Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1890 — Composite Photography. [ARTICLE]

Composite Photography.

Composite photography is a device which first came into notice three or four years ago. A sitter is posed before a camera, which is adjusted to giv6 a large picture of the sitter’s face. The position of the eyes and lips is marked on the ground glass, and then the plate is exposed perhaps for onetenth of the usual time. Another sitter then replaces the first, and the eyes and lips being made to correspond with the marks on the ground glass, another brief exposure of the same plate is made. The process is repeated with eight other persons, and the plate is then developed. The result is a pictured which common characteristics of all the sitters are strongly marked, while individual peculiarities are only faintly shown. There are some exceptions to this rule, however, as a blonde person with a very smooth skin will counteract the effect of many darker and more wrinkled faces. Hence the composite portrait of a group of persons of different ages appears younger than the average of all of the sitters’ ages. The first face taken is also found to be more strongly impressed than the others, if the exposures are equal. The method may be of value in establishing definite national or local types. It is, at any rate, an interesting subject of study. Applied to portraits of the same person drawn by different artists, it is probable that composite photography may give a more correct representation of the original than is afforded by any one of the pictures. In this way several new portraits of Washington and other celebrated persons have been obtained. When applied to autographs, it is claimed that this method serves to establish perfectly characteristic signatures. It may thus be of great service in the detection of forgeries.