Preface to pHotography
What is pHotography (Pho-tog-ra-phy)? Most of people will answer that to take picture or to draw a picture. But actually it is -
“the process, activity and art of making still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a pHotographic sensitive chemical or electronic sensor”
Or “the process or art of producing images of objects on sensitized surfaces by the chemical action of light or of other forms of radiant energy, as x-rays gamma rays or cosmic rays”. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects lead a sensitive chemical or electronic sensor during a timed exposure, usually through a pHotographic lens in a device known as a camera that also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically”. Starting out in pHotography is a wonderful time full of creativity. Unfortunately, it can also be a time of wrecked nerves, confusing advice from friends, and frustration as you learn a new camera and try to capture on film or digital media what you saw with your eye. There are some basic concepts you can keep in mind that can make your first attempts at pHotography much more rewarding and less frustrating.
Generally history: The word “pHotography” was coined in 1839 by scientists Sir John F.W Herschel and is based on the Greek “photos”(light) and “graphein” ( to draw) together meaning ‘drawing with light’. Traditionally the products of photography have been called negative and photographs, commonly shortened to photos.
In 1827 on a summer day Josheph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic image with camera obscura, it was sudden because he had used for viewing or drawing purpose not for photograph. So we can consider him as a prototype of modern photograph. Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen, and then exposed it to light. The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, but the whiter areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. When Niepce place the metal plate in a solvent, gradually an image, until then invisible, appeared. Niepce’s photograph required eight hours of light exposure to create and after appearing would soon fade away.
Birth of modern of photography: Louis Daguerre was the inventor of the first practical process of photography. During the prior decades, a number of light sensitive materials were tested to capture the image from the camera obscura, but the first successful photograph is usually credited to Louis Daguerre. He and with Joseph Nicephore Niepce tried (1829) to improve the process. That picture, captured on silver-coated sheet of copper, using ‘positive image’ Daguerreotype process, is entitled The Artist’s Studio and is dated 1837. It was fragile and difficult to reproduce. By the time the details of the process were made public in 1839 other artists and scientists had discovered additional photographic imaging techniques. William Henry Fox Talbot’s, an English botanist and a mathematician, Collotype process used light-sensitive paper and produced ‘negative image’ that could be used to create multiple positive prints. This method required long exposure time; animate objects could not be recorded. No one could hold still long enough. The earliest photographic recording was architectural and landscape scenes. By 1840 techniques had improved and exposure times were shortened. Portrait photography became fashionable. Science that time pHotography has become an important tool in many fields with sophisticated techniques and equipment continuing to evolve.
Utility: The camera or camera obscure is the image forming device, and photographic film or a silicon electronic image sensor is the sensing medium. The respective record medium can be the film itself, or a digital electronic or magnetic memory. Photographers control the camera and lens to expose the light recording material (such as film) to the required amount of light to form a latent image (on film) or raw file (in digital cameras) which, after appropriate processing, is converted to a usable use an electronic image sensor
