Figure 1. The Beginning of Photography
Photography Noun: The art or practice of taking and processing photographs. The main idea and definition of photography has stood the test of time and has even evolved quite abit over the couple hundred years.Most of us now have probably heard, after being handed a camera for the first time,"Here just point and shoot" this was not the case in the early stages of development. Certain people were the photographers for certain cleintele. The portraits taken were usually of big professions, basically people with well paying jobs. Only later when the price was dropped they were able open it to the general public. In today's life everyone has their chance to take a portrait. Some may be with the family or friends or that celebrity they saw buying coffee that day. One of the more obvious differences from portraits from then till now are the poses that were chosen in portraits. Since you had to go to a professional to get your picture taken you would like to look your best in the standard frame sized moment. Poses today tend to be more, for lack of a better word "out there". Some wacky, professional others sexy, serious or the classic sad or happy.You would need a good setting to get a nice lighting for the early photos. Now we have features and programs to manipulate aspects that we deem not appealing. Back in the day there were portrait studios set up for people to come in sit down and take a picture. We have this procedure today as well with professional lighting, assistants and digital images on computers. We are able to look at the pictures taken and pick the ones we like and have them printed and delete the rest. Mathew Brady's studio was a high end photography studio for all the lawyers, doctors and politicians. Technology definately has had a huge impact on photos today. The various programs used to inhance things like lighting, color, scenery and many more. Added on features for cameras to change shutter speeds, lighting appeture, size, facial recognition, anti red eye the list goes on. One of the best innovations for photography technology this century is the introduction of digital photos. The ablity to put them on a portable device and/or computer look and multiple at a time manipulate them and forever post them on the internet send to friends, it just revolutionized the way pictures are seen and are used. Technology back then was no so advanced so camera's were definatley no so portable enough to fit in a purse and take it to a party or small enough to do a self picture those female facebookers are soo good at. Technological breakthroughs were limited for cameras then. Now camera technology is limitless.
Shane Inch
