Magazine illustration Google Books Published in "The Illustrated Photographer: Scientific and Art Journal" (London: 1869), Volume 2, June 18th, 1869, p.289
We have already given, in articles written by Mr. Sutton and the Gossiping Photographer, a very full and complete description of Mr. Rejlander's new studio, but to render these complete we now append an engraving from a photograph of the room which will make these descriptions still more clear and understandable.
In illustration of the uses of such a room, we may mention that on a recent occasion the members of the Solar Club dined in it, and while some sat on either side of a long dining table and others at the top of it, one figure some feet beyond it and another figure a greater distance in front of it in all sixteen figures -Mr. Rejlander took a photograph, in which without any striking effect of exaggerated perspective or out-of-focus blurring, a faithful and striking portrait of every person present was duly secured. The distance from the farther to the nearer sitter must have been considerably over twenty feet, probably nearly thirty.
The portion of the room not represented in our engraving is that end of it which is formed by the solid sheet of plate glass, which descending through the floor enables you to walk out into a balcony beyond it. In connexion with this huge window, Mr. Rejlander pointed out a very curious and amusing optical effect of which he had availed himself photographically by producing the portrait of a lady, who sitting alone, was astonished to find that the photograph represented her with a gentleman in singularly close proximity to her. The explanation is that the figures were both on a line with each other, and at an equal distance from the plate-glass window which stood at a right angle between them. The lens saw the one figure through the glass and the other on the glass, and so both appeared on the plate as if they had been taken together, although the one might not have been aware even of the other's presence.
