The apparatus for producing the composite photographs upon a black background is very simple. A blackened piece of cardboard is provided with an aperture nearly corresponding to the place preserved in the definitive picture for the object, head, bust, etc., that one desires to isolate. This screen is slid into the first fold of the bellows of the camera, that is to say, very close to the sensitized plate, and at the moment of focusing, the position of the apparatus is so regulated as to make the image of the subject appear through the apertures in the screen and in the proper position. This process is the most rapid and is the surest. No reflection is any longer possible, and the preservation of the plate is absolute. What is no less advantageous is the sharpness of the outline, which permits of the most delicate junctions; such sharpness is inversely proportioned to the distance that separated the screen from the sensitized plate. We present a number of engravings of photographs taken upon a black background.
FIG. 7.—THE HEAD IN THE WHEELBARROW.
FIG. 8.—THE HEAD UPON A PLATE.