PHOTOGRAPHIC SWINDLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 50

PHOTOGRAPHIC SWINDLES.

Do "photographs lie? Yes .and no. Nothing is truer ' than the image recorded through the photographic eye,. and yet it can be made one of the greatest pervaricatora in existence." ' ■

Iq portraiture various dodges are reaorted to in order to produce a flattering picture. Very few people desire natural likenesses; ooly-those that improve the appearance of the eifcter are id demand. To make hia calling financially successful the modern photo-

arc assured that this departure from apparent truth is accounted for by the law of .vanishing perspective ; ,but, as a matter of fact, all architectural subjects are widest apart at the top, and the inclination of the sides in the photograph is caused by the back of the camera being out of plumb. A common photographic trick consists in making a person appear as if decapitated, the head being supported on a dinner plate with outstretched arm. This seemingly inexplicable mystery is easily explained. A negative is first taken, and a print made in the oidinary way. The figure is then neatly cut out and pasted on a piece of white cardboard, the head being first cut off, and aEterwarcls placed in position on tbe plate; The whole is re-photographed, and a gruesome picture is the result. Paohographs repre-" senting yOUNG LADIES PERCHED OS THE MOON, and aerial cycling between that luminarj and our globe, are also modifications of th>3 same trick. T^e picture of a man playing chess with himself, or assuming any other rrte with hia double, is produced in a different way from the foregoing. A pieoe of blackened cardboard is fitted in front of the lens with a vertical section out from one side so that the image is recorded on only half of the sensitive plate during the. first exposure. Previous to the second exposure" the cut eide of the cardboard is reversed, and the sitter takes tip any attitude he desires relative to his first 'position; Of 'course the image now falls on/ tbe previously half of tbe plate, and if, Wth'exposurestfre equally timed the resultant negative ehowa no line, of demarcation or lapping of images. Another FREAK OP PHOTOGRAPHIC WIT x is tbe exhibition of one* best friend, with cheeks bulging out like rubber balls and tho

grapher must exercise all the ingenuity at command to satisfy the whims of his clients in tbe production of * " pleasing " work. Eviery negative is laboriously retouched. Freckles and other blemishes on the skin are rendered- as VERY OOKSPICUOUS BLACK SPOTS if printed from tbe unretouched cliche, but careful stippling with a graphite pencil removes the last trace of them, and, in fact, "the whole fact ia worked over until a peachy effect is arrived at, making the features as smooth and devoid of character as may be. Tbe retoucher's duties do not stop with the pencil, but the knife is equally requisite for catering to the vanity of those who delude themselves as being the possessors of natural cbari^s. A too prominent Roman nose — for instance, one of the aquiline variety, roamin' over tbe face — yields its curved outline to the model of the most idealistic Grecian under the expert pruning of the retoucher's blade. Other parts of the figure come in for similar treatment. The thick waist; assumes slender and grsc.ful proportions, corpulency is reduced to an appreciable degree, and the wrinkled brow of age has TEN YEABS OF CABE REMOVED by judicious scraping. Bat the most interesting and amusing modifications of photography are those relating to the caricaturing of the subject, or the representation oE natural objects under unusual and impossible conditions. * . A fuUlength reclining figure of a man, token with bis feet near the camera and bis head furthest away, gives a picture of most exaggerated proportions, his pedal extremities occupying from four to six times- the area covered by the head. Of course the photograph represents the actual proportions as viewed from the position of the lens, but few people would be likely to accept the perspective as being truthful. The inexperienced amateur in taking view* of tall builiings frequently represent them as a tottering and drunken attitude, leaning in at the top. We

legs melting in£o hie boots, or distorted in the moefc fantastic anil grotesque fashion. This startling eilec U obtained by pressing | the soft gelatinous liim (in which the image | is embedded) out o£ shape with the finger, !or by melting it over a spirit lamp. After drying a faked negative and making a 1 print therefrom, the result is extremely ludicrous, A phase of photography which is sometimes foisted on the public as being accomplished by occult agency is, however, only hnmbug. A photograph of a living person is shown, with a vague image of, perhaps, a female face hovering in the neighbourhood of tha sitter, This imposition is very easy to the most inexperienced photographer. The plate has first of all received a very short exposure on a picture of gome idealistic or fanciful subject, and, to make it more ghostlike, is taken slightly out of focus. Tbe | second expoaure is longer, giving a more pronounced image ; but in development the former exposure is faintly indicated on the plats, and

THERE 18 YOUR GHOST.

The writer has derived considerable amusement from a photc graph" which he took of a preconceived arrangement— not faked, however. An isolated and old-fashioned "building was selected, with a door and unglazed window on the side, about 20fh apart. A white horse was placed inside-, with his head out tbrougb th'a window, arid another white horse was placed with hti ninrq-urttra only ehowing throngh the open door. >. - An exposure was- mide at a suitable moment, and a print afterwards made therefrom. An old lady who happened to pee iC appeared greatly pnzzled, as she measured with her eyes the distance between the bead of one horse and the tail of the other, thinking it was one all the time. "Gracious mcl " she exclaimed, in amazameat!" what ft long horse I "