We will consider still another subject.  The photograph, Fig. 39, shows a street in Holland.  In this case, the first thing we have to determine is where the interest of the subject centres.  In such a perspective the salient point of the picture often lies in a foreground building; or, if the street be merely a setting for the representation of some incident, in a group of foreground figures.  In either case the emphasis should be placed in the foreground, the distant vanishing lines of the street being rendered more or less vaguely.  In the present subject, however, the converging sky and street lines are broken by the quaint clock-tower.  This and the buildings underneath it appeal to us at once as the most important elements of the picture.  The nearer buildings present nothing intrinsically interesting, and therefore serve no better purpose than to lead the eye to the centre of interest.  Whatever actual values these intermediate buildings have that will hinder their usefulness in this regard can, therefore, be changed or actually ignored without affecting the integrity of the sketch or causing any pangs of conscience.

The building on the extreme left shows very strong contrasts of color in the black shadow of the eaves and of the shop-front below.  These contrasts, coming as they do at the edge of the picture, are bad.  They would act like a showy frame on a delicate drawing, keeping the eye from the real subject.  It may be objected, however, that it is natural that the contrasts should be stronger in the foreground.  Yes; but in looking straight at the clock-tower one does not see any such dark shadow at the top of the very uninteresting building in the left foreground.  The camera saw it, because the camera with its hundred eyes sees everything, and does not interest itself about any one thing in particular.  Besides, if the keeper of the shop had the bad taste to paint it dark we are not bound to make a record of the fact; nor need we assume that it was done out of regard to the pictorial possibilities of the street.  We decide, therefore, to render, as faithfully as we may, the values of the clock-tower and its immediate surroundings, and to disregard the discordant elements; and we have no hesitation in selecting for principal emphasis in our drawing, Fig. 40, the shadow under the projecting building.  This dark accent will count brilliantly against the foreground and the walls of the buildings, which we will treat broadly as if white, ignoring the slight differences in value shown in the photograph.  We retain, however, the literal values of the clock-tower and the buildings underneath it, and express as nearly as we can their interesting variations of texture.  The buildings on the right are too black in the photograph, and these, as well as the shadow thrown across the street, we will considerably lighten.  After some experiment, we find that the building on the extreme left is a nuisance, and we omit it.  Even then, the one with the balcony