The Barnet Book of Photography Part 6

When taking portraits in an ordinary room it is usual to place the sitter near the window, so that one side of the face is strongly lighted and the other in deep shadow, and then use a white reflector to light up the shadow side. It is often better, when the window is a large one, to place the sitter farther back in the room almost facing the window, and put the camera near the middle of the window looking into the room; a softer lighting will then be secured. For outdoor portraits a shady corner is best, and if possible, one where the side light is much subdued on one side; a light head-shade may be used with advantage. A large grey rug out of focus makes a good background; a blanket is too light.

A portrait lens is best for the work; but if the photographer does not possess one, he need not despair of producing good work. A rapid rectilinear lens used at a large aperture will answer the purpose well; it should always be used at full aperture, partly for the sake of quickness in exposure, and partly to prevent accessories and parts of the dress appearing too sharp and competing in importance with the face. Subordination of parts is one of the essentials of a picture; and if we examine a _good_ portrait we shall find that probably no part of the photograph is quite sharp except the eyes and face. Otherwise the less important details are apt to obtrude themselves on our notice. A stop will generally be necessary, however, with a portrait lens if a full or three-quarter length is to be taken, and it will be found that heads only (as a rule) can be taken at full aperture. Just as good work, however, can be done with a rapid rectilinear as with a lens specially made for portraits, except where rapid exposures are to be made; but it is necessary to use one of fairly long focus. A rapid rectilinear lens used for landscape work on a half plate would be much too short in focus for giving good portraits on the same sized plate, for in order to get the figure large enough it is necessary to place the camera so near the sitter as to produce distortion. For portraits on a half plate a lens of at least nine inches focus should be used and for a whole plate not less than sixteen or eighteen inches, and longer if possible.

The swing back of the camera will be found useful in portrait work for getting parts of the figures into focus that are either too far behind or too far in front of the plane of the face. For instance, a full-length figure leaning back in a chair will have the feet out of focus when the face is sharp if the back of the camera is vertical, and this applies with even greater force to groups. A side swing too is useful, but is not absolutely necessary. Even in bust portraits the swing back is useful in getting the shoulders in focus when using a large aperture, for although it is well not to have the whole of the figure in _perfect_ focus all over, it is not advisable to have the face sharp and the rest so out of focus as to be blurred.

The development of a portrait plate should be different from that of a landscape, because a different kind of negative is required. A rapid plate developed so as to give a soft delicate image is best; and a developer containing more alkali and less density giver is good, and it may be considerably diluted with advantage. The image should appear within ten seconds of pouring on the developer, and the negative will generally be developed to sufficient density in from two to three minutes. With a good average rapid plate the image should show fairly well on the back of the plate, but this and the time of development will vary so much with different developers, and with the taste of each photographer that no hard and fast rule can be laid down.

Developers that give a brown deposit, or that stain the film will require shorter development than those of the newer developing agents that give a cold black colour to the negative; another fact to be borne in mind is that the image formed by these latter appears to lose more density in fixing than when pyrogallic acid is used.

A perfect portrait negative should have no clear gla.s.s shadows, and no part should be so dense as to give white in the finished print, and some negatives which give the best results may have a decided veiled appearance in the shadows.

The temperature of the developer is another important point; in very cold weather the developer should be kept warm, or if in concentrated solutions may be diluted with warm water. In cases of known under-exposure the developer may be used quite hot with advantage. A convincing experiment can be made by cutting an exposed plate in two and developing one half with icy cold developer and the other half with warm. The difference is really remarkable. If the developer has been used hot enough to make the gelatine of the plate feel "slimy" an alum bath is necessary, unless the fixing bath contains chrome alum.

METOL.

1.

Water 100 parts or 10 ozs.

Metol 1 part or 50 grains Sodium sulphite 10 parts or 1 oz.

2.

Water 100 parts or 10 ozs.

Pota.s.sium carbonate 10 parts or 1 oz.

3.

Pota.s.sium bromide 1 part or 1 oz.

Water 10 parts or 10 ozs.

For normal exposures take 3 parts No. 1 and 1 part No. 2; to each ounce of mixed developer add 40 minims of No. 3.

PYRO AND SODA.

1.

Pyro 1 oz.

Water 70 ozs.

Nitric acid 12 drops

2.

Sodium sulphite 10 ozs.

Sodium carbonate (pure) 8 ozs.

Water 70 ozs.

Equal parts of each, for soft negatives dilute with water. To restrain for over-exposure use pota.s.sium, not ammonium bromide.

Unless an acid fixing bath is used the negatives are rather green in colour.

RODINAL AND HYDROKINONE.

A.

Sodium sulphite 1 oz.

Water 20 ozs.

Citric acid 1 crystal Pota.s.sium bromide 1 dram Hydrokinone 2 drams

B.

Pota.s.sium carbonate 2 ozs.

Water 20 ozs.

Rodinal 1 fluid oz.

Use 1 part A, 1 part B, and 1 part of water.

The question of retouching is a difficult one. There is no doubt that a certain amount of it is necessary on nearly all portrait negatives and even on those of children. But it is equally certain that the great majority of portrait negatives are over-retouched, so much so that their value both as portraits and pictures is nearly destroyed. Yet a certain amount is necessary even for pictorial effect, and perhaps still more when the question of likeness is considered. For as a rule the untouched negative is no more a true likeness than the over-retouched one. The truth lies somewhere between the two. Even if isochromatic plates are used the little differences of colour in the face, and the incipient wrinkles are exaggerated in an unpleasant way. Under-exposed negatives will show these defects in a very marked manner, full exposure will greatly reduce them. Large heavy patches of shadow may be lightened by coating the back of the negative with matt varnish, and when it is quite hard "hatching" upon it with a soft lead. Harsh lights may be reduced by sc.r.a.ping away the matt varnish with the point of a knife.

In some cases the matt varnish may be stained with a little aurine or uranine. Exaggerated lines and small shadows must be worked upon from the front and a retouching desk is necessary. The film of the negative will not take the pencil without some preparation. The best surface is obtained by spreading a little retouching medium with the tip of the finger on the part to be touched. A thin film of soft resin is left upon the plate which takes pencil marks readily. A hard lead, No. 4 Faber or Hardtmuth, should be used. The loose leads used in what are called the "ever-pointed holders" are most convenient. The point must be very long and fine, like a large darning needle, and is best made by rubbing the lead on a piece of fine gla.s.s-paper. The pencil must be held very lightly and the lines touched away with short _light_ strokes, a heavy stroke only rubs the medium up.

The little shadow at the end of the mouth often has to be reduced, often at the risk of spoiling the shape of the lips, but sitters _will_ insist upon it being done, and say "You have made my mouth much too large." Freckled faces are perhaps the most difficult to retouch, as it is well nigh impossible to remove the black patches caused by the freckles without at the same time destroying the modelling of the face. Yet it must be done, for probably the most severe stickler for truth would not insist on the black blotches that freckles produce in a photograph.

A great deal can be done to improve a hard negative as soon as it leaves the fixing bath, by applying a mixture of hypo solution and a solution of ferricyanide (not ferro) of potash with a piece of cotton wool to the dense parts. The proportions for this reducing bath are as follows:--To each ounce of the ordinary hyposulphite of soda fixing bath add a few drops of a 10% solution of ferricyanide of pota.s.sium or red prussiate of potash, making the whole about the colour of pale brandy. By adding more of the ferricyanide solution the reducing action is quicker, but there is a greater liability to stain the film. The work should be done over a sink with a tap of running water at hand. The solution should be of a deep lemon colour (it is almost impossible to give exact quant.i.ties), and after a short application must be washed off under the tap, and the negative may then be examined, and the reducer applied again and again till the desired reduction is obtained. It is advisable to make a few trials on spoilt plates. For if any really good work is to be done there will be plenty of rejected negatives. Probably, of all the plates exposed on portraits by first-rate professional photographers, not more than one-fourth ever get as far as the printing-frame.

Moral: Do not be chary of exposing plates, they are cheap enough now. Don't feel, "Oh! this will be good enough. I won't do another."

On the other hand don't expose carelessly and recklessly and say, "It will all come right in developing." Good work is not done that way. Use every opportunity of seeing good work. Study the work of great portrait painters, but don't neglect the photographers. Go to all the exhibitions of pictures and photographs within reach.

Don't be satisfied with what you have done, but make a resolve to do something better next time. Remember, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

_Harold Baker._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Off Boulogne. By A. Horsley Hinton.]

_Pictorial Photography._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Unlike the subjects of the other articles in this book, in pictorial photography we are not brought to consider one of the many processes which go to make up the photographic craft, but merely a special and exceptional application of any and all means known to the photographer.

The particular end to which this application is made will be explained as far as the limits of s.p.a.ce will permit, and some of the methods of such application will be described. Beyond this I have no intention of going. I do not present pictorial photography as a branch of photography especially worthy of study--I am not concerned in making converts. It is for the photographer who has already formed a desire to give his attention to the pictorial side of photography and who is seeking help, that this chapter is designed.

First let us come to a mutual understanding as to the term Pictorial Photography. Picture-making by photography would perhaps be a simpler phrase, but that to my mind the word "picture-making" is too similar in idea to boot-making, lace-making, etc., all of which imply a mechanical manufacturing, whereas a picture--a real picture--like a musical composition, a poem or a beautiful thought, grows or is evolved rather than made to order.

Art photography would be a better term, but that in photography the word "art" has been so often coupled with things the very ant.i.thesis of artistic and might hence be misleading, moreover the photographer will show discretion rather than weakness if he be not too hasty to claim for photography a position among the arts, and whilst its claims to that dignity remain as yet in dispute, we may be content with "Pictorial Photography" as a less a.s.suming t.i.tle, yet one which will sufficiently differentiate between what we may call the ordinary photographic production and---- Well, what?

That is the first thing I have to try and explain.

Look at the ill.u.s.trations in this book on pages 72, 136, and 120, and, making due allowance for some loss of quality due to reproduction by a "half-tone" block, try to imagine what the originals were like. Then say if they please you. If you say no, you do not care for them, they do not appeal to you, you do not mind if you never saw anything of the kind again from this day henceforth; very well, doubtless there are other things in the world in which you can find pleasure, but so far as my present subject is concerned, here you and I part company. These ill.u.s.trations are more or less successful reproductions of pictorial work, and if you do not like them, making as I have said due allowance for their being reproduced and reduced, then it is certain you do not want to hear anything about them, and it is not my intention to persuade you, so please pa.s.s on and make room for those who do care for these things and wish to learn all they can concerning them, or at most stand aside and peradventure some stray word dropped unintentionally may quicken your interest and discover in you a sympathy of which you were previously unconscious.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MISS LILY HANBURY--A PORTRAIT. HAROLD BAKER.]

Referring now again to the ill.u.s.trations which in the absence of anything else we take as fairly typical of pictorial photographs and a.s.suming that one or the other, if not all, do please some of my readers, I will ask them to endeavour to a.n.a.lyse their feelings when confronting such productions.

Take now an ordinary commercial photographic view such as one may purchase from any sea-side stationer, and compare the sensations awakened by each. In the case of the topographical view we feel some satisfaction at being able to recognise a familiar spot, or the view reminds us of some other place, or it may be quaint buildings, or rugged mountains, or miles of foliage, or what not inspire curiosity or interest because we know the photograph to be a true record of facts, that is to say we accept the photograph in lieu of the actual presence of the objects represented, and experience nearly the same feelings as we should were we to visit the spot represented. We know that the wonderful, curious, or unusual things portrayed have an existence, otherwise we could not have a photograph of them.