PRINTING SKIES INTO LANDSCAPE NEGATIVES ; COMBINATION PRINTING.
We have already said that in certain cases suitable clouds can be got on the same plate as the landscape, but this is a very rare exception. In nine cases out of ten a landscape negative shows no clouds or only such as are unsuitable for making a picture. In this case it is necessary to print in clouds from another negative.
In our chapter on landscape work we mentioned cases in which it is desirable to take a cloud negative for the sole purpose of printing into a certain landscape. This is a thing which may be done on the rare occasions when the clouds which are in the sky at the time of exposure appear to compose better with the picture than any others could. The landscape photographer cannot, how ever, consider that he has all the necessities for printing until he has a set of negatives of clouds of all the various kinds which are to be seen, and lighted from all the different directions, so that he may find one suitable for any landscape which he wishes to print. These cloud negatives are very easy to get if a suitable position be chosen and when suitable weather occurs. It will be noticed that by far the finest cloud effects are to be seen when the weather is somewhat unsettled. On a breezy day in spring, when it appears just possible that a shower may fall at any moment, the photographer, if he can find a position which commands the whole four quarters of the heavens, may secure as many cloud negatives as will serve him for years. A word of warning must be given. It will be found that the most striking effects of clouds are always to be seen near the sun. At a distance of ten to sixty degrees from the sun's position the clouds usually have very beautiful outlines, and are lighted in a very brilliant manner. A few negatives of such clouds may be secured, but it is to be borne in mind that it is comparatively seldom that they will be brought into requisition. Landscapes are at times taken with the camera looking towards or nearly towards the sun, and some of these give very fine effects, but the vast majority of landscapes are lit from the front or side, and therefore the photographer should be careful to secure cloud negatives similarly lighted. It will be
noticed that the effects produced when the sun is high in the heavens are quite different from those seen when he is near the horizon. For this reason we should secure negatives both taken near midday and in the early morning, or late in the afternoon. The exposures for clouds at midday are somewhat shorter than those which we give in the table of exposures under the heading "Sea and Sky;" for clouds when the sun is very near the horizon they are somewhat longer.
A thing to be further borne in mind is this—the more striking a cloud negative is, the finer a result may be got by an artistic worker, but the more likeli hood is there, if he possess not the requisite skill, that an incongruity will result. We must all begin at the beginning, and it is well to remember that the printing in of clouds is an operation requiring great judgment, and that, until we have attained suffi cient confidence in ourselves, it is best to use negatives which will give only a suggestion of fleecy clouds, and not have such as show striking outlines and bold lighting.
Nothing can be conceived more ridiculous than a landscape showing clouds which were evidently lighted in a totally different manner from the terrestrial objects.
We have seen photographs of two landscapes lighted from different sides, the sun evidently in the case of each high and somewhat to the front (that is to say, rather behind than in front of the camera). In each of these landscapes there were shown the same cloud& These were unsuitable for either, being evidently lighted from nearly behind, and to make the absurdity complete were printed in 'upside down! We hope that none of our readers will fall into such blunders as these, but it must be borne in mind that there are many smaller errors which may be committed.