TECHNOLOGY

TIMELINENYLES A. HIGHTOWER

HISTORY OF PHOTOJOURNALISM PROFESSOR NORDELL

INTROAll of the technologies and platforms listed start a new era of photography. They impact not only photography but photojournalism and photojournalists. Once one was introduced it changed the way pictures were taken and changed the view points for photographers. Some literally changed the view points.

The way technology works is that it also has to be an improvement from the last thing to come out. Technology builds on itself and never intentionally takes steps backwards.

Wet Plate Collodion1851

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This was the first form of photography and gave people the ability to capture moments. This form of photography was mostly used for portraits and wedding photos. The subjects in the photoshoot would have to stay still for many minutes anywhere from 6 to 8 minutes. They had to sit still so long some people wore neck and back braces to take away the pain. This was explained by Professor Nordell in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ4JfnPkgcA&feature=youtu.be It was sometimes taken out of the family setting and into the war setting but it was extremely hard to get all the equipment around and find subjects still for that long

This picture is an image of Roger Fenton on his “Photographic Van”. He would have to ride this carriage around battlegrounds just to set up shop and get a picture of dead bodies of soldiers sitting around because Wet Plate Photography didn’t have the ablility to take pictures of moving objects.

Photo by Roger Fenton’s AssistantImage Source: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

The Wet Plate Collodion ProcessStep 1: Clean the plate. I poured the collodion on a piece of 4x5 tin plate (There are a couple of different ways to do this but I found that pouring quite a bit in the center of the plate and then moving it to each corner works the best).Step 2: Silver Nitrate bath. After the collodion is on, it goes into the silver nitrate bath where the plate sits for 3 minutes and becomes light sensitive. At this time the lights in the darkroom go off except for the safelights which are either red or amber and at a very low power. Wet plate collodion has a film speed (ISO) of approximately 5, so this means that it takes quite a bit of light to affect the plate.Step 3: Take it to the camera, shoot the photo! Put the plate in an old film holder so that it's light tight. Now you’re ready to take the image.Step 4: Developing. Back into the darkroom, take the plate out, and cover the plate in developer. Rock it gently back and forth for about 10-15 seconds until you start to see your image appear. Then a gentle water wash until the plate washes off the developer. Put it into the fixer and develop.

Explained step for step by Josh LeClairhttps://fstoppers.com/portraits/step-step-guide-wet-plate-photography-2540

Dry Plate Collodion1877

IMPACTDry Plate Photography is literally a game changer. Roger Fenton would have asked for this 20 years earlier. He wouldn't have to ride a van full of equipment everywhere. But dry plate photos gave photographers the ability to freeze motion. No longer did they have to have something stay still for 10 minutes they could catch a bird flying or a person jumping.

These photos were captured by Eadweard Muybridge and they helped him win a bet that all 4 of the horse’s legs are in the air at the same time. Thanks to Dry Plate technology he was able to freeze the horse in action and prove he was right. Dry Plate Collodion became popular fast and photographers everywhere were using it.Photo by Eadweard MuybridgeImage Source: https://vickielester.com/2014/01/29/eadweard-muybridge-one-of-the-fathers-of-the-motion-picture/

Color Photography1935

IMPACTThe Kodak Company changed EVERYTHING! Kodachrome was introduced by Kodak where you were able to take pictures with color film developing. The pictures were technically black and white until they were processed and developed. They were developed with a certain color dye and if stored improperly the dye would fade but if stored properly the color of the photos would last 100 years according to a TIME article on Kodachrome.

Color gave photographers a brand new outlet for expression of emotion. It let them capture the beauty of life. We don’t see in black and whi te so why should our pictures be. Kodachrome was revolutionary and a major step in photography and photojournalism.

EXAMPLE OF A COLOR PHOTO IN B&W

Both Photos by Photographer Steve McCurryImage Source: http://www.cnn.com

/2015/03/23/world/steve-mccurry-afghan-girl-photo/

Image Source: http://jammytoast.com/great-uncle-bimbo-remembers-3/

SLR Cameras1950

SLR Cameras or Single Lens Reflex Cameras gave photographers an idea of what the photo would like when you were ready to frame it. It gave the photographer a look through the lens… literally. With a simple mirror and prism system you were able to look through a viewer and see what the camera was going to capture. This changed photojouralism because now you were able to create a picture not only just take one.

What I mean by creating a picture and not just taking it is creating a world around what you arre taking a picture of. Being able to point the camera more to the left so a person is standing to the right of the photo and a lot of scenery to the left. This also helped create The Rule of Thirds in photography.

According to photgraphymad.com The rule of thirds is “an essential photography technique. It can be applied to any subject to improve the composition and balance of your images.”

RULE OF THIRDS EXAMPLE

The tree is placed in the 3rd section while the first 2 are open for the beautiful sunset and scenery.

Photo by Andreas WonischImage Source: http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/rule-of-thirds

DSLR Cameras1970

Now we are entering the digital age. The age we all know and love

and are so accustomed too.

Digital Camera gave photos better quality because they were made with pixels instead of film. Also cut out the middle man of developers and stores that developed film because know you can plug your camera into a computer and view your photos that way. Or have the photos on a cassette tape (early times) or DVD (more recent) and see them displayed on a TV set.

First Digital CameraBy Kodak and Steve Sasson

Image Source: http://petapixel.com/2010/08/05/the-worlds-first-digital-camera-by-kodak-and-steve-sasson/

Internet and Social Media1990

IMPACT

The Internet became an outlet for photographers and photojournalists to display their art for everyone to see. The Internet also gave way for every and anyone to be a photojournalist. The internet has countless websites that hold hosts to different famous photography and photographers set up their own websites that have galleries of their work. The Internet became an outlet as well. Photographers that don’t have the newspaper connections or people connections can gain buzz from the Internet.

Social Media:

The Internet:

Instagram is probably the biggest social network for photography and its main users aren’t professional photographers, it’s people like you and me. Instagram has had a huge impact on photojournalism and it had been documented.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/11/01/why-time-magazine-used-instagram-to-cover-hurricane-sandy/#321077972e21

The link above is to an article that explains why TIME magazine chose to use Instagram to take their pictures for the story and not your traditional digital cameras. The photographers were excited to shoot with their iPhones saying it was like a breath of fresh air just being able to “point and shoot”.

This is the Cover of the issue that was taken with Instagram.

Image of TIME CoverImage Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/11/01/why-time-magazine-used-instagram-to-cover-hurricane-sandy/#321077972e21

Camera Phones and Smart Phones

2000

IMPACTTo make it simple Smart Phones have turned Photojournalism into something anyone can do and enjoy and/or get paid from. Photojournalism used to be where you had to work for a news station to get an assignment but but that is no longer the case. Thanks to an app called Fresco. The app sends an alert to Fresco users of an area that has a story needed to be shot and they go to that area and snap photos of the scene. The news stations then choose which photos they like and purchase them. Fresco then shares the profits with the person who took the picture.

The app can be fully explained in this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Dhw6YCT-U

Drones2000s

Drones have to be my personal favorite of all the technological advances. Being able to fly a mini aircraft and take picture from aerial views and fly around and over things is just the coolest idea.

What is a drone? According to Target Tech a drone is “in a technological context, is an unmanned aircraft. Drones are more formally known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UASes). Essentially, a drone is a flying robot. The aircrafts may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously through software-controlled flight plans in their embedded systems working in conjunction with onboard sensors and GPS.” This now allows photojournalists to capture never before seen angles of objects.

Even if the object has been shot before, it was never seen from an angle the drone get take.

ALL THE FOLLOWING IMAGES WERE CAPTURED BY PETE DAVIES

• IMAGES SOURCED: HTTP://WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK/NEWS/ARTICLE-2905158/THE-SYDNEY-OPERA-HOUSE-AUSSIE-LANDMARKS-LIKE-NEVER-SEEN-ONE-MAN-DRONE-OFFER-COMPLETELY-DIFFERENT-PERSPECTIVE-WORLD-S-PHOTOGRAPHED-PLACES.HTML

The images in the following slides were captured with a drone and are simply amazing.

YOU HAVE NOW FINISHED YOUR TRAVEL THOUGH TIME!

COOL RIGHT ?!By: Nyles A. Hightower