Alfred Horsley Hinton: Trending quotes (page 2)

“The objection to the shiny, highly polished surface of albumen and gelatine papers is that, besides the fact that the surface reflects false and disturbing lights, the very polish and gloss has an artificial appearance which, from its very superfine character, irresistibly reminds us of its origin and nature.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Printing methods and their bearing on pictorial photography, p. 71

Nature , Light , Appearance , Falseness

“It must be remembered that after all in making a picture we are endeavoring to set down on one plane various objects in such a way as to suggest an infinitude of varying planes, and hence we are justified in selecting such conditions of nature as shall help us to give the impression of truthfulness, even though it be not in particular cases absolutely true to fact.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Tone and atmoshphere, p. 46

Truth , Way , Nature , Help

“Inferior as a mechanical printing method for ordinary photographic purposes, the gum process may for a time at least be regarded as standing apart for pictorial purposes, because the large amount of personal control which must be exercised before it can be said to show distinct advantages over other methods implies that the controlling hand must be guided by an artist that is, a man of such large instinctive artistic taste that one can hardly conceive that he would be able to produce a better result by painting, and without the use of photography at all, were he to devote the same skill and endeavour to the employment of brush or pencil, instead of photographic appliances.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Printing methods and their bearing on pictorial photography, p. 73

Exercises , Time , Painting , Personality

“… generally speaking, a thin negative, one with a minimum of contrast and density, yet with just sufficient to give the amount of contrast required in the print, should be aimed at; but it must possess very soft gradation throughout.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Development of negatives, p. 106

“…--- a view may include any number of interesting facts, may constitute a whole catalog of important and pretty items, and so be valuable as a view or as a record; but it would utterly fails as a pictorial composition.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Methods - The practical application of means to end, p. 19

“The utmost care and forethought, and no little manipulative skill, are necessary to control the defining power of the lens or detail printing power of a sharply focused negative.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Part II : Practical Pictorial Photography, The consideration of some examples of sharp and suppressed definition, p. 39

“Should any of my readers have failed to get useful cloud negatives, and are close upon giving up in despair, as I have known many to be, I would recommend them to forthwith take a slow plate, insert F 45 stop in the lens, and make a quick shutter exposure on some wellmarked sun -lit clouds. Then develop with a slightly diluted developer, and see what comes of it. Probably, if the clouds be heavy, they will be a little under-exposed. Then, from this as a basis it should not be difficult to get on the right road.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Clouds. Their use, and practical instructions as to how to photography them, p. 93

Sun , Despair

“Very great care should then be taken to see that distant objects are rendered so as to appear distant that is, in correct relative tone when compared with the foreground or nearer portions.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Tone and atmoshphere, p. 40

Distant , Appearance

“In rave cases, if the sun be behind the observer, the distant land may catch a powerful ray of sunlight, whilst the clouds overhanging it may remain in shadow, and hence light buildings, yellow cornfields, etc., may appear lighter than the distant clouds, but they at the same time gain in an appearance of nearness.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Perspective of clouds, p. 100

Light , Distant , Appearance , Time

“… nature often produces combinations and effects which on paper appear incorrect.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Illumination of clouds and the direction of light, p. 101

Nature , Appearance

“The sky is as much an essential part of the picture as any other part of it, and indeed, in very many instances, constitutes the key-note and important feature of the whole idea.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Clouds. Their use, and practical instructions as to how to photography them, p. 92

Idea , Parting

“We are then brought to consider Platinotype, which, on the whole, may be regarded as the most suitable for general pictorial work. Its power of rendering relative tones and atmosphere is perhaps unequalled, whilst, although every one who has used it has sometimes wished that the undeveloped image were more visible, yet the pale, ghost-like print made by the light is very much better than nothing at all, and, indeed, may often be quite sufficient to guide us in our endeavours to control the action of light in a manner to be shortly described.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Printing methods and their bearing on pictorial photography, p. 72

Light

“Both with the negative in position and subsequently without it, every part of a large print is, maybe, thus printed in, piece by piece, a large print often occupying me two or three days.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Printing the picture and controlling its formation, p. 88

Parting

“He (the photographer) has practically created a new thing out of materials gathered from nature; upon a foundation of fact he has allowed his imagination to build up an entirely fictitious scene, and the truth of the effect will depend upon how far his perceptions have been trained by studying nature at various times, so as to know how things might look under certain circumstances.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Printing the picture and controlling its formation, p. 78

Truth , Imagination , Nature , Study

“It is often difficult and well-nigh impossible, when using the lens, to get all planes in moderate focus without getting one or some part excessively so, and similarly, if we avoid excessive sharpness in each and every part, some planes, such as the extreme distance or immediate foreground, so broken up as to destroy form and structure. Then it is that the pin-hole, with its equal focus in all planes and at any focal length, seems to recommend itself; but if it be desired to emphasize any object, by introducing more detail there than elsewhere, then the uniform sharpness of the pin-hole image fails us.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Pin-hole as a substitute for the lens, p. 60

Parting

“It must not be supposed that it is always necessary to present our landscapes with an attractive and well-defined arrangement of clouds; on the contrary, it will often happen that the effect of a scene is best emphasized by a mere grey tint representing a covered sky or even a blue, cloudless sky; but this is a very different thing to rendering it as a white blank.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Composition and clouds considered as an aid to expression, p. 105

“In such a picture the artist may depart from actual fact, from what actually was, so long as he does not exceed what might have been.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Printing the picture and controlling its formation, p. 78

“We know the mountain peaks are lofty, and we think of them so, and we mentally enlarge them, but not the cottage at their foot, or the trees half way up.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, The use of the lens in pictorial work, p. 57

Way , Mountain , Thinking , Tree

“The composition may be ever so carefully worked out, but it must appear unconsciously done. And so it will be best in most cases to depart slightly from precise and symmetrical arrangement, as though unintentionally, lest the endeavor to obey artificial rules betrays itself.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Methods - The practical application of means to end, p. 20

Appearance

“The chief characteristic of the pin-hole photograph is that we get a general suppression of focus in all parts the picture is nowhere quite sharp.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton

Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Pin-hole as a substitute for the lens, p. 60

Parting