Treatment Of Model

Groups are very difficult to treat artistically, and our never-failing rule is to limit as much as possible the number of people in the group. Having now chosen his model and arranged other matters, the student must remember to let his model stand or sit, as he or she likes, and all suggestions for the pose should come from the model; this is a fundamental principle of naturalism. A great friend of ours, a well-known sculptor, assures us he would not dare to pose a model according to any preconceived idea, but he watches the model pose in different ways, and when he sees a striking and beautiful attitude he seizes on that and makes a rapid sketch of it. That is the only true way for the photographer to work, he must have the camera ready, focussed and arranged, and when he sees his model in an unconscious and beautiful pose, he must snap his shutter. It is thus very evident how important is art-knowledge and insight for all good photographic work, and it is thus evident how a man who is sympathetic and of a refined temperament will show his individuality in his work.

Commercial Groups

With commercial groups of bands, football teams, etc, the student has nothing to do, and let him never be induced to photograph anything which he does not think will make a picture. He must have patience also, when waiting for nature's suggestions; we have waited a whole morning, rubber ball in hand, for a suitable grouping of colts, but we finally got one of the best things we ever produced. If our photographer be a smoker, let him light his pipe and take it easy, talking meanwhile to the model; at length his chance will come, but it may only come once, and then he must not hesitate or the picture may be lost in a moment. It is preferable that all out-door portraits should be taken on a grey day, or in the shade if the sun be shining.

There is a wide field open to wealthy photographers for producing really good pictures of their friends at country houses. But the student must remember that to produce a perfect picture takes a long time and can only be achieved by long and patient practice, coupled with artistic ability. The hurried representations of shooting, boating, and family groups, which are so often produced by industrial photographers, are artistically beneath contempt. They are mere statements of facts, and as much akin to art as the directions in a cookery-book are akin to literature. Photography up to a certain point, and in a haphazard way, is so easily learned now-a-days that there is absolutely no merit in producing such work. Such photographs are only the confessions of untrained and commonplace minds.