Carte-de-visite studio portraits

• Daylight studio: a skylight, a glasshouse or a courtyard, with a backdrop behind the sitter.

Shadow edges

Shadows that fade gradually from light to dark, cast by a large or diffused light: a window, a softbox, a cloudy sky.

Shadow depth

Shadows kept light and full of detail by a reflector, a fill light, bounce or bright surroundings (a low lighting ratio, up to about 3:1: the shadow side at most a stop and a half darker).

This plan is worked out from the style’s choices, so it is drawn as a schematic. The set-up at the top of the page is the one we rendered, to scale. One way to get the light, not a record of how any photograph was lit.

Then

30–65 mm · f/3.5–f/8 · 2–15 s · ISO 0.5–2 on 6 × 9 cm, documented. Four-lens cameras with 3 in (76 mm) Petzval-type lenses on 6 × 9 cm frames (about 30 mm equivalent), or one quarter- or third-plate portrait tube; wet collodion at about ISO 1 under a skylight, a few seconds near full aperture. Stops and upper times are inferred.

Focal length

Roughly the eye’s own perspective; no visible distortion.

Angle

The camera at the height of a standing person or of the subject.

Distance

Whole figures and their immediate surroundings.

Balance

The subject in the middle, the frame balanced around it.

Duration

An unmoving scene, exposed slowly and carefully.

Stand the sitter full length, body turned a little and weight on one leg, one hand on a column, chair back or draped table and the other in a pocket or holding a hat, cane or book; or seat them upright with hands in the lap or an elbow on the table. Faces are composed and unsmiling, eyes to the lens or just aside, held still for seconds.

Body position

Upright, weight on both feet, shoulders level: the plain, even stance of a formal sitting or a line-up. On a chair or stool, back straight, hands and feet placed: the formal sitting.

Turn to the camera

The body, the head or both turned about 45° from the lens, so one side is nearer the camera and the far ear is hidden.

Head & gaze

Looking straight into the camera, so the subject meets the viewer’s eye.

Arms & hands

Hands busy with a prop or a tool: flowers, a phone, a cup, a cigarette, an instrument, one’s own work. Arms by the sides, hands folded in the lap or resting on a chair: quiet and formal.

Line & energy

Rigid and motionless, sometimes braced against a head rest or gripping a chair: held for a long exposure or a solemn occasion.

Expression

Unsmiling, composed and blank: the face gives nothing away.

With the sitter

The sitter arranged and still, facing the camera.

Best clothes for the studio: frock coat, waistcoat, watch chain and top hat, or a crinoline with a lace shawl and earrings; soldiers in uniform. The studio supplies the set: a plain or painted backdrop, a column, a fringed curtain, a carved chair, a draped table with a book, a patterned carpet.

Clothes

Best clothes, jewellery and accessories put on for the studio or the occasion.

Set & props

A painted, cloth, paper or seamless backdrop behind the subject. The stock furniture of a portrait studio, standing in for a setting: a posing chair, a column, a balustrade, a draped table, a potted palm.

Monochrome

A monochrome image tinted sepia, brown, selenium purple or cyanotype blue.

Colour

An overall yellow, orange or red cast.

Early processes

Warm-brown prints of the 19th century, made from negatives.

Texture

Smooth tones with no visible grain.

Shown in

Prints for an album, a card or a frame at home.

Stay away from daguerreotype & direct positive, snapshot, candid & unobserved, tilted angle, visible grain, direct on-camera flash, laughing, fast, full-body movement, unstyled, as found and black shadows.