Portraits, Composite, a method of indicating the facial characteristics of a family or group of persons, while at the same time suppressing the peculiarities of individual members. Mr Francis Galton has thus prepared type faces each composed of a number of individuals specially celebrated for some particular branch of art, science, or occupation. The results are recognised as of considerable value to the student of anthropology.
One way of obtaining these composite portraits is to take full-face photographs of each person composing the group, of such a uniform size that two fixed horizontal lines pass, one through the inner angle of the eyes, the other through the line dividing the lips, while a third fixed perpendicular line equally divides the nose; by this means the photographs are brought approximately to the same size, and corresponding portions of the various faces occupy similar positions. Now suppose there are ten individuals in the group, and that any one negative would require half an hour to produce a good print, then each negative is printed for one-tenth of half an hour, and is carefully adjusted so that each succeeding negative occupies the same position on the print as the preceding one; thus a composite portrait will result, each of the ten likenesses having an equal share in its production. Where any characteristic is common to all or several, that peculiarity will be more or less pronounced; where, however, only one or two persons possess a peculiarity, it is scarcely, if at all, noticeable. By taking a negative of a succession of positives a composite negative will result capable of indefinite reproduction. The result is often a highly idealised portrait representative of the family, or of the poet, statesman, mathematician, gaol-bird, &c., and typical of the group it represents.