" AVERAGE " PORTRAITS A style of picture made by taking several portraits of the same size upon one plate, or by printing from several portrait negatives upon one piece of paper, the result being sup posed to give a type of the whole. Such pic tures are claimed by some to be of scientific value to students of anthropology, but they are more generally looked upon as curiosities. About the year 1887 they were popular in the United States. Their origin is said to be due to a con versation between Herbert Spencer and Francis Galton about the year 1876, and Darwin also had some correspondence on the subject in 1877. The original idea was to have heads of two different people, one upon each half of a stereo scopic picture, and to combine the two in a stereoscope, which method serves admirably; but not more than two different heads can be combined in this way, whereas by taking nega tives specially for the work any number of faint images of several portraits in succession can be obtained on one plate, finally developing the whole as one portrait. If reasonable care is taken in the making of such a composite negative there is seldom anything about the composite picture to indicate that it is not a mere portrait of an individual, whereas, of course, it is a com bination of the portraits of several. Full or three-quarter faces make the best composites, and before beginning the work the focusing screen should be marked where the eyes, nose, and mouth are to be upon the screen, the mark ings being made when the first sitter is posed and focused. The images of the sitters which follow must be adjusted to those lines; and as there is a variation in the distances between eyes, nose, and mouth, the camera has to be adjusted after each partial exposure. The total time of exposure must be divided up between the number of sitters. If, for example, the time required for an ordinary portrait is three seconds, and it is required to make a composite portrait of three sitters, the exposure in each case will be one second. When the number of sitters is relatively great, the lens must be stopped down to allow of increased exposure being given. For example, in making a composite portrait of six sitters, it would be better to use such a small stop that the exposure would be increased to, say, twelve seconds, when each sitter would be given two seconds. The lighting should be
the same throughout, and it is also advisable to have a dark covering over the shoulders and round the neck, instead of white collars, fancy ties, blouses, etc., so as to obtain a uniform effect.
An inferior method is to copy a series of por trait prints upon one plate so as to get one negative of the whole ; and another is to make transparencies from several portrait negatives (if they match properly) and make one negative from them by contact or through the camera, printing or copying each in turn so as to get a negative of the whole, by a series of partial exposures.
Probably the most famous of all composite portraits was that produced by Oliver Lip pincott, of New York ; it included portraits of fifty-one bank managers, and took from Decem ber io, l9o8, to July 27, 1909, to complete. All were taken full face, and all eyes and pupils were registered, irrespective of the size of the head. Positives were made from the original negatives—all of which were taken separately— by means of prismatic reflectors and a twelve power magnifying glass, and registered accurately upon the screen. Every fourth positive was again converted into a negative, and every fourth negative again into a positive, the process being repeated until the final negative was arrived at, and the whole of the fifty-one individuals con verted into one portrait. Lippincott states that it took 783 negatives and positives to accomplish the work, and, deducting failures, it took 553 positives and negatives to complete the one picture, which was widely published under the title of " The King of Finance." Composite prints of a sort may be made from existing portrait negatives if they happen to match in posing, lighting, and size. P.O.P. is used and the first negative partly printed, the remaining negatives being then printed in turn upon the one piece of paper, and the print finished in the usual way.
There is a kind of composite photography (not portraiture) frequently employed in the pro duction of picture postcards. Figures are cut out from different prints, stuck upon the same base, and copied, in this way obtaining many curious but worthless, inartistic, and untruthful effects.