Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/84

 Practical Tests in Evidence. enabled men to achieve great things by its aid, but it has also unfortunately assisted others to deceive and defraud their fellow-creatures. Pho tography assists the forger in so closely imitating bank-notes as to deceive the most experienced; but it also assists the scientist to detect these for geries, and in some cases has aided justice to dis cover the offender. An amusing case appeared some time ago in one of the law courts. It was a dispute between two persons about a wall. The plaintiff complained that the defendant's wall ob structed the light to which he had a right. De fendant denied the charge. The most amusing part of the case, however, was when the complain ant handed the judge some photographs of the obstructing wall, and the judge observed that it was evident from them that the wall certainly did obstruct the light and was apparently of unneces sary height and size. Then up rose the counsel for the defendant, and with a smile handed the learned judge his photograph of the same wall. In the first set of photographs the wall was of im mense size, towering above all the winds; in the second, however, it was of liliputian dimensions, a most insignificant thing, unworthy of any dispute. Now these different effects can all be brought about by using lenses of different angles,—that is to say, lenses which collect or throw a more or less amount of view on a plate of given dimensions. A wide-angle lens is one that includes a lot of view in a picture, and as the angle is a long way different to that of the human eye, the picture in no way gives a correct representation of the scene. Readers should beware of house agents' photo graphs of the houses and property they have for disposal. They are nearly all taken with a wideangle lens. With such an instrument it is possible to make a small London .back garden resemble a large open park. The reason is that it causes all objects near at hand to appear large, and those a

little distance away to recede far away in the back ground. The writer had in his possession a pho tograph of a man playing chess with himself and looking on at the game. There were of course three figures in the picture, but all of the same person, in different positions. The writer used to do something similar to this in making long pano ramic views. A little slit runs along the sensitive plate and makes the exposure, and it was quite possible to include the same person in the picture in a dozen different places and in different atti tudes. By photographing three persons arranged between two mirrors placed in a position thus (A), a photograph will be produced of thousands and thousands of persons crowded together. Spirit photography is another form of deception. Pho tographs are made of a sitter with a figure leaning over him. The figure retires when half the expo sure is over, and thus has a misty, weird appear ance in the picture. By composite photography almost anything can be done. This is accom plished by cutting out different parts of several photographs, arranging them together and rephotographing them. The society lady, when she goes to her photographer, would be horrified if she were to see her portrait as it is first produced by photography. The negative is, however, placed in the hands of the retouching artist, whose duty it is to take out all the wrinkles, spots, and blotches in the face, make the mouth a little smaller, the eyes brighter, and perhaps the eye brows a bit darker, and the nose a bit shorter. Large lumps are then carved out of the waist, and the figure otherwise improved. When the finished portrait is handed over to her ladyship, she is charmed with it. Perhaps the appearance is not exactly the same as that shown by her lookingglass; but she consoles herself with the reflection that photography cannot lie, — oh, dear no; impossible! "