Photographic Amusements, Ninth Edition / Including A Description of a Number of Novel Effects Obtainable with the Camera

SILHOUETTES

AA. The sky and side light.
BB. Two dark backgrounds.
C. The white screen in oblique position.
D. The subject.
E. The camera.
FIG. 30.

FIG. 31.

Silhouette portraits were at one time very popular. They are simply made, and if the effect is well carried out will afford considerable amusement. The best description of their manufacture was given some time ago by Herr E. Sturmann, in Die Photographische Korrespondenz. His method is as follows:

Place two dark backgrounds in parallel position about 4 feet from the sky and side light of the studio and distant from each other about six feet. Improvise a dark tunnel by drawing a black cloth, of non-reflecting material, over the two dark grounds, and arrange a white screen, somewhat larger than the distance between the two dark grounds, in an oblique position so as to be fully illuminated.

The subject to be silhouetted must be placed in the centre of the tunnel, one side of the face turned towards one ground, but comparatively nearer to the white screen so that the side of the face turned towards the camera is as much as possible in the shade.

FIG. 32.

Focus must be taken accurately, so that the outlines of the figure are perfectly sharp.

As it is the object to obtain a perfectly transparent, glass-clear silhouette upon an absolutely opaque ground, but a very short time of exposure is required.

Develop as usual and to secure perfect opacity intensify more than usual. Plates of lower sensitiveness invariably give the best results. A slow plate or one made particularly for reproduction is well adapted for this kind of work. With ferrous oxalate or hydrochinon developer there is scarcely any need of intensifying.

FIG. 33.

FIG. 34.

To obviate the shadows cast upon the floor by the lower parts of the figure, place it upon a thick, large plate-glass, supported by props of five or six inches in height, and spread upon the floor under the glass a piece of white muslin. The muslin must be free of folds or wrinkles, and be so connected with the white screen, that the division line between is not reproduced upon the plate.

The very feeble shadows of the feet can be easily touched away with pencil.

Single persons or groups of two or three figures can be photographed in this peculiar style with very good effect.

For heads and busts expose in the usual manner, but to obtain silhouettes similar to those our grandmothers had cut in black paper, and long before photography was thought of, cut an appropriate mask of black paper to cover the part not wanted during printing.

FIG. 35.

It should be borne in mind that in this class of work the white background only is the object to be photographed, hence the necessity of but very short exposures. With longer exposures absolute blacks and whites are impossible.

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