Picture frame

“ We ought to sit where we see the objects in the picture at the same angle at which the camera photographed the originals. If we are too near or too far or too much to one side, we perceive the plastic scene from a viewpoint which would demand an entirely different perspective than that which the camera fixated. In motionless pictures this is less disturbing; in moving pictures every new movement to or from the background must remind us of the apparent distortion. Moreover, the size and the frame and the whole setting strongly remind us of the unreality of the perceived space. ”

“ Therefore in this “still” from “The Four Horsemen” the jagged holes in the buildings attract more attention than they do on the screen, where the movement of the soldiers and civilians brings the whole composition into balance.
When the whole picture is deep, as in the example just discussed, it offends us if some of the moving objects come near the camera, because this produces two pictures within a single frame, namely, a close-up and a long shot. ”

“ When it comes to the form and design of a frame, infinite latitude is allowable, but, in general, the law of contrast holds good here also. A very complicated picture which depends for its effect largely upon some graceful and intricate design will show to best advantage in a comparatively flat and simple frame. A simple picture, on the contrary, which is built up with a few broad and powerful masses, will frequently appear best in a rich and ornamental frame, the very richness of design accentuating the simple beauty of the canvas. ”

“ In 1710, D’Aviler defines the word picture (tableau) as a subject of painting, usually in oil on canvas or wood, and contained in a frame or border. “Pictures greatly contribute to the decoration of the interior of buildings. The big ones figure in churches, drawing-rooms, galleries and other big places. Those of medium size called easel-pictures are placed in the spaces above the chimney-piece, above the doors and in the panels of the walls, or else on the tapestry against the walls. ”

“ Frames many times control the use of a picture, and an old picture may be placed in a modern frame and used in a contemporary setting. Mats used on pictures may be varied according to the subject matter and the frame selected according to the manner in which the picture is used. Wood frames are popular and in good taste and are shown in natural wood color, mahogany, walnut, maple, or enameled. ”

“ The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. ”

“ In a camera obscura the butcher's cart and the figure of one of our own family amuse us. So a portrait of a well-known face gratifies us. Turn the eyes upside down, by looking at the landscape through your legs, and how agreeable is the picture, though you have seen it any time these twenty years! ”

“ And so it seems but right that, being so utterly unable to reach the heights or the depths of what we wish to depict, we ought to send back and keep down every step or key of our board in the same proportion as our lights and our darks are—make our picture, in fact, not so much the imitation as the dim reflection that we see in a window sometimes when there is a dark cloth hung behind it, or in the camera obscura. ”

“ They have seen photographs of the interior of rooms taken with an ordinary camera—probably with from five minutes to half an hour's exposure. Ah, but this is an instantaneous camera, they argue, and, with an airy snap of the shutter, walk off, confident that the professional to whom they usually leave the development and printing—all the real photographic work, in fact—will be able to find somewhere in that mystic little box a picture of all that room and everything and everybody in it. ”

“ Carbon photographs and other pictures of dull tones, are appropriately framed in wood of dark or medium colour, and appear best when hung against a dark wall. The truth of these statements will hardly be questioned by any one who has a good sense of colour harmony. But there are many other elements that enter into a concrete problem of picture [68] framing that cannot be brought under general rules or formulas. It is generally best to depend largely upon the tests of trial. In framing and hanging pictures, as in many other things, observation and experience are the best teachers. ”

“ In these cameras an inclined mirror, that flies out of the way at the moment of exposure, enables one to see the full-sized picture on the ground glass, and to focus on a moving subject up to the second of pressing the button. ”

“ Having satisfactorily arranged our image as regards composition by shifting the camera nearer to or farther from the negative—because it will be obvious that the nearer the lens to the negative, the less of the negative we shall include, and vice versa—we fill our dark slide and are ready for exposure.
For daylight work the arrangement of frame and camera should be placed near a window, and if anything but sky is seen opposite the negative, place outside the window a large sheet of white cardboard at an angle of 45°. ”

“ It falls to the lot of an exceptional few to have frames made to fit them. Some of us make frames for ourselves, and as we always over-estimate our size such frames are never suitable. As we cannot expand or contract our frames to our liking, we must do the other thing, stretch and shape our pictures to them. I have seen coloured sketches on an elastic material capable of being extended indefinitely. Well for us if our life's picture be painted on such accommodating material. ”

“ The great sweep of vision, a sweep covering a hundred subjects perhaps, is obtained by turning the eyes up or down or sideways. But to be true—that is, to see one picture at a time—the eye should be fixed like the lens of a camera, the limit of the picture being the range of the eye and no more. A departure from this rule not only confuses your perspective but crowds a number of points of interest into the square of your canvas, when there is really only one centre point before you in nature ”

“ Accommodation.—The focussing or sharpening of the image is performed by a special apparatus. In every camera, the farther the object is from the eye the farther forward, and the nearer the object is to the eye the farther backward, is its image thrown. In photographers' cameras the back is made to slide, and can be drawn away from the lens when the object that casts the picture is near, and pushed forward when it is far. ”

“ This shade is, of course, also stained of a dark colour internally.
Fig. 3.
Now your portable camera is complete. To use it, all you have to do is to hold it in your hand, with the lens turned towards the picture you want represented, and the shade raised, then to pull the focusing-drawer in and out till you have a clear, well-defined picture on your ground-glass top. When the sun is shining brightly the effect is charming; but you yourself and camera ought to be well in the shade. ”

“ All scenery has to be painted in black and white, and the excellence of the work plays an important part in the effect of the picture, for the camera is ruthless in its exposure of indifferent work. The scene may be the interior of a shack, or a sylvan valley with a river winding like a ribbon of silver among the trees and a stately castle rearing above the foliage. In each instance the same artistic care is demanded, for it must be remembered that by the time the picture reaches the screen it is of the same dimensions as the original, or even larger. ”

“ It was necessary to have every detail faithfully reproduced, for the eye of the moving picture camera is more searching, and far-seeing, than any human eye, and records every defect, no matter how small. ”

“ With this "screen" placed nearly in contact with an ordinary photographic plate, film to film, we proceed to make a copy negative, in the camera, of the original picture. This, when developed, will give the picture and an image of the screen, which has been interposed, together on one plate. ”

“ Fig.6—Details of Background Frame
Many amateur photographers who desire to do portrait work at home have left the subject alone for the want of a suitable background. A frame such as is used by the professional is entirely out of the question in most homes, says a correspondent of Camera Craft. The frame as shown in the sketch was devised and its chief advantage lies in the fact that when not in use it can be compactly tied together and stored away in a closet. ”

“ If there were some mechanical difficulty which made this clashing effect of the motion pictures necessary, we could never hope for beauty on the screen; for no art can achieve beauty by producing pain. But we know from the work of such directors as James Cruze, D. W. Griffith, Allan Dwan, Rex Ingram, and John Robertson, that the moving picture camera is capable of recording light gray and dark gray, as well as steel white and ebony. ”

“ It will be easily seen that if the lens we use only just covers the plate, that when the front is raised, the lower corners will have no image exposed on them, and the higher the lens is carried, the more of the lower part of the picture will be cut off. ”

“ Fig. 60. centre of the board A. The camera, if of the box type, can be secured to the stand by means of a screw and wingnut, the screw being passed from the inside as shown. The beginner is advised to photograph only very bold and simple subjects, such as black and white drawings or enlargements. It is not safe to trust to the view-finders as to whether the whole of the picture is included on the plate, a piece of ground glass the same size as the plate sheaths, and used as a focussing screen, being much more reliable. ”

“ Turning a handle on the outside of the camera operates it. So that when the scene is ready to be photographed the actors, whether men or animals, begin to move. The handle turns, and the unexposed film is wound from one reel to the other, inside the camera, passing behind the lens, so that the picture falls on it in a flash, just as you take one snapshot. But, as I have said, the moving picture camera takes snapshot after snapshot—sixteen a second—until many thousands are taken, so that when the pictures are shown afterward they give the effect of continuous motion. ”

“ Half a score of actors and actresses moved quickly to their appointed places, while overhead, and at the sides of them hissed powerful electric lights, and in front of them stood a moving picture camera, ready to be operated by a pleasant-faced young man. ”

“ In photographing an interior where the camera is pointed toward a window the light from the window is reflected from the back of the negative, and makes a sort of halo or fog round the picture of the window. ”

“ The paper, which is highly sensitive to light, must now be placed in the camera obscura, in order to receive on its marked surface a distinct image of the landscape or person whose picture is required. After remaining in the camera from ten seconds to several minutes, according to the intensity of the light, it is taken out of the camera in a dark room. If the object has been strongly illuminated, or if the paper has been long in the camera, a sensible picture will be seen on the paper ”

“ When the photographer wishes to develop the picture that is hidden in the film of the sensitive plate he carries it to a darkened room, and bathed in the developing solution the latent image gradually appears, even to the minutest details. ”

“ But when we are shown a motion picture which has been made with the camera pointing downward, so that a level thing, like a plain or the surface of the sea, appears standing on end, then we like to see the points of interest so distributed that the various parts of the screen seem to be proportionally filled. ”

“ Fasten the two upper corners to poles, and when about to take the picture have two men or boys raise the screen just back of the camera. All reflections will be avoided, and a clear picture result. As it is not probable many photographers will prepare such a screen, we advise trimmers to have one made, and keep in readiness for occasions when they want their windows photographed. Flashlight pictures will not avoid reflections. ”

“ The modern idea in framing pictures is to have the frame harmonize with the subject, rather than to employ a stock moulding with set pattern made by the mile, and cut up into frames of all sizes and for all sorts of pictures. All the frames shown in the illustrations accompanying this chapter were made at home, and from such simple materials as thin boards, burlap, tea-chest matting, denim, wire, sheet-lead, harness-rings, and brass-headed upholsterers’ tacks. ”

“ To produce a half-tone block from a picture, a black and white drawing in tone, or a photograph, a negative is exposed in the camera in the usual way, with this screen quite close to it but not in contact ”

“ At this point, termed the focus, the sensitive photographic material is placed for the purpose of obtaining the required picture.
The great desideratum in a photographic camera is perfect lenses. They should be achromatic, and the utmost transparency should be obtained; and under the closest inspection of the glass not the slightest wavy appearance, or dark spot should be detected; and a curvature which as much as possible prevents spherical aberration should be secured. ”