The American annual of photography . work, I endeavor to secure this beforeit goes. I often get the picture all focussed and the plateready for exposure and then wait till I get an expression Ilike. Sometimes it is possible to take the picture withouttelling the sitter, if not, a brisk remark, such as—keep quitestill, just as you are, will nearly always secure the requisiterepose, provided the exposure can be made right away withoutany delay. Complete absence of camera-consciousness is ab-solutely essential and it can be secured only by diverting themind of the sitter into other channels. Some
The American annual of photography . work, I endeavor to secure this beforeit goes. I often get the picture all focussed and the plateready for exposure and then wait till I get an expression Ilike. Sometimes it is possible to take the picture withouttelling the sitter, if not, a brisk remark, such as—keep quitestill, just as you are, will nearly always secure the requisiterepose, provided the exposure can be made right away withoutany delay. Complete absence of camera-consciousness is ab-solutely essential and it can be secured only by diverting themind of the sitter into other channels. Sometimes ratherdrastic methods are necessary in order to make the sitter forgetfor an instant that he is having his picture taken. I once hada difficult task in taking some pictures of a young man, astranger to me, who was trying very hard to look tried the conversation method without much success till,suddenly, apropos of nothing, I said to him—What did youhave for breakfast this morning? His surprise at my foolish 196. Figure 4. Illustrating Article Character and Individuality in Portraiture,by Arthur Hammond. question made him, for an instant, forget himself and in thatinstant I made a successful exposure. Look at Figure 2, notice the attitude and the poise of thehead. This is obviously natural and characteristic. It wouldhave been quite impossible for me, or anyone else, deliberatelyto have arranged the boys head in this manner without theattitude being forced and strained. The attitude and expres-sion show the type. So it is also in Figures 3 and 4, themanner of holding the head, well up and back in Figure 3 andleaning forward in Figure 4, is absolutely natural. In these three pictures that show only the head and shoulders,the pose and poise of the head is distinctly characteristic, butwhen the hands and arms are shown in the picture the possi-bilities of showing character are much increased. In the group picture, Figure 5, the younger boys hands maynot be part
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyorktennantandw
