STILL ANOTHER OPTIONAL METHOD The foreground and other subjects referred to in the preceeding paragraphs are of the nature of "open views" or those whose planes recede into the mid distance and beyond. There is another distinct class of foreground subjects which it is necessary to notice since their actinicity can not be judged from a measurement of the sky and another method must be provided. These might be described as "closed in" or purely foreground subjects since they are limited as to distance by their own selected or arranged background which rises immediately behind them. In this class are the studio portraits of the professional photographer and all portraits whether in or out of door, still life, commercial subjects, as furniture, implements, etc., and in fact all subjects which are photographed large on the plate and which are closed in by their special background as has been described.
Perhaps most such subjects are photographed indoor entirely away from any overhead sky but even in the case of exterior subjects, as for example, portraits with a shaded grove or a wall as a back ground, it is frequent that there would be no rational basis for comparing the actinicity of the sky with that of the subject. This is true when the sky area is confined to a limited open ing, as between trees, in order to "concentrate" the light as is necessary to secure an effect of light and shade on the subject.
Now in portraiture the cheek or 'forehead can be measured with the f / 1 meter in the usual manner but when a subject has in its brightest parts no area large enough to be so measured, as would be the case for example with a still life subject of fruit or flowers, then a white card may be held near the subject, so as to catch the maximum light and its own actinicity measured. From this measurement the actinicity of the subject can be judged according to its predominat ing, or most actinic color. For this purpose the back of an ordinary white business card may be used but it is preferable to cover a cardboard with white cotton or linen cloth as there is less direct reflection in such a surface. This should be made of a size to go conveniently in a coat pocket.
For the relative "inherent actinicity" of the different colors as compared to white see the table on page 64.
This method is not only simple in practice but is excellent for training the eye to see the characteristic differences between subjects; the bird's eye view with its horizontal planes the mid-distance view in which these planes are dotted with lower actinicities of small expanse and the different classes of foreground subjects with their perpendicular planes, varied colors and varying contrast and the absence of all haze which characterizes distance.