HOME PORTRAITURE BY DAYLIGHT
The making of portraits at home, by daylight or flashlight, brings the
amateur to the most interesting of photographic fields. It is a field
as difficult as it is fascinating, which accounts, in part, for the
heavy percentage of failures we see in amateur work of this class.
If we will abandon, in the beginning, all desire or attempts to make
portraits like those made in professional studios, we will find that
very satisfactory results may be secured at home, even with a hand
camera. The only real difficulties are the lighting of the subject and
the exposure, and in these our previous indoor work will help us very
much.
Let us take up daylight work first. We need a room with a window facing
north, and having an open, unobstructed view, _i.e._, not shaded by
trees or nearby buildings. The higher the window the better. Sometimes
a hall or other room which has a window placed high in the wall will
be peculiarly advantageous. If we cannot have either of these, a
window facing south, screened by a sheet of white muslin, will give
us good results. As the light changes constantly from a south window
the lighting here will, of course, be more difficult. Having chosen a
suitable window we make two or three actinometer tests at three, five,
and six feet from the light source, calculating for the use of the
largest stop our lens will allow, to find the most suitable place for
the subject. Where it is possible, about five feet from the window, and
slightly behind it should be chosen. This will give us a fairly soft
round lighting with desirable shadows. If the light is poor we must
work nearer to the window, but this will make it difficult to avoid
harsh lighting. An experiment shows that the light is much too strong
on the lower part of the figure. This is caused by the fact that our
window is too low. We cannot increase its height, but we can cut away
the light by blocking out half or one-third of the lower part of the
window with a shawl or piece of dark drapery. The light should now fall
upon the head and shoulders of the subject. If the shadow side of the
face, regardless of the direction of the head, is too dark, a white
sheet or other reflector brought to within three or four feet of the
subject will throw a little light where needed. By careful manipulation
of the reflector, we secure the desired illumination of the shadows,
but if we overdo this, the result will be flatness. A little
observation will tell us when the reflector may be dispensed with, when
desirable, and how it should be placed. Roundness and modelling are the
two points to be chiefly considered. When a willing model is at hand
a few hours spent at odd times in the study of lighting the face and
figure will be of great assistance.
It is important that the subject shall be lighted from one source
only, so that if the room has two windows, one must be darkened. If
the light given by a single window necessitates too long an exposure,
say more than twelve seconds, we must bring the subject as near to the
light source as we can, and by the use of a fairly light background and
side-screen, make a small studio around the window, so as to secure all
possible illumination. This will generally be necessary when we attempt
the portraiture of children indoors, or have to work with a hand camera
lens whose largest stop is _f_/16 or _f_/20. With a rapid plate, and
a lens working at _f_/5.6 or _f_/8, we can afford to get farther away
from the light source. With a north light, and a bright day, the
exposure at noon will rarely exceed five or six seconds. When the
subject is dressed in dark clothes, or the room has dark furnishings,
of course, the exposure will have to be lengthened. The lighting
and disposition of the figure in portraiture are subjects much too
difficult to be referred to in a paragraph. If, in the first we try to
secure roundness and modelling, with a pleasing expression; and in the
second, an easy, natural position, we will have made a good beginning.
From this beginning by constant observation of lighting and posing as
seen in everyday life, and a knowledge of pictorial composition we will
very quickly grasp the essentials of these two details of portrait work.
As far as the background is concerned a curtain, rug, or screen will
often prove altogether satisfactory, but for convenience in working a
set of small backgrounds on a roller, which may be suspended on the
wall in a moment, will be a profitable investment. Several makers make
a special line of backgrounds for amateur portraiture at home. A few
yards of gray felt, sufficient to form a floor-cloth as well as a
background, will be found useful. This comes in six feet widths and may
be had at the dry-goods stores. The “wide width” cloths used for blinds
may also be mentioned as offering excellent material for backgrounds.
Those without a “finished” or glazed surface should be chosen, and the
shades of gray will be most useful for general purposes. The influence
of the background upon the portrait is a detail which deserves careful
study, the characteristics of the portrait being altogether different
when light and dark grounds are used. For this reason, when we have
only one background, it should be one graduated from light to dark, so
that we can reverse it and soften or emphasize the general effect in
the picture as may seem desirable. The smallness of the image within
the picture space is a practical difficulty encountered in at-home
portraiture with the hand camera. This can be overcome by the use of a
supplementary lens, placed in front of the lens attached to the camera,
by means of which a larger image is obtained. The _Ideal Portrait_ lens
and the _Kodak Portrait Attachment_ may be mentioned as desirable aids
for this purpose.