PHOTOGRAPHY

CAMERA OBSCURA

CAMERA OBSCURA The Chinese were the first people that we know of to write about the basic idea of the pinhole camera or "camera obscura" (Latin words meaning "dark room"). About 2,500 years ago (5th Century B.C.) they wrote about how an image was formed upside down on a wall from a pinhole on the opposite wall. About 2,400 years ago (4th Century B.C.) the famous philosopher Aristotle talked about a pinhole image formation in his work. He wondered why "when light shines through a rectangular peep-hole, it appears circular in the form of a cone?" He didn't find an answer to his question and the problem wasn't answered until about 2,000 years later in the 1500s. In the 1500s many artists, including Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, used the "camera obscura" to help them draw pictures. A person or object would be outside the dark room and their image was reflected on a piece of paper and the artist would trace it. The camera obscura was used in the painting of this picture. It was painted about 1660 by Jan van der Meer van Delft (aka Jan Vermeer). His paintings are known for their "camera-like" detail and quality - but were painted 150 years before the invention of the camera

Joseph Nicephore Niepce

Credit for the first photographic image a French inventor, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, who in 1825 put a plate coated with bitumen (an asphalt used in ancient times as a cement or mortar) in a camera obscura. Using a camera obscura he waited for eight hours to expose the image.

Types of Light

Direct light, high light, reflected light, shadow, shadow core, cast shadow

Elements of Photography

Exposure Control (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO)

George Eastman & Kodak

George Eastman, was only 24 years old when he set up his Eastman Dry Plate Company in New York in 1880 and the first half-tone photograph appeared in a daily newspaper. In 1888 he introduced the first Kodak camera that cost $25.00 (a great deal of money then). It had a 20-foot roll of paper, (enough for 100 pictures) already put in it. To get the film developed you had to return the camera to the Eastman Dry Plate Company in Rochester, New York. For $10.00 they would develop the photographs, put more film in your camera and mail everything back to you. One year later an improved Kodak camera with a roll of film instead of a 20 foot roll of paper appeared.

Composition

High Angle, Low Angle, Eye-Line Wide, Medium, Telephoto

THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS

In 1727 a German professor, Johann Heinrich Schulze, observed that silver salts darkened when exposed to light. But the idea of making pictures using this information did not occur to him. That invention required the talents of a later generation of scientists. In 1800 a young English chemist, Thomas Wedgewood, was making "sun pictures" by placing leaves on leather that he had treated with silver salts, but he couldn't find a way to stop the darkening action of light and his leaf images faded into blackness.

The Kodak

In 1883, Eastman announced film in rolls. "Kodak" was born in 1888 when the first Kodak camera* entered the market. Pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures, the camera could easily be carried and handheld for operation. After exposure, the whole camera was returned to the company in Rochester, New York, where the film was developed, prints were made, new film was inserted, and then returned to the customer.

PHOTOGRAPHY DEVELOPS

Niepce formed a business alliance to bring the photographic process to the public through a contract with another inventor, Louis Daguerre. It was Daguerre who introduced the camera to the world in 1839.

Eduard Muybridge

Railroad tycoon Leland Stanford unwittingly started a chain of events that contributed to the development of motion pictures. To settle a wager regarding the position of a trotting horse's legs, he sent for Eadweard Muybridge, a British photographer who had recently been acclaimed for his photographs of Yosemite.

ISO

Refers to the sensitivity of photoreceptor cell located on the memory chip of the camera.

THE DAGUERREOTYPE

The Daguerreotype is a photographic process invented by Louis DAGUERRE in the 1830s. Daguerreotypes were popularly and primarily used for portraits. Unlike most photographs today, in which images are printed from transparent negatives onto paper, the daguerreotype was a polished copper plate upon which an image was directly exposed. No negative used in the process and so each daguerreotype was a unique, one-of-a-kind object. With its brilliant, mirror-like surface and its ornate case, small enough to hold in the hand or carry in the pocket, the daguerreotype was suited to a vivid and intimate representation of a loved one.

Shutter Speed

The amount of time the shutter inside the camera is open to expose your photo.

APERTURE

The aperture refers to the opening of the lens. It is one of three primary controls of light in the cameras.

DEFINITION

The dictionary defines photography as the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (such as film or an optical sensor).

The Human Vision System

The image is projected upside down on the back surface. The first steps in the sensory process of vision involve the stimulation of light receptors to create an image signal. Electrical signals containing the vision information from each eye are transmitted to the brain through the optic nerves. The image information is processed in several stages, ultimately reaching the visual cortex of the cerebrum. We see with our brain not our eyes!

PRINCIPLES

The principles of light had long been known to scholars dating back to the Greeks, but the ability to preserve an image-- to make the picture permanent-- would not be possible unless the early 19th century.

Photography and Light

The quality of a picture is often by its lighting. An image made as the sun rises is described, for example, as "sweet light" or if it is made at the noon hour on a bright day, it may be considered "harsh" or contrasty.

LIGHT WRITING

The word photography came from two Greek words that mean "writing with light."