Composite pictures probably owes their origin to what we call "photomontage", which is a method of producing a kind of trick picture, depending mostly on scissors and paste, by putting odds and ends from different photographs into one and the same picture; the result is very interesting and has been used a lot for advertising purposes. Since it is rather the story or the idea than the picture itself that is essential, the makers simply do not take the trouble to conceal the joining parts. But the making of composite pictures is an accomplished art in itself. By printing only the desirable parts from two or more negatives and by leaving out what is not necessary, the defects can be eliminated.
Since coming back from my last trip in the interior, I have made great use of composite pictures; and I can at last present with satisfaction the pictures which I took with some reluctance because of their imperfect surroundings or because of undesirable interference with the view. I have furthermore discovered that here, once and for all, photography has approached the technique of Chinese painting. Have not Chinese artists been making composite pictures all the time?
Chinese artists of the traditional schools are often accused of painting from imagination. Nothing could be further from the truth. They do not paint from imagination but from memory. What differentiates them from the Western artists is that they point what they have seen instead of what they are seeing. The world is full of beautiful things as well ns ugly things. God has created the Universe according to his mood. Eventually man has invented what he calls art and art is said to improve nature. A corrected and retouched view of natures is expressed in the artists' own work. The same is now being done in composite pictures.
The difficulty, in photography, of producing an ideal and beautiful scene is two-fold. It depends on what the lens can take in, and it is limited by the disadvantages of machinery. Unlike the human hands, photography cannot always make desirable selection among the objects of nature; for the view might be in an impossible light, or at an unsuitable angle. The distance is often obscured while the foreground stands too near the camera, and the foreground may be unsupported if the distant objects happen to be too far away. With composite pictures, photographers can now do just the same as Chinese artists; they now have their choice among natural objects; they may now make their own compositions in photography. Neither time nor space need hereafter be an obstacle. All the products of Nature are now their material, which can be utilized freely, to construct their "Land of Heart's Desire".
It is really of great interest to see how much the making of composite pictures can be facilitated by a knowledge of Chinese painting, and how is what I am practicing all the time now. Through the lens, front view (subjects in focus) is often clear and sharp, and the distant view (subjects out of focus) dim and obscure. Yet the Chinese painters are painting according to what the human eyes usually see. Therefore, to them what is within two yard is almost the same as that which is within twenty yards (provided always that there is no defect with one's eyes). Now we are able to make a photograph according to the human visual impression too, and are no longer restricted by the deficiencies of machinery. Views, however, that are out of the eye range are bound to be obscure: as in the Chinese paintings, we often put only a stroke of light blue or grey to represent far-away hills. "The distant water has no waves, the distant man has no eyes and the distant tree has no leaves"–this is one of the laws a Chinese artist must learn by heart, and which should also be remembered by the maker of composite pictures.
There are a number of ways of making composite picture. The one I use is the simplest and the most satisfactory for my purpose. But before going into details, I must give a little explanation. All the composite pictures I Have made so far are landscapes –landscape after the styles of the traditional Chinese artist. That is to say they are mostly views which might have been seen from some higher plane, when the eyesight and the horizon form an angle of forty-five degrees or so, and are more or less like bird's-eye-views. By putting different objects together, I have arranged to have chien ching (foreground), chung ching (middle distance) and yuan ching (the distance) like what the Chinese artists do when they plan to paint a piece of landscape.
A picture like one sees in Chinese paintings, with hills one behind or over the other, is often interspersed with clouds or fog in order to render more variety to the design and to help temper the atmosphere lest it should be too monotonous. Hidden amongst the clouds here is habitation–a line from an old Chinese poem that comes automatically to the travelers' minds when thinking of their homes far away.
The popularity of this line create a fondness for clouds which are to be found in most Chinese paintings. It is surely a great help to composite pictures. In making a composite picture, one of the difficult points is the connection of different parts; the must be so well fixed that the join is invisible. To hide the join, connecting parts must not be a straight line; zigzag or wavy lines are preferable. It will be even better if there are some clouds or fog or groves or waters; then we may overlap the one with the other and nobody will notice the joins.
Here I shall describe to you the procedure of making a composite picture according to my method. The preparation of making composite picture goes back to the time you take the individual or partial pictures. You are then very aware of your purpose; therefore, instead of taking pictures perfect in themselves, you may have photographed them only for the sake of a single tree or a rock. One never knows when an out-of-the- way bit of something will come in handy. With all the materials ready, you then make a selection of pictures, or portions of them, that are needed for your combinations, and draw a sketch of your composition on a piece of white paper of the same size as the bromide paper on which you intend to make your print. Having determined the positions and the sizes of the different portions, the next step is to project and focus them through the enlarger on to the white paper with your design. Exposures should be varied according to the density of the different portions of pictures, so there will be no trouble during developing and you are now ready to make the print. After you have projected the first portion on the bromide paper, mark the place with charcoal, preferably with a burned "willow branch" which Chinese ladies in the old days used to paint their eyebrows with, which is easily brushed off, when you have finished one portion and ready to go on with the next. So you will know the exact position where you may project the second portion, and so on. Nevertheless, during projecting you must always have in mind the whore composition or structure of the picture.