The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-26

the painting and the print from the workedlover plate when laid side by side showed at a glance what was the trouble, the one was q conventional portrait, more or less idealized, the other was a likeness. Eventually the artist corrected some ofe.the faults of his painting by the very photograph that had been made from it.
 Drapery may as a rule be easily paint ed in where only minor change is re- quired. Thus in many an old daguerreo- type of d mother and her baby the mothers hand Is grossly out of focus, and in reproducing the picture is hot difficult 10 work out the hand altogether and work in the drapery. But when 1t comes to reproducing considerable sur face of such a fabric as velvet there is a good test of skill. Yet this has been done with complete success.
 Made a Velvet Skirt.
 A photographer once asked woman who had arranged for a sitting with him to bring oyer her full black velvet even ing gown for one of the poses. She brought over only the waist Neverthe- less the full length picture was taken with the velvet waist and the skirt of the gown that she wore.
 Nothing daunted, the photographer worked on that plate and others made ''At'NtN vet, corresponding absolutely in texture and color with the waist. Even photog- rapher would not dream that the picture had been doctored
 A particularly good bit of work was accomplished with a 1Ntle snapshot of Il woman whose head rose only little way above some lattice work. The photo graph was hardly more than two inches square and possessed no artistic beauty u-ba favor tboupb there was a good pro- file of the woman's head
 When brought up by enlargng the photograph was coarse in a silver print and ntolerable in a carbon. Most people would have given 1t up as bad job, but so a photographer who could do things.
 He took the lattice work away worked in the gown, refined the face by many little touches that brought out what the original suggested, and produced four by six carbon photograph that impresses one with it's beauty. It is like line old portrait mellowed by time into tones of softness.
 A Case of Dead Husband.
 A striking instance of the pains that may be taken in making photographic transformation absolutely satisfying IS Yound in the case of the picture of dead Ausband The material was unpromisng, and as the wife was in the country the photographer had to make long trips fre- uuentIy for consultation with her.
 They would sometimes spend two hours talking over the necessary changes and then drop the subject until later in the day, in the hope that the wife might be able to call to mind some other little feature that was essential to the perfect whole. All this labor paid for in the end the work was pronounced flawless by the hardest person of all to satisfy-the widow.
 Are they not fortunate?" was the comment of a friend of the family who happened to see the photograph hanging in the studio.
 Why" said'a photographers "Because MT. So-and-So had such a fnei picture taken before he died,' was the reply and unconscious consummate praise
 But pains are nothing to an artst-pho- tographer who does this sort of work. II is a matter of pride in his art with him and only the result counts. One who makes a speciality of such feats, although it is a side issue, says that he would think nothing of making 50 plates fl necessity to accomplish what he set oli to do. As each plate means stage of retouchng, his patience may be imagined The cost of a single reproduction may be $50 and it may be $50. None of the few men capable of doing such work would make a price in advance. They would not for each order is despite all the experience. virtually an untried field