Arthur Hammond Quotes

It will be found, as a general rule, that a point about one-third of the width of the picture-space from the top or bottom of the picture, and about one-third from one side, will be a strong position for such an accent. These points may be found by imagining that your picture-space is divided both vertically and horizontally into three equal strips by lines that will cross each other at four points. Each of these four intersection points will be a strong position, and an accent at any one of these points will be well placed in the picture-space. It will not matter at all what the shape of the picture may be, whether it be an upright or a horizontal rectangle, or a square, these four points, each of them one-third of the width of the picture-space from top or bottom and one side, will be strong points.

One of the most important qualities a picture can possess is simplicity. This is true not only of photographic pictures but also of drawings, paintings or etchings. By being simple a picture gains enormously in strength and effectiveness; it wears well; one can live with it and enjoy it without getting tired of it.

...even if our range of tones is shorter and we have to compress the tones into a shorter scale, we can preserve truth of value only by keeping the tones in about the same relative proportions. We should make our lightest tone light and our darkest tone dark, and then get in as many tones as we can in between.

There is as much difference in the meaning of the words tone and tones as there is in the words nerve and nerves.

The very word composition, defined as the "the act of composing; putting together; arranging in proper order," implies that the picture-maker must do something besides setting up his camera and letting it photograph just what happens before it.

A. J. Anderson says: "Expose for the tones that are most desired."

A small but noticeable patch of contrasting light or dark tone would more correctly be described as an accent than as a mass, and it will be found that, as a rule, an accent is needed to prevent a picture from becoming monotonous and uninteresting.

...it is essential to have only one principal object of interest in a picture. Without it the picture is not completely satisfying, for the eye is apt to wander over the surface of the picture, seeking rest and finding none.

Photography, properly controlled, can render tones better than any other medium of artistic expression, and personal control of exposure and development will be all that is necessary to get good tones and truthful gradations, for the camera, properly guided and then left to do its own job in its own way, will take care of the tones of a picture very well.

A painter, by the skilful use of color, can make idyllic pictures in which a figure or a group of figures is not the dominant thing in the picture, but for a photographer this is more difficult.

A view or a landscape will impress different people in different ways, just as a human individual will.

There should be no very violent contrasts and no spottiness of light and shade, and, above all, the tones must be right.

For outdoor work, landscape and marine pictures, a long-focus lens is usually more satisfactory, because with it we can more easily isolate and emphasize the principal object of interest, and make it large enough without having to get too close.

There is a tendency among "advanced" pictorialists to neglect the choice of an interesting subject and to trust to an effective pattern to make their pictures interesting. Such pictures are often interesting, but they are interesting more as studies in artistic technique than as pictures.

...picture-making is almost entirely a matter of good taste, and that is largely instinctive when the taste has been trained and cultivated.