Photography

Mataya Eaquinto
October 26, 2009
Period 2

Photography

Photography is the process of creating images of still or moving pictures. The images are through photographic lens in a device known as a camera. There are many different colors and angles to make an image unique, black and white, color, and sepia. All photography was originally monochrome or in other words black and white, some monochromatic pictures are not always pure blacks and whites, but also take in other texture depending on the process. Even though color became available, black and white continued to dominate for long periods of time and still till this day is used just as much as color photos, due to the classic look and the cost is less.

Color was analyzed in the mid 1800s. The beginning of color photos early experiments could not prevent color from fading. The first permanent color photo was taken in 1861 by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. One of the adjustments of taking color photos was to use three cameras to have three basic channels required to divert a color image in a darkroom or processing plant.

During the time of the twentieth century, both fine art photography and documentary photography became accomplished by the English-speaking art world. In the United States also during the twentieth century many fine art photographers such as, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, John Szarkowski, F. Holland Day, and Edward Weston spent a lot of their time when first beginning photography, trying to imitate painting styles. Generally using soft focus for a dreamy, “romantic” look called Pictorialism. In opposed to that Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and others formed a group to discover straight photography in a sharp form and not a duplicate of something else.

The invention of the camera was first used by two men Daguerre and Fox-Talbot. The camera was proven to be useful in recording crime scenes and accidents. One of the first efficient cases occurred at the scene of the Tay Rail Bridge disaster of 1879, the camera helped settle it by using both long shots and close ups. When prints are scanned at high resolution, they can be enlarged to show details of the small detail of the photo such as broken cast iron lugs and the tie bars which failed to hold the towers in place, on the Tay Rail Bridge case.

Other than the camera there is another mechanism of producing images with light such as a photocopy or xerography machine. Photography has numbers of different ways to make photos different shades and very unique.