Let the games begin!

Taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, c. 1826, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

Since the very beginning, man has wanted to record himself, paintings by cave men was the first start, they wanted to record their everyday lives, good or bad. Although photography has been around for over 100 years, people knew for hundreds and hundreds of years about a few basics of a camera. What the ancients knew was the effect of light separated from dark, with nothing but a tiny pin hole opening between them.  Around the 1400’s was when they discovered that a lens would make the picture much cleaner making a crisper image, called “camera obscura.”  It’s an understatement that since then we have come a long way, the very first photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826.

Joseph was captivated by the newly- invented art of lithography, which is known as a method of printing formerly based on oil and water. They use it to draw and image using fat/oil/wax on the surface of a limestone rock.  Before the first public announcement of photographic processes Joseph began experimenting with photography by himself in 1816. According to the History of Photography “He would take engravings, made transparent onto stones covered with light sensitive varnish of his own composition, eventually leading him to the invention of the new medium.” The next known component of a camera were materials put together to create an image that would remain a permanent change when given light. When they first began to experiment with light sensitive material, the most difficult thing was to get the captured image to remain permanent on the chemical coated surface, they experimented with these chemicals for centuries but they just recently perfected it.   After it was perfected it was commonly used and turned into businesses, they started opening shops for simple pictures like family portraits and individual portraits.  You even began to see pictures of the lower class every now and then because they didn’t have too high of costs. My next blog will inform you how the next hundreds of years made the camera how it is today.

The sunlight hurts my eyes

Pictures not only capture a moment, but a feeling as well. Rather it’s on a 35 mm, digital camera, or a camera phone, a picture is a picture.. Right? Not necessarily, no picture is the exact same and every aspect of a picture defines it, the angle, the contrast, the distance from the subject, and the environment. The first and most important thing to learn about photography is lighting, according to Wikipedia the word photography comes from the word photo, which in Greek translates to light.

Your lighting creates the mood and how much of an impact a picture can have, especially when working with a sunrise or sunset. The light controls how deep the contrast is, which can decide how compelling a picture is. Lighting is also very important when shooting models, when a light hits a part of your body wrong it can depict its true beauty, but hitting you at the perfect angle can truly enhance a photograph.

There are also different types of lighting, according to 2013 Photography Blogger there is side lighting and front lighting, side lighting makes a picture more dramatic with more shadow, and front lighting is much more delicate and simple. There is something photographers refer to as the “golden hour” or the “magic light” which is approximately an hour before or after the sunrise or sunset. The reason this time is so crucial to photographers is because of the way the sun hits a subject/subjects.

Here is a landscape shot taken at 5:20 a.m.And the same landscape at 8:20 a.m., still a beautiful picture, but two totally different pictures.

Another good tip when taking pictures when focusing on light is try not to have a completely set idea of what you want to see, we can’t control the sun, and we don’t want to get frustrated or disappointed when a picture we thought was going to perfect isn’t there.  You might think “I want to shoot that weeping willow near the lake with a little boat tied up to the tree with a couple talking casually.” That’s not the easiest thing to find, so you might find yourself wasting time and losing light. Having an idea of what you want to see is not a bad idea though; you need to be prepared when you go out to take pictures, not just with ideas, but with supplies and the right equipment too, and that’s when you’ll be ready to take the perfect picture.

SAY CHEESE!

This blog is dedicated to my multimedia and production class at East Tennessee State University!  I will be informing you on all kinds of photography, comparing old to new, and film to digital. What equipment, prices, and styles will be most successful in a casual or professional situation.

At 12, lolitas of Sally Mann, By Sally Mann

I will also talk about the controversial aspect of photography, whats deemed acceptable and not acceptable. So what catches your eye, Black and white or full on color? Either way, just smile and Welcome to say cheese!