Dickson's Contribution to Motion-Picture and Camera - Term Paper Example

 «Dickson's Contribution to Motion-Picture and Camera» The term camera comes from the Latin word " Camera Obscura" meaning "darkroom" or "dark chamber". The first people to use this equipment were British scientists Thomas Wedgewood and Sir Humphry Davy. They used it to record photographic images. Certain chemicals were known to be light sensitive, such as silver nitrate and silver chloride. The first known people to produce photographic images were French physicist Joeseph Nice`phore Nie`pce and French painter Louis Jaques Mande` Daguerre. The reason that their photographs aren't around today is that the silver plates gradually darkened obliterating the image. The earliest photos on record were made by French physicist Joeseph Nice`phore Nie`pce and were called heliographs and were first made in 1827. The French painter that used silver plates was Louis Jaques Mande` Daguerre and he did this in 1831. * Take silver plates and coat with a light sensitive layer οf Silver iodine * Expose the plates for Several Minutes * Use mercury drops to develop a positive photographic image In 1851 British sculptor and photographer Frederick Scott archer introduced wet plate collodion. His method differed from what was used before in a few ways. Firstly the Collodion was used in place οf Albumin. Secondly the plates had to be exposed and developed while wet and you needed to have a dark room close at hand in order to prepare the plates. The American Civil war was the great event that was documented with thousands οf photographs. The principle photographer was Mathew B. Brady. The drawbacks to using this process would be portability, danger οf shooting in a war zone/ battlefield. Having to have the plates wet before exposure and after meant you only had a limited amount οf time to get them developed. This would mean that you could only photograph things that were close to your set up location. (Bial 2006) British merchant Richard Kennett who released his work as early as 1874 made advances. However in 1878 Charles Bennett perfected the process. He used a dry plate coated with an emulsion οf gelatin and silver bromide. In 1861 the first successful colour photograph was made by James Clerk Maxwell, who used an additive colour process. Around 1883american inventor George Eastman produced a roll οf film consisting οf a long paper strip coated with a sensitive emulsion. In 1888 Eastman marketed a "do-it-yourself camera called the "Kodak" and in 1889produced the first transparent flexible film support, in the form οf ribbons οf cellulose nitrate. The invention οf roll οf film marked the end οf the early photographic era. The first commercial colour process was commenced in the early 20th century and was invented by the Lumie`re brothers Auguste and Louis. World War II caused photos to be used for publicity and advertising for people to enlist. This occurred between 1939 and 1945.the 35mm size film became popular at this time and was used to produce motion pictures. (Curran 1990) Powdered magnesium was used to create an artificial light source. By sprinkling is in a trough and fired with a percussion cap it created a brilliant flash and an acrid smoke cloud. In 1947 American Physicist Edwin H. Land created the Polaroid camera. Two developments that have increased our ability to photograph very faint objects are an increase ISO οf up to 5000 and an electronic device called light amplifiers. The first "Camera" resembles a small house to sit in rather than a portable light tight box. Known as a camera obscura, typically an artist would stand inside. A small hole in one οf the walls would project the image outside onto the opposing wall. The image appears in colour and due to laws οf refraction also appears upside down and smaller than life scale. First appearing in the middle ages, camera obscuras were made popular by artists who used them in aid οf landscape painting. During the Renaissance the lens made images inside the camera more clear and larger. Eventually the camera obscura would shrink in size to a box that is lighter and portable. Today these are known as pinhole cameras and are used to teach beginning photography students how modern cameras are based. The first development οf transferring the images produced by camera obscuras was discovered by Johann Schulze in 1725. He found that silver salts changed colour when exposed to light. Granted, not the white and black we are used to today, the first salts changed from white to purple. The problem encountered is that it is not permanent. Though this seems just a minor accomplishment, this is the cornerstone οf all οf modern day photography. In 1826, a man by the name Joseph Niepce would become the man to produce the first permanent image on an object. His first image was taken from his workroom window out into a courtyard at his house. It took eight hours to expose the metal plate sensitized with silver salts inside his version οf the camera obscura. He found that bitumen οf Judea (asphalt) when dissolved into a varnish, was sensitive to light. Trying the image again, Neipce produced the first faint permanent image on a metal plate. This earned him the title οf the world's first photographer and called his invention the heliograph, or "Sun Drawing." In 1839, Louis Dageurre found that highly polished silver plates were sensitive to light. His first images couldn't be seen though. Later he discovered that the image was there, but not visible yet. This became known as the latent image, the basis οf modern photography. He brought out this latent image by exposing the plate to hot mercury fumes. He also found that he could make the image permanent by removing the unexposed light sensitive particles. His first daguerreotypes, so they were called, were fixed with a hot salt solution. Dangerous methods like these explains the short lives οf many early pioneers οf photography. Although expensive and complicated, Daguerre created the first photographic process and brought on the advent οf photography. (Harbison 2003) With the first photographic process came the first great photographers. Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes become known for their distinctive daguerreotype portraits. The exposure lengths ruled out anything but portraits. They photographed well-known to do's like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster, and Oliver Wendell Holmes." The practicality οf the daguerreotype was limited. One flaw included the fact that there could only be one copy. William Fox Talbot changed all οf that when he developed his process based on Daguerre's. He had the image exposed onto a piece οf transparent wax paper coated in silver chloride. Another piece οf sensitized paper was then placed under the negative on the wax paper and a bright light was shone through it to produce positive copy. The brilliance οf this process, with a negative and a positive, is that an infinite amount οf copies could be made so long as the negative was intact. Modern day photographic processes are exactly the same. It allowed inexpensive copies to be made and opened up portraiture to more than the elite society. With Talbot's and Dageurre's processes developed in the same year, the daguerreotype took off faster because οf a higher picture quality. The Calotype, so it was called would eventually take over though because οf lower cost, lower complexity, and the ability to make copies. As the photographic processes improved so did the equipment that was used to record the photographs. Granted they were not hand held, they were much more portable than they had been in the years past. Advances in optics included lens with four elements (each element is a specially shaped piece οf glass). These lens transmitted more light to the film than lens with fewer elements or just one element. The glory οf more light being transmitted meant the exposure lengths became much shorter; less than a minute, as opposed to several minutes to half an hour for some lens and cameras. The collodion contained potassium iodide and flowed evenly over the glass plate so long as it had been carefully cleaned. The substance would become tacky (similar to rubber cement) and then the entire plate would be soaked in silver nitrate to sensitize it to light. Once this was done, the process became tricky. The plated had to be loaded into the camera, exposed and developed while the collodian was still wet. If the collodion dried before the entire process was finished the plate became useless as it was then water resistant and the chemicals could not dissolve the collodion. Have you ever seen the old travelling photographers with their wagon darkrooms? They were using the wet plate collodian process. Everything had to be accomplished on the spot so the darkroom had to travel with the photographer or it would have been impossible to take photos. The reason for using such a demanding process was because the transparent plates produced brilliant clarity and high quality prints. Similar to the Calotype, wet plates could produce endless copies οf the image so long as the negative was intact. In 1861, Colour photography made its debut, kind of. James Maxwell demonstrated full colour images οf a tartan ribbon using three different lantern slides. His method οf additive colour worked well in theory but in practice was difficult and very unpractical. A variant οf the Wet Plate process is the Tintype, a.k.a. the Ferrotype. Though not actually produced on tin, the images were direct positives created in the same way as the wet plate. The metal base made the prints cheap to produce and sell and became marketed to the middle class instead οf the upper class οf the day. Many οf the travelling photographers took photos during the Civil War, making it the first war recorded on the photograph. In 1877 "Eadweard Muybridge experiments with multiple cameras to take successive photographs οf horses in motion. He continued his photographic studies οf motion, including human movements, from 1884. His studies οf horses in motion actually stemmed from a bet that his colleagues had with him. The bet was that horses always have at least one hoοf on the ground at all times. Muybridge argued otherwise. With his successive prints οf a horse running he proved that briefly the horse had all four feet off the ground. The next giant leap forward in photography was the Dry Plate Process. It is quite possibly the greatest advance in photography since it was invented. In 1878, Richard Maddox replaced the "Wet" Collodian with a thin coating οf gelatin and silver nitrate. Since the emulsion (light sensitive material on the film) was dry, new possibilities were unleashed. The need for the portable darkroom disappeared, the plates could be developed at any time. Also, by accident, when the plates were heated to dry the gelatin, it became more sensitive to light. This further decreased the exposure length needed to expose the film to light. Into the early 1880's arguably the biggest advancement in photography occurred. George Eastman created flexible rolled film. The light sensitive gelatin was coated on a paper backing. After being developed the gelatin was stripped from its paper backing and placed on a glass plate for printing. This revolutionized the cameras size and efficiency. From the Eastman Web site, "The name Kodak is born and the KODAK Camera is placed on the market. It is loaded with 100 exposures on a film roll for $25. It is simply operated: Pull the string to cock the shutter, press the button to expose the film, and turn the key to advance the film. The advertising slogan is: "You press the button and we do the rest". After all the film is exposed, the camera and the film are sent back to the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co. in Rochester for developing." The Brownie, as the KODAK camera in 1900 came to be known, became the worlds most popular camera and made it possible for anyone to take pictures. It only cost a dollar. Eastman's next major contribution would be an advancement on his already tried and proven design. In 1889 Eastman replaced the paper backing οf the roll film with clear flexible celluloid. With a clear backing, the film did not need to be stripped for printing. This concept was revolutionary and is still how film is made today. Another significant effect οf clear flexible film, would be exploited by Thomas Alva Edison. "Thomas Alva Edison commissions W.K.L. Dickson to invent a motion-picture camera in 1887. Dickson's contribution to motion-picture and projection technology was a device to ensure intermittent but regular motion οf the film strip and regularly perforated celluloid film strip to ensure precise synchronization between the film strip and the shutter. Dickson's camera is patented as the Kinetograph in 1893." (Lee 2007) In 1907, French Autochrome, a film company created by the Lumiere Brothers created the first practical colour photography. Red, Orange Green and Violet dyes in potato starches inlaid in the emulsion produced grainy (relative to black and white) full colour images. A few years after Autochrome, KODAK followed up with colour film on a roll. Created in 1935 by Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky, the gelatin roll film had three layers οf emulsion. One layer was for Red, one Blue, and the other for Green. After processing, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow dyes were added to produce full colour images. The film was used in both 35mm still cameras and also in motion picture cameras. This meant colour prints and colour movies at the same time; killed two birds with one stone. Another lovely invention in the 1930's was the flashbulb. These replaced Lycopodium powder flashes which were dangerous and messy portable bulbs had one downfall; they could only be used once. Invented by Paul Vierkotter, the first flashbulbs were magnesium covered wires in an evacuated glass globe. Soon after, the magnesium cover wire was replaced with aluminum in oxygen. (Hurley 2006) Polaroid film was developed in 1948 by Edwin Land. The first Polaroid prints were black and white and developed and fixed internally on its own in 60 seconds. The black and white version stuck around for many years finally overtaken by colour instant film in 1963. In 1986, the disposable camera was created. These one-time use cameras became very popular, and still are today, because οf its convenience and affordability. Although called "Disposable Cameras," the companies that produce them recycle the parts to make new ones and prefer the name "Single-Use Cameras." References Bial, Raymond., The Book οf Photography: The History, the Technique, the Art, the Future. Library Journal, 3/1/2006, Vol. 131 Issue 4, p82-84 Curran, Nancy E., Photography: A History., Levy Mandell, Phyllis, School Library Journal, 03628930, 1990, Vol. 36, Issue 9 Harbison, Martha., A Brief, Recent Flash In The History Οf Photography. Popular Science, Aug2003, Vol. 263 Issue 2, p54 Hurley, F. Jack., A Staggering Revolution: A Cultural History οf Thirties Photography. Journal οf American History, Dec2006, Vol. 93 Issue 3, p921-922 Lee, Anthony W., A Staggering Revolution: A Cultural History οf Thirties Photography.. Art Bulletin, Sep2007, Vol. 89 Issue 3, p601-604 Lee, Anthony W., American Histories οf Photography.. American Art, Fall2007, Vol. 21 Issue 3, p2-9 Read More