It is sometimes necessary to take a panoramic view. This is usually done, when the pantascopic camera is not employed, by mounting two prints together, so that the objects in the landscape shall coincide; but this is an awkward method of doing what could be much better accomplished by combination printing. The joining of the two prints is always disagreeably visible, and quite spoils the effect. To print the two halves of a landscape, taken on two plates, together, the following precautions must be observed: both negatives must be taken before the camera-stand is moved, the camera, which must be quite horizontal, pointing to one half of the scene for the first negative, and then turned to the remaining half of the view for the second negative. The two negatives should be obtained under exactly the same conditions of light, or they will not match; they should also be so taken that a margin of an inch and a-half or two inches is allowed to overlap each other; that is to say, about two inches of each negative must contain the same or centre portion of the scene. It is advisable, also, that they should be of the same density; but this is not of very great consequence, because any slight discrepancy in this respect can be allowed for in printing. In printing vignettes with cotton wool, or a straight-edged vignette glass, the edge of the left-hand negative on the side that is to join the other, taking care to cover up the part of the paper that will be required for the companion negative; when sufficiently printed, take the print out of the frame, and substitute the right-hand negative; lay down the print so that it exactly falls on the corresponding parts of the first part printed (this will be found less difficult, after a little practice, than it appears), and expose to the light, vignetting the edge of this negative, also, so that the vignetted part exactly falls on the softened edge of the impression already done. If great care be taken to print both plates exactly alike in depth, it will be impossible to discover the join in the finished print. If thought necessary, a sky may be added, as before described, or it may be gradated in the light, allowing the horizon to be lighter than the upper part of the sky.

Perhaps the greatest use to which combination printing is now put is in the production of portraits with natural landscape backgrounds. Many beautiful pictures, chiefly cabinets and card, have been done in this way by several photographers. The easiest kind of figure for a first attempt would be a three-quarter length of a lady, because you would then get rid of the foreground, and have to confine your attention to the upper part of the figure and the distance. Pictures of this kind have a very pleasing effect. In the figure negative, everything should be stopped out, with the exception of the figure, with black varnish; this should be done on the back of the glass when practicable, which produces a softer join; but for delicate parts—such as down the face—where the joins must be very close, and do not admit of anything approaching to vignetting, the varnish must be applied on the front. A much better effect than painting out the background of the figure negative is obtained by taking the figure with a white or very light screen behind it; this plan allows sufficient light to pass through the background to give an agreeable atmospheric tint to the distant landscape; and stopping out should only be resorted to when the background is too dark, or when stains or blemishes occur, that would injure the effect. An impression must now be taken which is not to be toned or fixed. Cut out the figure, and lay it, face downwards, on the landscape negative in the position you wish it to occupy in the finished print. It may be fixed in its position by gumming the corners near the lower edge of the plate. It is now ready for printing. It is usually found most convenient to print the figure negative first. When this has been done, the print must be laid down on the landscape negative so that the figure exactly covers the place prepared for it by the cut-out mask. When printed, the picture should be carefully examined, to see if the joins may be improved or made less visible. It will be found that, in many places, the effect can be improved and the junctions made more perfect, especially when a light comes against a dark—such as a distant landscape against the dark part of a dress—by tearing away the edge of the mask covering the dark, and supplying its place by touches of black varnish at the back of the negative; this, in printing, will cause the line to be less defined, and the edges to soften into each other. If the background of the figure negative has been painted out, the sky will be represented by white paper; and as white paper skies are neither natural nor pleasing, it will be advisable to sun it down.

If a full-length figure be desired, it will be necessary to photograph the ground with the figure, as it is almost impossible to make the shadow of a figure match the ground on which it stands in any other way. This may be done either out of doors or in the studio. The figure taken out of doors would, perhaps, to the critical eye, have the most natural effect, but this cannot always be done, neither can it be, in many respects, done so well. The light is more unmanageable out of doors, and the difficulty arising from the effect of wind on the dress is very serious. A slip of natural foreground is easily made up in the studio; the error to be avoided is the making too much of it. The simpler a foreground is in this case, the better will be the effect.

The composition of a group should next engage the student's attention. In making a photograph of a large group, as many figures as possible should be obtained in each negative, and the position of the joins so contrived that they shall come in places where they shall be least noticed, if seen at all. It will be found convenient to make a sketch in pencil or charcoal of the composition before the photograph is commenced. The technical working out of a large group is the same as for a single figure; it is, therefore, not necessary to repeat the details; but we give a reduced copy, as a frontispiece to this volume, of a large combination picture, entitled "When the Day's Work is Done," by Mr. H. P. Robinson, a description of the progress and planning of which may be of use to the student.

A small rough sketch was first made of the idea, irrespective of any considerations of the possibility of its being carried out. Other small sketches were then made, modifying the subject to suit the figures available as models, and the accessories accessible without very much going out of the way to find them. From these rough sketches a more elaborate sketch of the composition, pretty much as it stands, and of the same size, 32 by 22 inches, was made, the arrangement being divided so that the different portions may come on 23 by 18 plates, and that the junctions may come in unimportant plates, easy to join, but not easy to be detected afterwards. The separate negatives were then taken. The picture is divided as follows:—

The first negatives taken were the two of which the background is composed. The division runs down the centre, where the light wall is relieved by the dark beyond it. These two negatives were not printed separately—it is advisable to have as few printings as possible—but were carefully cut down with a diamond, and mounted on a piece of glass rather larger than the whole picture, the edges being placed in contact, making, in fact, one large negative of the interior of the cottage, into which it would be comparatively easy to put almost anything. The next negative was the old man. This included the table, chair, and matting on which his feet rest. This matting is roughly vignetted into the adjoining ground of the cottage negative. The great difficulty at first with this figure was the impossibility of joining the light head to the dark background; no amount of careful registration seemed equal to effect this difficult operation; but if it could not be done, it could be evaded. Several clever people have been able to point out the join round the head, down the forehead, and along the nose, but we have never been able to see it ourselves, because we know it is not there. This is how the difficulty was got over. The figure was taken with a background that would print as nearly as possible as dark as the dark of the cottage. The join is nowhere near the head, but runs up the square back of the old woman's chair, then up the wall, and across the picture, over the head in an irregular line, and descends on the old man's back, whence it was easy to carry it down the dark edge of his dress and the chairs till it comes to the group of baskets, pails, &c., that fill up the corner. On the other side, the join runs along the edge of the table, and finds its way out where the floor coverings come together. The old lady was then photographed, and is simply joined round the edge; so also was the group in the corner, and the glimpse of the village seen through the window.

At first sight, it will appear difficult to place the partly-printed pictures in the proper place on the corresponding negative. There are many ways of doing this, either of which may be chosen to suit the subject. Sometimes a needle may be run through some part of the print, the point being allowed to rest on the corresponding part of the second negative. The print will then fall in its place at that point. Some other point has then to be found at a distance from the first; this may be done by turning up the paper to any known mark on the negative, and allowing the print to fall upon it; if the two separate points fall on the right places, all the others must be correct. Another way of joining the prints from the separate negatives is by placing a candle or lamp under the glass of the printing-frame—practically, to use a glass table—and throwing a light through the negative and paper; the join can then be seen through. But the best method is to make register marks on the negatives. This is done in the following manner. We will suppose that we wish to print a figure with a landscape background from two negatives, the foreground having been taken with the figure. At the two bottom corners of the figure negative make two marks with black varnish, thus Symbols resembling the bottom left and right of a frame will print white in the picture. A proof is now taken, and the outline of the figure cut out accurately. Where the foreground and background join, the paper may be torn across, and the edges afterwards vignetted with black varnish on the back of the negatives. This mark is now fitted in its place on the landscape negative. Another print is now taken of the figure negative, and the white corner marks cut away very accurately with a pair of scissors. The print is now carefully applied to the landscape negative, so that the mark entirely covers those parts of the print already finished. The landscape is then printed in. Before, however, it is removed from the printing-frame, if, on partial examination, the joins appear to be perfect, two lead pencil or black varnish marks are made on the mark round the cut-out corners at the bottom of the print. After the first successful proof there is no need for any measurement or fitting to get the two parts of the picture to join perfectly; all that is necessary is merely to cut out the little white marks, and fit the corners to the corresponding marks on the mask; and there is no need to look if the joins coincide at other places, because, if two points are right, it follows that all must be so. This method can be applied in a variety of ways to suit different circumstances.

It is always well to have as few paintings as possible, and it frequently happens that two or more negatives can be printed together. For instance, the picture we have been discussing—"When the Day's Work is Done"—is produced from six negatives, but it only took three printings. The two negatives of which the cottage is composed was, as already explained, set up on a large sheet of glass, and printed at once; the old man was also set upon another glass of the same size, with the negative of the glimpse through the window; and the old woman was printed in like manner, with the corner group of baskets, &c. So that here were practically three negatives only. These were registered with corner marks so accurately that not a single copy has been lost through bad joins. There are one or two things to consider briefly before concluding this subject.

It is true that combination printing—allowing, as it does, much greater liberty to the photographer, and much greater facilities for representing the truth of nature—also admits, from these very facts, of a wide latitude for abuse; but the photographer must accept the conditions at his own peril. If he finds that he is not sufficiently advanced in knowledge of art, and has not sufficient reverence for nature, to allow him to make use of these liberties, let him put on his fetters again, and confine himself to one plate. It is certain (and this we put in italics, to impress it more strongly on the memory) that a photograph produced by combination printing must be deeply studied in every particular, so that no departure from the truth of nature shall be discovered by the closest scrutiny. No two things must occur in one picture that cannot happen in nature at the same time. If a sky is added to a landscape, the light must fall on the clouds and on the earth from the same source and in the same direction. This is a matter that should not be done by judgment alone, but by judgment guided by observation of nature. Effects are often seen, especially in cloud-land, very puzzling to the calm reasoner when he sees them in a picture; but these are the effects that are often best worth preserving, and which should never be neglected, because it may possibly happen that somebody will not understand it, and, therefore, say it is false, and, arguing still further on the wrong track, will say that combination printing always produces falsehoods, and must be condemned. A short anecdote may, perhaps, be allowed here. Some time ago a photograph of a landscape and sky was sent to a gentleman whose general judgment in art was admitted to be excellent; but he knew that combination printing was sometimes employed. In acknowledging the receipt he said, "Thank you for the photograph; it is a most extraordinary effect; sensational, certainly, but very beautiful; but it shows, by what it is, what photography cannot do; your sky does not match your landscape; it must have been taken at a different time of day, at another period of the year. A photograph is nothing if not true." Now it so happened that the landscape and sky were taken at the same time, the only difference being that the sky had a shorter exposure than the landscape, which was absolutely necessary to get the clouds at all, and does not affect the result. Another instance arose in connection with a picture representing a group of figures with a landscape background. Four of the figures were taken on one plate, at one operation; yet a would-be critic wrote at some length to prove that these figures did not agree one with another; that the light fell on them from different quarters; that the perspective of each had different points of sight; and that each figure was taken from a different point of view! These two cases are mentioned to show that it is sometimes a knowledge of the means employed, rather than a knowledge of nature—a foregone conclusion that the thing must be wrong, rather than a conviction, from observation, that it is not right—that influences the judgment of those who are not strong enough to say, "This thing is right," or "This thing is wrong, no matter by what means it may have been produced."