Back Page - The Photo Mask

In many of the old RPPC and Cabinet Cards the portrait is set within a photo mask. This is a cut out mask that is placed between the negative and the photopaper before it is exposed so that the resulting print appears to be framed inside a heart or a leaf or just a circle.

Here are a few.

New Additions

On this one the photographer moved the mask slightly during exposure in the dark room to produce the fuzzy line of the oval.

The oval, vertical or horizontal, is probably the most common photo-mask.

Now, the one at the left was not done the same way.

First the print paper was exposed with just a leaf pressed in the middle. Then the leaf was replaced with the portrait negative and exposed to light again. The result is a black border around the portrait.

This one was done like the "leaf" portrait just above.

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.

The most popular photographs
An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half
You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

BACK TO
THE MAIN INDEX PAGE
Or try out the NEW
BACK PAGE INDEX

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost Vernacular Photography
The best FOUND PHOTOGRAPH sites on the web.
And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS
It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned.
Here are a few.
You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story, What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

Head and Shoulders Portraits - Page Three

The Head and Shoulder Portrait.

These are studio portraits that don't fall into the photo-booth category or the Cabinet Card and Cart de Viste category, where the photographer is identified. They have their own pages.

The Photo-booth portraits start HERE.
The Cabinet Cards start HERE.
The Cart de Viste pages start HERE.
The tintype pages start HERE

For this page then, here are the odd format portraits old and recent. Black and white or sepia or color. All of these were done in a studio setting.

What decides if a portrait is full length or head and shoulders?

If you can see the elbows, it's not a "head and shoulder" portrait.

New Additions

Before and after?

This is probably a trimmed cabinet card.

Jake and James McClelland, perhaps brothers. Here showing the original strip and an enhanced version.

Trimmed and glued to
a black photograph album page.

Here are original and enhanced versions.

Can't get enough?
There's more on
Head and Shoulders Portraits - Page One
Head and Shoulders Portraits - Page Two
Head and Shoulders Portraits - Page Three (This One)

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"