If an object be placed against a non-actinic background and an
exposure made, the black parts surrounding it will not have any effect
upon the plate, and the object can be shifted to another part and
another exposure made. In a recent article published in _La Nature_,
and translated in the _Scientific American_, a number of
curious effects obtained by photography by M. R. Riccart, of
Sainte-Foix-les-Lyons, are described and illustrated.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--A DECAPITATION.]
The system employed by the author of these photographs is that of the
natural black background obtained through the open door of a dark
room, combined with diaphragms skillfully arranged in the interior of
the apparatus, between the objective and sensitized plate. This is the
surest method of obtaining the desired effect with the greatest
precision, without the junctions being visible, and with perfect
sharpness in the cutting of the parts removed. For this effect, it is
necessary to place the diaphragm at three or four centimeters from the
ground glass, in the last folds of the bellows of the camera.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--ANOTHER DECAPITATION.]
The following are a few data as to the manner in which the scenes that
we reproduce were obtained. The first, representing a decapitation by
means of a saber (Fig. 37), was taken by means of an exposure in which
the head was placed upon the block, the subject inclining forward upon
his knees, and a diaphragm, occupying about two-thirds of the plate,
completely masking the body up to the neck. Then, without changing the
position of the apparatus, the diaphragm was placed on the other side
in order to conceal the head, and the body was photographed in the
second position along with the person representing the executioner. It
would have been possible, by a third exposure, to so arrange things as
to make the executioner the decapitated person. It was by the same
process that the three following scenes were obtained: A person with
his head placed before him in a plate (Fig. 38); a man carrying his
head in a wheelbarrow (Fig. 39); and a person to whom his own head is
served in a plate (Fig. 40). Such scenes may be varied to any extent.
Fig. 41 is a photograph of a decapitation, while Fig. 42 is made by
two exposures of an individual at different distances but so combined
as to give the appearance of one exposure. Fig. 43 is that of a person
in a bottle. The individual represented was first photographed on a
sufficiently reduced scale to allow him to enter the bottle. This
exposure was by using a screen containing an aperture, as for the
Russian background. But this precaution was taken merely to conceal
the floor, and yet it would perhaps be preferable in such a case to
have the subject stand upon a stool covered with a very black fabric.
However this may be, when once the first impression has been made,
there is nothing more to be done than to photograph the bottle on a
larger scale and the result is obtained.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--THE HEAD IN THE WHEELBARROW]
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--THE HEAD UPON A PLATE.]