314 COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



success rewards him for that of the artist over his own handiwork; 

 surprise, gratitude, exhilaration, these are the sudden moods of the 

 photographer who throws himself into the arms of nature and trusts 

 to her methods while incessantly pleading- for more and more of her 

 instruction. What shall I say of his many, many disappointments? 

 Let them pass. We know their value, and the artist knows this, too. 

 Our joys and his are not the same, but both are ripples of that avypi- 

 djxov ysXaffjua, the countless laughter of the ocean on which God's 

 great gift of light dances and entrances us. 



So it is in the most perfect humility of spirit that we approach the 

 subject of our discourse this evening — the practical methods now known 

 to us of producing colored photographs. 



These fall into two groups. In the first, as now in our common 

 possession and practice, come those which employ colored glasses or 

 films to feed the photographic plate, leaving the latter to take what it 

 will, or refuse what it will, according to the high commands impressed 

 upon it by the sun. Let no one be under the delusion that here is any 

 room for the color artist, man, to tamper with the result, to distribute 

 the colors according to his fancy. The very contrary is the case. No 

 department- of photography is so hopelessly bound to perfect honesty 

 and freedom from trickery as color photography. A first-year 

 apprentice in the studio of Mr. Herkomer would as soon think of 

 improving the master's touches. It would mean ruin to the picture. 

 Whatever color is supplied is fairly offered to the sun at every pin's 

 head of the plate alike; but whether it is to be seen at all, and if seen 

 whether it is to be seen in its full strength or weakened to any neces- 

 sary extent, is not in our hands. That rests with the light itself to 

 determine which falls there on the sensitive surface, and woe to the 

 man who tries to interfere there. He may use some influence in regard 

 to considerable areas at a time, just as the ordinary photographer can 

 shade or modify the light to produce general effects, but as to details 

 he dare not say a word. He might as well try to improve a miniature 

 with a house painter's brush. 



The first specimens of this kind which I introduce are those of Air. 

 Ives's process. 



The three photographic positives here thrown on the screen together 

 as one picture are plain black and white. They each act in the same 

 way that the natural object did — they do not. indeed, absorb the color 

 of the covering glass; but they do what comes to the same thing, they 

 block it out either totally or in various degrees as each point of the 

 object did by absorption. The positive was obtained by photograph- 

 ing the object through a glass of somewhat similar color. That it is 

 not the very same color is due to the fact that the photographic po . 

 of colored light is not on all fours with its coloring power upon the 

 retina. 



