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July 3, 1868.] THU PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 317 as collectors of old china would call it—so that he may be able to make a constant variety in his pictures. He would do well to avoid the elaborately carved, high-backed chairs, so constantly seen in photography and seldom anywhere else, the high back often sticking out round the head like a Gothic glory : if this chair is used at all, it should be so arranged that the head of the sitter is quite clear of it. Dining-room and library chairs are always useful, so also is that kind of chair to which the name of Prie-Dieu is given, especially for standing figures. It is very difficult to meet with a good arm-chair suitable for photographic purposes. The chairs of the present day are made more for comfort than appearance, and are so low that the sitter is dwarfed and foreshortened. It would pay manufacturers to employ a good designer to supply them with patterns and make them for the prefession. After chairs naturally follow tables. It is scarcely neces sary to say anything against the little round table, about twelve or fourteen inches in diameter, to be seen in many early photographic portraits, the use of which is now gone out, except in the smallest and lowest glass sheds. The fur niture in a picture should give an idea that there is space in the room; this is not done when a small table is em ployed, obviously because there is no room for a larger one. A long, oval table, about 3 feet G inches by 1 foot 6 inches, is a very useful size and shape ; it should be made light and upon large castors, that it may be easily moved. This should he provided with one or two good covers of a quiet pattern. In a table-cover, as in the covers of chairs and cushions', vio lent and “ noisy " designs should be avoided. As a change from the plain table, a more elaborate carved oak table may be admitted for occasional use, and so may a ju diciously selected cabinet, but it must be always remembered, in introducing these necessaries, that it is the portrait of the sitter that is required, and which must be most pro minent, and not the magnificence of the fittings of the studio, which may be “ richly suited, but unsuitable.” Some photographers employ a table which can be raised or lowered, to suit the stature of the sitter, by means of rackwork. This, in the hands of a photographer of great judgment, may be a very useful accessory, but it is a power that should be employed very sparingly and within very narrow limits. If it were raised too high it would dwarf the figure by comparison, or, in the reverse case, by screw ing it down too low, it would transform the sitter into a giant, reminding us of the carte-de-visite of the short man whom Punch represented as having his portrait taken sur rounded by toy furniture. The same principle has also been applied to the pedestal and column. The great idea of many photographers, in taking stand ing figures, seems to have been that they must have some thing to lean upon (could the idea have originated in the supposition that some support was necessary after the toil some ascent to their studios in the sky parlours?), and, therefore, the want was supplied by a pedestal that outraged nature, as I have already said, most abominably. It is not necessary to an easy and graceful effect that the figure should appear to be too tired to stand on its own feet. Lounging is no more graceful than is a lisping and insipid manner of speaking gracious, but tends more to what Sir Joshua Reynolds called the most hateful of all hateful qualities, affectation. If people look well in a standing position at all (which some certainly do not, and should never be taken so), they will be found to do so without the aid of a prop ; but still, for the sake of variety, and because some people have been so often taken with a support that it has become a custom with them from which they do not like to depart, it is as well to have something of the sort at hand. The best piece of furniture of the kind is a cabinet. A low bookcase is not objectionable, neither would be a well- designed what-not, but the ugly, meaningless pedestal should never be used. I should consider I was doing a great service to the art progress of photography if I could induce all photographers who have columns and pedestals to burn them at once. Don’t send them to the broker ; he may sell them again to do further mischief. A few low ottomans and footstools should always form part of the furniture of the studio. They are especially use ful in grouping children. The carpet of the room should be of a small, neat pattern, and contain no great contrasts of dark and light. A great deal can be done and very beautiful pictures made by the mixture of the real and artificial in a picture. Although, for choice, I should prefer everything in a photo graph being from nature, I admit a picture to be right when the “effect” is natural, however obtained.* It is not the truth of reality that is required, but the truth of imitation that constitutes a veracious picture. Cultivated minds do not require to believe that they are deceived and that they look on actual nature when they behold a pictorial represen tation of it. An educated observer does not, like that Moor to whom Bruce, the African traveller, gave the picture of a fish, believe that the artist had made a reality, and say : “If this fish at the last day should rise against you and say, ‘ Thou hast given me a body, but not a living soul,’—what should you reply ?” Art is not the science of deception, but that of giving pleasure, the word pleasure being used in its purest and loftiest sense. For this purpose—that is, the mixture of the real with the artificial—the accessories of the studio should receive the addition of picturesque or ivy-covered logs of wood, ferns, tufts of grass, &c., either growing in low pots or gathered fresh. It will be found easy to make up picturesque foregrounds with these ma terials, behind which a painted view or sky may be placed. If the background be well painted it will be found to unite very naturally with the foreground. Care must be taken that linear perspective be avoided, and that the light fall on the figures in the same direction as it does on the painted screen. PHOTO-ZINCOGRAPHY IN PRACTICE.! BY J. WATERHOUSE, E.A. Preparation op the Zino Plates tor Receiving Transfers. The zinc used for this purpose comes from Silesia. It is supplied in rolled sheets of different sizes and thicknesses; the price is about two shillings a square foot, varying slightly according to the guage. The guages in general use for photo-zincography are from 7 to 11 Birmingham wire guage, or 3-tenths to 1-eighth of an inch. Plates of any size are supplied by Messrs. Hughes and Kimber, at 2s. a square foot, ready for graining, or grained at 2s. 9d. the square foot. It will be most convenient for the amateur to purchase his plates ready grained ; but as some may prefer buying them in a rough state, I will describe the whole process of preparing the plates. The zinc plates, when received from the makers, are rough and full of hollows and other blemishes, which render the plates unfit for use till one side has been made perfectly smooth and has received an even graining with fine sand, which covers the surface with sharp, fine, uniform grains or asperities, and thus increases its affinity for the greasy ink or crayon, and renders the surface as capable of retaining moisture as the lithographic stone. The first operation is to take off the sharp edges of the plates. The plate is fixed down by weights or clamps to a table, the edges are scraped down in succession with a tool resembling a spoke-shave ; when the sharpness has been taken off all round the plate on both sides, the edges are smoothed with a rasp, and the corners of the plate are rounded off. It should now be examined on both sides, and the best side marked ; it is then heated in the sun or before a fire, to render the metal more pliable, and passed three or four times through the copper-plate press, under full pres sure. During this process the plate becomes bent, and care must be taken to roll the plate the last time with the best * Tor other reasons why, see chap, xil, f Continued from p. 307.
