost to take our breath 
 away, so novel is it — namely, that the sun radiates out not 
 light and heat, but electricity, which develops into light and 
 heat on meeting with our atmosphere, just as the current from 
 a battery on meeting with the resistance of a platinum wire 
 or carbon filament becomes incandescent. Direct electrical 
 sun currents are supposed to come through the darkness and 
 cold of space, and develop atmospheric light and heat at the 
 moon, as well as at the earth ; and if this be so it would prove 
 the existence of a lunar atmosphere. 
 
54 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 the glow-worm, fire-flies, marine animalculae, 
 certain plants, and decaying animal and vegetable 
 matter. All bodies when heated to a certain 
 point become incandescent, and give out light ; 
 in fact, heat and light are closely allied, both are 
 supposed to be due to vibration, and both can 
 be converted into motion. Professor Joule estab- 
 lished the mechanical equivalent of heat, and 
 Sir William Crookes by his radiometer showed 
 that the direct rays of the sun will produce 
 motion in a vacuum. Doubtless as our know- 
 ledge of the forces of nature increases the inter- 
 dependence and correlation of all the physical 
 forces will become more apparent. 
 
 But a ray of light, besides containing heat, also 
 contains chemical or actinic power ; and it was 
 discovered by Ritter in 1801 that this actinic 
 power extended far beyond the violet end of 
 the spectrum, just as Herschell discovered that 
 the heat rays extended considerably beyond the 
 red at the other end of the spectrum. We 
 have therefore invisible chemical rays and in- 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 55 
 
 visible heat rays. The following diagram will 
 explain this. 
 
 This shows that the visual rays and the 
 actinic rays are not coincident, and this is one 
 of the difficulties lens makers have to overcome, 
 and so to combine their glasses and grind the 
 surfaces as to bring the foci of the visual and 
 
 actinic rays as nearly as possible to the same 
 point. In the above diagram it will be seen that 
 the greatest chemical intensity is marked be- 
 tween the indigo and the violet of the spectrum ; 
 but this varies according to the substance on 
 which the light is acting : for instance, with 
 silver chloride the maximum action is in the 
 violet, but with silver bromide in the blue. All 
 the coloured rays affect the silver plate in different 
 
S6 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 degrees, and this is one of the difificulties photo- 
 graphers have to overcome, as we have pointed 
 out in the preceding chapters. All waves of light 
 which effect decomposition in any body are called 
 actinic, and the effect varies for every photo- 
 graphic compound. 
 
 It is with the actinic rays that photographers 
 are chiefly concerned, and innumerable experi- 
 ments have been made by Hunt, Herschell, 
 Captain Abney, Professor Meldola, and others 
 on various substances. The chemical action of 
 light is extremely difficult to understand, but in 
 Captain Abney's article on Photography in the 
 last edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " 
 will be found most valuable tables of the results of 
 his experiments. There is also a most interest- 
 ing article in Vol. II., No. 7, of the Photographic 
 Quarterly, by Dr. J. J. Acworth, " On the Relation 
 between the Absorption and Sensitiveness of 
 Sensitised Plates." 
 
 But after all the researches into this subject 
 scientists are not yet agreed as to the exact 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 57 
 
 chemical effect or result produced by light on 
 the salts of silver. In fact, light produces some 
 change on every object on which it falls. Chemical 
 or electric action is set up, and in the case of the 
 fading of colours and bleaching of substances a 
 visible change is effected ; but doubtless there 
 are many other invisible and chemical changes of 
 the molecules of substances effected by the rays 
 of light, which are so subtle as to escape our 
 minutest investigations. Captain Abney, in his 
 very useful work on Photography, states that 
 ordinary white light " most probably consists of 
 an almost infinite series of undulations of vary- 
 ing length, traversing a medium ; and it is quite 
 conceivable that the molecules of a body whose 
 oscillations synchronise with one of these series 
 of ethereal waves may have their paths altered 
 in form, and their amplitude increased to such 
 a degree, that a rearrangement of the atoms 
 must ensue." 
 
 Numerous actinometers have been invented, 
 but most of them depend on the darkening of 
 
5 8 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 silver paper to a certain standard tint ; but unless 
 this shade is accurately related to the light in 
 the camera and the plate we are using, they can 
 be only of little value in the field, though for 
 interiors or printing purposes they are more 
 useful. Tables of the strength of the actinic 
 light for all days and months of the year in 
 all places have also been constructed ; but as 
 these depend on so many varying factors they 
 are not of much value to the practical man, who 
 finds that the only reliable actinometers are 
 experience and a good memory. 
 
 If, then, we ask the question, What is light ? 
 the only answer that can be given is, that light 
 is a sensation produced by the undulations of the 
 ethereal fluids ; and these undulations originated 
 by the sun or other source of light produce 
 different chemical effects on the different bodies 
 on which they impinge. We also know that 
 these waves are compounded of other waves of 
 different lengths and rapidities, which produce 
 the effect of the different colours, that the most 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 59 
 
 rapid give the sensation of violet colour, and these 
 produce the most marked chemical changes ; 
 whilst the slower waves give the effect of red 
 colour, and these produce the greatest sensation 
 of heat, and between these two are the waves 
 which produce the effect of yellow, and give the 
 greatest sensation of light. 
 
 There are many other interesting properties 
 of light, and some of them of great importance 
 to photography, such as dispersion and interfer- 
 ence, and the colours produced on thin plates 
 and soap bubbles ; and these will be found 
 explained and illustrated in most text books on 
 light. (See Tyndall's lectures on Light ; also 
 Sir John Herschell's lectures, and others.) 
 
 We have already pointed out in previous 
 chapters of. what immense importance to an 
 artist are the effects of light ; but photographers 
 seem to be little aware of this fact, and of how 
 much their pictures may be improved by the 
 addition of beautiful effects of light and atmo- 
 sphere. Experiments with moderately quick 
 
6o STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 exposures will show what can be done in this 
 way, especially looking towards the sun, which 
 is always the most poetical aspect of Nature. 
 The most effective pictures may be secured 
 when the sun is partly hidden by clouds, or 
 behind trees or buildings, and the results are 
 so beautiful that no trouble should be spared to 
 attain something of the mystery and atmosphere 
 of Nature. Some of the photographs which 
 illustrate this volume were taken under the sun 
 by the seashore, when that luminary was partially 
 obscured by clouds, with ordinary slow plates 
 and exposures of about -^^ of a second. 
 
 If light is the most important matter for a 
 photographer to consider, it is also the most 
 beautiful, as it gives expression and life to the 
 world around us, and, like the great artist that 
 it is, decks the universe with its lovely colours, 
 and while emphasising some facts, hides others 
 in solemn mystery. The beauty and mystery 
 of the light and the ever recurring dawn have 
 been recognised by all nations, and many beau- 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 6l 
 
 tiful myths have been created. The Greeks 
 imagined that Aurora, the goddess of the Dawn, 
 rose every morning from the ocean in her chariot 
 drawn by the horses of Apollo, the Sun god, 
 and, as Milton beautifully says, — 
 
 And Tennyson, in his magnificent " Tithonus," 
 gives us glimpses of those "gleaming halls of 
 morn," and of the " wild team " which 
 
 Shake the darkness from their loosened manes, 
 And beat the twilight into flakes of fire." 
 
 . *'Morn, 
 
 Waked by the circling hours, with rosy hand 
 Unbarred the gates of light." 
 
 / 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ARTISTIC USE OF A HAND-CAMERA. 
 " Paint your impressions." 
 
 Turner. 
 
 1\ /r ANY people seem to think that one 
 •^^^ camera can be made to serve all pur- 
 poses. This is a mistake : a hand-camera 
 should be used strictly as a hand-camera if the 
 best results are to be obtained. Now, the very 
 essence of a hand-camera is that it should be 
 always ready, at " full cock," so to speak ; it 
 should be light, portable, and compact, simple 
 and certain in the changing of plates ; the 
 shutter should be easily varied and not too rapid, 
 the stops easily changed, and the finders over the 
 lens and identical. We assume, of course, that 
 the lens is a rapid R.R., of about 5 inches focus.* 
 
 * For artistic views a landscape or single lens is far prefer- 
 62 
 
THE ARTISTIC USE OF A HAND-CAMERA. 63 
 
 There are many cameras on the market which 
 embrace all these requirements, but most of 
 them are expensive, running up to and ;^io. 
 Still, a good instrument is well worth the money, 
 and will save much worry and disappointment. 
 
 Now, we dismiss at once all hand-cameras 
 which change the plates by means of dark slides 
 or bags. This cuts out a good number. The 
 changing arrangement should be by a simple 
 screw or turn of a lever, and there must be no 
 turning upside down or thumping before the 
 machine will work. The plates will be held 
 in sheaths, and Miall's patent sheaths are ad- 
 mirable, though it is very much to be desired 
 that, by means of a dyed film, sheaths could be 
 altogether dispensed with. Plate makers also 
 should be more careful as to the uniformity of 
 the size and thickness of their plates, as nothing 
 is more aggravating than to be stopped by a 
 
 able to a doublet, and a well-made camera should be able to 
 take either at pleasure, and should also contain an arrange* 
 ment for focussing the view. 
 
64 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 jam in the camera, and perhaps a whole after- 
 noon wasted in consequence. Assuming, then, 
 that we have a camera possessing the above 
 requirements, let us consider how and for what 
 purpose we should use it. First of all we must 
 steadily set our faces against promiscuous " pot 
 shots " at anything or everything. These things 
 will only amuse children and idiots, whose 
 ambition appears to be satisfied when they have 
 secured a negative of .a railway express. 
 
 No ; the uses of a hand-camera to an artistic 
 worker are very different. He will be chary 
 of letting off his shutter till he gets the exact 
 thing he wants — no easy matter. For his real 
 aim is to secure an artistic impression of nature 
 which may help him in his work, and which is 
 often as fleeting as the ocean foam. For in- 
 stance, in a portrait or head, how difficult it is 
 to catch the desired expression, which, perhaps, 
 may only occur at very long intervals, and must 
 be secured, when it does occur, on the instant! 
 And the same with attitude and gesture, — how 
 
THE ARTISTIC USE OF A HAND-CAMERA. 65 
 
 often a picture may be made or marred by the 
 turn of a head or an arm ! For these things we 
 must watch and wait with our finger on the 
 trigger. What beauty, too, and grace there 
 often are in the unconscious attitudes of children 
 at their play, or of men at their work, or of 
 old age in its repose ! These things must be 
 secured instantaneously if at all, and the same 
 remark applies to the photographing of birds 
 and animals, which are often extremely graceful 
 and humorous. But these graceful, unconscious 
 attitudes and expressions must, as the advertise- 
 ments say, " be seen to be appreciated," and 
 most people go through the world practically 
 blind to the beauty that is everywhere around 
 them. An artist is ever on the watch for th^se 
 things, most of them as fleeting as the snow- 
 flake on the river " ; and as from experience he 
 knows what will make a picture, so from the 
 study of the best examples of art, such as the 
 frieze of the Parthenon and the works of the 
 old masters, he is able to seize on a graceful 
 
 5 
 
66 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 attitude or expression at once. His mind, as 
 Wordsworth beautifully puts it, has become " the 
 mansion of all lovely form." And surely the 
 hand-camera must be of immense service to 
 such a student. It is much to be desired that 
 plates could be made even more sensitive than 
 they are, so that instantaneous photography 
 could be secured indoors and in a feeble 
 light. 
 
 But it is, however, for the study of landscape 
 effect that the hand-camera is most valuable. 
 Now, here there is a wide field for the artistic 
 worker. 
 
 Every artist worthy of the name knows that 
 effects of light and shade are the very life of 
 nature ; and their reproduction is at once his aim 
 and despair, and he will spare no effort, by 
 rapid sketching and pencil notes, to secure even 
 some faint image of their beauty. At the best 
 he has to rely largely on his memory, so rapid 
 are the changes of nature ; and here a hand- 
 camera is of immense service, as the most 
 
THE ARTISTIC USE OF A HAND-CAMERA. 67 
 
 beautiful clouds and passing gleams can be 
 secured. For cloud photography alone, a hand- 
 camera is invaluable, as no human work can at 
 all approach the truth of form and mysterious 
 subtlety of a good sky, and a collection of clouds, 
 from the higher cirrus to the low stratified 
 nimbus, is of immense interest and value to an 
 artist. Cloud photography, too, has this advan- 
 tage, that it can be carried on in the winter, and 
 at all times, except in dull weather. Some 
 of the best effects are to be obtained after 
 a gale or thunderstorm, when the weather is 
 clearing up, and in the evening, looking to the 
 west, when the sun is just behind the clouds ; 
 with a low horizon or the sea, splendid effects 
 can be secured. Besides this, in ordinary land- 
 scape views the quick exposures of a hand- 
 camera will always secure the sky, and, if it 
 happens to be a good one, may be the making 
 of a picture out of a very ordinary scene. This 
 is far better than the usual method of printing- 
 in skies ; even when well done, the process is 
 
68 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 troublesome, and the results are seldom success- 
 ful, and often ridiculous. 
 
 In the fifth volume of Ruskin's " Modern 
 Painters " will be found an exhaustive and 
 masterly study of the sky, and some of the 
 descriptions are as gorgeous and full of the 
 splendours of sunset as a Turner picture. 
 
 In photographing skies or landscapes with a 
 hand-camera the most important matter is the 
 light, and it is of no use to attempt it on dull 
 days, or under trees, or in shady places ; and in 
 the latter months of the year advantage should 
 be taken of the morning light, as the actinic 
 power falls off rapidly after midday. 
 
 Another fascinating branch of work is the sea 
 and waves in motion ; the truth of the repre- 
 sentation of the falling wave and the lace-like 
 wash of the foam is something wonderful, and 
 will well repay some trouble. There are few, 
 very few painters who have succeeded in re- 
 producing these effects, even passably. It is no 
 easy matter to hold a hand-camera steady in 
 
THE ARTISTIC USE OF A HAND-CAMERA. 69 
 
 a gale of wind, and as you must get as close 
 as possible to the waves, you must not mind wet 
 feet, but finis coronat opus^ and some of the 
 enlarged sea studies are the finest things that 
 the camera has produced. 
 
 Again, for studies of detail, how invaluable is 
 a hand-camera ! By its aid the artist can secure 
 the shape of weeds and grasses, the growth and 
 branching of trees, the structure of rocks, and 
 numerous other things, which will materially 
 assist him, if not by their exact representation 
 in his picture, at all events by adding to his 
 mental stock of natural form from which he 
 draws his supply, and which he idealises when 
 reproduced in his finished work. Another use 
 to which a hand-camera may be put is in 
 securing figures and groups of cattle and birds 
 to be introduced into pictures ; these are very 
 valuable, and many a good idea may be got 
 by a little observation while at work, and may 
 be the making of a picture. For boats and 
 ships in motion, of course, a hand-camera is 
 
70 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 indispensable. But we think the best purpose 
 to which it can be applied is in securing as far 
 as possible something of those passing effects 
 of light which are so supremely beautiful, and 
 which give such an expression to the face of 
 Nature ; and this beauty will be found not only 
 in the grandeur of storm, but in the quiet, un- 
 obtrusive passages of calm evenings, when earth 
 and sky are wrapped in the repose of twilight. 
 Such are some of the uses to which a hand- 
 camera may be applied. In the hands of thought- 
 less, uneducated persons it no doubt deserves all 
 the opprobrium that has been heaped upon it, 
 but in the hands of intelligent artistic workers 
 it is a most interesting and valuable aid in the 
 study of nature and the appreciation of her 
 endless charm. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COMPOSITION. 
 
 Order is Heaven's first law." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 T T is a hopeful sign for photography that its 
 professors are beginning to think and talk 
 of art and artistic rules, and that efforts are 
 being made to produce more artistic results 
 than have hitherto been attained. In the follow- 
 ing chapter we propose to explain briefly the 
 principal rules of composition, which has been 
 defined by Mr. Prout as " the grouping and 
 arrangement of pictorial materials to express 
 the unity of an entire expression " ; and by Mr. 
 Ruskin, in " Modern Painters," vol. v., as " the 
 law of help, — the help of everything in the 
 picture by everything else." 
 
 And again in his " Elements of Drawing," 
 71 
 
72 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 " Composition means literally and simply putting 
 several things together so as to make one thing 
 out of them, the nature and the goodness of 
 which they all have a share in producing. Thus 
 a musician composes an air by putting notes 
 together in certain relations ; a poet composes a 
 poem by putting thoughts and words in pleasant 
 order ; and a painter a picture by putting 
 thoughts, forms, and colours in pleasant order." 
 The result of good composition is unity, and is 
 the direct reflection of the genius of the painter, 
 the poet, or the musician on his finished work. 
 
 Now, composition can no more be taught than 
 the art of painting a Turner picture or compos- 
 ing a Beethoven sonata ; but, nevertheless, as 
 rules of composition are generalisations from the 
 works of great artists, these works, on examina- 
 tion, will be found to conform to certain well- 
 known rules. There are, however, certain simple 
 arrangements and combinations which should 
 be thoroughly known, and which will materially 
 assist the student. It must not, however, be 
 
COMPOSITION. 
 
 73 
 
 supposed that every picture will contain ex- 
 amples of all the rules of composition, or that 
 in the works of the great masters any rule 
 will be too prominently forced into notice ; the 
 object of art is rather to hide the means by 
 which the effect is produced. 
 
 The first great rule may be thus expressed : — 
 
 I. Every picture must have one feature more 
 importaitt than tlie others^ which must group with 
 it in subordinate positions. 
 
 This is called the law of principality^ and is 
 exemplified by having some idea, group, light, 
 or mass of colour more prominent than all the 
 rest, and ruling the others into subjection. The 
 greatest care, however, will be necessary, in 
 applying this or any other so-called rule of 
 composition, not to make it too prominent ; it 
 should be suggested rather than insisted on, or 
 the modesty of nature will be overstepped, 
 
 II. Every principal idea, groups or combination 
 should be repeated by some subordiitate idea^ groups 
 or combination. 
 
74 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 This is called the law of repetition^ and by it 
 unity is expressed, one passage faintly echoing 
 another. The repetition must, however, always 
 be an echo merely ; otherwise it will be difficult 
 to decide which is the principal group, and the 
 desired effect will not be produced. This repe- 
 tition, if skilfully effected, will express repose. 
 Reflections in calm water will illustrate this rule. 
 If the groups or ideas are too much alike, the 
 effect of symmetry will be produced, which 
 Nature always avoids. 
 
 III. A numb e7' of objects^ more or less similar^ 
 should be represented in oj^derly succession. 
 
 This is called the law of continuity, and may 
 be illustrated by the arches or pillars of a 
 cathedral retiring in perspective, or by clouds 
 or mountain-ranges retiring in appointed order. 
 Turner was very fond of the retiring arches of 
 bridges, and made great use of this law of con- 
 tinuity : see his " Rivers of France " for examples 
 of this. 
 
 IV. Obiects in continuity should, if possible, be 
 
COMPOSITION. 
 
 75 
 
 in curves^ rather than in straight or angular 
 lines. 
 
 It should be noticed that all natural curves 
 are very subtle, and do not form any part 
 of a circle. Graceful curves are also varied 
 and modulated- by numbers of subordinate 
 curves ; in fact, the beauty of all lines and 
 colours depends in great measure on their 
 delicate and subtle modulations. Examples 
 of beautiful curves may be see'n in nets at 
 sea, or the lines of bays and river banks, 
 or the flight of birds and the form of their 
 wings. 
 
 V. There are two kinds of harmonious lines 
 in composition — viz., parallel opposing or intersect- 
 ing lines ^ and lines radiating from or converging 
 to some centre. 
 
 Both these kinds of lines are seen in good 
 compositions and in Nature. Trees and shrubs 
 radiating from one root are a striking example 
 of the second class ; and it will be found that 
 in most cases there is a mathematical centre of 
 
76 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 curvature of the branches, which regulates the 
 shape of the whole tree. 
 
 VI. Every colour^ line^ or form may be made 
 more striking to the eye by the juxtaposition of an 
 opponent colour^ line^ or form. 
 
 This is the law of contrast^ and is one of the 
 most important laws of composition. The mind 
 enjoys everything more by dwelling also on its 
 opposite ; thus warm colours are set off by cold 
 colours, light by darkness, curved forms by 
 straight, and so on. The combination of these 
 contrasts in a picture requires the greatest know- 
 ledge and feeling ; a too violent contrast defeats 
 itself, and is the mark of bad work. Great 
 painters, delicate in this as in all else, " do not 
 commonly admit violent contrasts ; they intro- 
 duce it by stealth, and with intermediate links 
 of tender change." Contrast is one of the most 
 powerful weapons the artist possesses, as by it 
 he may bring all the parts of his picture into 
 harmony and proper relation, — some parts, for 
 instance, he will leave purposely uninteresting 
 
COMPOSITION. 
 
 77 
 
 so as to enhance the interest of some other 
 part ; and the same with finish. This appears 
 to be one of the stumbling-blocks of the extreme 
 realistic or pre-Raphaelite school, and their 
 labour is in a great measure lost, as it is equally 
 expended on every object in the picture. A 
 good painter will know when to stop his hand, 
 and give the spectator a change to some other 
 kind of pleasure ; as Mr. Ruskin beautifully puts 
 it, He gives a passage of rich, involved, ex- 
 quisitely wrought colour, and then passes away 
 into slight, pale, and simple colour ; he paints 
 for a minute or two with intense decision, and 
 then suddenly becomes, as the spectator thinks, 
 slovenly. But he is not slovenly ; you could not 
 have taken any more decision from him just 
 then, — you have had as much as is good for you. 
 He paints over a great space of his picture forms 
 of the most rounded and melting tenderness, 
 and suddenly, as you think by a freak, gives 
 you a bit as jagged and sharp as a leafless 
 blackthorn." 
 
78 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 This law of contrast is perpetually varied and 
 modulated by another law, called the law of 
 interchange^ which gives to opposite things a 
 portion of the character of the others, and by 
 this the contrast is prevented being too startling 
 or prominent. In Nature it may be continually 
 noticed how the darkest shade is flecked with 
 light, and the brightest light broken up with 
 points of shade. But in good compositions there 
 is an appointed order in this, as in all else ; the 
 result to be produced is unity and harmony ; 
 and as every star burns in its appointed order, 
 and every blade of grass springs in its appointed 
 place, each in harmony with each, and in sub- 
 jection to the whole, and that whole the perfect 
 composition of this universe, so in the work of 
 a great painter each line and colour falls pre- 
 determined into its appointed place, completing 
 and compelling the unity and beauty of the 
 whole. There are doubtless many other sub- 
 ordinate rules of composition, but those above 
 mentioned are the leading principles, which the 
 
COMPOSITION. 
 
 79 
 
 student will do well to bear in mind, and 
 endeavour to employ in his own pictures, and to 
 trace out in the works of the great masters. 
 
 As the hand gains power and the eye delicacy, 
 they will compose naturally without effort, just 
 as a poet or a musician does ; for the refined 
 taste and educated eye will not endure harsh 
 forms or glaring contrasts or crude compositions. 
 
 After all said and done, the subject is one 
 beset with difficulties, and affords the widest 
 scope for difference of opinion. Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, whose lectures contain a mine of 
 wealth, makes the following remark on this 
 subject : " Composition, taken generally, is the 
 principal part of invention, and is by far the 
 greatest difficulty the artist has to encounter. 
 Every man that can paint at all can execute 
 individual parts, but to keep those parts in a due 
 subordination as relative to a whole requires a 
 comprehensive view of the art that more strongly 
 implies genius than perhaps any other quality 
 whatever." 
 
8o 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Another writer on art, Mr. Prout, in his valu- 
 able work on " Light and Shade," gives the 
 following brief but comprehensive rule for com- 
 position : " The best practice is to form one 
 broad mass, to keep other masses quite subor- 
 dinate, and to avoid equal quantities." 
 
 As a general rule, it is well to avoid one 
 object placed over another, or seen through 
 another ; and in sketching from Nature time is 
 well spent in trying for the best possible com- 
 position, and the more advanced the artist is 
 the more difficult he will find it to be satisfied. 
 Practice alone will show how the straight lines 
 of mountains and plains may be opposed to 
 rolling clouds and rounded masses broken up 
 by angular rocks and other forms. The sky 
 should always be treated with a view to the 
 composition of the picture. For instance, if the 
 subject is a very full one, and contains much 
 action, a quiet sky will be required ; but if the 
 landscape is flat and somewhat uninteresting, 
 then the sky should be made more prominent. 
 
COMPOSITION. 
 
 8l 
 
 The introduction of groups of figures and cattle, 
 flocks of birds, etc., may greatly help the com- 
 position ; also roads leading into the picture and 
 shadows of clouds passing over the landscape or 
 across a road are most valuable assistants. 
 
 The study of the works of great painters of 
 all schools will be of the greatest service to the 
 artist ; and among the modern painters of land- 
 scape we would especially advocate the close 
 study of Turner, in whose pictures, especially in 
 the " Liber Studiorum " and his other engraved 
 works, all the principles of composition will be 
 found fully illustrated in a way and with a variety 
 no artist has ever attempted. 
 
 The study of these masterpieces, and also of 
 the writings of Reynolds, Burnet, Prout, Ruskin, 
 and others on the subject, will be of the most 
 material value to the thoughtful worker, and will 
 fill the mind with noble images, reflections of 
 the Eternal intelligence, which will be, if rightly 
 used, among its dearest possessions. 
 
 6 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 Nature is economical. She puts her Hghts and darks only 
 where she needs them." 
 
 HE study of light and shade is of para- 
 
 mount importance to the artist and pho- 
 tographer. Composition teaches us the building 
 up and construction of a picture, but it is the 
 lighting of it that gives it its expression. One 
 of the chief difficulties the photographer has to 
 contend with is the suppression of unnecessary 
 or undesirable objects and detail. The artist 
 simply omits them, and chooses his time of day 
 when the shades of evening give a breadth and 
 solemnity to an otherwise ordinary view, or he 
 catches the cloud shadows sweeping over the 
 landscape and across the road, and by this 
 
 W. Hunt. 
 
 82 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 83 
 
 means secures truth and variety ; and the photo- 
 grapher must do the same. He must watch 
 and wait ; his eye must be ever on the alert for 
 combinations and effects ; he must choose his 
 subject and his time, and come again and again, 
 taking cheerfully the spoiling of his plates, if so 
 be he may obtain the desired result. 
 
 Of late years we have heard a good deal about 
 values — a word borrowed from the French, and 
 intended to express the relation of the light 
 and shade of the different planes of an object 
 or view to each other. Now, it should be ob- 
 served that there is no such thing as absolutely 
 correct light and shade either in painting or 
 photography, and that is because the means at 
 our command are not adequate. For instance, 
 flake white compared with sunlight is a dark 
 grey ; and our deepest black is many degrees 
 lighter than the blackness of nature. The artist 
 has therefore to work by an artificial scale, and his 
 representation of nature's scale of light and dark 
 13 but a compromise and suggestion at the best 
 
84 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 This would be difficult enough if the world 
 were a black and white world, but the colours 
 of nature complicate the problem enormously. 
 
 The artist, therefore, has to consider and 
 allow for the differences of luminosity in the 
 coloured world ; but there is a further difficulty 
 yet. Pure colours are rarely met with in nature, 
 except in the foreground, but are largely mixed 
 with white light, and are further complicated 
 with reflected lights and atmospheric conditions. 
 But it is this very complication that produces 
 the subtle beauty of nature's colouring. It is 
 not in the gaudy primary or secondary colours 
 that this beauty is chiefly found, but in the 
 quiet, subdued harmony of the tertiary colours, 
 the russets, the olives, and the citrons. And 
 these tertiary colours pervade Nature in her 
 every phase, and the more delicate the eye be- 
 comes, the more it will take delight in these 
 refinements of colour. Mr. Field, in his valuable 
 work on colour, says with great truth : " To 
 understand and relish the harmonious relations 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 85 
 
 and expressive powers of the tertiary colours 
 requires a cultivation of perception and a refine- 
 ment of taste for which study and practice are 
 necessary. They are at once less definite and 
 less generally evident, but more delightful, more 
 frequent in nature, but never in common art, 
 than the like relations of the secondaries and 
 primaries." 
 
 From the above it will be seen that the artist 
 has first to adapt his narrow artificial scale to 
 the vast scale of natural light and shade, and 
 f then he has to take note of and allow for the 
 variations produced by the endless play of 
 colours acting and reacting upon each other, 
 and perpetually altered by changing atmospheric 
 conditions. 
 
 Nothing but years of unremitting study, com- 
 bined with great natural abilities, will enable 
 the artist to grapple with the difificulties above 
 mentioned. 
 
 The photographer has his own further diffi- 
 culty to contend with — viz., the variations of the 
 
86 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 actinic power of light, which is not commensurate 
 with the visual power. To some extent this 
 can be overcome by the use of orthochromatic 
 plates and coloured screens, and the colours 
 of nature are then represented in truer value as 
 to tone. 
 
 The above remarks will show the difficulties 
 attending the production of pictures in black 
 and white ; and though great theoretically, yet 
 in practice it is found that very fair reproductions 
 in light and shade can be obtained. For instance, 
 studies of still life — and these are of especial 
 value to the student — can be produced with 
 marvellous fidelity ; and sunlight, moonlight, and 
 atmospheric effects can be suggested with great 
 success. 
 
 In his valuable work on Light and Shade 
 Mr. Prout says : The characteristics of moon- 
 light are the essential requisites of good effect, 
 such as concentrated brilliancy with smaller 
 glittering lights, large masses of shadow and 
 a point of light opposed to the deepest shade. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 87 
 
 while all the minor details become invisible and 
 sink into the simplicity and grandeur of the 
 whole." 
 
 As photography does not enable us to take 
 views by moonlight, we must be content with 
 studying the effect in nature, and endeavour to 
 imitate it with brush and colour. This, and the 
 careful study of still life, will be found most 
 useful, and will educate the eye to appreciate the 
 true " values " of the various planes. Rules are 
 of little or no value ; the secrets of nature and 
 art are only to be learnt by careful study and 
 observation, and also by comparing and con- 
 trasting the works of great painters, especially 
 those of Rembrandt and Turner. Much, too, 
 may be learnt by the careful study of the 
 lighting of natural objects, and the time of day 
 and atmospheric effects. 
 
 In early morning and at twilight the landscape 
 will assume a breadth and repose which will 
 hide many objectionable details and greatly assist 
 in the production of artistic work. Again, on 
 
88 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRArHY. 
 
 cloudy, windy days, the broad shadows sweeping 
 over the landscape are suggestive of most poetical 
 effects. The photographer who refuses to stir 
 out on a windy day will never produce artistic 
 work, for, as Dr. Emerson well says, " ^olus 
 is the breath of the life of landscape." Turner 
 on one occasion, when asked by a brother artist 
 what to paint, replied, Paint your impressions " ; 
 and here photography is of immense use, as it 
 can seize an effect of nature in the twinkling of 
 an eye, and can catch the wave in its fall, or 
 the bird on the wing, or the shadow sweeping 
 over the mountain side. An artist has to rely 
 largely on his memory ; and Nature is so various 
 in her effects and changing lights that he is 
 constantly tempted to change his purpose, instead 
 of relying on his original impression. To catch 
 these fleeting beauties of nature, a hand-camera 
 is of great assistance, as it is always ready, and 
 is an inestimable boon to the artistic worker. 
 Every artist and photographer should master 
 the working of a hand-camera, for it is most 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 89 
 
 useful as supplementary to his ordinary work ; 
 but, like every other good thing, it requires 
 patience and practice before the best results can 
 be obtained. 
 
 Next to the study of nature should be placed 
 the study of the works of the great masters, and 
 sketches in black and white of their arrangement 
 of light and shade will be of the greatest use. 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds adopted this plan on his 
 travels through the foreign galleries, with doubt- 
 less great advantage to his work, and in his 
 notes upon Fresnoy's " Art of Painting" he relates 
 his method of procedure as follows : — 
 
 " The means by which the painter works, and 
 on which the effect of his picture depends, are 
 light and shade, and warm and cold colours. 
 That there is an art in the management and 
 disposition of those means will be easily granted, 
 and it is equally certain that this art is to be 
 acquired by a careful examination of the works 
 of those who have excelled in it. 
 
 I shall here set down the results of the 
 
go STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 observations which I have made on the works 
 of those artists who appear to have best under- 
 stood the management of Hght and shade, and 
 who may be considered as examples for imita- 
 tation in this branch of art. 
 
 "Titian, Paul Veronese, and Tintoretto were 
 among the first painters who reduced to a system 
 what was before practised without any fixed 
 principle, and consequently neglected occa- 
 sionally. From the Venetian painters Rubens 
 extracted his scheme of composition, which was 
 soon understood and adopted by his countrymen, 
 and extended even to the minor painters of 
 familiar life in the Dutch school. 
 
 " When I was at Venice, the method I took 
 to avail myself of their principles was this : 
 when I observed an extraordinary eflfect of 
 light and shade in any picture, I took a leaf 
 of my pocket-book, and darkened every part 
 of it in the same gradation of light and shade 
 as the picture, leaving the white paper untouched 
 to represent light, and this without any atten- 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 tion to the subject or to the drawing of the 
 figures. A few trials of this kind will be 
 sufficient to give the method of their conduct 
 in the management of their lights. After a few 
 experiments I found the paper blotted nearly 
 alike. Their general practice appeared to be, 
 to allow not above a quarter of the picture for 
 the light, including in this portion both the 
 principal and secondary lights ; another quarter 
 to be as dark as possible ; and the remaining 
 half kept in mezzotint or half shadow. ^ 
 
 " Rubens appears to have admitted rather 
 more light than a quarter, and Rembrandt much 
 less — scarce an eighth ; by this conduct Rem- 
 brandt's light is extremely brilliant, but it costs 
 too much ; the rest of the picture is sacrificed 
 to this one object. That light will certainly 
 appear the brightest which is surrounded with 
 the greatest quantity of shade, supposing equal 
 skill in the artist." 
 
 Although we said above that rules were of 
 little use, meaning thereby hard-and-fast rules. 
 
92 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 still there are certain broad principles which 
 should be thoroughly understood : for instance, 
 the lights should not be scattered all over the 
 picture, or the idea of unity and breadth will 
 be destroyed. " The opposite quality to breadth, 
 that of division or scattering of light and colour, 
 has a certain contrasting charm, and is occa- 
 sionally introduced with exquisite effect by good 
 composers. The broken lights in the works 
 of a good painter wander like flocks upon the 
 hills, not unshepherded, speaking of life and 
 peace : the broken lights of a bad painter fall 
 like hailstones, and are capable only of mischief, 
 leaving it to be wished they were also of disso- 
 lution " {Ruskin), Breadths of shade should, if 
 possible, be linked together by other accidental 
 shadows ; and this recalls the old story of the 
 artist who was asked what the dog was doing 
 in his picture. " Why," said he, he is carrying 
 the light and shade through it." 
 
 Again, if there is a leading idea or object 
 in the picture, the light and shade should be 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 93 
 
 arranged so as to display it most effectively ; 
 and yet it must be so insensibly linked together 
 with the rest of the picture as not to be obtru- 
 sive. Ail this is difificult enough ; but as the 
 artist progresses in his study of nature and art, 
 new beauties will gradually unfold themselves, 
 and every success will be a stepping-stone to 
 greater success, and every failure but an incentive 
 to future effort. To the artist who works in 
 this spirit, either with the brush or the camera, 
 every picture will present a new and interesting 
 problem, new difficulties will but incite him to 
 further exertion, and as his skill increases and 
 his study of Nature leads him to understand and 
 interpret her most subtle moods, he will perceive 
 that the beauty of Nature is inexhaustible, and 
 that all human effort and work must fall infinitely 
 short of his ideal, and that life itself is all too 
 short to record even a fraction of the beauty 
 and mystery around him. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 Fine by degrees, and beautifully less." 
 
 Prior. 
 
 HE knowledge of the rudimentary prin- 
 
 ciples of perspective is essential to the 
 artist and the photographer. It has been defined 
 by Mr. Prout as " the art of representing natural 
 objects upon a plane surface in such a manner 
 that the representation shall affect the eye in 
 the same way as the objects themselves." As 
 a rule, an artist is guided by his eye alone, but 
 an architect must be thoroughly grounded in 
 the higher principles of perspective. Many of 
 these cannot be applied to landscape painting ; 
 but as a matter of fact all that is essential for 
 a landscape painter " lies within a few simple 
 
 94 
 
PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 95 
 
 rules which may be readily and easily compre- 
 hended, and when once acquired can never be 
 forgotten.'* W e purpose in the following chapter 
 to explain and illustrate the essential points of 
 linear perspective. 
 
 1. The plane of the picture is that portion of 
 the landscape represented on a vertical surface, 
 such as a sheet of paper or glass, and enclosed 
 by its bounding lines. The lateral extent of 
 this plane is regulated by the subject, and varies 
 from sixty to eighty degrees of the circum- 
 ference of a circle. 
 
 2. Perspective may be divided into parallel 
 and angular. 
 
 An object is in parallel perspective which has 
 one side the lines of which are parallel to the 
 spectator, and the lines of the other sides 
 receding from him, such as a square box or 
 the interior of a room. 
 
 An object is in angular perspective when 
 both its sides recede from the spectator, such as 
 the angle of a house. 
 
96 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 3. The position of the spectator is called the 
 point of station^ and the spot on the horizon 
 exactly opposite to the spectator's eye is called 
 the point of sight. 
 
 A, ^ , . R 
 
 4. A line drawn through the point of sight 
 parallel to the top and bottom of the picture 
 is called the horizontal line. This imaginary line 
 moves with the spectator ; in fact, as has been well 
 
PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 97 
 
 said, he carries the horizon line with him. The 
 following diagram will make these points clear. 
 
 A, B, C, are the limits of the plane of the 
 picture, S is the point of station, P is the point 
 of sight, and H H the horizontal line. 
 
 5. The horizontal line may be high or low, 
 according to the position of the spectator — high, 
 if he is looking down on the view as from a 
 hill or tower ; low, if his eye is near the surface 
 of the earth. 
 
 6. The point of sight may be at any part, 
 but must always be on some part of the hori- 
 zontal line, but not necessarily in the plane of 
 the picture. 
 
 7. Every object apparently diminishes as it 
 recedes into the picture, and in parallel per- 
 spective the receding lines of all such objects 
 will incline or converge to the point of sight. 
 The lines of all objects below the eye will rise 
 up to this point, and those above the eye will 
 fall down to it. The interior of a room, Fig. 2, 
 is the simplest example of parallel perspective. 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 8. In angular perspective both the sides of 
 objects or houses recede from the spectator. 
 
 9. The points to which these lines recede or 
 vanish are called the vanishing points ; these 
 
 HomzoN 
 
 Fig. 2.— V.P.== Vanishing Point, or Point of Sight, 
 
 points may or may not be in the plane of the 
 picture, but are always on the horizontal line. 
 The position of these vanishing points varies 
 according to the position of the spectator, and 
 the angle at which the object is viewed. It will 
 
PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 99 
 
 therefore be seen that in both angular and 
 parallel perspective the line that governs the 
 picture is the horizontal line. 
 
 lO. There are also mathematical rules for 
 measuring the lines which recede into the pic- 
 ture, and for fixing the position of the vanishing 
 
 Fig. 3. — Angular Perspective. 
 
 points ; but as this depends upon the distance 
 of the spectator from the base line of the 
 picture, namely, the point of station, which is 
 quite arbitrary, it is unnecessary to trouble the 
 reader with them, as they could only be used in 
 making architectural drawings by measuren!ent. 
 
100 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 In drawing a building in angular perspective the 
 student must draw by his eye the base, or some 
 receding line, in the direction it takes up or down 
 to the horizontal line, and the point at which 
 it would, if continued, intersect the horizontal 
 line will govern every line on that side of the 
 building which recedes into the picture. " The 
 great principle to be kept in mind," says Mr. 
 Howard, both as regards angular and parallel 
 perspective, is that all lines inclined from the 
 surface^ or receding into the picture in the same 
 direction^ or parallel with each other^ must be 
 drawn to the same pointy and that point must be 
 on the horizontal line!' 
 
 11. Circular objects drawn in perspective will 
 appear more and more elliptical, according to 
 their distance and position. 
 
 12. In the representation of uphill or down- 
 hill views it is useful to draw two lines across 
 the picture, one the ordinary horizontal line, 
 the other across the top or bottom of the hill, 
 as the case may be ; then all horizontal receding 
 
PERSPECTIVE. ' lOI 
 
 lines in the plane of the picture will vanish on 
 the horizontal line, and all lines following the 
 plane of the ascent or descent will vanish in the 
 second line, such as ruts or trees lying by the 
 roadside. 
 
 13. The elementary principles of perspective 
 may be successfully applied by the artist or 
 photographer in constructing his picture, and 
 will materially assist the completion of the 
 desired effect. The sky, for instance, should be 
 considered as a plane extending over the sur- 
 face of the earth, and meeting it at the horizon 
 line, as the ceiling of a room extends over the 
 floor, it should not therefore be represented as 
 a flat surface, but should recede into the picture. 
 Clouds, too, all follow the laws of perspective, 
 the eye of the wind being the point to which 
 they generally converge ; they should also be 
 made to recede into the picture, cloud behind 
 cloud, till the lowest ones appear to be miles 
 away in the distance, whilst the highest ones 
 are over the spectator's head. 
 
I02 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 The perspective of mountains is not so ap- 
 parent, but it may be traced in distant ranges. 
 
 14. In all cases perspective is most useful 
 in enabling us to express the appearance of 
 objects receding into the picture ; this gives 
 space and reality to the subject, and avenues 
 of trees, streams, roads with their ruts and tree- 
 trunks, hedges and walls, and other objects may 
 be most successfully used for this purpose Of 
 course it must be done skilfully ; the means must 
 be hidden, and the result only shown. 
 
 The works of Turner, Cox, Prout, Harding, and 
 others show the great use they made of roads, 
 trees, walls, and other objects to lead the eye 
 into the picture. 
 
 For the same purpose lines of cattle, boats, 
 birds, and figures, waves on the shore, etc., may 
 all be of the greatest use in assisting the per- 
 spective of the picture, and the master hand 
 is at once apparent in the manner these resources 
 are applied. 
 
 15. "Aerial perspective," as it is sometimes 
 
PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 103 
 
 called, is not dependent on lines, but " consists 
 in the modulation of the brightness and colours 
 of objects in accordance with the state of the 
 atmosphere, the depth of the body in the per- 
 spective planes, and other accidents of time and 
 place." 
 
 16. It will therefore be seen what an important 
 part linear and aerial perspective play in the 
 composition and execution of a picture ; their 
 office — and a most important one it is — is to 
 regulate the distances, and to throw each part into 
 its proper place. The subject is well worthy 
 of the artist's attention, but, as Mr. Ruskin 
 says, " Its laws are too gross and too few to be 
 applied to any subtle form." This is undoubtedly 
 true ; but the knowledge of the plainest of those 
 laws must be of material assistance in all artistic 
 work.* 
 
 * Dr. Emerson and Mr. Goodall have recently issued a 
 pamphlet entitled "Notes on Perspective Drawing and Vision" 
 (see Amateur Photographer, June 19th, 1891), in which they 
 endeavour to prove that for scientific reasons the accepted 
 rules of monocular perspective are likely to mislead the artist, 
 
104 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 and prove the fallacy of photographs and all mechanical 
 methods of measurements. The reason we get a different 
 impression of relative sizes of objects by normal vision from 
 that given by mathematical perspective drawings and photo- 
 graphs is, that the combination of these properties of vertical 
 and horizontal visions gives quite a different result to that of 
 perspective drawings. Having shown how we see forms, it 
 only remains to say that a mathematical perspective drawing, or 
 the drawing of an aplanatic photographic lens, does not give 
 forms as we see them. They are altogether false to the visual 
 impression of the proportions of things, and therefore give a 
 wrong idea of the original scene. On the other hand, a per- 
 spective drawing or correct photograph gives the actual fads 
 scientifically. All such drawings are therefore purely scientific 
 diagrams, and artists who wish to render what they see must 
 not rely upon them." Captain Abney does not endorse the 
 opinion of Messrs. Emerson and Goodall. He said, at a recent 
 meeting of the Camera Club, that " after examining a great 
 deal of artistic perspective he could say it was false, whereas 
 photographic perspective was mathematically correct." {Photo- 
 graphic Quarterly^ July 1 89 1.) 
 
 Dr. Emerson, however, returns to the charge in his article 
 in the January number (1892) of the Photographic Quarterly ^ 
 " Photography, not Art," and maintains that his "investigations 
 easily explain why photographs so often do not resemble the 
 people they are meant to represent ; why landscapes are 
 nearly always so disappointing and petty, and why architectural 
 photographs are useless to the seeing draughtsman." We 
 should have thought it was rather a matter of using suitable 
 lenses than anything else ; but no doubt the subject will 
 receive further investigation. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE, 
 ^' Science is measurement." 
 
 NE of the great charms of photography 
 
 is that its pursuit leads us into so many 
 different fields of study. On one side it is 
 closely connected with art, both fine and indus- 
 trial, and on the other its relations with science 
 are equally intimate. It may well be called 
 the child and handmaid of both. Let us con- 
 sider the scientific aspects of photography. In 
 these days so much is done for the practitioner 
 in the way of ready-made plates, developers, and 
 printing papers of all kinds, that the present 
 generation are inclined to take the " goods the 
 gods provide them," asking no questions, ignorant 
 or regardless of the fact that these very plates. 
 
Io6 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 papers, and solutions are the result of the work 
 and discoveries of at least fifty years. In the 
 early days of the art it was not so ; thirty years 
 ago we had to do nearly everything for ourselves, 
 from the cleaning of the glass to the sensitising 
 of the printing paper, and much was learned 
 in the process. It is very interesting to look 
 through the earlier works on photography, such 
 as Hunt's " Manual of Photography " (1854), and 
 to trace the gradual growth of the art through 
 the experiments of Niepce, Fox Talbot, Daguerre, 
 Sir John Herschel, and others, and to see how, 
 from small beginnings, the art of photography 
 has been evolved, and how the chain of dis- 
 coverers has never been broken. Inventors and 
 men of science have handed on the torch from 
 one to another, still the procession goes on, and 
 who can foresee the ultimate goal ? See how 
 all the resources of science have been pressed 
 into the service of photography. Opticians have 
 produced for us lenses of innumerable variety 
 and great perfection. Mechanicians have con- 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. 107 
 
 structed cameras, actinometers, and shutters of 
 the greatest ingenuity ; while chemists have given 
 us plates and films most marvellously sensitive 
 to light, and have ransacked the world of Nature 
 for substances to develop the latent image, and 
 to fix and print it on paper and other substances. 
 An immense number of animal, mineral, and 
 vegetable substances have been pressed into the 
 service, such as gold, platinum, silver, lead, 
 aluminium, copper, iron, mercury, potassium, 
 uranium, magnesium, and their salts and oxides ; 
 gelatine, gun-cotton, ether and alcohol, acids and 
 alkalies of all kinds, vegetable dyes and extracts, 
 all have been laid under contribution, and have 
 materially assisted in bringing the art to its 
 present position. 
 
 The laws of optics and light have been closely 
 studied, the actinic and luminous powers of 
 the spectrum carefully measured, and fresh dis- 
 coveries made as to its constitution and the 
 actinic power of the non-luminous rays ; the 
 rapidity and wave lengths of the coloured rays 
 
Io8 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 have been calculated, and have made manifest 
 to us somewhat of the almost inconceivable 
 rapidity of light The chemical power of light 
 has been measured by actinometers in all seasons 
 and quarters of the globe, elaborate tables have 
 been prepared for our use, and our plates are 
 now prepared, and their degree of sensitiveness 
 accurately adjusted to our requirements and to 
 the light at our disposal. By the means of elec- 
 tricity, magnesium, and aluminium we can dis- 
 pense altogether with the sun for indoor work, 
 and by the use of vegetable extracts we can 
 render the gelatine film more uniformly sensitive, 
 and thus partially remove one of the greatest 
 drawbacks to photography, viz., untruth of rela- 
 tive tone. Colour still eludes us, though we are 
 continually hearing rumours from Paris and 
 Berlin that we are on the eve of the discovery ; 
 no doubt something has been done in this direc- 
 tion, and certain colours have been produced on 
 silver and gelatine plates ; but it has been almost 
 conclusively proved that these are only due to 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. ICQ 
 
 the interference of light by means of thin plates. 
 Then in the reproduction from the negative, 
 science has lent invaluable aid, and has shown 
 us how platinum, iron and carbon may produce 
 most beautiful and permanent results, and how 
 in numberless other ways the impressions from 
 electrotype and other blocks may be made of 
 artistic and commercial value. 
 
 Such are some of the aids that science has 
 lent to photography, and in return photography 
 has not been ungrateful ; as a patient recording 
 servant, she stands by the side of her master, 
 ever ready to secure and render visible his dis- 
 coveries and observations, and to record them 
 with unerring accuracy. But she has done more 
 than this, and Sir W. Huggins, in his recent 
 presidential address, at the last meeting of the 
 British Association, speaking of the aid photo- 
 graphy renders to the study of astronomy, said 
 that the discovery of the gelatine plate had 
 opened a pathway to the unknown. This is 
 very wonderful, but it is the fact, that thousands 
 
I lO 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 of stars, quite invisible to the human eye, assisted 
 by the highest powers of the telescope, have 
 been, and are being, delineated on the photo- 
 graphic plate. 
 
 Sir W. Huggins pays the following tribute to 
 the assistance photography is rendering to the 
 study of astronomy. The passage is worth 
 remembering : — 
 
 " Without the assistance of photography, 
 however greatly the resources of genius might 
 overcome the optical and mechanical difficulties 
 of constructing large telescopes, the astronomer 
 would have to depend in the last resource upon 
 his eye. Now we cannot by the force of con- 
 tinued looking bring into view an object too 
 feebly luminous to be seen at the first and 
 keenest moment of vision. But the feeblest 
 light which falls upon the plate is not lost, but 
 is taken in and stored up continuously. Each 
 hour the plate gathers up 3,600 times the light- 
 energy which it received during the first second. 
 It is by this power of accumulation that the 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 photographic plate may be said to increase, 
 almost without limit, though not in separating 
 power, the optical means at the disposal of the 
 astronomer for the discovery or the observation 
 of faint objects. Two principal directions may 
 be pointed out in which photography is of great 
 service to the astronomer. It enables him 
 within the comparatively short time of a single 
 exposure to secure permanently with great exact- 
 ness the relative positions of hundreds, or even 
 of thousands, of stars, or the minute features of 
 nebulae or other objects, or the phenomena of 
 a passing eclipse ; a task which by means of the 
 eye and hand could only be accomplished, if 
 done at all, after a very great expenditure of 
 time and labour. Photography puts it in the 
 power of the astronomer to accomplish in the 
 short span of his own life, and so enter into 
 their fruition, great works which otherwise must 
 have been passed on by him as a heritage of 
 labour to succeeding generations. The second 
 great service which photography renders is not 
 
112 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 simply an aid to the powers the astronomer 
 already possesses. On the contrary, the plate, 
 by recording light-waves which are both too 
 small and too large to excite vision in the eye, 
 brings him into a new region of knowledge, such 
 as the infra-red and the ultra-violet parts of the 
 spectrum, which must have remained for ever 
 unknown but for artificial help." 
 
 A gigantic photographic chart of the heavens 
 is in course of construction by the leading astro- 
 nomers of Europe, which will require 22,000 
 photographs to complete, representing some 
 600,000 stars, and will doubtless reveal further 
 wonders. And what marvels photography has 
 already disclosed ! The great nebulae have been 
 resolved into numberless stars, the dark spaces 
 in the Milky Way have been found to be strewn 
 with countless stars, and their distances are being 
 calculated by the determination of the Stellar 
 Parallax. Besides this, most important dis- 
 coveries, by means of the spectroscope applied 
 to the heavenly bodies, have been recorded by 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. II3 
 
 photography, and more of their composition has 
 been learned. 
 
 The sun and his spots are daily recorded at 
 Kew, Greenwich, and other observatories, when 
 not obscured by clouds and during eclipses. 
 Most important and valuable pictures of the 
 Corona have been obtained ; though so difficult 
 are these to secure, that during the last thirty 
 years the Corona has only been under observa- 
 tion for about thirty minutes. New comets, 
 stars, and nebulae are also continually being dis- 
 covered by the aid of the camera. 
 
 Of the moon most splendid photographs have 
 been taken recently by the Brothers Henri of 
 Paris, which show an enormous amount of detail ; 
 the craters, so-called seas, and mountain ranges 
 can be studied with the greatest ease, and 
 their heights accurately measured. Some of 
 these most interesting photographs have been 
 reproduced in the " Photography Annual " for 
 1 89 1, as illustrations to a very able article 
 on Astronomical Photography by Mr. Albert 
 
 8 
 
114 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Taylor, to which we are indebted for much valu- 
 able information. With these photographs in 
 our hand it is extremely interesting to trace 
 the mountain ranges, some of them extending to 
 450 miles in length, and running up to a height 
 of 18,000 feet. 
 
 A further survey of the moon's surface is in 
 progress, to be completed in sixty-eight quarter 
 sheets, which will bring the moon comparatively 
 close to us. 
 
 Much information has also been obtained from 
 recent photographs of the planets : the ring of 
 Saturn, the belts of Jupiter, the ice cap of Mars, 
 and even the moon of Neptune, 30,000,000 miles 
 away, have all been permanently delineated, 
 with a beauty and accuracy never before 
 obtained. Such are some of the services photo- 
 graphy is rendering to astronomy. 
 
 Turning now to mundane affairs, we find 
 photography as a registering instrument of 
 the utmost value to the man of science. For the 
 meteorologist she records the rise and fall of his 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. 
 
 IIS 
 
 thermometers, barometers, and other measuring 
 instruments ; the earthquake, the lightning flash, 
 and all aspects of clouds, sunshine, and atmo- 
 sphere are recorded by photography ; thus an in- 
 valuable history of the weather is being written. 
 
 Another most important branch of science is 
 that of spectrum analysis, by which we are able 
 to dissect Nature, and follow her up into her most 
 secret lair. Here too photography stands by, 
 vvith her note-book ever ready, to record the 
 results disclosed ; whether it be the constitution 
 of some distant star, or the sun's Corona, the 
 atmosphere of our own and other planets, or of 
 some salt of silver or iron close at hand, all is in- 
 stantaneously and unerringly recorded for future 
 use. Captain Abney and others have done most 
 valuable work with the spectroscope, so that we 
 " now know definitely the spectrum value of every 
 ordinary salt of silver and iron," and " can trace 
 subtle chemical actions to their source." 
 
 Thus to the chemist photography is a most 
 useful ally. 
 
Il6 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 If we turn to other branches of science we 
 find the same thing. Photo-micrography has 
 made rapid strides, special lenses have been 
 designed by Zeiss and others suitable for the 
 work. Most valuable photographic records are 
 now kept of microscopic work, and the wonders 
 of nature in the infinitely little, as well as the 
 infinitely great, are preserved for reference and 
 illustration of scientific works. By these means 
 the bacteria, those marvellously minute para- 
 sites of which we hear so much and know so 
 little, are being reproduced by English and 
 German scientists ; this will doubtless throw 
 much light on the nature and origin of infectious 
 and tubercular diseases. In connection with this 
 work it would be unfair not to mention Mr. 
 Andrew Pringle, who has made many discoveries 
 in microscopic photography. By means of the 
 lantern these slides can be and are largely used 
 to illustrate scientific lectures. 
 
 The medical profession are also pressing 
 photography into their service for registering 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. 
 
 117 
 
 stages of mental and physical disease, surgical 
 cases, and operations of all kinds ; at many of the 
 hospitals photographic clubs have been started. 
 All this must be of immense assistance to medical 
 science. In future, doubtless, all scientific works 
 will be exclusively illustrated by photography 
 by means of zinc and other blocks. 
 
 To the geologist and geographer the value 
 of photography is manifest. The British Asso- 
 ciation have appointed a committee " for the 
 collection, preservation, and systematic regis- 
 tration of photographs of geological interest in 
 the United Kingdom," and we believe much 
 good work has been done. The School of 
 Mines also invites contributions of geologic 
 photographs. 
 
 The importance of this is clear when we 
 remember how quickly the exposed surface of 
 Nature changes ; records of quarries, railway 
 cuttings, cliffs and sections, moraines, plains of 
 marine denudation, faults, dykes, and raised 
 beaches, fossils, etc., all are of the greatest value 
 
ii8 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 to the geological student, and when securely 
 printed by a permanent process will form a 
 most valuable record on which future theories 
 may be safely built. 
 
 In map making and surveying for military and 
 other purposes, photography is of the greatest 
 use, and an interesting paper on this subject 
 will be found in the " Photographic Reporter " 
 for 1891. 
 
 There are many other branches of scientific 
 study and research to which photography con- 
 tributes assistance ; for the botanist, mineralogist 
 and student of Natural History she reproduces 
 the curiosities of the vegetable, mineral and 
 animal world. Again, by means of instantaneous 
 photography the velocity of projectiles and the 
 force of explosives have been calculated, the 
 shape of falling drops of rain and other fluids 
 has been delineated, and the speed of the electric 
 spark ascertained. 
 
 The above remarks will give the reader an 
 idea of the immense value of photography as a 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE. II9 
 
 recording instrument in scientific research, and 
 of the intimate connection between it and the 
 different branches of science. 
 
 Those who simply look upon photography as 
 a toy with which to amuse their leisure hours, 
 have little or no knowledge of its latent capa- 
 bilities ; but the earnest worker in either artistic 
 or scientific photography knows that, like every 
 other study, it spreads wider and wider, and every 
 step in advance opens up fresh wonders and a 
 more extensive horizon. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE STUDY OF NATURE, 
 "The harvest of a quiet eye." — Wordsworth. 
 
 HE pursuit of landscape photography, if it 
 
 does nothing else for its votaries, at all 
 events takes them out into the open air, and 
 teaches them to see things which most probably 
 they have never observed before. The very 
 fact of looking about to see what will make 
 a picture must teach us something of the beauty 
 and mystery of Nature, must enlarge our horizon, 
 and give us ideas of beautiful things that we 
 did not before possess. Photography may or 
 may not be an art process ; at all events, in the 
 hands of its ablest workers the result produced 
 is often a very good imitation of art, if it be 
 not art itself Besides, who can tell what further 
 
 120 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 121 
 
 discoveries may not do for us? The earnest 
 worker is always looking ahead, eager to apply 
 any new process or invention, if only he may 
 improve his work, and get a little nearer to his 
 ideal. 
 
 The study of Nature is, however, endless, and 
 this is one of its greatest charms. The pride 
 of a true artist is that he is always a student, 
 and every day Nature reveals to him fresh beau- 
 ties ; and so it is with a photographer, if he will 
 only work and think, and open his eyes to see 
 the wonders that are around him. 
 
 See what an interest a camera will give to 
 an otherwise objectless walk ; but even without 
 a camera much may be learned if the photo- 
 grapher is, as he should be, ever on the watch 
 to mark down good subjects, like a sports- 
 man marks down a covey of partridges. And 
 yet how difficult it very often is to find a 
 subject a second time ; the light has changed, 
 or the day has clouded over, and what we 
 admired so much in the morning looks totally 
 
122 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 different under an evening light. In fact, in 
 making pictures the light is everything. See 
 what expression a burst of sunshine will give to 
 a distant view ! How in autumn, sometimes after 
 a rainy day, a whole forest will seem to blaze 
 out in purple and gold, and those who have 
 seen the afterglow in Norway or Switzerland 
 will not be likely to forget its unearthly beauty. 
 Watch the sea on a stormy day, when the 
 sun is partially behind clouds, with the rays 
 thrown down on the waves, lighting them up 
 with a sudden glory ; or note the beauty of 
 quiet evenings, when earth and sky are sinking 
 into repose, what breadth and harmony per- 
 vade the scene. All these things are simply 
 due to the ever-changing atmospheric effects, 
 and much as we may rail at our changeable 
 weather and fickle climate, for artistic purposes 
 it is far to be preferred to the perpetual glare 
 of light and cloudless skies of the South, where 
 day after day the landscape lies bare and brown 
 under the same monotonous blaze of sunshine. 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 1 23 
 
 Even in England, after a week or two of such 
 weather, how we welcome a grey day and a 
 cloudy sky. 
 
 Besides the beauties of effect, the colours of 
 Nature are brought out far better on a grey 
 autumn day than under the sunny sky of mid- 
 summer ; then we can enjoy the subdued 
 splendour of the tertiary colours, the russets and 
 the olives and the citrons which delight the soul 
 of the artist. 
 
 It has been well said, that the study of Nature 
 without system is a pathless wilderness, and 
 no doubt it greatly facilitates the study to 
 pursue some well-ordered plan. An artist makes 
 numerous studies of separate skies, trees, rocks, 
 and seas, etc., and by this means acquires a 
 stock of natural forms and effects, which are 
 laid up, not only in his- portfolio, but also in 
 his mind, so that he can reproduce them when 
 required. A photographer should do the same, 
 and instead of devoting himself, as most do, 
 to the taking of views — endless views — how 
 
124 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 much more improving it would be to take 
 Nature in detail, and acquire a series of negatives 
 of skies, trees, and foregrounds ; by this means 
 he would obtain a deeper insight into the 
 beauties of Nature, which would have a most 
 important effect on his finished work. 
 
 Of the magnificence of the sky much can be 
 reproduced by the camera with proper exposure. 
 First, there is the cloudless blue of a spring 
 or summer day. Who has not felt what Words- 
 worth calls " the witchery of the soft blue sky " ? 
 Then there are the glorious white cumuli, which 
 float through the azure like ships upon a 
 summer sea ; " the chain of tall white mountains 
 that girdled the horizon at noon yesterday," 
 as Ruskin calls them ; and far above all, like 
 denizens of another world, the higher cirri, most 
 delicate and beautiful of clouds. Then how 
 grand is the gathering of the storm, especially 
 over a wild sea, or in the mountains, when 
 
 From peak to peak the rattling crags among 
 Leaps the live thunder." 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 1 25 
 
 And after the storm has passed some of the 
 most beautiful cloud effects may be secured as 
 Nature once more sinks to repose. 
 
 Again, on a grey day the drifting clouds 
 are very beautiful, seen over a wide plain, or 
 just touching the tops of the mountains ; some- 
 times the clouds and the mountains appear 
 inextricably mixed up, and splendid effects are 
 produced by the rays of sunlight striking 
 through some, and lighting up others. Some 
 of Mr. Peter Graham's work has rendered 
 these effects admirably. Of the splendours 
 of sunset and sunrise language fails to give 
 any adequate conception, though some of Mr. 
 Ruskin's word pictures are full of light and 
 colour. 
 
 The poets, too, have given us descriptions of 
 almost every aspect of nature. Byron describes 
 the sunset thus : — 
 
 Day dies like the dolphin, whom each pang endues 
 
 With a new colour as it gasps away, 
 
 The last still loveliest, till — 'tis gone, and all is grey." 
 
126 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 And Keble : 
 
 " Ever the softest, tenderest light 
 Sets round the autumnal sun." 
 
 While of the morning Shakespeare says : 
 
 ^* The morn, in russet mantle clad. 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high Eastern hill." 
 
 Milton speaks of 
 
 " The opening eyelids of the morn." 
 
 And again : 
 
 **Now morn, her rosy steps in the Eastern clime 
 Advancing, sov^'d the earth w^ith Orient pearls." 
 
 In truth the magnificence of the sky is in- 
 describable ; but at least some of its beauty may 
 be hinted at, and, as Constable well says, " The 
 landscape painter who does not make his sky a 
 very material part of his composition neglects 
 to avail himself of one of his greatest aids." 
 
 Then there is the whole range of atmospheric 
 effects — storm and sunshine, wind and mist, frost 
 and snow ; all should be carefully studied, as they 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 
 
 127 
 
 are of inestimable value in producing pictures, 
 whether by means of the camera or otherwise. 
 
 Passing from the sky and atmospheric effects 
 to the study of mountains, the photographer will 
 be met with the difficulty of representing the 
 distant mountains in their proper scale, as 
 ordinary lenses have a tendency to dwarf the 
 distance ; this, however, may to some extent be 
 overcome by the use of longer focus landscape 
 lenses. There is, however, no doubt, as Mr. 
 Hamerton has shown, that we all, in drawing, 
 exaggerate greatly the height of the distant 
 mountains, and in his life of Turner a very 
 interesting chapter, with illustrations, is devoted 
 to this subject. 
 
 The mountains, however, are so extremely 
 beautiful that no efforts should be spared in 
 endeavouring to reproduce them, and splendid 
 photographs of the higher Alps and their snows 
 and glaciers are not uncommon. At every 
 season, and under all effects, a mountainous 
 country is a delight to the artistic worker, and 
 
128 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 fortunately we have in Wales, Cumberland, and 
 Scotland some of the loveliest mountain scenery 
 in the world. Besides the grandeur of form, the 
 beauty of the colours of mountains is indescrib- 
 able. The distant ranges pure faint blue and 
 lavender, or lost in a golden haze, the nearer 
 hills every shade of purple, grey, and green, ever 
 changing as the sunlight and storm sweep over 
 them, they are at once the delight and despair 
 of the artist, who knows that after all he can 
 only reproduce a faint reflection of either the 
 mountain gloom or the mountain glory. In 
 the fourth volume of Mr. Ruskin's " Modern 
 Painters " will be found a most useful and com- 
 prehensive study of mountain form, which we 
 commend to the reader's attention ; and a very 
 interesting article on Alpine Photography by 
 Captain Abney will be found in the Photo- 
 graphic News of September 5 th, 1890. 
 
 After the mountains, we come to the plains 
 and here many people make a great mistake 
 when they talk of an uninteresting flat country 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 1 29 
 
 There is nothing Hke a good flat country for 
 picturesque effect. Look at Holland, with its 
 dykes and mills and barges and wide horizons, 
 what pictures they make ! Or our own Fen 
 country, with its reedy pools and flocks of wild 
 birds and grey skies. 
 
 No, the really difficult country to paint or 
 photograph is the unmeaning up and down 
 country, which is neither hilly nor flat, with trim 
 hedgerows and pollard trees ; but even here 
 many beautiful studies of cottages and little bits 
 may be secured. 
 
 In a flat country the artist must make much 
 of the sky and atmospheric effects ; and what 
 charming pictures may be made out of a good 
 sky and a wide common or moorland, with 
 perhaps a solitary figure driving a flock of geese 
 or cattle ! David Cox revelled in this class of 
 scenery, and produced the most beautiful pic- 
 tures out of the simplest materials — you can 
 almost feel the wind blowing in some of them. 
 
 Then there is the world of the forest and 
 
 9 
 
I30 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 woodland, with their mystery and ever-changing 
 beauty. What pictures the very words call up 
 of the primeval forests of America or Germany, 
 when " wild in woods the noble savage ran " ; or 
 of the tangled forests of the Tropics, so beauti- 
 fully described by Kingsley in his West Indian 
 book ; or of the solemn pine woods of Norway 
 and Switzerland, with their red columns, and the 
 delicious odour of the fir ; or, again, of our own 
 oak woodlands. Beautiful they all are at every 
 season, in the fresh green of early spring, or the 
 luxuriant foliage of midsummer, or the splendour 
 of decay, when " Autumn's fire burns slowly in 
 the woods," or even in winter, when we walk 
 beneath 
 
 " Bare ruined choirs, 
 Where late the sweet birds sang." 
 
 And if we study the trees in detail, there is an 
 endless source of interest and beauty. How sug- 
 gestive are the very names of the trees, and how 
 each one suggests its own character and special 
 landscape, — the solemn rugged oak, the graceful 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 131 
 
 birch, the lady of the woods," the grey-trunked 
 beech, the graceful ash, the luxuriant elm ; the 
 deep tones of the fir, the cypress, and the yew, 
 and the lighter tones of the poplar, the willow, 
 and the olive — what a world of study and interest 
 there is here ! And when we examine the forms 
 of trees and vegetation closer, new beauties are 
 revealed both of form and colour. How exquisite 
 are the forms of the branches, from the stern 
 grandeur of the pine to the graceful curves of the 
 ash, the beech, and the willow ! What marvels 
 of colour are the trunks of "old moss-grown 
 beeches and yew trees ; then the forms of the 
 leaves, how graceful, varied, and delicate are 
 these — how individual, and suited to their needs ! 
 Nor must we overlook the shrubs, such as the 
 laurel and the myrtle, or the vine, and hundreds 
 of others, which add such beauty and grace to 
 the landscape. We must, however, not omit the 
 beautiful flowers, both natural and cultivated, 
 with which we are everywhere surrounded. 
 Flowers are a special study for the artist and 
 
132 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 photographer, and with the assistance of isochro- 
 matic plates beautiful pictures can be obtained ; 
 but we have not space to enlarge on this 
 delightful theme. 
 
 In truth, all vegetation, from the monarch of 
 the forest to the green grass, that delicate carpet 
 of peaceful spears, or the gold and silver lichen 
 of the rock, is exquisitely lovely, inexhaustible 
 in its beauty, and " a joy for ever to all who 
 love and reverence Nature. 
 
 Rocks and foregrounds may be reproduced by 
 the camera very successfully, as all their markings 
 and stratification can be shown.. In the early 
 days of landscape art a rock was a rock ; it was 
 of no consequence what kind, whether granite 
 or slate or sandstone, so that it formed a suit- 
 able dark mass in the foreground. And there is 
 a story told of Gainsborough, that he used to 
 stimulate his imagination when he wanted a 
 rock by using a piece of coal as a model ; but 
 nowadays artists must be something of geolo- 
 gists, and must, if they paint rocks, show clearly 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 
 
 their structure and formation. We believe that 
 there is a large field for photography as an 
 assistant to the geologist, especially for securing 
 accurate transcripts of sections and other geo- 
 logical features which are liable to destruction, 
 such as railway cuttings, quarries, and coast lines. 
 But independently of this, rock studies are most 
 useful and interesting, and will teach the worker 
 how the landscape character of a country depends 
 entirely on its geological formation. For instance, 
 in granite districts we get more or less rounded 
 forms ; while in the slaty and limestone coun- 
 tries the mountains are sharp and angular, as in 
 Wales and Switzerland ; and it has been well 
 pointed out by Mr. Ruskin that a stone, if you 
 examine it carefully, is a mountain in miniature 
 with its markings and fissures, with moss for 
 forests, and grains of crystal for crags. 
 
 Lastly, there is the marvellous world of water, 
 the source and origin of the beauty of the clouds 
 and atmospheric effects, the modeller and creator 
 of the earth, whose home is the everlasting sea. 
 
134 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Think for a moment how the animate Hfe and 
 beauty of the world depend on water, raised by 
 the sun's heat from tropical seas, condensed 
 by the colder air into clouds, which are wafted 
 inland by the winds to discharge their moisture 
 on the expectant land. That fleecy cloud just 
 touching yonder distant mountain will pour its 
 fertilising rain down its side in rushing streams, 
 carrying not only fertility to the plains, but 
 creating them by the debris they carry down, 
 and far away in the distant sea "sowing the 
 continents to be." Think how, in the form of 
 snow and glaciers, it robes the mountains, and 
 forms a veritable granary of waters for the use 
 and benefit of man. 
 
 To the artist water is of inestimable service, 
 as it brings another light into his picture ; even 
 the muddy pools on the road reflect something 
 of the beauty of the sky, and may be usefully 
 pressed into his service. Streams and rivers are 
 always beautiful, and compose well. The Thames 
 from above Oxford to the Nore is a grand 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 
 
 panorama of pictorial effect, and will well 
 repay artistic study. How lovely, too, are the 
 streams and rivers in a mountainous country ! 
 Rising far away from some mountain loch, or 
 near some almost inaccessible peak, the crystal 
 water oozes out of its mossy bed, and soon 
 becomes a little rivulet, with its miniature falls, 
 rippling on, now almost lost beneath some alder 
 bushes, and now flashing into light again, 
 making " sweet music with the enamelled 
 stones." 
 
 Milton also speaks of 
 
 **The liquid lapse of murmuring streams." 
 
 In fact, streams and rivers have always been 
 favourites with artists and poets ; and, fortunately, 
 in the United Kingdom we have no lack of such. 
 Lakes have a special beauty of their own — 
 Nature's mirrors, reflecting the glories of earth 
 and sky ; whether surrounded by mountains, or 
 reflecting the trees and vegetation on their banks, 
 they are always lovely in their expression of calm 
 
136 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 repose, and at times of stern grandeur, when 
 swept by pitiless storms. 
 
 But what can we say of the sea, that emblem 
 of eternity ? Painters and poets have exhausted 
 the resources of art and language in the endea- 
 vour to catch something of its magnificence. 
 Ever changing, responsive to every atmo- 
 spheric influence, lifelike in its restless motion, 
 it is at once the glory and wonder of the world, 
 " the best emblem of unwearied, unconquerable 
 power." To paint it, Mr. Ruskin says, is like 
 trying to paint a soul." In fact, very few artists 
 have successfully grappled with the difficulty. 
 Even Turner, grand as some of his impressions 
 of storms are, and who made it one of his special 
 studies, has never given us the real drawing of 
 near waves with the wash of their lace-like foam. 
 The old masters shirked the difficulties alto- 
 gether, and, with the exception of Claude, who 
 reproduced one or two aspects of the sea ad- 
 mirably, not one of them seems to have had any 
 idea of its subtle beauty ; and of the modern 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 
 
 painters of sea, you may almost count the good 
 ones on the fingers of one hand. Now the 
 camera can and has produced magnificent sea 
 studies, with every ripple mark and wreath of 
 torn spray, and some of these have been most 
 successfully enlarged. 
 
 There is no more fascinating branch of 
 photography than studies of sea with a hand 
 camera ; but you must not mind getting wet, 
 and it is no easy thing to hold the camera 
 steady in a gale of wind — but then it is that the 
 finest effects are to be obtained. During the 
 October gales on a rocky shore the sea is incon- 
 ceivably grand, especially when the gale has 
 continued for a few days ; then the air and the 
 sea become mixed up together, and the waves 
 and shore arc one mass of yeasty foam, which 
 hangs in wreaths from wave to wave. All this, 
 combined with the roar of the wind and the 
 thunder of the sea, forms one of the grandest 
 manifestations of the powers of Nature, — one 
 never to be forgotten. 
 
138 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 But if grand in storm, how lovely is the sea 
 at all times ! On a calm evening how glorious 
 is the light on the waters, that " golden pathway 
 to the west," which seems to beckon us on to 
 the regions of the infinite ! Then there is the 
 deep indigo-blue of mid-ocean, and the exquisite 
 emerald and peacock-blue of the Mediterranean. 
 Even in the south of England and the Channel 
 Islands, on a fine day, the colour is indescribably 
 lovely, shot with violet shadows of passing 
 clouds across the pure emerald and sapphire. 
 Then we see the " many-twinkling smile of 
 ocean," or, as the lines of the Greek poet have 
 been better translated, " the innumerable laughter 
 of the waves." But, in truth, at all seasons 
 and in all weathers, the sea is an inexhaustible 
 source of wonder, ever changing, yet immutable. 
 
 Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow : 
 Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now." 
 
 There are many other phases of nature to 
 which we have not alluded in this chapter, such 
 
THE STUDY OF NATURE. 
 
 as the rainbow, fresh-fallen snow and hoar frost, 
 the beauty of moonlight, and the splendour of 
 the starlit sky, the exquisite colours of gems, 
 shells and sea-weeds, the ever-changing interest 
 of the seasons, each with its own charm — "the 
 daughters of the year," who " dance into light 
 and die into the shade." 
 
 But, in fact, the subject is endless, and we close 
 this imperfect review of the world of natural 
 scenery with a feeling of deep thankfulness for 
 the wonders and beauties scattered so profusely 
 around us, which are not only a never-failing 
 source of exquisite pleasure in our hours of ease, 
 but have power to lift us out of the troubles 
 and sorrows of life's common day. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STUDY OF ART 
 
 "Nature is the Art of God." 
 
 Sir T. Browne. 
 
 T F the study of Nature is wide and endless, 
 
 that of Art is not less so. As Michael Angelo 
 
 said, it spreads wider and wider, like the sea. It 
 
 is, however, of great importance to a photographer 
 
 to understand the elementary principles of art, 
 
 and how to apply them as far as may be to his 
 
 work ; and in the preceding chapters we have 
 
 endeavoured to show how this may, to some 
 
 extent, be done. In this chapter we propose to 
 
 • consider the subject of Art itself, and to suggest 
 
 how it should be studied. It is a vast subject, 
 
 and much has been written upon it ; but in the 
 
 following remarks we shall endeavour to be as 
 
 140 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. 
 
 141 
 
 brief and practical as possible, avoiding what may 
 be called the metaphysics of art, which are as hazy 
 and uncertain as metaphysics usually are. 
 
 Now, we think that the first thing to be done 
 is to obtain a broad view of the subject. We 
 should realise that there is a bond of union 
 between all the arts ; and that painting, design, 
 sculpture, architecture, etc., are all members of 
 the same family, and, as Cicero says, have a 
 certain common bond of union. 
 
 Then we should firmly grasp the idea that 
 art is not the mere reproduction or imitation of 
 Nature, but its idealisation ; * and that, as Mr. 
 Moody has well said, " A perfect artist is a man 
 who is in love with visible Nature, who studies 
 and understands her aspects, assimilates them 
 with his own nature, and reproduces them from 
 his heart." For instance, the immortal works of 
 Phidias were not mere portraits of the men and 
 women of the time, but the idealised conceptions 
 
 * " La mission de Tart, n'est pas de copier la nature, mais de 
 I'exprimer. " — Balzac. 
 
142 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 of all that was noblest and most beautiful in 
 a race remarkable for their personal grace and 
 beauty. And it is the same with all great artists 
 of all schools ; whether they paint Madonnas 
 or portraits, still life or landscape, the same prin- 
 ciple runs throughout their work, its roots are 
 based on stern reality and study of the facts of 
 nature ; but its perfect flower is the Ideal which 
 has been defined as " the conception of a thing 
 in its most perfect form." It will indeed be 
 found universally true that all art not based on 
 the close study of Nature is dead art, and expires 
 of its own conventionalism : witness the art of 
 Persia, India, and Egypt ; while any art or school 
 based on the study of Nature, though it may be 
 in its childhood, and the " mere stammering of 
 infants," yet has in it the principle of life, and 
 will, in prosperous circumstances, become a 
 goodly tree, bearing both blossoms and fruit. 
 
 The first thing, therefore, is the study of 
 natural form ; and here we would most seri- 
 ously advise the student of art, if he has not 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. 
 
 already done so, to learn to draw well in pen 
 or pencil, even if he have not time to take up 
 colour. A year or two spent under a good 
 master, and in drawing from natural objects, will 
 be of immense assistance, as it will discipline 
 the mind and the hand, and disclose a thousand 
 beauties of form and colour. It will, in fact, 
 teach him to see. A good deal has been said 
 about the different methods of art teaching, but 
 there is no royal road to excellence in this, as in 
 anything else. The great thing is to so learn 
 the language of drawing as to be able to repro- 
 duce accurately, both in form and light and 
 shade, any object before us ; and any method 
 which will enable us to do this is good. It is 
 by no means easy to attain the command of pen 
 or pencil so as to make it walk about and stop 
 just like a well-trained horse, as Mr. Ruskin 
 says ; but perseverance will do much, and fairly 
 accurate drawing may be as certainly acquired 
 as the art of writing. Many good hints will be 
 found in Mr. Ruskin's " Elements of Drawing," if 
 
144 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 the student is fortunate enough to procure a 
 copy of that somewhat rare work. The great 
 thing is to seize the vital facts of Nature without 
 depending on any particular " touch," and to re- 
 member that there is no general way of "doing " 
 anything. This power of accurate drawing will 
 not only teach us to see what we never saw 
 before, but to love Nature, and to appreciate 
 the works of the great masters of Art. It is 
 true, drawing is only a language, and because 
 we can draw fairly well, it by no means follows 
 that we are or may become artists ; that will 
 depend upon whether we have anything original 
 to say. 
 
 The study of works of Art of all kinds will 
 next engage our attention. This is a lifelong 
 business ; but we think the best method of pro- 
 ceeding is to study the history of art in a 
 somewhat chronological manner ; and first we 
 would strongly advise the careful study of the 
 art of Greece in her statues and architecture. 
 In the British Museum, at South Kensington, 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. 
 
 and in the Schools of Art throughout the 
 kingdom, will be found numerous examples of 
 the remains of the art of Greece at its finest 
 period. 
 
 Careful studies of some of these will be of 
 the greatest value, and will store the mind with 
 beautiful forms and graceful attitudes. Unfor- 
 tunately, none of the Greek paintings have sur- 
 vived ; but from the repeated allusions to the 
 works of Apelles, Zeuxis, Protagenes, and others 
 in the classics, they must have been not less 
 wonderful than their work in stone or marble. 
 Passing from Greece to Rome, we shall not 
 find much to detain us, as the Roman people 
 were not artistic, and produced little original 
 work in painting or sculpture, but were content 
 to borrow their art, to a great extent, from 
 Greece. When a great Roman made a collec- 
 tion it was to Greece or Sicily he turned ; and 
 we repeatedly find Cicero writing to his friend 
 Atticus, begging him to pick up for him at 
 
 Athens some choice statue or work of art. After 
 
 10 
 
146 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 the fall of Rome dark night seems to have fallen 
 on the world of art — a night of nearly a thousand 
 years' duration ; and the next period to which 
 we must direct our attention is the period of 
 the Renaissance in Italy, in the thirteenth, four- 
 teenth, and fifteenth centuries. From that time 
 to the present the chain of great painters has 
 never been broken, and in the galleries of Europe 
 we have magnificent examples left to us of their 
 immortal works. Our own National Gallery is 
 particularly rich in the works of most of the 
 great masters ; in fact, no better school for their 
 study exists, as the history of painting is more 
 fully represented in Trafalgar Square than in any 
 other gallery in Europe. Other galleries, such as 
 those in Holland, Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome, 
 Dresden, and Madrid, possess finer specimens of 
 particular schools, but none of them possess such 
 admirable examples of all schools. The only 
 fault we have to find with our National Gallery 
 is that it is growing too large ; it contains 
 far too many inferior works of great painters 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. 
 
 and of painters anything but great ; and it will 
 become a serious question as to whether many 
 of these should be allowed to remain in our 
 National collection. For the purposes of educa- 
 tion a few first-rate works of the greatest men 
 of all schools are far preferable to the very 
 miscellaneous collection we now possess. Mr. 
 Cook has published an admirable handbook to 
 the National Gallery (Macmillan), and Miss 
 Kate Thompson's " Handbook to the Galleries 
 of Europe" will also be of great use to the 
 student. 
 
 The great schools of painting are : i. The 
 Italian ; 2. The Flemish and Dutch ; 3. The Ger- 
 man ; 4. The Spanish ; 5. The French ; 6. The 
 English. The following is a list of the chief 
 masters of these schools ; there are of course 
 many others, but a thorough study of the works 
 of the painters comprised in this list will give 
 the student a comprehensive and sound view of 
 the art of painting. 
 
148 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Italian Painters. 
 
 
 
 
 BORN 
 
 DIED 
 
 Cimabue . 
 
 (Tuscan 
 
 School) 
 
 . 1240 ] 
 
 302 
 
 Giotto 
 
 ( M 
 
 / 
 
 . 1266 
 
 t336 
 
 Orcagna . 
 
 ( M 
 
 >» / 
 
 . 1308—] 
 
 [386 
 
 Era Angelico . 
 
 ( H 
 
 >' / 
 
 . 1387 — 
 
 f455 
 
 Masaccio 
 
 
 
 
 
 Era Lippo Lippi 
 
 (Tuscan 
 
 School) 
 
 . I4I2 
 
 [458 
 
 Giovanni Bellini 
 
 (Venetian 
 
 »> / 
 
 . 1428 ] 
 
 516 
 
 Mantegna . 
 
 (Padua 
 
 '> / 
 
 . 1431—^ 
 
 [506 
 
 Botticelli . 
 
 (Tuscan 
 
 M J 
 
 . 1447— 
 
 [510 
 
 Perugino 
 
 (Umbrian 
 
 ft J 
 
 . 1446— 
 
 1523 
 
 Erancia 
 
 (Bologna 
 
 ; 
 
 . 1450— 
 
 1517 
 
 Carpaccio . 
 
 (Venetian 
 
 »» J 
 
 circa 1450 — 
 
 1525 
 
 Leonardo da Vinci (Tuscan 
 
 M > 
 
 • 1452— 
 
 1519 
 
 Michael Angelo 
 
 ( 
 
 '» J 
 
 . 1475— 
 
 1564 
 
 Giorgione . 
 
 (Venetian 
 
 M > 
 
 . 1477— 
 
 1511 
 
 Titian . . 
 
 ( M 
 
 >' J 
 
 . 1477^ 
 
 1576 
 
 Raphael 
 
 (Roman 
 
 »' ) 
 
 . 1483- 
 
 1520 
 
 Correggio . 
 
 (Parma 
 
 " J 
 
 • 1494— 
 
 f534 
 
 Tintoretto . 
 
 (Venetian 
 
 
 . 1518— 
 
 1594 
 
 Paolo Veronese 
 
 ( 
 
 
 . 1528— 
 
 1588 
 
 [For further information about the Italian Painters see 
 Vasari's Lives, 6 vols. (Bell), and Kugler's Handbook 
 (Murray).] 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. I49 
 
 II. 
 
 The Flemish and Dutch Painters. 
 
 BORN DIED 
 
 Jan Van Eyck (Flemish School) . . 1390 — 1440 
 
 Quintin Matsys ( „ ) . . 1460 — 1530 
 
 Memlmg . . ( „ m ) • • —H9S 
 
 Rubens . • ( >, ) • . I577 — 1640 
 
 Hals . . ( ,) n ) • • 1580— 1666 
 
 Vandyck . . ( „ „ ) • • i599— 1641 
 
 Cuyp . . (Dutch ,, ) . . 1620 — 1 69 1 
 
 Rembrandt • ( ,, ) . . 1606 — 1669 
 
 Paul Potter . ( „ ) . . 1625 — 1654 
 
 Ruysdael • ( ) . . 1628 — 1682 
 
 Teniers . . (Flemish „ ) . . 1610 — 1690 
 
 Jan Steen . (Dutch ) . . 1626 — 1679 
 
 [See Wauter's Flemish School of Paintings and Havard, 
 Dutch School?^ 
 
 III. 
 
 The German Painters. 
 
 BORN DIED 
 
 Albert Diirer 1471—1528 
 
 Holbein 1497 — 
 
 [See Life of Albert Diirer, by Scott, and of Holbein, by 
 Woltman.] 
 
T50 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Spanish Painters. 
 
 BORN DIED 
 
 Ribera (Spagnoletta School) . . . 1588 — 
 Velasquez ...... 1599 — 1660 
 
 Murillo 1618— 1682 
 
 [See Life of Murillo, by Minor (Lowd), and of Velasqtiez, 
 by Stowe (Lowd).] 
 
 V. 
 
 The French Painters. 
 
 BORN DIED 
 
 Nicolas Poussin 1594 — 1665 
 
 Claude Lorraine 1600 — 1682 
 
 Caspar Poussin 161 3 — 1675 
 
 C. J. Vernet 1714 — 1789 
 
 [See The Spanish and French School^ by Smith (Lowd).] 
 
 VI. 
 
 The English Painters. 
 
 BORN DIED 
 
 Hogarth 1697 — 1764 
 
 Wilson 1713 — 1782 
 
 Reynolds 1723 — 1792 
 
 Cainsborough 1727 — 1788 
 
 Turner I775_i85i 
 
 Constable 1776 — 1837 
 
 Wilkie 1785— 1841 
 
 [See also the works of Lawrence, J. Opie, J. Crome, 
 
THE gTUDY OF ART. 
 
 J. Ward, Stothard, Mulready, W. J. Muller, D. Cox, G. 
 Morland, Romney, Blake, Nasmyth, F. Walker, Collins, 
 Etty, Bonington, Eastlake, Leslie, Maclise, Danby, Linnell, 
 Rossetti, Landseer. And for a history of the English 
 School, Redgrave's Century of English Painters^ and 
 Chesneau's E^iglish School of Painting?\ 
 
 In studying the works of all great painters 
 the student will find much to admire and 
 profit by, and also much to avoid. He will net 
 fail to admire and appreciate the truthful and 
 loving study of Nature as represented in most 
 great works ; but, at the same time, he will not 
 fail to observe how, in many cases, false conven- 
 tionalities, such as brown trees and shadows, 
 became stereotyped, and handed down by the 
 false traditions of the schools ; but if the student 
 is well grounded in the works of the old masters, 
 he will be better able to appreciate the works 
 of living painters — the difficulty is to discriminate 
 amidst the enormous mass of work which the 
 annual exhibitions afford. The last thirty years 
 have no doubt produced some exceedingly fine 
 painters, and we need only mention the group 
 
152 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 of French painters— Corot, Millet, Rousseau, 
 Diaz, Daubigny, and Ingres ; Israels and Troyon 
 of the Dutch School, or Madrazzo and Fortuny 
 among the Spanish ; Munkacsy, the Hungarian ; 
 Costa, the Italian landscape painter ; or, in our 
 own school, Millais, Leighton, Watts, Hook, 
 Alma Tadema, Herkomer, and others, to prove 
 that the art of painting is still flourishing. 
 
 The Art and Science Schools have no doubt 
 done much to raise the artistic sense of the 
 nation, especially in the art of design and 
 decoration. Here great advance has taken 
 place, as our modern houses and their furnishing 
 prove. Much has been learnt from the art of 
 China and Japan ; and Mr. Morris and Mr. W. 
 Crane have lent great assistance to this branch 
 of art. 
 
 All forms of book illustration have greatly 
 improved, and much of this is due, as we have 
 pointed out in a former chapter, to photography. 
 
 The wave of Pre-Raphaelitism which swept 
 over us some forty years ago seems to have 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. 
 
 spent its force ; but to this and to photography 
 our modern school of painting is largely in- 
 debted, as greater accuracy is now required and 
 attained in delineating Nature. As a reaction, 
 we now hear of the Impressionist and Natural- 
 istic Schools, some of whose votaries carry their 
 worship to the point of absurdity, especially 
 among the French. But, doubtless, their ex- 
 travagances will not impede the advance of 
 the main stream of Art, for there is no royal 
 road to excellence in art except the close and 
 reverent study of Nature. 
 
 This close study of Nature and her various 
 appearances is well advocated by Mr. Francis 
 Bate in his book on " The Naturalistic School 
 of Painting," which, although it contains nothing 
 very new, or that has not been thought and 
 said before by most earnest workers, yet puts 
 the case of Nature versus Conventionalism very 
 strongly, and contains many interesting sug- 
 gestions. 
 
 The chief points he insists upon are the 
 
154 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 immense importance of " values," and the 
 superiority of Nature's laws to conventional 
 rules, the great importance of atmosphere and 
 its effect upon relative tones, and the indis- 
 soluble union of light and colour. " Truth, 
 absolute truth, to Nature," he says, " is the 
 great rule for the painting of every picture." 
 And again, " Our pictures should be accurate 
 reflectors of ih.^ appearance of Nature; not copies 
 of part of it, but reflections of the appearance 
 of the whole of it" 
 
 All this is very true if not new, but it is 
 rather late in the day for Mr. Bate and his 
 followers to pose as the discoverers of a new 
 style, or the only method of representing Nature, 
 as if all great artists had not spent their lives 
 in endeavouring to represent Nature as it 
 appeared to them. 
 
 The study of Art, besides being a source of 
 aesthetic pleasure and " a joy for ever," will 
 teach its votaries many valuable lessons. It 
 will teach us the deeper love of all that is 
 
THE STUDY OF ART. 
 
 155 
 
 beautiful in Nature and in life, and will raise 
 our souls by patience and humility to a higher 
 atmosphere. It will also teach us the philosophy 
 of life ; it will show us that nothing is perfect 
 in the art or life of man, and that the only 
 perfect art is NATURE, which Sir Thomas 
 Browne so finely described as The Art of God. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PORTRAITS. 
 
 " The end of art is the interpretation of the soul of man." 
 
 Chesneau. 
 
 1\ /r OST amateurs think it the easiest thing 
 
 in the world to take a portrait, until sad 
 
 experience and the execrations of their ill-used 
 
 relatives convince them to the contrary. 
 
 In fact, there is no branch of art, photographic 
 
 or otherwise, which requires more thought and 
 
 knowledge of principles than that of portraiture ; 
 
 it seems so easy, and is so difficult. Ask any good 
 
 painter, and he will tell you that there is nothing 
 
 more uncertain and exacting than the production 
 
 of a satisfactory portrait. This arises from 
 
 many causes : the subject may be a bad one, or 
 
 the artist may not feel inspired by his work ; the 
 
 156 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 drawing and colouring may be correct, but if the 
 soul, the expression, is missed, the result is failure. 
 Even Sir Joshua Reynolds had many failures ; 
 many of his portraits were never completed, 
 and many were never taken away by the sitters, 
 or paid for. Mr. Northcote, in his life of 
 Reynolds, tells us that these unfinished and 
 unclaimed portraits used to stand in rows, with 
 their faces turned to the wall of Sir Joshua's 
 studio. And this we fancy must be the ex- 
 perience of most artists who have a high ideal, 
 and who cannot be satisfied unless they attain 
 somewhat to it. A good portrait is an ideal 
 work, as much as any other picture, and its 
 beauty depends on something which can only 
 be communicated by the mind of the painter to 
 his work. It is a selection, as it were, of the 
 best characteristics of the subject seen under 
 the best aspect. Now, a photographic camera 
 cannot select and combine, and it therefore 
 gives us a plain, unvarnished representation, 
 which is seldom satisfactory, and often vulgar. 
 
158 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 And yet it need not always be so, as the 
 beautiful heads taken by Mrs. Cameron abund- 
 antly prove. But in order to obtain artistic 
 work the photographer must have the artistic 
 spirit, and must have carefully studied and been 
 imbued with the works of the great portrait 
 painters. Although most photographic portraits, 
 as we said above, are very ordinary things, yet 
 for all that, being literal representations of our 
 friends and of those who have left us, they 
 are of inestimable value as history, if not as 
 works of art. But much might be done and 
 photographic portraiture raised to a higher level 
 if the subject were properly studied, and the 
 operators a little better equipped for the work. 
 
 The late Mr. Rej lander, who was an artist 
 by profession, produced some very artistic 
 portraits in photography ; the lighting and the 
 attitudes were clever and original, but they were 
 not appreciated by the general public, who were 
 not educated enough to understand artistic 
 work. We have no desire to bear hardly on 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 the professional photographer of the day ; he 
 simply follows the demand. Ladies especially 
 require to be made "beautiful for ever/' and 
 all wrinkles — those truthful historians of the 
 past, the very life-lines of the face — must be 
 painted out, and thus all character is obliterated. 
 Like Queen Elizabeth, they must be painted 
 without any shade on their faces ; Cromwell was 
 wiser, for he insisted on all his wrinkles and 
 warts being faithfully reproduced. 
 
 This, perhaps, was going to the opposite 
 extreme, and while there must always be a 
 certain amount of retouching, it should be 
 strictly confined to removing freckles or flaws 
 in the negative ; and this must be done with the 
 greatest care, as every touch injures the likeness. 
 The best education for a photographer is of 
 course such as an artist undergoes, for without 
 this it is impossible for the untrained eye to 
 appreciate properly the subtle and delicate 
 beauty of Nature, or the works of great painters. 
 
 The works of these great men must be also 
 
i6o 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 continually studied, and we have in our National 
 Gallery and in the National Portrait Gallery 
 some splendid examples of the art of portrait 
 painting. The works of Titian, Velasquez, Van- 
 dyck, Rembrandt, Holbein, Reynolds, and Gains- 
 borough will well repay the most careful 
 attention ; they are the greatest portrait painters 
 of the world, though most artists have at times 
 produced portraits. Unfortunately, in our 
 National Gallery we have no portraits by 
 Titian, and only one picture by Holbein ; but 
 the others are fairly well represented. Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds considered Titian as the first 
 of portrait painters, and in one of his Academy 
 Discourses he says, " His portraits alone, from 
 the nobleness and simplicity of character, 
 which he always gave them, will entitle him 
 to the greatest respect, as he undoubtedly 
 stands in the first rank in this branch of the 
 art." The best works of Titian are to be found 
 at Venice, and those of Velasquez at Madrid ; 
 his works are remarkable for their force of 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 I6l 
 
 character, directness and strength of colour, 
 and amongst the grandees of the Court of Spain 
 he found splendid subjects for his pencil. It 
 has been well said of the portraits of Velasquez, 
 that there is an irresistible reality about them 
 which makes them alive ; and his portraits of 
 Philip IV. and Admiral Pareja in the National 
 Gallery fully bear this out. Of this latter 
 portrait it is related that the King mistook the 
 picture for the Admiral himself, and rebuked 
 him for being, as he thought, still in Madrid 
 when he had been ordered away, so real and 
 deceptive was the Hkeness. Vandyck also was 
 a Court painter, and one of the most graceful ; 
 he was the pupil of Rubens, and much of his best 
 work is in this country. His portraits are full of 
 grace and character, painted in the rich trans- 
 parent manner of Rubens, yet with more subdued 
 colours and in better taste. On his canvases the 
 lords and ladies of the times seem to live again 
 in all their stately splendour. Much may be 
 
 learned from the careful study of his heads ; note 
 
 1 1 
 
1 62 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 especially the celebrated " Gevartius " in the 
 National Gallery, and the equestrian portrait of 
 Charles I., which was one of the glories of the 
 Blenheim Collection. 
 
 Of Rembrandt, the next great painter on our 
 list, Mr. Ruskin says that his chief strength is in 
 " rendering human character, not in chiaroscuro," 
 which, he adds, is " always forced, generally 
 false, and wholly vulgar." This, like many 
 of Mr. Ruskin's dicta, is more forcible than 
 true, for Rembrandt was equally a master in 
 light and shade as in other matters. His 
 " Portrait of a Jew Merchant," his own por- 
 trait, and that of ^' An Old Woman," and 
 others in our National Gallery, show what a 
 great artist he was, and are worthy of the 
 student's closest attention. 
 
 Holbein was a painter of a different stamp. 
 His portraits were distinguished for their stern 
 realism, and his drawing and execution were as 
 near perfection as possible ; his best works are 
 in Paris, Berlin Basle, and Windsor. He was 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 163 
 
 introduced to Henry VIII. by Sir Thomas 
 More, and painted many of the celebrities of 
 the time, and a large number of his drawings of 
 the persons belonging to the Court of Henry VIII. 
 are still extant. See " The Two Ambassadors," 
 National Gallery, No. 13 14. 
 
 Of the portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds and 
 Gainsborough it is difficult not to be too enthu- 
 siastic. Reynolds, is, perhaps, a more masculine 
 painter than Gainsborough, while the latter is 
 especially distinguished for the grace and charm 
 of his female portraits. And yet, when we think 
 of some of Sir Joshua's ladies, and the natural 
 and easy grace of his children, it is impossible 
 to place him below his rival. In our National 
 Gallery Sir Joshua is represented more fully than 
 Gainsborough, and the portraits of " The Three 
 Graces," Lord Heathfield, Admiral Keppel, 
 Johnson, Boswell, and others, show him perhaps 
 at his best. The portrait of Lord Heathfield is 
 particularly fine : the attitude is grand ; " the 
 intrepid veteran, firmly grasping in his hand the 
 
l64 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 key of the fortress, stands like the rock of which 
 he was the defender." 
 
 In Sir Joshua Reynolds' " Discourses," and in 
 his life by Northcote, will be found many admir- 
 able hints about portrait painting. Northcote, 
 who was his pupil, relates that Reynolds was 
 ever striving to improve and to make each new 
 picture an advance on the last This is the true 
 spirit for an artist to work in, and it should not 
 be forgotten that much of the sad failure of 
 Reynolds' colours arises from his continual and 
 earnest endeavour to find out and rival the 
 colouring of the old masters ; it is a thousand 
 pities that his experiments should, in many 
 cases, have turned out such failures. Speaking 
 of Sir Joshua's portraits, Mr. Ruskin says, " There 
 was perhaps hardly ever born a man with a 
 more intense and innate gift of insight into 
 human nature than our own Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds. Titian paints nobler pictures, and 
 Vandyke had nobler subjects, but neither entered 
 so subtly as Sir Joshua did into the minor 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 varieties of the human heart and temper." The 
 works of Gainsborough, as a rule, are firmly 
 painted and in good preservation. His two 
 masterpieces are probably " The Blue Boy " and 
 the portrait of The Honourable Mrs. Graham, 
 now in the Edinburgh National Gallery ; we 
 think no finer portraits than these two were ever 
 painted. See also his " Mrs. Siddons " and 
 others in the National Gallery. 
 
 Besides the works of the artists mentioned 
 above, there are in our National Gallery many 
 splendid portraits, which the student should not 
 miss ; of these we may mention, — 
 
 " The Doge Loredano," by Bellini. 
 Three portraits by Van Eyck. 
 Two portraits by Frank Hals. 
 Several portraits by Moroni. 
 " The Chapeau de Faille," by Rubens. 
 "Fope Julius H.," by Raffael. 
 His own portrait by Andrea del Sarto, and 
 others. 
 
l66 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 We have confined our remarks to the ex- 
 amples in our National Gallery, as they are 
 easily accessible to all ; but there are scattered 
 about the private galleries of England an 
 immense number of fine portraits, such as we 
 suppose can be seen in no other country. It 
 will be observed from the study of the best 
 portraits, that what the artists chiefly endeavoured 
 to attain was the character of the person re- 
 presented, and the expression ; and a photo- 
 grapher should do the same. Every head 
 should be carefully studied, and no pains should 
 be spared in trying different effects of light and 
 background. 
 
 If only a head is attempted it should fill 
 up the canvas like the heads on fine old coins, 
 and not set in the middle of a great blank 
 space. Beautiful portraits can be taken in an 
 ordinary room by the window if the shaded 
 side of the face is lighted up by means of a 
 screen of paper or a clothes-horse ; as a rule, we 
 think professional photographers have far too 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 much light on their subjects ; this gives them 
 a flat, commonplace appearance. 
 
 Backgrounds should be as simple as possible ; 
 an old panelled wall, or some of the artistic 
 Japanese wall papers make very effective back- 
 grounds. Above all avoid the miscellaneous 
 Rococo furniture and sham scenes in which some 
 professionals delight. A folding screen may be 
 arranged so as to bring the darker part against 
 the light side of the face, and the light side 
 against the dark, but the contrast must be not 
 too violent ; as a rule, the dark side of a head 
 should melt into the background. All these com- 
 binations should be tried, and no pains spared 
 to suit the background to the subject. The 
 pose must be easy and natural ; sometimes 
 an accidental attitude will give the artist just 
 the effect he requires, and he must be ceaselessly 
 on the watch to secure it when it comes. It 
 is related of Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he often 
 threw aside the portrait he was working on in 
 order to secure some graceful and unconscious 
 
1 68 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 attitude the model had assumed. After all, the 
 expression is the most difficult thing to secure ; 
 it is so evanescent and so variable, and depends 
 on such minute differences of light and shade — a 
 touch too much or too little will often spoil a 
 fine portrait. Difficult as the taking of good 
 portraits undoubtedly is, we think the careful 
 intelligent study of the art will well repay any 
 photographer who takes it up seriously and with 
 the determination to succeed. 
 
 Besides having an artistic eye, the portrait 
 photographer should be also somewhat of a 
 physiognomist, and, as Mr. Leslie says, " he must 
 be, what we all are in some degree, a judge 
 of character by the signs exhibited in the face " ; 
 and experience will teach us to look for the 
 character in the expression rather than in the 
 form of the features. This is why plain and even 
 ugly people are often so charming ; they are 
 redeemed by their expression, and it by no 
 means follows that the most handsome people 
 make the best portraits, A plain homely face, 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 169 
 
 with an intelligent or benevolent expression, 
 is far more beautiful and lovable than that of 
 a haughty beauty or a conceited Adonis. 
 
 Besides the features, the hands should be care- 
 fully studied, as a good hand is full of character, 
 and should always be shown if possible. The 
 hands of Titian, Rembrandt, and Holbein are 
 easy and natural ; while those of Vandyck have 
 an affected grace with their long fingers ; this 
 degenerated into a confirmed mannerism. 
 
 Costume is always a difficulty ; but, ugly and 
 stiff as much of modern dress is, it all, as Reynolds 
 remarks, has light and shade, and with care and 
 taste may greatly assist the production of artistic 
 work. Much of the modern attire of ladies is 
 no doubt very beautiful, but unfortunately they 
 are so much the slaves of fashion and their 
 milliners, that a lovely hat or style of dress 
 never remains in long. The dress of men is 
 much more difficult to manage, and a happy 
 mean should be selected between the careless 
 negligence affected by Lord Tennyson and the 
 
I/O STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 stiff primness of our modern dandies. An old 
 coat and a turn-down collar are more effective 
 and picturesque than the most irreproachable 
 "get up." 
 
 Mr. Leslie, writing of photography fifty years 
 ago, says, " In its present state it confirms what 
 has always been felt by the best artists and the 
 best critics, that facsimile is not that species of 
 resemblance to Nature, even in a portrait, that 
 is most agreeable. For while the best calotypes 
 remind us of mezzotint engravings from Velas- 
 quez, Rembrandt, or Reynolds, they are still in- 
 ferior in general effect to such engravings, and 
 they thus help to show that the ideal is equally 
 a principle of portrait painting as of all other 
 art ; and that not only does this consist in the 
 best view of the face, the best light and shadow, 
 and the most characteristic attitude of the figure — 
 for all these may be selected for a photographic 
 picture — but that the ideal of a portrait, like the 
 ideal of all art, depends on something which can 
 only be communicated by the mind through the 
 
PORTRAITS. 
 
 171 
 
 hand and eye, and without any other mechanical 
 intervention than that of the pencil." 
 
 All this is very true, and well worthy of our 
 attention, for after all the camera is a "mechanical 
 intervention," and its results, however fine they 
 may be, can never compete with the best work 
 produced by the mind and the hand of a com- 
 petent painter. 
 
 Still, this need not discourage us, as the results 
 obtained by what, for the want of a better term, 
 may be called " Artistic Photography," are ex- 
 tremely interesting, and will teach us much of 
 the beauty of Nature, and lead us to a sounder 
 appreciation of the works of the great painters. 
 
 In conclusion, we will only add a word about 
 printing, and would urgently advise photo- 
 graphers to avoid the highly glazed style lo 
 much in vogue ; mat surface prints are far more 
 artistic, and of all the numerous processes now 
 used none can compete with the platinotype, as, 
 in addition to the beautiful tones it affords, it 
 has the supreme advantage of undoubted per- 
 manence. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ATMOSPHERE, 
 
 "This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave 
 o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden 
 
 O a landscape painter the effects of atmo- 
 
 sphere are of the utmost importance, and 
 yet how few pictures give any idea of the 
 supreme beauty of atmospheric effect. Turner, 
 great in this as in all else, carried his studies 
 of effect to the very verge of Nature, and some- 
 times beyond it ; yet how beautiful they are — 
 alas ! in most cases as evanescent as those of 
 Nature herself ; and we can well believe, from the 
 wrecks that have survived of his oil pictures, 
 that when first exhibited they must have been 
 dazzling, and that no other pictures could live 
 near them. 
 
 fire.' 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 173 
 
 Fortunately, much of his work in water-colour 
 is still perfect, and from this we can see what 
 glorious visions of light and colour he possessed. 
 
 Constable also was a great painter of weather, 
 and an untiring observer of all the phases of 
 cloud and sunshine ; his genius led him to 
 prefer effects of storm and rain, with blue skies 
 and white mountains of cloud piled up one on 
 another ; he was the master of what was called 
 " great-coat weather." Among the French 
 painters, Corot represented another aspect of 
 Nature, and no one has produced the sentiment 
 of haze and mist, the dreamy poetry of sunrise 
 and sunset, with greater charm or truer feeling 
 than he. The pictures of Cuyp, also, are mostly 
 steeped in a dreamy afternoon sunshine. It 
 will be seen from these instances that atmo- 
 sphere is the very soul of landscape, and, as a 
 rule, photographers totally ignore it ; the craze 
 for sharpness all over has blinded them to the 
 subtle beauties with which the earth and sky are 
 clothed as with a garment. In Mr. Bates's 
 
174 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 interesting book, " The Naturalistic School of 
 Painting," a story is related of a photographer 
 who complained that he had one enemy to fight 
 against that the painter was delivered from, 
 viz., the atmosphere, which, as he said, blurred 
 his picture, and " he was somewhat astonished 
 to hear that the ' enemy ' he was trying his best 
 to overcome is sought after and cultivated by 
 advanced painters for qualities necessary to the 
 success of their pictures, and that the sharply- 
 defined detail he so coveted is considered by 
 them altogether subordinate in importance to 
 the quality he was trying his best to eliminate." 
 
 Now we all know that the supreme beauty of 
 Nature, to say nothing of her life, depends on 
 the variations of the light and atmosphere which 
 surround us, ever changing from hour to hour, 
 mist and sunshine, rain, wind, and storm-clouds, 
 producing for us picture after picture, and yet, 
 as Mr. Ruskin says, most of it passes un- 
 regarded. But if we are to produce artistic 
 pictures we must study these things con- 
 
ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 tinuously, and grudge no expenditure of time 
 or plates in endeavouring to attain even a 
 reflection of the glories of the earth and sky. 
 And much of this beauty may be secured by 
 photography, and though we cannot as yet 
 reproduce the colours of the landscape, and 
 suffer much from " obtrusive detail," yet by 
 observation and arrangement much of this detail 
 may be concealed by the judicious use of atmo- 
 spheric effect. 
 
 A landscape which seems most ordinary under 
 the full blaze of noon will probably become, on 
 a misty day, or in the twilight, full of poetic 
 mystery ; the ugly details will be hidden, and if 
 we are fortunate in getting the correct exposure, 
 we may secure a beautiful picture. And yet 
 how few of us take out our cameras in the even- 
 ing ! Again, in a mountainous country, how 
 effective and beautiful are the fleecy clouds 
 clinging to the distant peaks, and throwing soft 
 shadows on the mountain side ; or, in a flat 
 country, the cloud shadows sweeping over a vast 
 
176 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 plain ! With our quick plates and shutters we 
 ought to secure some of these things. Then 
 there are the glories of sunrise and sunset, 
 which can certainly be admirably suggested 
 if not reproduced by the camera, by those who 
 know how to handle it and who are alive to 
 these supreme effects. Yet most books on 
 photography tell us we must not point our 
 lenses towards the sun. Why, that is the very 
 thing we ought to do, for every artist knows 
 that the most poetical aspects of Nature are 
 those lying under the sun. Look at a mountain 
 side lying in the full blaze of sunshine, how 
 ordinary and prosy it looks ; but look at it 
 under the sun, and it will assume an aspect 
 totally different and suggestive of mystery and 
 poetry ; or consider the sea under ordinary sun- 
 shine, and then look towards the sun along the 
 golden pathway on the waters, and you will see 
 one of the most beautiful and suggestive effects 
 of Nature. 
 
 This may be secured with a moderately rapid 
 
ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 177 
 
 plate and shutter, especially if the sun is partially 
 hidden by clouds and the lens shielded from the 
 direct rays ; splendid studies of sea and sky 
 may be obtained in this way with care and 
 patience. A cloudy dappled sky is better than 
 the full blaze of sunshine — in fact, a " southerly 
 wind and a cloudy sky " are as welcome to a 
 photographer as to a sportsman, and a day with 
 a dry east wind is about the worst on which to 
 take out the camera. 
 
 The above remarks will apply to the whole 
 range of subjects, and we should note how 
 Nature is always dominated by the state of 
 the atmosphere, and, like ourselves, is "servile 
 to all the skyey influences." The study of these 
 things will give an immense and additional 
 interest to our art, if it be an art ; at all events, 
 it will raise our work out of the region of the 
 commonplace. We have all of us seen most 
 beautiful clouds and atmospheric effects pro- 
 duced by the camera, and these, if not works of 
 
 art as painters understand art, are yet infinitely 
 
 12 
 
178 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 truer in effect than any hand work can ever be. 
 It is a pity that this sort of work is so rare. 
 
 The great charm of quick exposures is that 
 you secure the sky, and this gives an effect 
 of atmosphere to which no time exposure can 
 attain. Surely it is time that the day of blank 
 skies was over, and no picture should be accepted 
 at any exhibition without an appropriate sky. 
 The photographer of the future will certainly 
 smile at these white spaces which so often now 
 do duty for the sky. In this changeable climate 
 of ours, so beautiful for artistic effect, everybody 
 is a born meteorologist and judge of the weather. 
 We stand, as it were, on the edge, or at the 
 meeting, of two worlds — the earth and the sky 
 — and the study of both is equally important 
 to the agriculturist, the man of science, and the 
 artist ; in fact, the latter, who deals most with 
 the appearance of things, is far more dependent 
 on the world of air than on the world of earth 
 for his inspiration. 
 
 And this world of air extends above us to 
 
ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 179 
 
 some one or two hundred miles. We are at the 
 bottom of an atmospherical ocean, ever changing 
 in its temperature, its moisture, and its appear- 
 ance. It is at once the sustainer and beautifier 
 of the earth, and all that is therein ; it is the 
 laboratory of the clouds, the winds, and the 
 waters, those sculptors and creators of the earth 
 which while they nourish the earth with rain and 
 mist, storm and sunshine for the service of man, 
 at the same time adorn it with magnificence and 
 beauty for his perpetual delight and instruction. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC FACTORS. 
 
 WJ HEN the light is getting stronger, and our 
 cameras are coming out again, perhaps the 
 following remarks, especially relating to hand- 
 camera work, may be useful, at all events to 
 beginners. Most amateurs are, at first, hope- 
 lessly at sea on the subject of exposure and its 
 modification by stops and shutters ; and as 
 correct exposure is nine-tenths of the battle, let 
 us briefly consider the following five factors of 
 correct exposure : — 
 
 (1) The light y varying from day to day and 
 hour to hour. 
 
 (2) The shutter^ ranging in speed from -5 Jo of 
 a second to any length of time. 
 
 (3) The diaphragm^ or stop, ranging usually 
 
 180 
 
FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC FACTORS. l8l 
 
 from //6 to //44 (the / representing the focal 
 length of the lens divided by the width of the 
 stop). 
 
 (4) The lens^ of all sorts and kinds ; their 
 name is legion. 
 
 (5) The sensitive plate ^ usually of three rapidi- 
 ties — ordinary, rapid, and extra rapid. 
 
 Now it will be seen at once that here we may 
 get endless combinations with these five varying 
 factors, and the more advanced a photographer 
 is the more easily he will be able to adjust these 
 combinations, just as a good musician commands 
 the whole range of his instrument, or the clever 
 juggler keeps up a number of balls at once ; 
 but for ordinary work this is not necessary or 
 advisable. Let us see, therefore, which of our five 
 factors we can reduce from a varying to a con- 
 stant quantity, and so reduce the number of 
 combinations and render our exposures more 
 certain. 
 
 To begin with No. 4, the lens. Let us select say 
 a good doublet, or a single lens of about six-inch 
 
1 82 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 focus, and stick to it for most hand work. The 
 only advantage a doublet has over the single 
 lens is that it will work at a larger aperture, but 
 it is much dearer, and we think will not produce 
 such brilliant or pleasing work as a good land- 
 scape lens. For architectural subjects, a doublet 
 is best ; but if a properly stopped landscape lens 
 is used, the distortion of buildings is scarcely 
 perceptible. 
 
 No. 5, the plate. The ordinary or slow plates 
 in a good light from May to September, 
 especially by the sea, will be found all that we 
 require ; in the yellow, smoky air of towns the 
 rapid plates will be preferable. 
 
 No. 2, the shutter. This we can arrange at a 
 fixed speed, say one-tenth of a second. This 
 reduces three of our varying factors to fixed 
 quantities, and leaves us free to concentrate our 
 attention on No. i, the lights and No. 3, the 
 diaphragm. 
 
 The light we cannot alter, except by selecting 
 our time of day ; but we can regulate the quantity 
 
FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC FACTORS. 
 
 183 
 
 of it, if not the quality, which we mean to throw 
 in our sensitive plate. We will therefore treat 
 these two factors together, only premising that 
 the hand-camera should be so constructed that 
 the stops, revolving or otherwise, can easily be 
 manipulated. 
 
 Numerous exposure tables have been pub- 
 lished, but most of them are so elaborate as to 
 puzzle the beginner, and the same remark applies 
 to actinometers. The only thing we have to 
 do is to confine our attention to the relation the 
 size of the diaphragm bears to the condition 
 of the light, and the only rule to remember is 
 that the stronger the light the smaller the 
 stops." For instance, in sunlight from May to 
 October, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with stop fjii, 
 we shall get a good picture of a well-lighted 
 subject, using our shutter at its fixed rate of one- 
 tenth of a second. Taking this as a starting 
 point, we can vary our stops as required. For 
 instance, if by or on the sea (same light), or if 
 turned towards the sun, we must reduce our 
 
184 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 stops, and use fl\6 or //22. After 4 p.m. the 
 light will rapidly fall off, and we must use fjZ or 
 //6, and as the light declines we shall have to 
 abandon the shutter, and extend the exposure 
 to one or more seconds ; but for this we must 
 support the camera on a stand. On cloudy 
 days (May to October) it is not always easy to 
 work a hand-camera, but on some such days 
 the light is very clear and actinic, and we have 
 succeeded in getting good photographs with fji i 
 on ordinary plates, and with the shutter at one- 
 tenth of a second. On these sort of days the 
 doublet has the advantage over the single lens, 
 as it can be worked out at //8 or fl6. Some of 
 the best work, however, may be done on cloudy 
 days with fjw^ and an exposure of one to two 
 seconds. 
 
 On very dark days or under trees it is of no 
 use to attempt shutter work, and we must have 
 recourse to time exposures with //6, 8, or 11, 
 and full exposures, and for these no rule can be 
 given. 
 
FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC FACTORS. 1 85 
 
 In these remarks we assume, of course, that 
 the lens is working at what is called " fixed 
 focus." For y/i I, our standard, everything will be 
 in focus beyond about 22 feet, and many hand- 
 cameras have arrangements for altering the focus 
 according to the distance of the object. 
 
 In the winter months we must use the most 
 rapid plates, and fjG or on sunny days. 
 
 For all ordinary objects in motion, such as 
 cattle, boats, waves, etc., one-tenth of a second 
 is quite fast enough to set the shutter, but for 
 near objects in rapid motion a much higher rate 
 of speed will be required. It is a great mistake 
 to use a more rapid shutter or plate than 
 absolutely necessary. 
 
 If we are working chiefly with a view to the 
 production of lantern slides and enlargements, 
 as a rule snap shots are not available, as the 
 detail is not sufficiently sharp ; in this case we 
 must rest our camera, and give time exposures 
 with the smallest stops the light will permit us 
 to employ ; but many subjects, especially clouds 
 
1 86 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 and waves, etc., can only be taken by using a 
 shutter. 
 
 After all, experience is our only guide, and 
 the memory should be assisted by notes of 
 exposures and light. 
 
 Of all these five factors the light is the most 
 important to consider, for the actinic power is 
 altered hourly by the atmospheric conditions ; 
 mist and haze, east wind, clouds, and the altitude 
 of the sun — all these things must be carefully 
 noted, and our exposures regulated accordingly. 
 For hand-camera work a good light is absolutely 
 necessary ; but given this factor, all the rest is 
 easy. If the light is dull, and the subject dark 
 and badly lighted, we must have recourse 
 to time exposures ; and for this purpose a 
 stick tripod stand is most convenient, and a 
 necessary part of the outfit of a hand-camera 
 man. 
 
 Tables of exposure are, as we said above, only 
 of very uncertain value ; but for a very good light, 
 such as we have here in Jersey from May to 
 
FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC FACTORS, 
 
 187 
 
 October, we have found the following short table 
 of use : — 
 
 MAY TO OCTOBER, 9 A.M. TO 4 P.M.— 
 ORDINARY PLATES, SHUTTER ONE-TENTH 
 OF A SECOND. 
 
 A //32 best light, sky and clouds. 
 
 B /1 22 „ „ sea and boats. 
 
 C//16 „ „ open landscape. 
 
 D/7i 1 without sun, open landscape (morning). 
 
 E//8 „ „ „ „ (afternoon). 
 
 F //6 dull weather. 
 
 Under trees time exposures. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 
 Summer isles of Eden lying, in dark purple spheres of sea." 
 
 HERE are few more delightful places for 
 
 a holiday than the Channel Islands, and 
 to the man weary of town life nothing can 
 be more charming and invigorating than the 
 thorough change of scene, fresh air, sea breezes, 
 blue seas, green lanes, and rocky bays, which 
 these islands afford. The following remarks 
 will, however, be confined to the island of 
 Jersey, chiefly from a photographer's point of 
 view, as inquiries are continually being made in 
 the photographic papers as to its capabilities 
 for a photographic tour : — 
 
 The island of Jersey, the largest of the group, 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 i88 
 
ROUND AP.OUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 1 89 
 
 is one hundred and thirty-three miles from 
 Southampton and ninety-three miles from Wey- 
 mouth, and within fifteen miles of the coast 
 of France, whose white sands may be dis- 
 tinctly seen in clear weather. The most con- 
 venient route for Londoners is via Waterloo and 
 Southampton. The mail train leaves London 
 every evening, except Sunday, at 9.45 p.m., and 
 runs alongside the boat at Southampton. 
 
 The boats are new and very fast, leaving 
 at 12 midnight, and timed to reach Guernsey 
 about 6 a.m., and Jersey at 8 a.m. The fares 
 are moderate: ist class return, two months, 
 £2 Zs. ; 2nd class, 13^. Travellers from the 
 west of England will probably find the Wey- 
 mouth route more convenient ; the boats are 
 equally fast and good, the fares are the same 
 as the Southampton boats, but the sea passage 
 is about two hours shorter. These boats leave 
 Weymouth every morning, except Monday, at 
 2.30 a.m., and arrive about the same time as the 
 South- Western boats. There is also a boat 
 
igo STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 several times a week from Plymouth direct. In 
 the summer the sea passage is delightful ; but in 
 the winter sometimes much delay is occasioned 
 by fogs and gales ; though this will not matter 
 to the photographer, as then he will, most 
 probably, be comfortably at home preparing 
 lanterns lides. 
 
 The approach to Jersey on a fine morning 
 is very beautiful ; after leaving Guernsey, and 
 rounding the Corbiere lighthouse, the bay of 
 St. Aubins lies before us on the left with villas 
 and terraced gardens, and the town and harbour 
 of St. Heliers will be quickly reached if the tide 
 is favourable. At low tide the passengers are 
 landed in open boats. This is a great incon- 
 venience, especially to invalids. 
 
 The photographer must not expect very grand 
 scenery in Jersey, as there are no mountains and 
 no river or lake, but the valleys are very pictur- 
 esque, and the rocky bays lovely. Beautiful 
 subjects will also be found in the old lanes, but 
 as a rule the trees are not very large, and in 
 
ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 191 
 
 many places have been ruthlessly cut down and 
 topped by the farmers, who are entirely devoted 
 to the cultivation of early potatoes. It is much 
 to be regretted that many of the old orchards 
 have thus been destroyed. The island consists 
 nearly entirely of granite and porphyry, and 
 in some places this is overlaid with a slaty 
 schist 
 
 At the west of the island there are large 
 sandy dunes, which have swallowed up many 
 acres of land, and may be still seen advancing 
 in some parts of St. Ouen's Bay. 
 
 On the east at low tide will be seen great 
 spaces of rocks and pools, whence vraic, or " the 
 harvest of the sea," is largely gathered, and 
 forms a most valuable manure. 
 
 Some admirable subjects may be obtained 
 when this harvest is going on with rustic figures 
 and carts. The main roads are good and well 
 kept, and the photographic cyclist will find 
 every accommodation in the way of repairs, etc., 
 in St. Heliers should he unfortunately come to 
 
192 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 grief. The climate of Jersey is, as a rule, very 
 mild, especially in the winter ; snow seldom lies 
 long, and hard frosts are comparatively rare. 
 Last winter, however, was an exception, and the 
 long-continued frost has killed all the outdoor 
 geraniums and many other plants which usually 
 flourish here all the year round ; the myrtles, 
 lemon plants, and other shrubs have also 
 suffered severely. In the spring the winds from 
 the north and the east are cold, and last till 
 May, but the summer and autumn are beautiful ; 
 day after day of cloudless weather succeed 
 each other, and it is seldom too hot, as the 
 heat of the southern sun is tempered by the 
 sea breezes. The actinic power of the sun is 
 very great, much more so than in England, and 
 the photographer will find that slow plates are 
 sufficiently rapid, even for snap shots. 
 
 We will now suppose our visitor to have 
 escaped the perils of the deep and the clutches 
 of the boatmen and touts on the pier, and to 
 have reached the town of St. Heliers in safety. 
 
ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 193 
 
 Here he will find ample choice of hotels, for 
 description of which we must refer him to his 
 Black or Murray. Some of them are very well 
 situated, but the Grand Hotel on the Parade, 
 facing the sea, in point of situation certainly 
 surpasses everything else in St. Heliers. Charges 
 are moderate, and by arrangement visitors can 
 be boarded at about Ss. a day. Seaside lodgings 
 are not very plentiful in the season, but the 
 charges are reasonable ; good seaside lodgings 
 will be found at Havre des Pas, which is a very 
 pleasant suburb. There are also quiet country 
 hotels at Bouley Bay, Rozel, Pontac, and St. 
 Aubins, which latter is a most picturesque village 
 about five miles from St. Heliers. Here will be 
 found good ' hotels and excellent lodgings ; there 
 is no prettier place than St. Aubins for a quiet 
 stay, and the Somerville Hotel will be found ex- 
 cellent in every respect. St. Heliers is a large 
 town, containing some 30,000 inhabitants ; the 
 streets are narrow, but the shops are good, and 
 all the necessaries of life and a great deal more 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 can be obtained at moderate prices. The visitor 
 should especially notice the harbour, where some 
 good shipping subjects can be secured ; the old 
 square, the memorable scene of Jersey's great 
 battle in 1781, and the spot where " Pierson fell." 
 There is a very fine public library, and the Royal 
 Courts and new States room are worth inspect- 
 ing. There are a few good street subjects in 
 St. Heliers, but otherwise there is not much to 
 detain the photographer. The parish church is 
 not very interesting, though very old ; in fact, 
 there is nothing in the way of architecture in 
 the island, except the ruins of Mont Orgeuil 
 Castle, of any importance. 
 
 A fine subject or two may be obtained of 
 Elizabeth Castle, especially at low tide at sunset. 
 This old castle has an interesting history. It was 
 here that Charles II. found an asylum, and here 
 Lord Clarendon wrote his history of the Rebellion, 
 A very interesting account of Charles's stay here 
 will be found in Dr. Hoskyns' valuable work, 
 which is compiled from original sources, 
 
ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. IQS 
 
 The town of St. Heliers is clean and cheerful, 
 having many good villas in its environs. The 
 visitor will also find a public park, lawn-tennis 
 ground, a theatre, and many other attrac- 
 tions. There are also several clubs, to which 
 strangers properly introduced are readily ad- 
 mitted. There is a capital circulating library ; 
 the bathing is good, and there is no duty on 
 tea or tobacco. What more can any one require ? 
 The photographer will say, " How about a dark- 
 room ? " Well, Mr. De Faye, photographic 
 chemist, David's Place, can accommodate him 
 in this respect for a small charge, and he also 
 supplies plates of several makers, and other 
 photographic requirements. Jersey also boasts 
 an Amateur Photographic Society (at No. 21, 
 Grove Place), which holds monthly meetings, 
 and arranges excursions during the season. 
 Visitors introduced by any member will be gladly 
 welcomed by the society. 
 
 In the season numerous excursion cars run 
 to all parts of the island ; but the photographer 
 
196 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 will, we think, rather avoid these if he wishes to 
 do good work. There are two short railways — 
 one to Gorey in the east, and the other to St 
 Aubins and the Corbiere in the west ; trains 
 run frequently. 
 
 The first excursion we propose to the visitoi 
 will be to Mont Orgeuil Castle, which is easily 
 reached by the Eastern Railway in about half 
 an hour. After leaving St. Heliers the line runs 
 along the coast, and many pleasant glimpses 
 of old orchards and pastoral scenery will be 
 observed. After passing Grouville, where there 
 is a large common devoted to golf and rifle 
 shooting, the village of Gorey is soon reached. 
 Gorey is an old-world place, and looks in a 
 decaying condition, partly owing to the failure 
 of the oyster beds, which some years ago were 
 most prolific ; and we have heard old inhabitants 
 declare that the harbour in those days was 
 crowded with boats, and that the fishery em- 
 ployed upwards of 2,000 persons. It is quiet 
 enough now, but still the old castle rises proudly 
 
ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 1 97 
 
 over the town. It is a grand ruin, and has a 
 most interesting story, full particulars of which 
 will be found in Messrs. Latham and Ansted's 
 volume. 
 
 The photographer will find many good sub- 
 jects here. The best general views are from the 
 end of the pier, and also from a sandy bay to 
 the east of the castle. The old gateways and the 
 courtyard are also well worth taking, and there 
 are many good bits of old masonry. One or 
 two days may be well spent here, and the visitor 
 should by no means omit to ascend to the top of 
 the tower, where a grand view is to be obtained 
 of a large portion of the island and the white 
 shores of France ; on a clear day the Cathedral 
 of Coutances may be distinctly seen. There is 
 a pleasant walk or drive from Gorey round the 
 coast to Rozel Harbour and Bouley Bay, and 
 some good coast and rock subjects may be secured 
 en route. Returning to St. Heliers from Bouley 
 Bay, the pedestrian should avoid the high road 
 and keep to the valley, down which runs a little 
 
198 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Stream. This route passes through some lovely 
 old lafies and by some pretty cottages. Another 
 good day may be spent at Greve-de-Lecq on the 
 north coast, and the most pleasant way is to 
 drive or walk through St. Peter's Valley, past 
 St. Mary's Church. If the pedestrian takes the 
 Western Railway as far as Millbrook, he will 
 find it a most delightful walk to Greve-de-Lecq. 
 There are many other beautiful valleys, some 
 of which have good mill subjects ; the only way 
 is to explore on foot — the. Val des Vaux, near 
 St. Heliers, the Waterworks Valley, starting from 
 Millbrook, and others, will afford good subjects. 
 From Greve-de-Lecq the coast both ways may 
 be explored, and fine rock subjects will be met 
 with at Plemont ; in fact, the whole of the north 
 coast is very rocky and grand. The visitor 
 should take particular notice of the state of the 
 tide, as in some places it rises thirty or forty 
 feet, and many accidents have occurred to 
 incautious travellers. 
 
 Another day may be spent at the Corbi^re 
 
ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 1 99 
 
 Rocks and Lighthouse. The railway runs first 
 to St. Aubins, where some good street subjects 
 may be secured. It then follows up a very 
 picturesque valley to Don Bridge and the 
 Corbiere. 
 
 This part of the island consists largely of blown 
 sand, and the district known as the Quenvais 
 is well worth exploring. If the train is left at 
 Don Bridge, a charming walk to St. Ouen's Bay 
 can be taken, leaving the rifle butts on the left. 
 In many places the advance of the sand can be 
 observed ; the botanist will find many inter- 
 esting plants in this district. In early summer 
 in many places the ground is covered with the 
 burnet rose, sea stock, sea holly, sea poppy, 
 and other plants. St. Ouen's is a magnificent 
 bay, facing the Atlantic, and all this part of the 
 island is wild and suggestive of nature. 
 
 At the Corbiere lighthouse there are some 
 fine rock subjects ; several of the views illustrat- 
 ing this volume were taken there. Returning 
 from the Corbiere, the visitor should not omit 
 
200 
 
 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 Beau Port, where some grand rocky pinnacles 
 are to be seen, in some places covered with ivy. 
 A short walk from here will bring us to St. 
 Brelade's Church, the oldest in the island. It 
 is really a beautiful spot, and the church and 
 churchyard are well kept. At St. Brelade's there 
 is a good inn, where weary photographers will find 
 accommodation. From here a short walk up a 
 lovely valley brings us to Don Bridge, where the 
 train will soon take us back to St. Heliers, or the 
 road over the hill to St. Aubins can be taken if 
 preferred. 
 
 There are many other interesting spots which 
 the visitor should inspect, such as L'Etac at the 
 extreme north-west, where there is a fine pinnacle 
 of rock standing out from the cliff. The Creux 
 de Vis and Bonne Nuit Bay on the north will 
 also repay a visit, and good subjects are to be 
 met with at most of these places. 
 
 Independently of photography, the intelligent 
 visitor will find much to interest him in Jersey, 
 whether he be a geologist, botanist, or collector 
 
ROUND ABOUT JERSEY WITH A CAMERA. 201 
 
 of sea-weeds and marine fauna. The old laws 
 and customs of the island are of great interest 
 to the student, and the politician can here see 
 Home Rule in actual and successful operation. 
 He will not, however, meet with poverty or noisy- 
 demonstrations, for the natives of Jersey are a 
 hard-working, prosperous people ; and though 
 they dearly prize their own laws and institutions, 
 are thoroughly loyal to the Crown, and the 
 Queen is perhaps dearer to them as the Duchess 
 of Normandy than as Queen of England. 
 
 At the time of the potato harvest, in May and 
 June, large numbers of peasants come over from 
 Normandy and Brittany, and some good figure 
 subjects may be obtained ; the blue dresses and 
 white sleeves and caps of the women are exceed- 
 ingly picturesque. Lastly, we must say a good 
 word for the Jersey cows, which, though they are 
 quiet and gentle creatures, are always tethered ; 
 they give the best of milk, and form very admir- 
 able adjuncts to the landscape. 
 
 The expense of a fortnight in Jersey, including 
 
 14 
 
202 STUDIES IN PHOTOGRAPHY. - i 
 
 railway and steamboat fares, should not exceed 
 ;^io, and with economy it may be done for some- 
 what less. There is a boat every day to 
 Guernsey, and in the season excursions can easily 
 be made to Sark and the adjacent islands. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
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