attraction is too great
the group suffers. Appreciating the importance of his setting for groups
the photographer must select these with three points in view; simplicity,
uninterest and exit in background; simplicity, uninterest and leading line
or balancing mass or spot (if required) in foreground. When looking for
backgrounds he may feel quite sure he has one if it is the sort of thing
he would never dream of photographing on its own account. Besides being
too interesting, most backgrounds are inappropriate and distracting. The
frequent commendations and prizes accorded to good subjects having these
faults and therefore devoid of unity tell how little even photographic
judges and editors think on the appropriate and essential ensemble in
composition.

With the background in unobjectionable evidence the photographer should
rapidly address his posers a little lecture on compositional requirements
and at the end ask for volunteers for the sacrificial parts, at the same
time reminding them that the back or side _view_ is not only
characteristic of the person but often very interesting. He should
maintain that a unity be evident in the group; of intent, of line, and of
gradation. The first is subjective and must be felt by the posers. The
other two qualifications are for the artist's consideration. At such a
time his acquaintance with examples of pictorial art will come to his aid.
He must be quick to recognize the possibilities of his material which may
be hurriedly swept into one of the forms which have justified confidence.

When a continuity of movement has been secured, a revisionary glance must
be given to determine if the whole is balanced; background, foreground and
focus, one playing into the other as the lines of a dance, leading,
merging, dissolving, recurring.

Mindful of the distractions of such occasions, the wise man has done his
thinking beforehand, has counted his figures, has noted the tones of
clothing and has resolved on his focal light. With this much he has a
start and can begin to build at once. His problem is that of the maker of
a bouquet adding flower to flower around the centre.

To make a rough sketch from the models themselves posed and thought over,
with the opportunity for erasures of revisions before leading them out of
doors, often proves economy of time.

It is a custom of continental painters to compose extensive groups and
photograph them for study in arrangement. The aut