Editorial comment on this plate:

We take pleasure in presenting our readers, this week, with a specimen of Miss Catherine Weed Barnes’ work. Miss Barnes is not unknown to our readers, for they will remember her able paper on “Photography from a Woman’s Standpoint,” which was printed in these columns only a few weeks ago, and all have heard of her from frequent mention in the daily press. But it is not easy to judge one’s practical ability from written words of what others may say. The charming side-light portrait entitled “Five o’clock Tea” will therefore be especially appreciated by the readers of The Photographic Times.
As to her method of making side-light portraits, Miss Barnes tells us in the article which follows. In it will be found, also, a good deal else of practical value to those who make portraits, in other ways, and as a means of livelihood.
We shall hope to give our readers another specimen of Miss Barnes’ work in a different department of photography, before very long, to be accompanied, also, by a valued contribution from her pen.

Catherine Weed Barnes, 1851-1913, was an early editor of The American Amateur Photographer.