Vignette

“ The designation Vignette, which expresses the French diminutive of vine or tendril, owes its origin to the vine-leaves or branches that properly surround the photographs produced in this style. A photograph of the larger size is called a Cabinet because it forms a picture suited to the walls of a cabinet or very small room. ”

“ Any rule differentiating the Printer’s Mark proper from a 47 vignette is not likely to give general satisfaction; for a writer on the subject of vignettes will unfailingly appropriate many that are Marks, and vice versa. The present writer has found it a fairly safe rule, to accept as a Mark a pictorial embellishment (on a title-page) to which is appended a motto or quotation. ”

“ Type ornaments and flowers began, like the initials, with the Orna- illuminators, and were afterwards cut on wood or metal. The first ments printed ornament or vignette is supposed to be the scutum or arms and of Fust and Schoeffer in their edition of the Bible of 1462. There flowers, is no vignette in the Subiaco Lactantnis of 1465 (as stated by Mr Reed, Letter Foundries, p. 82) . In Holtrop s Monum. Typogr. des Pays-Bos may be seen borders used by some of the earliest printers of Holland (1475-1490) which would not look bad even in the present time. ”

“ A new vignette is made by washing the glass and applying the paint in a different shape. This device for making vignetted pictures will be found very handy, and one which can be easily prepared.
Sir Knight W. Ryerson asks to have the rules of the competition published; what the cause of the yellowish color is in the finished negative; the expense of putting up a reasonable amount of toning solution; and the necessary qualifications to belong to the Camera Club. The competition rules were published in the Round Table for October 6. ”

“ In order to give the likeness and correct drawing, the face and bust and hands of portraits are taken by the lens, and then enlarged to the size of an ordinary water-colour sketch, which the artist colours and finishes off in the form of a vignette portrait, by a few free washes of the brush. It is almost impossible to tell these exquisite works of art from an ordinary water-colour, but that the drawing of the face and hands is beyond the human draughtsman’s power. ”

“ The borders carry out the plan of the table of vignettes, containing three scenes from the Bible and three heads, with explanatory text, on each page throughout the greater part of the book. Towards the end these are replaced by figures of saints and angels. The artist's designs have been rather spoilt by the engraver, whose strokes are frequently much too black. ”

“ By using a sheet of ground glass in a frame and painting on it with a non-actinic paint, water-color paint, a vignetting glass is made which is always ready for use by simply washing off the paint and covering again, leaving the shape of the vignette clear.
The frame for the glass may be of wood, or one can take an empty plate-box a little larger than the printing-frame, cut out the bottom, and put the glass in its place, gluing strips of cloth along the edge to hold it in place. The ground side of the glass should be uppermost. ”

“ Lithographed bond blank, raised wings, perched eagle design vignette at top, circle vignette at bottom; letter “d” in lower left hand corner on face; orange border on face and back. © 3May29; K4382. Goes Lithographing Co. (PWH) ”

“ A vignetter is a device, fixed generally in front of a lens, that consists of a number of crescent-shaped segments of thin metal pivoted on a circumference. When these segments move in unison toward the centre, they gradually decrease the aperture in the lens tube. But when the movement is in a contrary direction, they cause the aperture to open by degrees. Those who have used an ordinary snap-shot camera no doubt are familiar with a similar device—the iris diaphragm, or lens stop. ”

“ Now in the books published at this epoch in France we meet with vignettes which so very nearly approach miniatures, that we can easily recognise in them French taste and finish. Such are, for example, the illustrations of the Mer des Histoires, printed by Le Rouge in 1488, where suppleness of design is blended in some parts with extraordinary dexterity in engraving. Nevertheless, others leave something to be desired; they maim the best subjects by their unskilful line and their awkwardness of handling. ”

“ In sending to the etchers a drawing in which a shading medium is to be introduced, the practice is to mark such portions as are to be shaded by scribbling over with blue pencil; this is at once understood better than written instructions. It had better be stated whether a dark or light tint be required; also whether it is to be vignetted or shaded all over. Vignetting is the most usual, as seen in the accompanying block, page 92. It is usual for the process people to make a slight additional charge for the introduction of tints; especially if at all complicated. ”

“ The gradual closing of the vignetter has its reciprocal part in the gradual opening; the lessening of the light strength is reciprocal to the increase of the light strength; then the fading of definiteness in one picture is made up by the gradually increasing clearness in the other. ”

“ Plain Vignettes.—The usual vignetted portrait is that which represents a good-sized head and shoulders in the space allotted to the picture. For a carte-de-visite, a head measuring about 11/4 inches from the top of the head to the chin is a good proportion. Larger sizes are often made, but they look coarse and vulgar, as if the photographer had tried how much quantity he could give for the money, regardless of quality; and even if the quality is good, the vulgar effect is still there. For a cabinet size a head of 13/4 or 17/8 inches is quite large enough. ”

“ Perhaps the trade have more to answer for than the printer, since the qualities of the wares advertised for the use of the vignetter are often exaggerated to such a degree that they are supposed to be suitable to any pictures. ”

“ In such methods the artist has a perfect right to leave the background untinted, or only to shade round the head so as to give it relief, but with a perfect technique like photography, vignetting is useless, nay inartistic and false, as it destroys all tonality. ”

“ The next methods of vignetting are dependent on simple laws of optics. Suppose you cut a round hole in a card, say, half-inch in diameter, and so arrange it that all the light getting to a sensitive paper comes through this hole, and that the card is for our experiment placed half-an-inch from the paper. Now place the hole so as to face the sky, but so as the sun has no direct rays falling through the hole. It will be found that the greatest darkening will not occupy a space exactly opposite the hole, but be away from the side on which the light is brightest. ”

“ No feature of early printing is more unworkmanlike than that of composition. Imitating the style of the manuscript copy, the compositor huddled together words and paragraphs in solid columns of dismal blackness, and sent his forms to press without title, running-titles, chapter-heads and paging-figures. ”

“ One spot or circumference there should be toward which through the suppression of other parts the eye is led at once. When there, even though the vision has passed far into the canvas, one is at the focal point only, the true goal of the pictorial intention. Any element which proves too attractive along this avenue of entrance is confusing to the sight and weakening to the impression. ”

“ Seen near, you see the drawing through the film; but as you go away the light will come pouring stronger and stronger through the brush or stipple marks on the cheeks, until all films will cut out against it like black spots, altering the whole expression past recognition.
Try this on simple terms:—
Do a face on white glass in strong outline only: step back, and the face goes to nothing; strengthen the outline till the forms are quite monstrous—the outline of the nose as broad as the bridge of it—still, at a given distance, it goes to nothing; the expression varies every step back you take. ”

“ Light to be manipulated at will, lenses to grasp objects in and out of the present focus with equal intensity and proportion: as a painter places objects upon his canvas at what distance and under what shadow he pleases, so I think the photographer will yet do, and that before long, as he will, I am sure, yet be able to reproduce by the camera and his chemicals all the colours in the object set up before him, as he sees it reflected upon his ground-glass focussing plate. ”

“ It can do no harm at least for any painter to keep the law always in mind, to be used whenever its use will add an element of beauty or of distinction to his work.
In addition to the above defined theory, a long and close study of the law of refraction has left on my mind the strong conviction that the out-worn and rather cheap practice of vignetting was not without a certain sound basis of justification in the underlying laws of nature. ”

“ We would have a face to start out from the canvas at once—not feature by feature, or touch by touch; we would be glad to convey an attitude or a divine expression to the spectator by a stroke of the pencil, as it is conveyed by a glance of the eye, or by the magic of feeling, independently of measurements, and distances, and foreshortening, and numberless minute particulars, and all the instrumentality of the art. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Of the canvas you make a screen, you build a dwelling with the pile of stones, chisel a door-sill out of the block, with the vocabulary you write an essay. And in each case you work well and creatively, if your work be in harmony with God’s laws, if your screen be light, sightly, and protective, your dwelling healthful and commodious, your sill lie solid and square, your essay be judicious and sound. ”

“ They have shown us that it is possible to produce sub-titles with light gray lettering against a dark gray ground, and that such a combination of tones is pleasing to the eye. They have shown us that it is possible to screen a lady of the fairest face and dressed in the snowiest gown so as to bring out the softest tones of light and shade, yet show nothing as dazzling as snow and nothing as black as ebony. ”

“ Slender ribbon-like falls hang lightly from the brow of a sheer precipice or dash in foam down some rocky gulch, and the morning mists that linger on the wooded peaks veil in mystery the beauty beyond. One's desire to possess and perpetuate some scene of beauty becomes irresistible, when, out comes the camera — snap — and the thing is done! ”

“ When the sky is printed deep enough, remove the cover and print the rest of the picture.
The openings for vignetting may be cut in any shape desired—oval, pear-shape, round, triangle, etc.
Sir Knight Harry Patty, of California, sends a long list of questions, which we will try to answer to his satisfaction. Is it better to take portraits out-of-doors in the shade, or is the light more easily controlled in the house; should the light fall on the sitter from his left or right side, or is it immaterial ”

“ A growing fondness for pictures is a marked peculiarity in the intellectual development of the age. It was not confined to the buyers of printed images: it was manifested in the paintings on the walls and windows of magnificent churches, in the pictorial playing cards then in the hands of all people, gentle and simple, and more than all in the fearful pictures of the Dance of Death upon the walls of convents, in the arcades of burying-grounds, and in market-places and town halls. ”

“ A first glance at the windows produces only the effect of a gorgeous maze of colouring, through which we marvel that any clue should have been found. Next to the general effect of the ineffably harmonious blending of hues, the audacious vividness of the hues themselves, red and green and blue and gold and purple, is what first impresses the eye. Then we notice how, down the central light of each window, stand, one above another, four great figures, human or angelic, each displaying an inscribed scroll. ”

“ I live in a show window that opens out in many worlds and many places that are hidden from me by a veil that sometimes grows thin, so I can see through it. And from the other side of that veil, even when I cannot see through it, come the voices of the watchers, as they pass by, or pause to look at me. ”

“ The actual construction of an early window is very much like the putting together of a puzzle. The puzzle of our childhood usually took the form of a map. It has occurred to me, therefore, to show how an artist working strictly after the manner of the thirteenth century—the period, that is to say, when painting was subsidiary to glazing—would set about putting into glass a map of modern Italy. ”

“ On the other hand, a friend of mine who has produced many, eminently successful picture films, scribbles the bare idea on a single sheet of paper—the back of an envelope suffices sometimes—briefly indicating the progress of the plot step by step, retaining all the stage business in his head, and modifying his ideas as he proceeds, to suit the circumstances. ”

“ I laid down my pen, raked out the envelope, took out the sheet of paper. On it was the sentence, not in Miss Winston's small, exquisite penmanship, but in my own great sprawling hand. For a moment or two I stared at it in bewildered surprise. ”