Pictorial Effect in Photography: being hints on composition and chiaroscuro for photographers. To which is added a chapter on combination painting

Front matter

PICTORIAL EFFECT IN PHOTOGRAPHY: BEING HINTS ON COMPOSITION AND CHIAROSCURO FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS, TO WHICH IS ADDED A CHAPTER ON COMBINATION PRINTING. By H. P. ROBINSON. " A8 our art is not a divine gift, so neither is it a mechanical trade. Its foundations are laid in solid science : and practice, though essential to perfection, ean never attain to that which it aims unless it works under the direction of principle." — Sir Joshua Reynolds. "And, as he goes, he marks how well agree Nature and Arte in discord unity, Each striving who should best performe his part, Yet Arte now helping Nature, Nature Arte."— Spen ser. LONDON : PIPER & CARTER, 15 & 16, GOUGH SQUARE, FLEET STREET; MARION & 00., 22 & 23, SOHO SQUARE. 1869. [all. rights reserved.] PRINTED BT PIPER AND CARTER, GOUGH SQUARE, FLEET STREET, E.C. TO HUGH WELCH DIAMOND M.D., F.S.A., ETC, ONE OF THE FATHERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY, THIS BOOK, CONTAINING HINTS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF PICTORIAt EFFECT, AND THEER APPLICATION TO THE Alii OF WHICH HE WAS ONE OF THE CREATORS, IS INSCMBED, AS A TRIBUTE OF THE SINCEHEST AND WARMEST HESPECT AJVD ESTEE3I.

Preface

. One of the greatest difficulties in writing a book for beginners in any art is to make it simple enough. Nine out of ten photographers are, unfortunately, quite ignorant of art ; some think manipulation all-sufficient, others are too much absorbed in the scientific principles involved to think of making pictures ; while comparatively a few only have regarded the science as a means of giving pictorial embodiment to their ideas. It is for the first-mentioned that I have dwelt so long, in Chapters III., IV., and V., on what may be termed the initial idea of composition— Balance and Contrast. It is denied by some that art and photography can be combined, and these ridicule the idea that a knowledge of the principles of art can be of use to the photographer. It is to counteract these erroneous notions that I have insisted so strongly on the legitimacy and necessity of understanding those guiding laws in composition and chiaroscuro, which must, in all forms of art, be the basis of pictorial effect.

PREFACE.

. In the choice of illustrations, I have selected, chiefly from copies of familiar pictures, those by which I could best elucidate a principle or assist in the description of a process, rather than those which may be regarded as simply pretty pictures. In the photographic illustrations by various processes, I have endeavoured to show that the principles laid down could be embodied by means of photography. . For the rest, I have aimed to make a useful, rather than a pretentious, book. I believe it will be an aid to photographers, in which case I am satisfied it must aid in elevating an art in which I have a profound faith. H. P. ROBINSON. Tunbridce Wells, Avoust, 1869. CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter I. Introductory 9 „ II. Tho Faculty of Artistic Sight 15 ,, ILL Balance of Lines and Contrast ... ... 21 „ IV.

Balance — Example ... ... ... ... 26 ,, V. Balance — Examples — (continued) ... ... 30 VI. Unity 34 ,, VII. Examples (continued) — Expression ... ... ... ... ... 33 ,, VIII. Practice— The Choice of a Subject 43 „ IX. Simple Rules 47 ,, X. Figures in Landscape — Truth... ... ... ... ... ... 50 XI. Tho Sky 54 ,, XH. The Legitimacy of Skies in Photographs 58 ,, XIII. The Composition of the Figure 63 „ XIV. Pyramidal Forms 67 ,, XV. Variety and Repetition 71 ,, XVI. Variety and Repetition (continued) — Repose — Fitness 75 XVII. Portraiture 80 „ XVIII. Portraiture — The Management of the Sitter ... 84 „ XIX. Portraiture— The Pose 89 ,, XX. Portraiture; — Groups — Proportion 94 XXI. Backgrounds CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter XXII. Accessories 105 XXIII. Some Old Notions Touching Portraiture 110 XXIV. Chiaroscuro 115 ,, XXV.

Chiaroscuro — Detail or Definition 120 ,, XXVI. Chiaroscuro — Various Arrangements of Light and Shade ... 124 ,, XXVII. Chiaroscuro — Various Arrangements of Light and Shade ... 128 XXVin. Chiaroscuro— Breadth 133 ,, XXIX. Chiaroscuro — Portraiture — The Studio 137 ,, XXX. Chiaroscuro — General Considerations 142 ,, XXXI. Examples of Composition — A Group of Figures ... ./. 147 ,, XXXII. Examples of Composition — Turner's " Stackyard " 150 ,, XXXHI. Examples of Composition — West's " Family Group " 154 ,, XXXIV. Examples of Composition — Wilkie's " Sir Walter Scott and his Friends" 158 ,, XXXV. Examples of Composition — Elmore's "Stocking Loom" — West's " Death of Wolfe " 162 ,, XXXVI. Examples of Composition — Mulready's " Choosing the Wedding Gown" 167 „ XXXVII. Examples of Composition— Goodall's " The Swing " 170 ,, XXXVIIL Examples of Composition — Faces in Shadow 173 ,, XXXIX.

Examples of Composition — Turner's " Norham Castle " ... 177 ,, XL. Examples of Composition — A Portrait 180 ,, XLI. Conclusion ... ... ... ... ... ... 185 Combination Printing PICTORIAL EFFECT IN PHOTOGRAPHY.

Chapter I. Intro

D UCTOR Y. " All arts having the same general end, which is to please ; and addressing themselves to the same faculties through the medium of the senses ; it follows that their rules aud principles must have as great affinity as the different materials and the different organs or vehicles by which they pass to the mind will permit them to retain." " Every opportunity should be taken to discountenance that false and vulgar opinion that rules are the fetters of genius ; they are fetters only to men of no genius ; as that armour which, upon the strong, is an armament and a defence, upon the weak and mis-shapen becomes a load, and cripples the body which it was made to protect." — Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds. " In a word, every art, from reasoning to riding and rowing, is learned by assiduous practice ; and if principles do any good, it is proportioned to the readiness with which they can be converted into rules, and the patient constancy with which they are applied iu all our attempts at excellence." — Dr. Thompson's Outlines of the Laws of Thought.

There has been so much written on art in its relation to photography, which, when attempted to he applied, has been found to be of very little use — so much talking, as Carlyle says, " from the teeth outwards," upon this matter — that it was with the greatest diffidence and reluctance I con sented, some time ago, to write a series of papers on the subject for the Photographic News, a journal which, without neglecting the strictly scientific detail upon which mechanical photography depends, has always urged upon photographers the study of art as of vital importance to success in their profession, and has constantly advocated its claims to rank as a near relation to sculpture and painting. My aim was to set forth the laws which govern— as far as laws can be applied to a subject which depends in B some measure on taste and feeling — the arrangement of a picture, so that it shall have the greatest amount of pictorial effect, and to illustrate by examples those broad principles without regard to which imitation, however minute or however faithful, is not picturesque, and does not rise to the dignity of art.

Upon these papers this work is based. Two principal objects should be kept in view by those who endeavour to impart knowledge in any art : the soundness of the instruction given, and the simplicity of the language in which that teaching is propounded. In promising, at the outset, to be as practical as possible, I know I am sacrificing some advantages to myself, and much ease of writing, besides the eclat that often follows and rewards the inventor of grandly-sounding sentences, easy to write, but difficult to read, and still more difficult to understand. Those who represent art as a kind of mystery, an inspiration, a gift of the gods to special favourites, often receive the credence of the ignorant, as, in assuming the language of the oracle, they are supposed by the uninstructed to possess the inspiration, and hence, until the imposture is discovered, they receive more attention than he who endeavours to show that there is a pathway open in the direction of the temple of art which all may tread, even if all do not reach the inner sanctuary.

Notwithstanding this, my object will be to write as clearly and definitely as possible, that I may be understood by, and be of use to, all those who (whether using photography either as a profession or an amusement) honour me with their attention. It has often been asserted that the artist, like the poet, is born, not made ; and, within certain limits, the assertion is doubtless true : without a natural capacity for pictorial perception no study and no amount of industry would produce an artist. " Patience and sand-paper," Ruskin remarks, " will not make a picture." But, no matter how great the natural capacity, or how undoubted the genius, certainty in excellence, and permanent success, cannot be attained without a knowledge of the rules, and a study of the principles, upon which pictorial effect depends.

No mistake is more fatal than a reliance upon genius instead of effort, upon " inborn taste " instead of culture and the application of recognized and certain laws. I shall have not a word to say on (he poetry of art ; that is a question on which it is difficult to write so as to be really understood, except by those who have had a long education in art. I shall confine myself to what may be called the construction of a picture : in fact, I propose to deal with the body, or perhaps the skeleton, and not the soul ; with the tangible, not the intangible ; with that which can be taught, not that which must be felt. Neither shall I attempt to go into the extreme subtleties of the science of composition, which only could be of use to painters, who have command over every line that appears in their works.

Photographers, although a wide scope for artistic effect is open to them, have not the facilities which other artists possess, of making material alterations in landscapes and views embracing wide expanses, neither have they so much power of improvement in figure subjects, although much may be done by skill and judgment ; but they have open to them the possibility of modifying, and, being free agents, they have the power of refusing to delineate, subjects which, by no efforts of theirs, will ever make effective pictures. It is a too common occurrence with photographers to overlook the inadaptability of a scene to artistic treatment, merely because they think it lends itself to the facility, which their art possesses, of rendering, with wondrous truth, minutiæ and unimportant detail. To many this rendering of detail, and the obtaining of sharp pictures, is all that is considered necessary to constitute perfection ; and the reason for this is, that they have no knowledge of, and therefore can take no interest in, the representation of nature as she presents herself to the eye of a well-trained painter, or of one who has studied her with reverence and love.

It must be confessed, and distinctly understood, that photography has its limits. Whilst it will be necessary to explain the fundamental laws of composition in their entirety, the applicability of these laws in photography is limited by the comparatively scant plasticity of the photographer's tools — light as it can be employed by lenses and chemicals. Therefore, as I proceed with the rules of composition as far as they have been reduced to a system, or rather a quasi system, it will be my aim to endeavour to indicate what can be done by photography, and how ; assuming throughout, however, that the student is familiar with photography and the capability of the appliances at his disposal, asking him to remember that great technical knowledge is only a means by which artistic power can be exhibited, and not the end and perfection of the photographer's art.

In doing this, I shall bear in mind the Italian proverb, " He is a fool who does not profit by the experience of others," and shall not hesitate to avail myself of hints from any author who contains ideas worth placing before my reader, illustrating my remarks with engravings from the works of well known painters, with occasional sketches of photographs in which the principles defined by the art of composition have aided the photographer in his choice of subject, in the arrangement of his sitter, or in his management of light and shade. It has been often alleged that, except in its lowest phases and in its most limited degree, art can have nothing in common with photography, inasmuch as the latter must deal with nature, either in landscape or portraiture, only in its most literal forms ; whilst the essential province of art is to deal with nature in the ideal, rendering that which it suggests as well as that which it presents, refining that which is vulgar, avoiding that which is common-place, or transfiguring and glorifying it by poetic treat ment.

Photography, it has been said, can but produce the aspects of nature as they are ; and " nature does not compose : her beautiful arrangements are but accidental combinations." But it may be answered, that it is only the educated eye of one familiar with the laws upon which pictorial effect depends who can discover in nature these accidental beauties, and ascertain in what they consist. Burnet observes, "Nature unveils herself only to him who can penetrate her sacred haunts. The enquiry, ' What is beautiful, and why ? ' can only be answered by him who has often asked the question." The same writer, speaking of Turner's early efforts, describes them as something like very common-place photographs ; they were water-colour landscapes, " aspiring only to topographical correct ness, the unadorned representations of individual scenes."

It was only subsequent study, and a higher knowledge of the resources of art, which " gave him a hint that selection of a situation, and clothing it with effective light and shade, ennobled the picture, and placed it more in the rank of a composition than a plain transcript." The same is equally line of portraiture. Although likeness is the quality of first importance, artistic arrangement is scarcely second to it. In some cases, indeed, art excellence possesses a wider and a more permanent value than mere verisimilitude. The portraits by Titian, or Velasquez, or Reynolds, live rather as pictures than as likenesses, and the Gervartius of Vandyke excites the admiration of thousands who scarcely bestow a thought on the identity of the original. Art-culture, however, materially aids in securing likeness, by teaching the eye rapidly to seize the salient features, to determine the most suitable view, and to arrange the light so as to bring out the effect of character ; at the same time giving force and prominence to natural advantages, and concealing or subduing natural defects.

To admit that photographers had no control over their subjects would be to deny that the works of one photographer were better than another, which would be untrue. It must be admitted, by the most determined opponent of photography as a fine art, that the same object represented by different photographers will produce different pictorial results, and this invariably, not only because the one man uses different lenses and chemicals to the other, but because there is something different in each man's mind, which, somehow, gets communicated to his fingers' ends, and thence to his pictures. This admitted, it easily follows that original interpretation of nature is possible to photographers — limited, I admit, but sufficient to stamp the impress of the author on certain works, so that they can be as easily selected and named by those familiar with photographs, as paintings are ascribed to their various authors by those who have an intimate knowledge of pictures.

It is of importance, at the outset, to prove that superior results are produced by superior knowledge, not only of the use of the materials employed in photography, but by an acquaintance with art, or the whole purpose of the present treatise falls to the ground. Given a certain object — for example, a ruined castle — to be photographed by several different operators : no exact point of sight shall be indicated, but the stand-point shall be limited to a certain area. What will he the result ? Say there are ten prints : one will be so much superior to the others that you would fancy the producer had everything — wind, light, &c.— in his favour; while the others will appear to have suffered under many disadvantages. This picture will be found to have been taken by the, one in the ten who has been a student of art.

By his choice of the point of view, by the placing of a figure, by the selection of the time of day, or by over-exposure or under-development, or by the reverse, pro ducing soft, delicate, atmospheric effects, or brilliant contrasts, as may be required, the photographer can so render his interpretation of the scene either as a dry matter-of-fact map of the view, or a translation of the landscape so admirably suited to the subject, as seen under its best aspects, as to give evident indications of what is called feeling in art, and which almost rises into poetry ; the result often differing marvellously from the horrors perpetrated by means of our beautiful art in the hands of those whose knowledge of photography extends to this, and this only, that if a piece of glass is prepared and treated in a certain manner, it will result in the production of an image of the object which has been projected on the screen of the camera by the lens.

It is not only the cultivated and critical eye that demands good composition in works of art, but the ignorant and uneducated feel a pleasure — of which they do not know the cause — in a sense of fitness and symmetry, balance' and support.

Chapter II. The Faculty Of Artistic Sight

" This laborious investigation, I am aware, must appear superfluous to those who think everything is to be done by felicity and the power of native genius." — Sir Joshua Reynolds. "Let me see, let me see, let me see ! " — Shakespeare. It is an old canon of art, that every scene worth painting must have some thing of the sublime, the beautiful, or the picturesque. By its nature, photography can make no pretensions to represent the first, but beauty can be represented by its means, and picturesqueness has never had so perfect an interpreter. The most obvious way of meeting with picturesque and beautiful subjects would be the possession of a knowledge of what is picturesque and beautiful ; and this can only be attained by a careful study of the causes which produce these desirable qualities. He who studies the various effects and character of form, and light and shade (to a photographer the addition of colour would only be complication), and examines and compares those characters and effects, and the manner in which they are combined and arranged, both in pictures and nature, will be better qualified to discover and enjoy scenery than he to whom this study has never appeared necessary, or who looks at nature alone Avithout having acquired any just principles of selection.

However much a man might love beautiful scenery, his love for it would be greatly enhanced if he looked at it with the eye of an artist, and knew why it was beautiful. A new world is open to him who ha3 learnt to distinguish and feel the effect of the beautiful and subtle harmonies that nature presents in all her varied aspects. Men usually see little of what is before their eyes unless they are trained to use them in a special manner. In Modern Painters, vol. i., Mr. Ruskin has given a fine chapter, in which he shows that the truth of nature is not to be discerned by the uneducated senses. He says : — " The first great mistake that people make in this matter, is the supposition that they must see a thing is it be before their eyes. They forget the great truth told them by Locke, book ii., chap. 9, § 3 : — ' This is certain, that whatever alterations are made in the body, if they reach not the mind, whatever impressions are made on the outward parts, if they are not taken notice of within, there is no percep tion.

Fire may burn our bodies, with no other effect than it does a billet, unless the motion be continued to the brain, and there the sense of heat or idea of pain be produced in the mind, wherein consists actual perception. How often may a man observe in himself, that whilst his mind is intently employed in the contemplation of some subjects and curiously surveying some ideas that are there, it takes no notice of impressions of sounding bodies, made upon the organ of hearing, with the same attention that uses to be for the producing the ideas of sound. A sufficient impulse there may be on the organ, but it not reaching the observation of the mind, there follows no perception, and though the motion that uses to produce the idea of sound be made in the ear, yet no sound is heard.' And what is here said, which all must feel by their own experience to be true, is more remarkably and necessarily the case with sight than with any other of the senses, for this reason, that the ear is not accustomed to exercise constantly its functions of hearing ; it is accustomed to stillness, and the occurrence of a sound of any kind whatsoever is apt to awake attention, and be followed with perception, in proportion to the degree of sound ; but the eye during our waking hours, exercises constantly its function of seeing; it is its constant habit ; we always, as far as the bodily organ is concerned, see something, and we always see in the same degree ; so that the occurrence of sight, as such, to the eye, is only the continuance of its necessary state of action, and awakes no attention whatsoever, except by the particular nature and quality of the sight.

And thus, unless the minds of men are particularly directed to the impressions of sight, objects pass perpetually before the eyes without conveying any impression to the brain at all ; and so pass actually unseen, not merely unnoticed, but in the full clear sense of the word unseen. And numbers of men being preoccupied with business or care of some description, totally unconnected with the impressions of sight, such is actually the base with them ; they receiving from nature only the inevitable sensations of blueness, redness, darkness, light, &c, and except at particular and rare moments, no more whatsoever." Not only to the artist, but to all students of the sciences which relate to the outward aspects of nature, comes a more vivid enjoyment than to him who, because he knows not how to direct his attention, looks but sees not.

The botanist detects beauties in weeds, unseen and trodden down by others ; the entomologist finds unsuspected wonders in every grub that crawls, and every moth that flies ; the geologist discovers how worlds were made in the stones over which he stumbles in his walk. Take an illustration of how much more an acute observer of nature must enjoy than the dull man who jogs on through the world with his eyes open, but his mind blind. Can it be doubted that Shakespeare more infi nitely enjoyed the amusement he derived from his study of character than common observers ? Combinations of incidents and characters must have struck him much more forcibly, and must have afforded him keener enjoyment, than they would those who had not the capacity of seeing and appre ciating the humours of the times in which they lived.

His works point out to us many scenes that would escape us in real life. So also the trained artist will discover and reveal beauties that others pass by without notice, in our walks abroad and in our every-day existence. How often does it happen that a photographer will take his camera and dozen dry-plates to a district he has been recommended to visit because it contains so many picturesque objects and artistic bits, and has returned at night unsatisfied and gloomy, with " no game in his bag," declaring the place dull and unin teresting, without a single object worthy of his attention ; again, another photographer, who, like Beatrice, " can see a church by daylight," but little else, will walk through the land photographing every object, so that it is an object, he meets with. But then what he means by an object is something very definite ; it must be a castle, or abbey, a stone cross, or mansion — something you can " put a name to."

It is of no consequence to this col lector of negatives whether his subject has anything in it capable of artistic treatment, whether a few yards to the right or left would improve the effect, or whether a little more sky or a little more foreground would in crease or diminish the apparent size of the subject he is about to secure ; c his only anxiety is that the house or castle he is photographing shall come in the middle of his plate, and that nothing shall come in the way of his getting a good plan of its elevation. This is no fanciful picture I am sketching, but I have so many originals for it in my mind's eye that it can scarcely be called the portrait of an individual. Yet another photographer will scarcely care where he goes ; he has learnt to select, and finds pictures everywhere. He does not do this by instinct or any inborn faculty ; he has had to acquire his knowledge ; he has learnt to know what he wants, and picks it up the moment it is before him — he has learnt to see.

It must not be inferred, from what I have just said, that because art has to be learnt, I consider it possible for all to learn alike ; the capacity for acquiring know ledge is not given equally to all. It is not possible for one in a thousand to attain a perfect knowledge of art ; but it is certain that all, especially those whose instincts have turned them to a kindred study like photography, may learn sufficient to save them from making any very serious blunders in their works. All men have to learn. " Art," as Sir Joshua Reynolds has said, " is not a divine gift." The power of acquiring it per fectly undoubtedly is. These observations may appear dull to the student who is anxious to get to the practical details of composition, but they are the keynote of all I have to say in future chapters.

I wish to show that it is the photo grapher's business to see; to do which he must learn to see, that by seeing he may appreciate, and that the power of artistic sight may be,, as it were, artificially cultivated by the study of those rules and axioms which have guided the greatest painters, sculptors, and architects in the production of their finest works. But, before I proceed, I must warn you against a too close study of art to the exclusion of nature and the suppression of original thought. Who ever studies art alone will have a narrow, pedantic manner of considering all subjects, and of referring them to this or that style of composition, or this or that order of picture. This class of student looks at nature only through the medium of famous painters' pictures : a calm sunset is always a Claude ; anything wild or confused is Turneresque, in his last period (it shows knowledge to speak of the "periods" of a master).

"What a delicious Wilson or Ruysdacl!" one will say as he looks at a waterfall; " Quite a Landseer !" another will exclaim at the sight of a sheep-dog or deerhound ; and so on. Nature can only remind them of some class of picture. This is a perversion of study, and tends to degrade nature to the level of her imitators, instead of assisting to elevate her students to the level of the humble distance from her perfections to which it is possible to artists to attain. What I want here to impress is, that art should be a guide only to the study of nature, and not a set of fetters to confine the ideas or to depress the faculty of original interpretation in the artist, whether he be painter or photographer; and a knowledge of the techni calities of art will be found the best guide. There is a tendency amongst young artists to despise rules, and to trust to instinct and a feeling for art ; but it is not only well to do right, even if that were possible, by instinct alone, but it is also pleasant to know you arc doing right ; and, although it is not well to curb rising genius, a knowledge of principles which, from their universal adoption for ages, must be sound, must be an addition to the powers an artist, in whatever material, has to bring on his subject.