Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art.

by P. H. Emerson

4. Binocular Perspective is due to the convergence of the optic axes and formation of a single image. Le Conte says, “The perspective of depth or relative distance, whether in a single object or in a scene, is the result of the successive combinations of the different parts of the two dissimilar images of the object on the scene.” Binocular perspective, too, gathers together the imperfect retinal impressions when the eye sweeps over the field of view. This only acts within a few hundred yards.

Thus, then, in taking a photograph we must remember that theoretically speaking, up to twenty feet the picture can be made sharper all over than beyond that distance; for the eye has all these perspectives acting within that distance.

Size.

By size we estimate distance.

Solidity.

Solidity is judged by binocular vision and lighting.

When to all these difficulties are added those dependent on the subtleties of light reflected into shadow, and the thousand-and-one changes of colour due to the numerous shadows cast by objects in nature, we get a complexity which forces upon us how impossible it is for man to copy nature. A “mere transcript of nature,” which is so glibly talked of, is, humanly speaking, an impossibility. No man ever painted a “mere transcript” of nature, or a truthful copy, any more than a man can make plants or animals in a laboratory; but he can, by a picture, give a truthful impression of nature.

On these data and within these limits, then, must we work, and here we append a few general principles deduced from these data, which must guide us in our work. We have followed them ourselves, and they form the scientific part of our creed of “Naturalistic Photography.” We have said little upon the drawing of photographic lenses, as that is discussed in another chapter; but of course Naturalistic Photography claims as of vital importance that lenses be used so as to give the drawing of objects as they are seen by the eye—in other words, as they would be drawn by a good draughtsman.

Art Principles Deducted from the Data Cited.

Art Principles.