ART IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 207 



These difl&ciilties have to do with the lighting of the 

 subject, the perspective, the sky and atmosphere, the colour, 

 and the composition. 



A hint of the first may be gathered by reference to the 

 series before us. To take as an example, No. 1031, one of the 

 many prints in this series, for technical excellence, most highly 

 to be commended. Here we have a picture composed of distant 

 snow clad mountains in strong light, with a foreground of two 

 rocky piles, one in shade, one in sun. Now, in the ordinary 

 course of things, the length of time during which the sensitized 

 plate shoiild be exposed to light through the lens, so as to 

 impress the image of the distance the most satisfactorily, is much 

 less than is required for the foreground. The shadows and shade 

 of the photograph must be transparent, with detail ; and that 

 requires, comparatively, a long exposure. But a lengthened 

 exposure having been given, great care must be subsequently 

 employed in proportioning the chemicals which are to develop 

 the latent image, lest the distant hills shoidd become so dense in 

 the negative as, in the resulting print, to be merged in the sky, 

 as a white blank ; or, on the other hand, lest, the hills appear- 

 ing fairly well, the foreground should be black and void of 

 detail, and thereby destroy the harmony of the picture. 



Or take No. 1100 — a hopeless subject! a fall of water 

 between two precipitous cliffs, with the widening flood of torrent 

 as a foreground. One can imagine a photographer being 

 appalled at the magnificence of the scene, and aghast at his 

 inability to represent it as it meets his eye. To render the falls 

 effective, an instantaneous exposure would be best ; for then 

 the tumbling, crumbling, sparkling outline would be sharp, 

 and clear, and full of motion, — supposing the sjjray not to create 

 over much mist ; but in that case the cliffs would " come out " 

 dark black walls, without any feature. So there is nothing for 

 it, but a compromise ; a lengthened exposure secures the correct 

 appearance of the cliffs, but the grand swirling falls become a 

 lifeless white smudge. 



From this it may be inferred, which is the real fact, that 

 with an ordinary rapid dry plate, an instantaneous picture (or, 

 a picture " by the instantaneous process " as it is mis-named), 

 is merely a question of sufficient light on the subject ; the 



