Photography

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Photography. An art form invented in 1830s, becoming publicly recognised ten years later. Today, photography is the largest growing hobby in the world with the hardware alone creating a multibillion dollar industry. Not everyone knows what Camera Obscura or even Shutter Speed is, nor have many heard of Henri Cartier-Bresson or even Annie Leibovitz. Today we take a step back and take a look at how this fascinating technique was created and developed, because proudly knowing the past is the primary way to create a great future. Camera Obscura Before photography was created, people already knew the principles of how it eventually got to work. They could process the image on the wall or piece of paper, however no printing was possible at the time as preserving light turned out to be a lot harder task than projecting it. The instrument that people used for processing pictures was called the Camera Obscura (which is Latin for the Dark Room) and it was around for a few centuries before photography came along. It is believed that Camera Obscura was invented around 13-14th centuries, however there is a manuscript by an Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan dated 10th century that describes the principles on which camera obscura works and on which analogue photography is based today.

Camera Obscura is essentially a dark, closed space in the shape of a box with a hole on one side of it. The hole has to be small enough in proportion to the box to make the camera obscura work properly. The way it works is that due, to optical laws, the light coming through a tiny hole transforms and creates an image on the surface that it meets, i.e. the wall of the box. The image was mirrored and upside down, however, so basically everything that makes today s analogue camera s principles different to camera obscura ones are the mirrors and the film which is used to capture and preserve the image created by the light. Photography, the way it was developing, was always believed to be the killer of the fine art. However, it is believed that the photo principles were widely used by Renaissance artists like Leonardo, Michelangelo and others. In the mid 16th century, Giovanni Battista della Portacentury, an Italian scholar, wrote an essay on how to use camera obscura in aid of making the drawing process easier. He projected the image of people outside the camera obscura on the canvas inside of it (camera obscura was a rather big room in this case) and then drew over the image or tried to copy it. The method is quite similar to that which was used in the Retroscope drawing in the animation industry in early twentieth century. The process of using camera obscura looked very strange and frightening for the people at those times and the Giovanni Battista had to drop the idea after he was arrested and prosecuted on a charge of sorcery. This is a picture of camera obscura in action the way it was used back then.

Even though only few of the Renaissance artists admitted they used camera obscura as an aid in drawing, it is believed most of them did. The reason for not openly admitting it was the fear of being

charged of association with occultism or simply not wanting to admit something many artists called cheating. Today we can state that camera obscura was a prototype of the modern photo camera. Even though it seems useless today, many people still find it amusing and use it for artistic reasons or simply for fun. Installing film and permanently capturing an image was a logical progression. If you feel like giving the camera obscura a go, you can see how to build it following this link. The Invention of the Camera

The first photo picture as we know it was taken in 1825 by a French inventor Joseph Niepce. It depicts a view from the window at Le Gras. There is little merit in this picture other than the fact that it is the first photograph taken and preserved. Due to the technical issues the exposure had to last for eight hours, so the sun in the picture had time to move from east to west, appearing to shine on both sides of the building in the picture. There is, of course, no composition as photography at the time could not be seen as art but rather as technical innovation. Like I have stated before, by that time people already knew how to project pictures, they just didn t know how to preserve and save light. Niepce came up with the idea of using a petroleum derivative called Bitumen of Judea . Bitumen hardens with exposure to light so the unhardened material was then washed away. The metal plate, which was the media used by Niepce, was then polished rendering a negative image which then was coated with ink producing a print. One of the numerous problems with this method was that the metal plate was heavy, expensive to produce, and took a lot of time to polish.

In 1839 Sir John Herschel came up with a way of making the first glass negative as opposed to metal. The same year he coined the term Photography deriving from the Greek fos meaning light and grafo to write. Even though the process became easier and the result was better, it was still a long time until photography was publicly recognized. At first photography was either used as an aid in the work of an artist or followed the same principles the artists followed. The first publicly recognized portraits were usually portraits of either one person or family portraits to preserve the memories. Finally, after decades of refinements and improvements, the mass use of cameras began with Eastman s Kodak s camera. It went on to the market in 1888 with the slogan You press the button, we do the rest .

In 1901 the Kodak Brownie was introduced, becoming the first commercial camera in the market available for middle class. The camera took black and white shots only, but still was very popular due to its efficiency and ease of use. Color photography, despite being explored throughout the 19th century, did not become commercially valuable until the middle of the 20th century. The scientists in

the beginning of the century could not preserve color for long enough, as they were lost with time passing due to their chemical formulae. Several methods of color photography were patented from 1862 onwards by two French inventors: Louis Ducos de Hauron and Charlec Cros Practical who, however, worked independently. Finally the first practical color plate reached the market in 1907. The method it used was based on a screen of filters. The screen let filtered red, green and/or blue light through and then was developed to a negative being later reversed to a positive. Applying the same screen later on in the process of the print resulted in a color photo that preserved the color. The technology, even though slightly altered, is the one that is still used in the processing. Red, green and blue are the primary colors for television and computer screens, hence the RGB modes in numerous imaging applications.

The first color photo, an image of a tartan ribbon, was taken in 1861 by the famous Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell who was famous for his work with electromagnetism. Despite the great influence his photograph had on the photo industry, Maxwell is rarely remembered for this. The reason for that is his inventions in the field of physics simply overshadowed this accomplishment.

The first ever picture to have a human in it was Boulevard du Temple by Louis Daguerre taken in 1839. The exposure lasted for about 10 minutes at the time, so it was barely possible for the camera to capture a man on the busy street, however it did capture a man who had his shoes polished for long enough to appear in the photo.

Growth

Following the early growth in the photo industry, in the year 1934 Fuji Photo Film company (later known as Fujifilm) was founded. By 1938, along with the film, the company started making cameras and lenses, becoming a production monster for the photo industry. The idea of bringing every aspect of a photo camera together gave Fujifilm a unique opportunity to create an environment for professional and amateur photographers, where those could concentrate mostly on the art of photography and not the technicalities. In 1937 the Polaroid Corporation was founded. The company is known worldwide for the massively popular instant camera they would release 10 years after being founded. Fujifilm and Polaroid s impact on the photography industry is quite remarkable as they, along with Kodak, completely revolutionized the way photography is seen today. For an activity to become massively popular, the process of it has to be as easy as possible. We owe a debt of gratitude to these companies for how they turned photography into less of a science and more of an art and a way of expressing oneself. In 1936 photography took another step towards wide recognition. The Kodachrome the first ever multi-layered color film was developed. This lead to photos being ever more attractive to the

public, appearing evermore real. At this point, photography officially defeated fine art in terms of being the mean for depicting something realistically. Around the same time as color film was invented, the Exakta camera was developed. This camera pioneered a single-lens reflex (SLR) system, with 35mm film and a built-in flash socket activated by the shutter. The camera was a huge breakthrough in terms of technology. Of course, the quality of the pictures grew too and attracted even more people to this form of art than before.

As cameras and film evolved, they also became less expensive and quite affordable. Thousands of photo shops emerged, offering their customers fast development of their film and other photography related services. With the appearance of a simplified way of taking and developing pictures, photography became a rapidly growing hobby for pretty much anyone. Photo albums arrived in every house around the world. The situation started reaching its peak when Polaroid corporation released it s first instant camera, the so-called Land Camera, in 1947. This had paper, developer and fixer stored in its sacs making it possible to produce pictures in 60 seconds something that was never seen before. In 1963, Polacolor film was introduced making Polaroid extremely popular and profitable.

How Photography Conquered the Hearts Along with ever improving and simplifying the technology behind photography, new shooting techniques were being developed. Just like any other art form, the technology behind the instrument leads you nowhere unless there s talent and skill behind it. In 1940 Dr. Harold Edgerton perfected his high-speed stroboscopic photography technique and publishes his work entitled Flash! Seeing the Unseen by Ultra High-Speed Photography . This form of photography immediately captured the viewer s attention as it showed something that normally eluded the human eye. Dr. Edgerton s famous picture of a frozen bullet that just smashed through an apple was a huge success.

The idea of photography giving average Joe an opportunity to see something he would have never been able to see before, either due to physical restrictions or any other reason, made the art of photography intriguing to the people and less arty , if you will. In 1946 the first ever picture of the Earth was taken from space that shocked millions. The camera was strapped to a German missile that was launched in New Mexico. It was set up to take a picture every second and a half as the rocket ascended above the surface. Though the device slammed back into the ground, the film was protected and the pictures were published in newspapers around the world. Something most people could never dream about seeing their planet from the outer space became reality.

The opportunities photography gave both the photographer and the viewer were unbelievable. In 1960, the OceanEye a plexiglass bubble used now to shoot underwater was invented by Bates Littlehales along with the National Geographic photo lab. Before that, underwater photography was incredibly limited but now anyone could shoot the way he or she liked for the people to see. In 1963,the first ever purpose-built underwater camera Nikonos was introduced, reacting to the increased interest in underwater photography. During this time mostly thanks to mass media dependance on it photography became more of a show and tell art form that people loved exploring and sharing. It s hard to find someone today who doesn t enjoy a good photo, unlike many people who don t appreciate fine art or ballet. Moving Force Behind Mass Media One of the primary uses for photography today is mass media magazines, newspapers, online blogs and similar. They all require good pictures, and many photographers make a living from working for agencies like Reuters that resell pictures to news agencies all over the world. But it hasn t always been that way. The first ever halftone photograph appeared in a newspaper in 1880, but it took more than 50 years for mass media to become dependent on the photographs to the extent it is today. Rolling Stone One of the pioneers in defining culture (pop culture in this case) was the Rolling Stone magazine. Founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason in San Francisco, the magazine focused on political coverage by the famous Hunter S. Thompson as well as pop culture. The times were achangin at this point, and the magazine was a great source for information for young men. So with this power, the photographs of the magazine by the talented Annie Liebovitz defined young men around the United States.

This so-called pop photography started provoking and shocking the viewer to attract attention. Focus on photography skill was less important than the person and subject depicted in the frame. Portraits became ever-more important. National Geographic Being a magazines whose content depended on the quality of its pictures, National Geographic Magazine first issue published in October 1888, improved dramatically as photography evolved through the middle of the 20th century. The first ever National Geographic issue with a cover with a photo on it was published in July, 1943. The photo is of an American Flag as a wartime plea by the U.S. Treasury Department.

After being forced to print a photo on its cover, National Geographic benefited greatly from the idea of photographs printed on the cover and inside the magazine. Photography was the perfect medium to give readers the experience of travel, and showcase remote parts of the world. Now, National

Geographic Magazine has commissioned hundreds of magnificent photos and is renowned for their stunning photography. Going Digital History of the Invention On October 17, 1969, George Smith and Willard Boyle invented the charge-coupled device (CCD) at Bell Labs. In 1970 the inventors built a CCD into the first solid-state video camera. By 1975 the CCD camera received image quality good enough to broadcast television.

In 1981 Sony Corporation released the first prototype digital camera, the Mavica, that used two CCD chips to record images as magnetic impulses onto a floppy disk. About 25 pictures could be stored on a disk. However, Mavica wasn t exactly the digital camera. It was a video camera that froze video frames. It started the digital revolution, however.

For quite some time, Kodak worked on revolutionizing the way cameras worked. In 1986, Kodak scientists invented the world s first megapixel sensor, then in 1987 it released seven products for recording, storing, manipulating, transmitting and printing electronic still video images. In 1991, the first digital camera system was developed, aimed at photojournalists. The popularity of film cameras was beginning to decrease in early 1988 when Fuji introduced the first generation digital camera, called DS-1P, utilizing CMOS sensors. The first ever massively sold camera that worked with a home computer via a cable Apple QuickTake was released in 1994. Today, over 40 years after the invention of the CCD sensor, there are millions of cameras stored everywhere from a Digital SLR, right down to the camera in your mobile phone. The technology is incredibly versatile, and still a hugely important part of photography today. How It Works Technology The only thing that distinguishes a film camera from digital is how the light coming through the camera lenses is saved. Where a conventional camera would transmit and record the light onto a piece of film, the digital cameras use a semiconductor device that records light electronically and saves it in bits and bytes using the pixel grid. A computer (whether it s your Mac or the built in processor in camera) then recognizes these bytes, and depicts whatever has been recorded. Another intriguing feature of a digital camera is the way the color is recorded. A digital camera cannot see color, but only the intensity of the light. In order to record color, most sensors use filtering to look at the light in three primary colors Red, Green and Blue. After capturing the filtered channels, the three of them are combined to create the full spectrum. More advanced cameras use three different sensors to record each color. For this the beam splitter is used. It literally splits the beam of light into different sensors at the same time and the three images are then combined. Cheaper cameras use the method of sensor rotation, where red, green and blue filters rotate as the camera takes 3 shots each for every filter.

However, the cheapest method of recording color in the digital camera is placing a permanent color filter array over the photo. The method is pretty much guessing (although very accurately guessing) what the color is in each individual pixel. The most widely used filter is the Bayer filter pattern , that alternates a row of red and green pixels with a row of green and blue pixels. Eventually there are 50% green pixels and 25% of both red and blue. This inequality is down to the fact that the human eye is not equally sensitive to each of the three primary colors (and therefore green is needed in order to create true color for our eyes).

This method is cheaper than beam splitter filtering or filter rotation. It also uses less hardware space, so the cameras can be smaller and more mobile. After the picture is taken, the camera processor uses a system called demosaicing to create an image. Another fascinating and, let s admit it, marvelous invention in a digital camera is the autofocus system. There are two autofocus systems: one is cheaper and is called active autofocus, and the more expensive alternative is passive autofocus. Active autofocus requires the camera to send infrared signals, and then receive them back as they bounce off the subject. The received signal is then recognized and the lens is adjusted. One of the advantages of such system is that it works great in the dark, and makes working with flash much easier. However, the disadvantages are that a black object can absorb the signal, and obstacles between the subject and the camera can also mess up the focus system. Today s digital SLR s use passive autofocus which is a system that analyses the picture by processing the pixel strip and deciding how the lens should be adjusted. The only disadvantage of this system is that it requires light and contrast so that it can focus. This means that the camera won t be able to take pictures appropriately in the dark (hence the requirement for AF-Assist in some cases). The Effect on Photography The Introduction of digital photography was like a bomb going off in the world of photography. The number of people who could finally feel the art of photography by not having to learn an enormous range of skills is unbelievable. A lot of people have gained a hobby due to the ease with which the pictures can now be taken, and every family has at least one camera. There are are billions of pictures taken each day across the world. Graphics Editing Programs In 1987, around the time when digital cameras started to appear, a PhD student at the University of Michigan started working on a program to display grayscale images on a monochrome display. Thomas Knoll was the student s name. The program caught Thomas brother John s attention who recommended turning the program into a program for image editing purposes. The two worked on the program which was renamed to ImagePro for six months. After the program was finished, Thomas worked out a short-term deal with scanner manufacturer to distribute

copies of the program (then already renamed to Photoshop) along with the scanners. There were about 200 copies shipped. At the time, John Knoll traveled to Silicon Valley to demonstrate the product to Apple and Adobe engineers. Both demonstrations were a success, and eventually the Photoshop license was purchased for distribution by Adobe in 1988. Two years later, Photoshop 1.0 was released for Macintosh. The effect this program had on the photography is unbelievable. It made photo manipulation easier, and allowed people to spend less time editing and getting better results. The program eventually created a whole community of amateur and professional artists who were now able to create or improve their pictures using a simple personal computer. Today the image editing market keeps growing, with major companies like Adobe and Corel competing with smaller indie-companies who offer the customers different approaches to image editing at a reasonable price. Those companies specialize in lightweight editing programs that, for example, are used for color correction only. Their small size makes them cheap enough for nonprofessionals to use. The World Wide Web Effect Online Based Communities With the increasing number of amateur photographers around the world, online photography communities started to appear offering amateurs and pros a chance to share and receive feedback on their photos. This resulted in sites like Flickr becoming the main source for sharing and inspiration for photographers around the world. Flickr was developed by Ludicorp a Canadian company and launched in 2004. In the beginning, Flickr was more about sharing pictures and photos one found online in a chat room called FlickrLive. However, the site evolved into becoming a place where users uploaded their own pictures and shared and commented on them. Eventually the chat room element was dropped by Flickr team. The idea behind online communities is that not everyone has the budget and the capacity to be able to exhibit his or her work so that the world could see them. As photography became more casual, and people began to shoot personal images rather than commercial work, the separation between these two approaches widened. Did You Know: Interestingly, Flickr was developed through the tools used to create a web-based massively multiplayer online game called Game Neverending that was cancelled in 2004. Stock Photography Stock photography the supply of photographs licensed for specific uses is a huge market for today s professional and amateur photographers. In the 1880 s, newspapers and magazines obtained the technology to reproduce photos using the half-tone printing press. The first newspaper photographs were taken by staff photographers, but this eventually changed to agencies hiring freelance photographers on commission.

As the freelance photography started growing, the first stock photography agencies were founded. One of the first major stock photography agencies known today as Robert Stock was founded in 1920 by Armstrong Roberts. The market has grown rapidly in recent years, and today we have a wide range of stock photography available for any use. One of the milestones for stock photography agencies and freelance photographers was when big agencies started moving online. By early 2000, three major companies appeared in the market Getty Images, Corbis and JupiterImages. Smaller agencies followed the big ones into the online world. The result was quite significant as smaller companies and individuals gained access to the wide range of stock photography. Easier access resulted in more customers and therefore bigger revenue. In 2001, Google introduced its Image Search Engine that resulted in image search becoming available to anyone and everyone. Before then, the process of finding the required picture was a tough job, and one had to know places to look for. The availability of the internet, along with simplified image search, resulted in smaller stock agencies being able to offer their service to a wider range of customers around the world. By charging less, these companies attracted more customers (sometimes even big companies who had previously worked with top stock agencies), creating a whole new place for professional and amateur photographers to earn money. Since it is cheaper to buy one photograph when you need it, newspapers and magazines (especially small ones) preferred this approach over hiring a staff photographer. Today, stock photography has grown ever-larger through moving online. Photo banks are now used by individuals who might need a specific image for any project or assignment.

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