History of camera's
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1500
The first pinhole camera (also called the Camera Obscura) was invented by Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham).
1839
The Daguerreotype Camera was announced by the French Academy of Sciences. One of these inventions is now the world’s most expensive cameras.
1840
The first American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.1859
The panoramic camera patented by Thomas Sutton.1861
Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.1888
George Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera. Eastman was a pioneer in photographic films usage. He also started manufacturing paper films in 1885. His first “Kodak” box camera was very simple and very cheap.1900
First mass-marketed camera – the Brownie – was presented by Eastman. It was on sale until 1960s.
1900
The Raisecamera (travel camera) was invented. Extreme light weight and small dimensions when it is folded made this photo camera the most desirable thing for landscape photographers.1913/1914
The first 35mm still camera (also called “candid” camera ) developed by Oskar Barnack of German Leica Camera. Later it became the standard for all film cameras.1948
Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera which could take a picture and print it in about one minute. 1978
Konica introduces the first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera Konica C35 AF. It was named “Jasupin”.1981
Sony demonstrates the Sony Mavica – the world’s first digital electronic still camera. Digital photography and television images are related to the same technology, so this camera recorded images into a mini disk and then put them into a video reader. Images could be displayed to a television monitor or color printer.
1986
Fuji introduced the disposable camera. The inventors also call this device “single-use cameras”.1991
Kodak released the first professional digital camera system (DCS) which was of a great use for photojournalists. It was a modified Nikon F-3 camera with a 1.3 mega pixel sensor.1994-1996
The first digital cameras for the consumer-level market that worked with a home computer via a serial cable were the Apple Quick Take 100 camera (February 17 , 1994), the Kodak DC40 camera (March 28, 1995), the Casio QV-11 (with LCD monitor, late 1995), and Sony’s Cyber-Shot Digital Still Camera (1996).2000
In Japan Sharp’s J-SH04 introduced the world’s first camera phone.2005
The Canon EOS 5D is launched. This is first consumer-priced full-frame digital SLR with a 24×36mm CMOS sensor.
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Places
Liverpool, Formby and Crosby.
Today we visited Liverpool and I saw a very different side to the city that I have ever seen before. Being equipped with a light meter in order to obtain the correct light levels I felt I was able to achieve images that I really liked with good histograms. After researching metering I am able to put into practise what we have learnt in lessons and what I have learnt from my research.
My first job was to select the iso on the camera and the light meter then I used the light meter to get the correct lighting levels which I then applied the appropriate combination of aperture and shutter speed to set the required exposure value for a great image. As I was using a hand-held exposure meter I pointed its meter at the landscape with the invacone closed and got a reflected reading as pointing the meter at the landscape meant it measured the light that was reflected from the landscape,
Then by turning the meter around and metering behind myself with the invacone open , it used the sensor to measure the light falling towards the camera which gave an incident meter reading, I did this so that it wasn't fooled by the subject's reflective qualities and it enabled me to get a better exposure idea.
Here are my contact sheets from Liverpool 21st Feb 2012
One of the images I really liked from Liverpool.
Taken with the camera set to
Exposure 1/250
Aperture f/22
ISO 100
Image edited in photo shop with black & white and high contrast
Image editing in photo shop with sepia, this has to be my favourite
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After researching Ansel Adams landscape work I found it give me more of an idea as to achieving a correct exposure with the help of his zone system which was described in a book I read on Black & White photography. It is used by splitting the subject into grades from 0 (black) to 10 (white), and with mid grey around 5,
After researching Ansel Adams landscape work I found it give me more of an idea as to achieving a correct exposure with the help of his zone system which was described in a book I read on Black & White photography. It is used by splitting the subject into grades from 0 (black) to 10 (white), and with mid grey around 5,
I found this idea easier to evaluate the exposure required to ensure the subject appears the correct tone. It gave me a better understanding of lighting and camera metering when holding the shutter down slightly I was able to adjust the it more accurately
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Here are a few setting examples of camera settings
= f/16 - 1/125 = will allow the same amount of light in as
= f/8 - 1/500
= f/11 - 1/250
= f/22 - 1/60
= f/32 - 1/30
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f/16 - 1/125 - ISO 800
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f/8 - 1/500 - ISO 800
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Seagull Camera
Images and Process
Images from a day trip out with the seagull camera. I am more than happy with these images, the seagull really did surprise me with the images I produced. I will definitely be using it again in the future as the quality of the images are great. The first image has to be my favourite of them all.
In the dark room while developing the film it had to be dark with no light entering at all, I had to unravel the film off the spool and remove the paper so that I could push the film through the lugs and roll it all onto the spool. Then I had to put the spool in the tub and pop the top piece of the tub on to enable me to fill it with solution without exposing it to any light. Next I had to pour in 250ml of solution ID11 and 750ml water which I had mixed previously and this is the developer solution. I then put the lid on I had to agitate the tub for the first 30 seconds and then 10 seconds every minute until 20 minutes had passed.
Then I poured that solution out and poured in the stop solution and agitated it for 30 seconds and removed it after 1 minute. Then I pour the rinse aid solution in which I prepared earlier consisting of 500ml water and a cap full of fix solution, I left this in for 5 minutes agitating for the first 30 seconds then for 10 seconds every minute. After this was complete I the poured the fix solution out and poured water in which was left running through the tub for 20 minutes, then I poured half the water out so it was just above the spools and put a bit of rinse aid solution in the tub and kept dunking the spool in it for 10 seconds. After this process i removed the films from the tub and squeegeed the films down and hung them to dry in the dryer. This was a great experience and it will not be my last as the whole process was exciting and very rewarding.
Here are my negative results.
I attempted to print one of the images from the above.
I placed the negative with the shiny side facing up into a negative holder which is then placed in the top of the enlarger machine. Then I turned the lights out so that there was only a red light on to enable me to see what I was doing and this would not expose light to the fibre coated based multi grade rc deluxe paper.
I then had to adjust the contrast with
0=less contrast
3=medium contrast
5=large contrast
I Used the shufticope to see the grain in the paper to get the focus pin sharp. I started by doing test strips which consisted of exposing only a section of the strip to the image for 2 seconds and then 2 seconds more each time. The more light that is exposed to the paper the more darker the image became, so in order to select a good exposure I had to do a number of strips until I found the correct one. I. After completing a number of test strips I then decided that the best way to achieve the image and exposure I wanted was to dodge and burn it, while the enlarger was exposing the image for the selected time, I was hovering my hand over certain area's of the image for a short period of time this reduced the exposure in the areas I had selected which enabled me to get the detail of the lighter parts dark, while keeping the darker parts light so the detail was still there.
After exposing the paper with the enlarger I then put the paper into a mixed solution of multi grain paper developer which is 200ml of solution and 1800ml of water, while in this bath I had to continuously move the solution around the image for 2 minutes. I then put it into a tray of water for 30 seconds, then I had to put it into the fixer solution for 2 minutes facing downwards. After that I put it into cascading water for 20 minutes. Last of all I put it on the drying racks to enable it to dry properly. This was another experience I enjoyed although I did find it very hard to produce the image I wanted. I will try again though as I feel more practise is needed to get a better idea of how the whole process of enlarging the image from negative to paper.
After spending 2 days in the dark room experimenting with the enlarger and developing solutions here are some of the results.
While in the dark room I really enjoyed the whole process, although it was not as easy as I thought it would be. There is a lot of information to take in and a lot of attempts to produce an image so it is not just a quick process.
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Silverdale Cove and Sunderland Point
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Photography Research
Commercial photography - As a commercial photographer you are expected
to become part of the marketing mechanism to which manufacturers advertise their products.
It then becomes the photographers responsibility to communicate the products visual merits and
advantages in order to sell the product.The greatest user of commercial photography is the mass media.
Fashion Photography - As a fashion photographer you are expected to create an overall effect by
communicating the whole lifestyle as a product merit and not just the garment. Fashion photography
tends to be a credible watermark of beauty ideals of a given era, as well as an indicator of the
political and social climate. Baron Adolphe de Meyer is credited as the first fashion photographer.
In 1913, Meyer is said to have took the first fashion photographs for Vogue.
Street Photography - The photographer is expected to make the portrait look like the person
being photographed. Street photography can be challenging as the use of available light
is the only option with the use of reflectors as a main ally.
Advertising Photography - Advertising photography during the 1970's an 1980's became
synonymous with expensive high quality imagery and reproductions. The main points were to
communicate information and attract the viewers attention, this being achieved with the
support of a headline and body copy.
Documentary photography - The main alley of history. Documentary photography is often used to
incite political and social change due to its ability to capture the “true” nature of an image or location.Through these images, the public learns truth information about cultural, political and environmental situations. Documentary photography flourished into the American consciousness during the Great Depression of 1930s when photographers were documenting the pervasive poverty.
Fine Art Photography - Fine Art Photography, also known as art photography, which refers to the
branch of photography dedicated to producing images for purely aesthetic purposes.
Fine art photography is mainly housed in museums and galleries, and is focused on presenting
beautiful objects or ordinary objects in beautiful ways to convey intensity and emotion.
Much of art photography is produced in limited quantities and at times it is used in advertisements or magazines.
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Shutter Speed - Fast shutter speeds with high iso and low f-number results in the image having a lot
of image noise and a small depth of field. Slower shutter speed with low iso and high f number
results in the image having little sharpness and would require the use of a tripod as holding the
camera still for so long would be difficult. By applying the shutter speed to 1/2 a waterfall would
look very misty and smokey, applying shutter speed 1/10 would result in the water having a mist on it, by applying 1/30 the water would look to have a slight mist above it, and by applying 1/400 the
result would be that the water looked normal and in normal flow. By applying slow shutter speeds enables the camera to capture motion.
F-stops - The distance between the darkest and lightest tones can be measured in f-stops, so if the
distance between a white shirt and black jeans is 3 stops then 8 times more light is being reflected by
the shirt than the jeans. Setting the f-stop can make a difference to the light that's entering the camera
at the time of exposure, so if the camera is set to a low f-stop then a lot of light will be entering the camera as the opening is big. A high f-stop number will make the image darker as the opening is smaller and therefore there is less light able to enter the camera which results in the bokeh effect with less of the image in focus.
Metering - The two main meter readings are reflective and incident, for a reflective reading you open
the invercone and face the meter towards the subject in order to capture the amount of light falling on the subject. An incident reading is where you would leave the invercone closed and would take the reading by facing the meter to the camera or the lights. The camera's light meter can only measure reflective light from a subject that appears as middle grey 18%. Spot metering - This is when the meter only reads from a small area which is a great advantage if your unsure of the subjects reflectance and you also have to have a grey card for this metering.
Light Source to be considered - The visible spectrum of light consists of a range of wave lengths from 400nm to 700nm (nanometres)below 400nm is uv light and xrays and above 700nm is infrared. White light is the main spectrum, which is made up of blue, green and red colors.
Color temperature is measured in kelvins so light from a tungsten/halogen is (3200k)
Photoflood (3400k) = REDS
AC Discharge (5600k)
Studio Flash (5800k) = BLUES
Viewing photography - Western visual culture has determined the way we look at photographs and as humans our eyes naturally scan an image from top left to bottom right, therefore balance within an image is essential and by moving the camera close to the subject it fills the frame and becomes the dominant part of the composition. Therefore we do tend to gravitate more towards a balanced image. When there is symmetry between the elements within the frame the image is said to have a sense of balance. Although balanced images can also sometimes appear bland and conservative, a dominant element of balance is visually created by the distribution of light and dark tones. Lines within an image have the ability to lead the viewers eyes around the image, horizontal lines give the viewer the sense of stability balance, vertical lines create a sense of dominance, strength and power, when aligned to the edges they give a great static composition, tilted vertical lines forms an unbalanced image which creates visual tension within the image. Diagonal lines create visual tension which leads to dynamic composition and a sense of movement. Curves within an image can be soothing on the eyes as they tend to create an unobstructed and orderly manner within an image. Depth within an image can be created by placing an item in front or behind the subject, it can also be created with the careful use of lines, tonality, contrast, color, d.o.f, and framing. Shadows can also give depth to an image determine by the direction of the light they create texture, shape, form and perspective and without shadows images appear flat and visually dull. Composition is what attracts the viewers attention to the subject, the subject receives prominence without the distraction of other elements within the frame as the composition complements the communication within the image. Placing the subject centrally within the image should usually be avoided and the use of the whole frame encouraged. Rule of thirds is another contribution of composition, by using the rule of thirds it also helps keeps the image looking 2D and not flat. The rule of thirds is created by dividing the frame into three equal parts both vertically and horizontally and by placing the subject within one and a half of the lines.
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Mark Powers Influence on my Two Favourite Images Presented
While researching for these modules I read Mark Powers - The Landscape Of Disappointment and I found it extremely inspiring when I come to look at my personal images in the brief, it got me thinking about it hard and it certainly help to raise some memories that had anchored themselves in my memory. I found it very emotionally touching and found myself thinking deeply about my growing up, past and also the present and future. I can certainly say that it made me choose two places that are a big contribution to who I am today.
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