History of photography
History of photography | ||
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A century and a half ago, when photography took its first steps into journalism, family portraits, landscapes, and wars, the process of capturing images was relatively simple because the cameras of that time were far less versatile than the cheapest disposable camera of today. There simply wasn't a lot that a photographer could do with a camera other than make sure the picture was in focus, that the exposure was correct, and that the camera was pointed in the right direction. At the same time, that meant whatever the photographer did was entirely a measure of the photographer's skill with his equipment. The photographer couldn't amaze his customers with brilliant colors; most photos were black and white with perhaps same pastel shading added by hand. People didn't look for a photographer to capture the inner soul of Uncle Vernon; they simply wanted Uncle Vernon to be recognizable, which was as awe-inspiring then as live videos from space are today. There was no opportunity for shooting test Polaroids, for studying histograms showing the range of exposure, nor, in many cases, even a second chance. The process was tedious and tiring not only for the photographer, but for the subjects, who were often asked to remain motionless for unnatural spells, all the time encased in their best, but stiff and hot, Sunday go-to-meetin' clothes. With no more than two or three chances to get it right, the photographer had to know exactly what his camera could and couldn't do. Focusing was the simplest task. At the back of the camera, spring-loaded brackets held a frame containing a sheet of film shielded from the light by a metal slide. The photographer covered the back of the camera with a black cloth, stuck his head under the cloth, and removed the film holder. In its place was a sheet of glass roughened on one side. The roughness caught the light so that it didn't simply pass through the glass but instead formed an image—upsidedown to be sure—coming through the lens. The image from the lens rode the light waves to the focusing glass through a billows made of leather. A track and gears beneath the billows let the photographer move the lens back and forth until the image was sharp. Exposure was trickier. There was no diaphragm to control how much light was allowed to expose the film nor shutters to control how long the film was exposed. In place of both, there was a lens cap. The photographer simply removed the lens cap so light could stream through the lens. Luckily film of that time was so insensitive to light that exposures less than a second or two weren't even a consideration. In 1887, photography was extended to the night when two German scientists introduced Blitzlichtpulver, or 'lightning light powder.' A mixture of magnesium, potassium chlorate, and antimony sulfide in a shallow pan held aloft by the photographer, Blitzlichtpulver exploded in a burst of intense light when it was set afire. It also often set other objects on fire, including photographers, many of whom died in the quest for the night shot. Improvements in the camera were slow to come for the next 100 years. In the 1950s, press photographers were still using basically the same camera that Matthew Brady used, although with modern touches such as shutters that sliced time into fractions of a second and flash attachments that kept the burning light source safely within a glass bulb. Even before the digital camera began its takeover of the photographic world at the turn of the millennium, digital contraptions were becoming part of film photography. Simple calculating chips improved the accuracy of light meters and automatic focusing. Some cameras accepted microchips on cards, not unlike the memory cards used to store digital photographs, but in this case to vary operations such as automatic exposure and focusing to meeting the requirements of sports shots, night photography, and other specialized situations. The real change in cameras came with the digital image sensor. We'll see how the sensor is a fundamental change. It's as important as the development 150 years ago of the negative/ positive process that permits photographers to manipulate their images after they've left the camera. That ability to play, endlessly, with images takes photography further from being a record of one place and one time to a new realm of creativity. | ||