PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography was invented, about a century ago. In those early days, only simple box-cameras were available to take simple black and white pictures. Photographic techniques and equipments have come a long way since then. Exploding flash guns have progressed to compact electronic flash unit, box-cameras to sophisticated computerised reflex cameras, stills to movies, black-and-white to full glorious colours and part-time dabblers to highly paid professionals.
On a summer day in 1827, Joseph Nicephore Niepce
made the first Photographic image with a camera obscura. Prior to Niepce people
just used the camera obscura for viewing or drawing purposes not for making
photographs. Joseph Nicephore Niepce’s heliographs or sun prints as they were
called were the prototype for the modern photograph, by letting light draw the
picture. In almost every sphere of human activity nowadays, photography has now
come to play a very significant role.
Photography as a hobby is perhaps the most popular
of all its uses. Cameras and films are now cheap and easy to use. ‘Instamatic’
cameras have largely eliminated the hit-or-miss techniques of yesteryears.
The use of camera phones has made life so easy and
entertaining. It has a vast usage and is one of the best modern age techniques
so far. Anybody with a pair of eyes and hands can take reasonably good
pictures. We see amateur photographers all over the place, especially in
holiday resorts and recreational areas.
Tourist and sightseers are never without cameras. Pictures and snapshots of important events, wonderful times and places or memories to be precise, are all recorded in photographs. They are our link to the past.Newspapers and magazines would never be what they are today without photography. Photographs enliven these periodicals with pictures of people and places. “A picture is worth a thousand words”, so goes the old saying.
A well-clicked photograph is worth more than a
thousand words. It describes a scene infinitely better than mere words can
depict. Besides making newspapers and magazines attractive, photography
provides jobs to numerous professionals who roam around the world in search of
pictures.
‘Eyes work more than ears’ is a widespread fact.
Use of photographs helps people to retain better. Photographs/images get
quickly captured in our mind and stays in our memory for a relatively longer
time. That’s why it is also said that many people have photographic memory
wherein whatever they see gets stored in their mind and helps in remembering
things quicker and in a better way. This proven fact has been rightly harnessed
by the educationist wherein they use more and more of pictures in text books
and while teaching.
Modern printing processes make extensive use of
photographic techniques. Off-set printing and photocopying are examples of what
photography is doing for us. Such is the versatility of photography. All the
books and magazines are now made by photographic processes.
In another field of human activity that is
medicine, photography is extensively used. X-ray photography is now a common
thing in hospitals. They help doctors in the diagnosis of diseases. In
addition, X-rays can be used in treatment of certain diseases. Nowadays, with
the invention of fibre optics where light can be directed through thin tubes,
doctors can see and probe into the insides of patients as never before. They
can then photograph all they see in full colour. Such techniques were
unheard of just a decade or so ago.Photography is also employed in meteorology.
Weather forecasting by satellites is now a routine thing. It is also accurate.
Pictures of other planets and celestial objects are
always wonderful to look at. Space probes approaching the giant planets of
Jupiter and Saturn have taken sharp and clear pictures for us to unravel the
mysteries of the universe. All these are made possible by the wonders of
photography. Photography provides us with sights of deep-sea sharks,
microscopic bacteria, constellations-a million light years away, ravishing
beauties and our passport pictures. A person sitting at the remotest area of
any part of the world can enjoy the view of any wonder of the world. Its use is
wide and varied and of tremendous importance to us. Non-existence of
photography in the earlier times has left us with a very bleak image of our
ancestors.
In the contemporary world the practical applications of the photographic medium are legion; it is an important tool in education, medicine, commerce, criminology and the milifary. Its scientific applications include aerial mapping and surveying geology, reconnaissance, meteorology archaeology and anthropology. New techniques such as holography, a means of creating three-dimensional image in space, continue to expand the medium’s technological and creative horizons. In astronomy the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) can detect and register even a single photon of light. By the end of 20th century, digital imaging and processing and computer-based techniques had made it possible to manipulate images in many ways, creating revolutionary changes in the world of photography.
Photography is an important
part of our lives. Photography can only be important though if we are in the
moment and not just shooting the look of something. If we are just shooting the
way something looks we are in danger of missing the real reason why we took the
picture in the first place (Lang 11). Researcher Linda Henkel of Fairfield
University argues in an article from the Huffington Post that
the camera can get in the way for us to actually attend a moment. There are
times that the camera becomes more important than the moment we are
photographing. When that happens it may be best to put the camera down and take
in the moment. But if the camera goes down the details of the moment will be
lost forever. What is the solution? Blogger Sierra Black concludes “what we
need isn’t fewer photos. It’s to become better photographers.” We realize
photography’s power when we take the right type of pictures. These are the
pictures that deep down connect the moment and the person. When we hold an
actual print in our hands and look at it we realize amazing things about our
existence.
No matter where you go
photography plays into your life somehow. We don’t realize how big of an impact
photography truly has on us until we see the details of our life hidden in a
photograph. When you flip through your photo album and start looking for those
details you suddenly realize you are truly blessed. A photograph keeps a moment
frozen in time so we have it forever. Something like joy becomes clearer as we
look deeper into the photograph. What you care about shouts from the photograph
you took. Photography is important so we don’t look over the special details
while we concentrate on the bigger picture of life. Those details make our
lives interesting and we don’t want to miss them. Lauren from
PhotographyConcentration.com, points out that “Photographers never stop
shooting. Why would you? Life never stops being interesting.” Never stop
capturing your life, because more adventures wait for you that need to be
frozen in time.
Traditional
photojournalists have most to fear from mobile photographers. If something
dramatic happens on the street ... sorry, someone's already there taking a
photo of it. Your average citizen photojournalist won't compose as well as a
professional, but they will be on the spot to capture the moment and be able to
publish immediately (heavy processing has no place in good photojournalism).
With commercial photography, the need for high resolution and impeccable light-handling makes phone cameras completely inadequate. Resolution in fine art photography can also be an issue, but, in theory at least, the high-end aesthetic photography world is not concerned with kit – just results. As mobile cameras deliver increasingly higher resolution photos, the results can be printed ever larger.
Mobile photography can be
very good at street and editorial photography. Mobile photographers can get
close to their subjects and not be recognised as a photographer, allowing them
to get more authentic images of people. Michael Christopher Brown recently
produced a compelling photo essay on the revolution in Libya using only an
iPhone (below). Although he was criticised for overprocessing his images in
Hipstamatic, shooting on the iPhone gave him a level of access prized by
professional photographers.
Businesses have realised that mobile photography, through Instagram, provides a new channel for effective visual advertising, and are making use of the social media platform in two ways. The first method is to open an account under their own name and simply feed photos to their followers. The second, more controversial, way is to hire Instagram users with a large number of followers, so-called superusers, and get them to take photos featuring their products.
To avoid having a
reputation as a platform full of covert junk ads, Instagram has started to take
steps to avoid creating so many superusers in the future. But, to date, it is
not known to have taken any steps to ask its existing superusers to be more
explicit about when they post sponsored photos, or to stop feeding the platform
with so many. And it's not just businesses that have realised the full
influencing power of Instagram. An Israeli group, Once in a Lifetime (onceinalifetime.org.il),
recently invited a group of 10 Instagram superusers to tour the country and
take pictures – which were distributed to more than 1.5 million followers in
total.
The filters
so commonly seen on Instagram are even feeding back into the mainstream.
A recent Sky Sports campaign featured sepia-tinged framed images
reminiscent of one of the app's most popular filters.
Photography
agencies are also tapping into the trend. With clients increasingly on the
lookout for photos with the authenticity of imperfection, agencies are turning
to non-professionals and the 250 million-plus photos uploaded every day to the
internet. Some, perhaps ahead of the curve, are also seeking out the heavily
processed look typical of mobile apps.
Two agencies
have been set up specifically to sell mobile photos: Foap will market your best
mobile photos for a flat $10, and pay you $5 if they sell; and Scoopshot allows
mobile photojournalists to set their own price, then takes a commission on each
sale. Both agencies seem to avoid photos with any heavy processing.
The $1bn price tag on Instagram perhaps served as a wake-up call to many businesses that there is money to be made in mobile photography. But as a young genre, it remains to be seen how money will be distributed.It also remains to be seen how Instagram will deal with the commercialisation – and potential devaluation – of its brand.
If you ask someone, "What is photography?" what would they say? Most people's answers would probably be the same. We all understand photography as an art, science and practice -- where an image is recorded and turned into a photograph (or a 'light painting,' if you want to get all technical with the literal Greek translation of it). A single moment in time becomes captured as a digital file (or even on film, for all of you old school folks).
But the reality is that
photography has been changing and evolving for nearly two centuries, from its
crude beginnings and complicated chemical processes only handled by professionals
to the instantaneous and much more accessible digital world we’re living in
today. The latest evolution of the medium, what’s been dubbed 'mobile
photography,' is perhaps the most radical change to be seen yet -- as it
doesn't just involve a change in how (and what) photos are taken, but also in
the growing number of people taking them, and how they are now shared, consumed
and ultimately viewed.
This current wave, which is
going to be at the forefront of photography for the foreseeable future, is exploding
mainly due to mobile devices: 'connected' cameras that you can fit into your
pocket and always have with you. Devices like Apple's iPhone truly paved the
way: even though the first model featured only a 2 megapixel camera in 2007, a
year later the App Store introduced a plethora of add-on camera applications
and suddenly made photo-taking on a cellphone a lot more fun and attractive.
The combination of accessibility, ease, sharing capabilities and sheer
proliferation of smartphones would soon cause a major change in the world of
photography, forever.
Comments
Post a Comment