The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 12.1868
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1868
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-186800009
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18680000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18680000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

June 5, 1868.] TRE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 271 ever regular the eyes may seem, or however straight the nose may appear, close observation will discover that one side is better than the other. It is this side that should be taken. Even in a full, or nearly full, face this variation should al ways be noticed and taken advantage of. These deviations from exact correspondence of the sides of the face have not been considered blemishes by great painters, who invariably noticed and recorded them. It is notably so in the portraits by Reynolds. It may be seen in the print from the Ugolino, where it increases the look of fixed despair, and in the front face of Garrick, in which the difference of the eyes strikingly assists the archness of the expression. In photographic portraiture the face should be turned away from the light. If the face is turned to the light, however delicate the half-tones may be, the line of the nose will be partly lost in equal light on the cheek behind it. Painters occasionally represent faces in this position as regards the light, but then they have the advantage of colour to produce relief. The only exception to this rule—that the face should be turned from the light—is in the case of a pro file, or the profile showing a glimpse of the off eye when the nose comes clear against the background. For these reasons —that is, because it is necessary to choose which side of the face is to be represented, and because the face must be turned from the light—it is well to have a studio so constructed that the light can be obtained from the right or the left; in a ridge-roof studio, with one side glass and the other opaque, both ends should be available for use. It is also well to have it sufliciently wide to enable the operator to work diagonally, and thus get a modification of the shadows without the use of reflectors. Having decided the side to be taken, which also deter mines the general direction of the light, the next considera tion is that of attitude. As regards the position of the head, Burnett observes: “ Every one who takes the trouble to reflect must perceive that all faces contain two points of view, where the character is more or less developed—a profile, and what is termed a front view ; and that the seat of a strong likeness lies sometimes in one greater than in the other. They must also perceive that what is called a three-quarter view of the head gives the artist an opportunity of repre senting both ; independent of which advantage, it has a greater variety in the forms, and gives an opportunity for introducing a greater breadth of light and shade, and also of showing the ear, which is often a beautiful feature.” A full face is seldom so agreeable in photography as one slightly turned away. In selecting and arranging an attitude, the application of the general principles I have dwelt on in previous chapters will be of more value than any recipe that could be given ; in fact, as I have said before, any specific directions or plans of portraits—thus will we arrange a man, thus will we arrange a woman, or thus will we arrange a child—would interfere with individual characteristics, and do more harm than good. But a few general remarks may be useful. A single figure should be complete in itself; it should not appear as though it had been cut out of a group, and it should be incapable of having another figure added to it without injury. The head being the chief object, every line should be composed in relation to it, and the student will find the rules of pyramidal composition invaluable to him here. He must consider contrast of lines and balance, variety, repose, and, above all, unity and simplicity. All the rales for the composition of a group — such as the “ Blind Fiddler”—hold good for the single figure, bearing in mind that the head is the principal object, to which everything is to be subordinate, which is to receive the sharpest focus, the highest light, and the chief attention ; after which the hands will claim consideration. The hands will be found very useful in repeating, in a minor and subordinate degree, the mass of light presented by the face. They have the advan tage, in one respect, of not being of so much importance as the face; they may be displayed (always without affecta tion) if they are fine in form, or they may be hidden if necessary. Just as, in the “Blind Fiddler,” no head is exactly under another, so ought not the hand to be exactly under the head. A great deal of character can be given to the hand if properly treated. Sir Walter Scott, writing to Wilkie of a picture he had seen at Windsor, says, “ There was a picture of the 1’ope, which struck me very much. I fancied if I had seen only the hand 1 could have guessed it not only to be the hand of a gentleman and a person of high rank, but of a man who had never been employed in war, or in the sports by which the better classes generally harden and roughen their hands in youth. It was and could be only the hand of an old priest, which had no ruder employment than bestowing benedictions.” The action of the figure should be that which is most common to the individual—such a position as shows it to the best advantage. No violent action should be allowed ; no appearance of strain. Some photographers seem to think that grace consists of twists, and make spirals of their figures, especially ladies, by causing them to turn their heads over their shoulders and try to look down their backs out of the corners of their eyes. The absurdity and affecta tion of this pcsition is caused by exaggeration. A position approaching to it, but without the strain, is exceedingly graceful if the figure should be sufficiently easy and pliant to allow of this pose. It cannot be too strongly impressed on the student that the possibilities of the figure must bo considered before the attitude is chosen ; every figure will not allow of every attitude, any more than a decrepid old man of eighty or ninety could perform the feats of skiltul acrobats. Some figures are graceful in one position, while they would be awkward in another, probably still more graceful in a figure it suited. However graceful a figure may appear which has cost some effort in the sitter to attain, it does not compensate for the unaffected air and repose derived from the head and body placed in one direction, as we see in the grand portraits of old men by Titian, Vandyke, and Raphael. It must not be supposed from this last remark that I advo cate that every figure should be presented with the head and body exactly in one direction, although it is very suitable for some persons ; but it will be found that a very slight difference of direction between the head and the figure—as in the illustration—will be sufficient to give animation with out disturbing repose. The student will do well to observe attitudes assumed in every-day life, and adapt them to his art. When he sees a beautiful attitude, let him speculate upon the cause of its being beautiful, and he will find that it depends on its con sistency with the rules of composition ; and although these