Pictorialism

• Open shadows: bright surroundings (walls, ground, sky) fill them; no reflector needed.
• Haze: fog or mist, or a haze machine indoors.

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. One way to get the light, not a record of how any photograph was lit.

Then

45–90 mm · f/4.5–f/11 · 1/25–5 s · ISO 5–25 on 9 × 12 cm, documented. Lens data documented: Pinkham & Smith soft-focus lenses at f/6 and f/4.5, Kühn's Staeble Anachromat lenses of 17–31 cm on a 9 × 12 cm camera. Work near full aperture for softness; the times and plate speeds (about ISO 5–25) are inferred.

Focus

A soft glow around highlights; edges never quite sharp.

Angle

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

Distance

Whole figures and their immediate surroundings.

Balance

The subject placed off-centre, balanced against open space.

Depth

Depth collapsed into pattern and flat shapes. The scene doubled, layered or split by its reflection in a mirror, a shop window, water or a polished surface.

Duration

An unmoving scene, exposed slowly and carefully.

Turn faces from the lens: eyes lowered to a book, a child or the water, or gazing into the distance, often in profile or walking away. Keep bodies relaxed and unhurried: a woman crouching by a fountain, two sewing on a step, a mother holding her child. Allegorical figures in robes lean, kneel or recline to act out an idea.

Head & gaze

Looking down, or eyes shut: inward, modest, asleep or praying. Eyes off the frame, past the camera or into the distance, as if lost in thought.

Line & energy

Loose and unforced, as people stand and sit when they forget the camera, whether caught or coaxed by prompts.

Without a pose

No people at all, or people so small or far off that their pose does not read (hands alone are Hands alone).

The set-up

A scene staged and directed like a film still or a painting.

Pale, simple dresses in white or cream, hair loose or in a soft knot, no visible make-up; flowing robes and drapery for allegories. Gardens, porches, woods and the sitters' own rooms, lightly arranged so they look unplanned; landscapes, canals and streets are left as found.

Clothes

Simple, solid, unbranded clothes chosen so they do not distract from the face.

How much is styled

A few small touches (a tidied table, a straightened collar, a chosen outfit) that still look unplanned.

Monochrome

Low contrast and gentle greys. A monochrome image tinted sepia, brown, selenium purple or cyanotype blue.

Early processes

Matte prints with long, soft grey scales. Gum bichromate, bromoil and similar: hand-worked, painterly prints.

Post-production

Marks made by hand on the negative or the print. Areas lightened and darkened by hand in printing.

Shown as

Each picture stands on its own.

Shown in

Large prints on the wall, like paintings.

Stay away from deep focus, straight print, hyper-detailed, snapshot, direct on-camera flash, saturated colour, high-contrast black & white, black shadows, hard-edged shadows, laughing and awkward & in-between.