The above method represents a vignetted head on smooth grey paper, and is useful to show up the high lights on the face; but there is a modification of this effect, in which the appearance of a sketch on rough drawing-paper is produced.

Vignettes on Rough Drawing-paper.—If, instead of placing a piece of plain glass over the masked print, a thin negative of some diaper or pattern had been used, the design could have been printed on the paper instead of the even tint. A very good negative for this purpose is made as follows:—Obtain a sheet of the roughest drawing-paper, take a camel-hair brush dipped in thin sepia, and brush it evenly over the paper; the colour will fall into the depressions of the paper, and make the roughness still more visible. This should now be placed where a side light falls upon it, and photographed. A very thin negative is all that is required. This negative should be used in place of the plain glass, and, if not printed too dark, the effect of the delicate vignette inside the rough tint is very pleasing. It is better when using negatives for this purpose to place them in pressure-frames, instead of merely placing them or the print on the velvet board, to print, or perfect contact may not be obtained.

Medallions.—Medallions of oval and other forms are now a good deal used for small portraits. These are simply produced by gumming a mask, made of black or yellow paper, with an oval or other-shaped aperture, on to the negative, the mask preserving the part it covers white. These masks can be bought from the dealers cheaper and better than they can be made. Eccentric shapes are, usually, in bad taste; the oval and dome are quite sufficient for all purposes. If, instead of leaving the outside of the print—that protected by the mask—white, it could be tinted, the lights in the picture would have greater value, and the effect be improved. To do this, the printed part should be covered with a black-paper disc corresponding with the mask used in printing, the print covered with glass, and exposed to the light until printed the required depth. In performing this operation it will be found convenient to gum the disc to the covering-glass. If texture could be added to this tinted margin, then another element of beauty would be added. This may be done in a similar manner to that described for vignettes, by using a negative made from rough drawing-paper; but, in this case, there is opportunity for a greater choice of objects from which to make the tinting negative, such as grained leather, marble of various kinds, paper-hangings—when suitable patterns can be obtained—and from the borders of old prints. In this, as in many other things connected with photography, there is a good deal of room for bad taste, which the photographer must try to avoid. He must remember that all these surrounding designs should assist the portrait, and not distract the attention from it.

Vignettes in Ornamental Borders.—The writer has lately produced some effects that have given much pleasure by using designs specially drawn for the purpose. The designs principally consist of an oval in the centre for the portrait, and a tablet underneath, on which the original of the portrait may sign his name. These forms are surrounded by flowers and other objects conventionally treated. The spaces for the portrait and name should be stopped out with black varnish, so as to print white. The easiest way to use these ornamental border negatives is as follows:—First print the border negative; you will then have a print with a white oval space in the centre. Place this print on the portrait negative, taking care that it occupies the proper position in the oval. This is easily ascertained by holding the print and negative up to the light. It should then be placed in the frame and printed, care being taken that the vignetted gradation does not spread beyond its limits over the border.

There is a good deal of variety to be got out of the combination of the mask and vignette. Here is one of them.

Combination of Medallion and Vignette.—Vignette a head into the centre of the paper; when this is done, place over it a black paper oval disc, taking care that the head comes in the centre under the mask. Place a piece of glass over the whole, and print. When the disc is removed, the print will represent a vignette surrounded by a dark oval. Many variations may be made of this form of picture, and there is much scope for skill and taste.

Any of the tinting negatives above described may be used, or they can be made from designs drawn on paper as we have already stated, or from natural objects. But if our reader has followed us clearly thus far, he is now in a position to form combinations for himself. This we recommend him to do, for there is an additional beauty in anything in art that indicates a distinctive style or shows thought and originality. There is too much tendency in portraitists to run in grooves, which the universal prevalence of the two styles, card and cabinet, help to promote. But we must caution the young photographer against the mistake of making changes for the sake of change. The "loud," and the bizarre, may attract foolish people, but it is only the beautiful that will secure the attention of the cultivated and refined.

[CHAPTER XIV.]
COMBINATION PRINTING.

The scope of photography is wider than those who have only taken a simple portrait or landscape suppose. It is almost impossible to design a group that could not have been reproduced from life by the means our art places at our disposal. We do not mean to assert that such subjects as Michael Angelo's Last Judgment, or Raphael's Transfiguration, for instance, have ever been done in photography; but it is not so much the fault of the art, as of the artists, that very elaborate pictures have not been successfully attempted. It has not been the failing of the materials, unplastic as they are when compared with paint and pencils; it has been the absence of the requisite amount of skill in the photographer in the use of them, that will account for the dearth of great works in photography. The means by which these pictures could have been accomplished is Combination Printing, a method which enables the photographer to represent objects in different planes in proper focus, to keep the true atmospheric and linear relation of varying distances, and by which a picture can be divided into separate portions for execution, the parts to be afterwards printed together on one paper, thus enabling the operator to devote all his attention to a single figure or sub-group at a time, so that if any part be imperfect, from any cause, it can be substituted by another without the loss of the whole picture, as would be the case if taken at one operation. By thus devoting the attention to individual parts, independently of the others, much greater perfection can be obtained in details, such as the arrangement of draperies, the refinement of pose, and expression.