US521064A - Litmowiapmix - Google Patents

Description

2. b 4 R 9 n@ m 8 N w/ S 1|. h .P 5 m` t 6 e .M n s u 2 J d 8 t m t mv`l a P N H. VANDER WEYDE. MBTHQD 0F AND LENS FOR MAKING PHOTOGRAPHS. No. 521,064.

LA /K jm ATTORNEYS.

HENRY VANDER.' WEYDE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

METHOD OF AND LENS FOR MAKING PHOTOGRAPHS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 521,064,1:lated June 5, 1894.

Application filed May 2, 1893. Serial No. 472,712. (Specimens) Patentedin France July 29,1892, No.223,317; iii Belgium July Z9, 1892, No. 100,732, and in Italy September 30, 1892, XXVI, 3,246, and LXIII, 468.

To @ZZ whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY VANDER WEYDE, artist and electric-light photographer, of 182 Regent Street, London, in the county of Middlesex, England, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Photography, (for which I have obtained Letters Patent in the following countries, namely: France, dated July 29, 1892, No. 223,317; Belgium, dated July 29, 1892, No. 100,732, and Italy, dated September 30, 1892, Vols. XXVI and LXIII, Nos. 3,246 and 468,) of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an improvement in portrait photography, whereby to enable .the subject to be idealized, without sacrificing the fidelity of the portrait, by locally modifying the relative dimensions of certain portions of the subject, so as to impart an appearance of dignity and remedy the distortion due to inaccurate foreshortening heretofore inherent to ordinary photography. For instance, the size of the'head and of the hands and feet may be reduced, or the length of the neck or Waist or of thevskirt of the dress or the size of the bust or the breadth of the shoulders or hips, may be increased without otherwise altering the proportions of the picture. These artistic modifications may be eected either in photographing the living subject, or in copying or .enlarging a photographic negative or positive, and the etect produced is visible to the operator and may be duly appreciated before the photograph is taken.

' The invention consists essentially in interposing, in the pencil of rays, lens-like media of peculiar form, whereby the rays of light which are transmitted from those portions of Vthe subject whose relative dimensions it is desired to modify will .be so retracted as to produce the eect desired, and yet the part or parts so modified will iiow into. and merge naturally with the surroundings. The said media maybe interposed either within or wlthout the camera, according to circumstances; for instance when photographing the living subject they would be situated within the camera, while in copying or enlarging they f mi fbzimthe same; position or situated beoriginstandtheoamera or inboth used. Such lens-like media are convex or concave according to the position in which they are used and the elect to be produced, but it is essential in order to modify the dimensions of a portion only of the image` while leaving the remainder unaltered and' yet show no line of demarcation or break of continuity between the two portions, that the lenses shall differ from ordinary lenses in that sitions lenses of opposite curvature would be the curved surface of the lens portion shall fr gradually merge with or graduate into a plane.

surface by which the rays of light are not ap'- preciably retracted, so as to cause the effect produced by the interposition of said'lens-like media, to meet or flow naturally into the surroundings.

v Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, wherein Figure 1 is a diagrammatic sectional elevation, showing the lens-like media interposed in the pencil of rays, both between the origi nal photograph and the camera lens and between the latter and the sensitive plate. Figs.

2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, are perspective views, illustrating dierent forms of the refracting media producing diierent effects. Fig. 7 shows a lens to be supported adjustably on a flat plate of glass. All of these lenses may be made of glass and kept in stock for general purposes. Figs. 8, 9, and 10, illustrate the effect as applied to the reduction of the head of a ligure in copying or enlarging; Fig. 8 being the original, Fig. 9 the effect which would be produced'were an ordinary lens, such as that shown in Fig. 13, to be used, and Fig. 10

the eiect produced by the lens of the peculiarform shown in Figs. l1 and 12. Figs. 14 and 15 illustrate the effect as applied to the reduction of the hands (represented as clasped in front of the knee of the sitter) the reduction being in one direction only and obtained by the use of an oval lens, shown in face and edeeyewin Fia 16, ringgtoFiglLAi-s au ordil of the image whose position in the picture face of the plate in or on which the lens is `eration ot photographing a living subject 'orf era provided with thensuaiphetergraphielens. B is a plate of giasstitted within thef camera just inl front of and covering the whole surface ofgthe sensitive plate P. The plate B is plane, "except that there is formedon its sur-Y face alens-like convexity bshown alsein Figs. 2, 11, and 12, in such position that the image of the head will be projected through it, sup-- posing, for instance, that it is desired to reduce the size of the head, As the position in the picture of this part of the image is generally about the same, this lens may be an in- I tegral part of the plate B but as the position of the hands is more variable it is more convenient in modifying the dimensions of these parts of the image to use separate lenses, such as shown in Figs. 7 and 16 which by merely moistening their flat surface may be1 made to adhere to thelate Bin any desired position, asshewn at' Fig. 1. The eft'ecti produced bythese lenses'is-visible on the focusing screen and they are readily accessible for adjustment. The lenses b and b maybe thusv used within the-camera, both in the opin copying'or enlarging a photographic negative, transparency,orpicture. The lenses are of the peculiar form hereinafterdescribed and theireft'ect when used within thecamera is -to` locally reduce the proportions of the parts ofthe image which they retract. If it :were-desired to locallyenlarge a portion is, `like the head, yapproximately constant, aplate I) having a-'concavity d in its surface, asshown in Fig. 3, would he used instead of the plate jB. But for locally enlarging por` tions of the image whose position is variable inthe picture, adjustable lenses of concave formv cannot be so conveniently employed, be-` cause being necessarily thick at theA edges a sharp line would be shown on the photograph, needing to be'retouched ont. I therefore prefer to use the convex lenses b', Fig. -7, and produce the enlarging effect, in the operation of copying a photographic negative, transparency, or picture C, as next described. D is 'a' plate-of glass yinterposed between 'the original C and the camera-lens. In the surface'of'this plate Dthere is formeda concavity'd. The eflectof` this concave lensd appliedin'this'position is the same as that of' thecnvex lens b applied within the camera asbefore described, so that by using the one plate (either kthe plate B or the plate D) in the position shown, in conjunction with adjustable lenses b', applied thereto, or to a plain platefinthe position of the other plate, any number of 'desired local modifications may be eected.

Itis to be observed that in both the convex andconcave forms of these lenses, the curvature is wave-like, that is to say reversed toward the margin of the lens portion, so as tograduate into or merge with the plane surformed or applied, the object of this reversal -ward the sensitive platerP,therays which are `intercepted by theV lens X `will be. retracted,

break of continuity or lines of demarcation. The plane portion of the plate in or on which the lenses are formed or applied is of such dimensions as to cover the whole area of the picture and no apparent eectis produced by the refraction of the rays passing through the plane portion, but that part of the image which is refracted through the middle p0rtion of the lens is reduced or enlarged, as the 8o case may be, the opposite effect being produced where the curvature is reversed toward lthe margin of the lens, so that the proportions of the picture, as a whole, undergo no change.

Thiselect is quite different to'what would 85 be produced by the use of an ordinary lens,

and in rillustration of mymeaning I will refer to Figs. 8, 9, and 10, which illustrate the et'- fects produced by yanordinary lensand by'a lens having the reversed orwave-lke curvag'o ture above' referred to.

Suppose that it is desiredto reproducethe picture shown in Fig.. 8 butwith the size of the head reduced so as to impart greater dit,- nity or graceto the picture. I f itbe attempted to produce this eect by the interpositionof an ordinary plano-convex lens, suchas shown atX in Fig. t3, in the `pencil of lrays proceeding in the direction of the-.arrow toas indicated in that gure, but those which 'are not so intercepted will be unchanged, and the consequence will bea sharp break of continuityv in the outlines of the image and an unilluminated zone corresponding to the edges of the lens (as indicated by lthedark. spaces in Fig. 13) producing an eect sueltas' that indicated in Fig. 9 which no amount of retouching could disguise, whereas by employing aA lens b of the special-form shown in Figs. 1, 2, l1, and 12, the light rays are -refracted, as shown in thelatter figure, and the same reduction ofthe size of the head isproduced, as shown in Fig. 10, without any suchl break, the outlines harmonizin'g with and wing into the surrounding portionsot the picture. Similarly with regard to Figs. V14

and 15in which the reduction of dimensions is in0 one direction only so as to render the hands: slimmer, this effect being obtained by a lens b? of reversed or wave-like curvature and of approximately oval form, such` as shown in face and edge view in Fig. 16.` Il", however, it be desired to vary thelength, say, of the lower part of thepicture over i-tswhole width a plano-convex or plano-concave lens, sueltas shown in Fig. 4 or Fig. 5, would be used, the lens portion c being situated at'one end of4 and extending across the full width-tof vr3 the plate E through ywhich the whole of the image isrefracted, the partof the image refracted-through the lens-portion e alonefundergoing any change. The form of the lens used would, as previously described, depend on the effect to be produced and upon the situationA in which the lens is applied-JE. e., whether within or without the camera. Similarly if the plate instead of being plane be bent, as shown in Fig. 6, the middle portion f forms a concave-convex lens which has its curvature in one direction only and extends quite across the plate F, while the upper and lower plane portions f f2, are oppositely inclined so that the curved surfaces of the lens gradually iiow into the inclined plane surfaces. The eiect ot the plate F when applied in front of the negative to be copied, will be to contract the portion of the image retracted through the lens portion f, and to vary the whole length of the picture to a corresponding extent, the opposite eiect being produced if the plate F be placed within the camera.

From the foregoing examples, it will be understood that the curvature and form of the lens-like medium will vary according to the y desired eect, and that the above described figures represent what may be termed stock forms, suitable for general use, to which I do not, however, necessarily limit myself.

I claimt l. The method herein described of varying the size or proportions of a part of a photographic picture wit-hout distorting or changing the rest, which consists in changing the focus of the rays upon that portion of thephotographic field to be modified, preservingV the focal length of rays of the other parts ot v`i l a compound curve partly convex andpartly concave, the one gradually merging into the other without angular line of demarcation, substantially as shown and described. Dated this 14th day of April, 1893.

HENRY VANDER WEYDE. Witnesses:

J. W. KENNARD,

sdf

cleft to A. M. a W. Ozark, 53V chancen/ Lane, London.

THOMAS LAKE,

yNotarys Clerk, 17 Gracechurch Street, Loft-lv don.

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