MEDALLION VIGNETTES.
These resemble the India tint vignettes, except that in printing down the centre mask is kept still, and prints with a sharp edge. Another striking effect is obtained from as usual. This method is only of use in the hands of one having a good knowledge of drawing and retouching, owing to the large amount of handwork entailed. The necessity for copying, and its accompanying loss of detail and grada tion, are also serious drawbacks for ordi nary work ; although for process repro duction this makes no difference compara tively. In the best combination printing, little or no handwork is employed. In some of the examples of the late Mr. H. P. Robinson a large number of negatives were used to produce the effect. It will be seen, therefore, that unless each printing is carried out most carefully, an error in one part of the work may ruin the whole. The work is specially applicable to " subject pictures," or to the definite construction of pictures intended to illustrate a poetic dramatic situation. REGISTRATION. The chief difficulty likely to be met with in combination printing is that of correct registration, or getting the various parts to join up together naturally. To effect this, see that the joining does not come in a very prominent place, if it can be avoided. If, however, there are any
well defined outlines these may be chosen for the joining boundaries, as the two sets of lines can be more easily blended. For example, it was discovered that it was easier, and resulted in a better join, to make the boundary the outer edge of the frame rather than the inside, which had a more broken edge ; as in this case it was necessary to mask the small negative so that it also had an uneven edge exactly agreeing. Suppose, for example, that a new head has to be printed on a figure, as often happens where a figure has moved in an important group, which cannot be taken again ; the joining up can generally be done best by taking the line around the collar as the boundary. Whilst speaking of this, it might be mentioned that a plan, sometimes adopted by photographers who make a speciality of flattering their subjects to any extent required, is to photograph the head merely, and to take a separate negative of a model having an excellent figure in a similar dress. The two negatives are then printed from in combination.