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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 700, 15 July 1869, Page 4

| Photogeaph Sitters.—The public does not appreciate the fact that very careful dressing is required to obtain a satisfactory audience of the sun. Sol is even more inexorable than any Court flunkey in such matters. The public seems to think that the sun takes cognisance pf any colour that may be presented to him, and finds out its mistake when too late. Yellow or orango may suit the brunette, and mauve, or the lighter shades of blue and grey, may harmonize with the blonde ; but in the camera it is %r otherwise. The yellow ray of the spectrum does not affect the silver plate, whilst mauves, purples, and blue 3 do most actively ; thus, when the printing process reverses the shades on the photographic plate, the yellow becomes black, and the delicate colours above mentioned print nearly pure white. Thug sitters sometimes become so altered in their photographic portrait that they scarcely recognise themselves. Gloriana with golden hair comes forth with raven tresses, and the yellow rose in Rebecca's coiffure is as black as the locks which they adorn. A certain class of people, again, like the sun to register their finery. Ladies who but seldom go to Court wish to make the most of the occasion, quite regardless of the fact that stiff brocades, especially during the crinoline fashion, give anything but an elegant contour to the figure. There has been of late, however, a very great improvement in this'respect, and all the belter-class photographers have learned to impress upon Their sitters the value of simplicity, both as regards pose and dress. In certain quarters of the town, however, the rage for pretence is as great as ever, both on the part of the sitter and the photographer. It will be observed that the lower the neighbourhood the more varied the amount of properties and scenic decorations to be found in the studio. Probably the carpenter would prefer being taken working at his bench ; but the photographer, who artfully prefers pleasing Jones's wife, places him upon a terrace with a far-stretching landscape as a background. Servant maids, again, are seated in splendid boudoirs, and respect able tradesmen are placed in extensive libraries, whereas the only books they feel at home with are their day-books and ledgers. All this is the mere snobbery of the" art, which we rarely see practised in better-class studios. A flat, grey background, which throws up the figure without cutting up its lines is now almost universally employed. Nevertheless, the ignorance that is occasionally displayed by people of the better class with respect iq the manner of taking the photograph would scarcely bo believed. On one occasion, two ladies entered the sitting-room of a studio, and placing themselves before a mirror, after some time wished to know if the portraits were not finished, evidently thinking that the looking-glass was the operating agent. In another case we heard that a young lady intimated her desire that her hair should be made a little longer,— and it has been desired that even jewellery should be omitted in the portrait, the sitter making no attempt to remove it herself. One old gentleman in the country even sent up the colour of his hair to the colouring artist of the Stereoscopic Company, and called four days afterwards to inquire if the portrait was done ! Young lady sitters, during the present fashion of wearing the hair, are not photographed to advantage, the chignon affording a very substantial foundation for the head-rest. —" Cartes de Visite," by Andrew Wynter, in " Good Words."