Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

a light background of a cool grayish green and the figure in red chalk. With a little study endless possibilities may be found in simple two-color schemes.

For fuller and more complete color rendering the gum process is particularly well adapted. With several printings in carefully chosen colors it is possible, from a single negative with the aid of local development to secure results restricted only by the artist's taste and skill.

For producing natural color prints from the usual threecolor negatives, "gum" is very suitable, and the deficiencies and inharmonious results so common in this class of work are more easily avoided than in any other printing method. It is a very difficult matter to make theoretically correct tri-chromatic negatives and the ease with which each separate color may be corrected in the gum print is greatly in its favor. If after the print is finished the color rendering is found to be faulty additional coatings will usually set them right. With a fourth negative and a print in a neutral tone the chances for a correct rendering are still better.

In this necessarily brief article an attempt has been made to outline in a general way, a few of the possibilities of the gum process. The subject is by no means exhausted but enough has been said to show what may be done with intelligent study and experiment. Everything depends on the artist's training and ability.

It must not be supposed that "gum" is without limitations. Like all other printing methods it has its restrictions—some of them very pronounced in fact-but the careful, painstaking pictorialist who believes in quality rather than quantity will find it a most valuable aid in the expression of artistic feeling.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

PAINTERS VS. PHOTOGRAPHERS.

By OTTO WALTER BECK.

N a volume recently published, which has already made its way into hundreds of studios, I have said all I have to say about the application of "Art Principles in Photography." What remains to be explained to the art-aspiring photographer, is the difference that exists between the work of the modern portrait painters and the portraits made by the most advanced photographers.

This difference should be one of our serious studies, because the fashionable and the famous portrait painters educate the public to a taste that leads it to expect work done in a similar spirit by all portraitists, including the photographer. This is quite a proposition to us because our tools, the camera, plate and print, yield a product much more closely tied to the severe facts of nature.

In photography we have been accustomed to think ourselves too greatly limited, but we are now waking up to see our plates yield an increased range in technique, and this will enable us to develop our art. By this added power, we shall obtain qualities that constitute not a bad rival to the best in painting, while always on the safe side as regards the likeness.

To exploit this new means of expression, we must understand that in paintings the life-likeness usually results from intentional exaggerations of the features and forms that in the model pleased the artist. For instance, in this portrait of Miss Barrymore by John S. Sargent the movements of the hair, the swing of the eye-brows, the long line of the profile and neck are exaggerations. To them we owe the impressiveness of this remarkable masterpiece. Every touch in this drawing follows a law of selection, and it is marked by its proper emphasis. For example, those eyes photographed would not yield the life that is in this drawing; the open mouth, if printed from a good straight negative, would not express what is in this work by the hand. Even the background,

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »