Early Photography
Alhazen invented the 'Camera Obscura' in the 9th century. The 'Camera Obscura' was the first ever camera and meant 'Dark Chamber'. It was a dark room which had a small hole which projected whatever was on the outside onto the wall in the room.
Artists during the Renaissance traced the image projected onto the wall to create a more accurate image with finer details.
Artists during the Renaissance traced the image projected onto the wall to create a more accurate image with finer details.
Johann Heinrich Schultz discovered that if you dipped chalk in silver nitrate you would have a temporary photos.
Richard Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype process in which a negative were made using paper coated in silver iodide.
Louis Daguerre was an artist and a physicist which created the 'Daguerrotype'. This was a different to the calotype as it didn't use a negative but it produced finer details.
The main problems with early photography were the long exposure times and that it was not available for everybody. George Eastman invented the first Kodak camera which had lower exposure times and was easy to use and available for everyone.
Dry plate photography was better than it's predecessors because you could carry it around and develop it quicker.
Dry plate photography was better than it's predecessors because you could carry it around and develop it quicker.
Camera Obscura
In class we created a drawing by using a cardboard box with a magnifying glass to focus the light onto tracing paper. The light showed flipped on the tracing paper and we traced it to create an image. Artists during the renaissance used to use this technique to achieve better perspective and more detail.
We found that using a pen rather than a pencil made it easier as you didn't need to press as hard. We also found pointing the camera and a bright place while indoors or in the shade made the image clearer.
Photograms
Photograms are when you make silhouettes of objects by projecting light from an enlarger onto the objects and photographic paper. The objects shaded the photographic paper creating an outline of the objects and then the light that exposed the paper turned black. The lower the aperture the larger the light covered the paper. You then put the photos in three chemicals: developer, stop bath, fixer then water so the photo would no longer change to light. After this, we used a dryer and then we had the photo which isn't sensitive to light.
The transparent parts of the objects show up as grey rather than the white silhouette as you can se on the keychain on the left photo and the lanyard holder on the right photo. This is because only some of the light reaches the photographic paper.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter is open. A fast shutter speed will freeze movement and a slow shutter speed will blur movement. For example, a very fast shutter speed would be 1/4000 (shutter is open for 1/4000 of a second) and a long shutter speed would be 2" (shutter is open for two seconds). Also, the longer the shutter speed the brighter the image. This is because the sensor is exposed to light for longer. So if you were taking photos at night, you would use a slow shutter speed rather than a fast one.
Iso
The ISO is how sensitive your sensor is to light. The higher the ISO number the more sensitive it will be. For example, ISO 100 would make the image dark and ISO 1600 would make the image bright, which would be more suitable for taking photos at night. The bad thing about a large ISO number is that it would add film grain and noise while a small ISO number will create a clear image with little to no noise.
Aperture and depth of field
Aperture is how wide open the shutter is while the photo is taken. The lower the f/stop the more wide the shutter is and the more light is allowed in making the image more exposed. Also, the wider shutter causes a shallower depth of field (less of the photo is in focus).
Philippe Halsman
Philippe Halsman was an american portrait photographer. He was born in Latvia but lived in New York. He moved away to France after being accused of his father's murder but later moved to America after France was invaded by Germany. In America, he became successful working for magazines like Life magazine where he made many covers of famous celebrities and politicians over his lifetime. In 1941 Halsman started collaborating with Salvador Dali to create many famous surreal artworks such as this one:
Halsman said that, "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears." This means he believed that when people jump they show their true self. This is why Halsman liked to take photos of celebrities and people jumping to get an insight into their personality and to capture it in a photo.