In this approximately 33-second long Lumiere Brothers short (Lumiere No. 118), we see a photographer and a sitter. The sitter checks himself in the mirror and does a number of things suggesting both impatience and vanity. The photographer struggles with the situation, which ends up as a minor disaster.
This short is unusual compared to most Lumiere Brothers films in that it is one of the more conspicuously staged works. The scene played out before us is obviously fictional. "One of the more conspicuously staged works" above isn't pointless hedging. As I've noted in other reviews, almost all documentaries are staged and have elements of artificiality. It can be difficult to tell just how "real" documentaries are. The line between journalistic facts and storytelling fictions in film is much grayer than is normally supposed.
Photograph features some mild slapstick comedy which is funny now, but which was probably more effective back in 1895, when it wasn't so commonplace. The short is also notable for what we could retroactively consider a bit of postmodernist self-reference. The Lumiere Brothers are photographing the process of photographing, and in so doing, perhaps amplifying just how artificial some of their more "serious" work might have been.
The short isn't completely successful. There are occasional problems with the focus and the framing of the actors is a bit off. Still, this is an enjoyable example of the Lumiere Brothers taking a different approach.