I flagged all the good pictures and rejected all they were too dark or not focused enough.

I selected the best images based on how focused they are, the shadows or lack of them and whether they are overall aesthetically pleasing.

Those were my best picks which I then rated to further narrow down the selection

• 

• 

Image analysis

In this shoot I photographed historic objects as the topic of the shoot is heritage. The lighting in this were two LED studio lights on both sides (bottom right and bottom left). The light were bright and quite close (around half a meter) to the objects to get rid of any shadows, positioned a bit above the objects. The camera was pretty close as well to capture as much detail as possible. The overall temperature is pretty cool as there is a lot of blue-whites and a bit of green, the red peas box really stands out and contrasts the rest of the colours so it draws in the eye, its the first thing you initially see in the photo. The objects are placed in the middle and the camera was taking pictures at eye level rather than the bottom or top. There is a mix of textures from the roughed up edges of the box to the smooth surface of the bottle, I think that makes the picture more interesting.

Camera obscura

The desire to permanently capture reality existed for as long as we humans. So long in fact, the oldest know drawing made by Homo Sapiens dates back 73,000 years.

The history of photography itself began in the 5th century BC with a Chinese philosopher ‘Mozi’ who found that by letting light rays pass through a small hole into a pitch black room he could record the creation of an image. This phenomenon was also observed by a Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BC, when he noticed that the light from a sun eclipse passing through holes between leaves cast and image of the eclipsed sun on the ground. Today, we refer to this occurrence as a Pinhole Image.

Although many have experimented with this concept it wasn’t until the 11th century AD, an Arab mathematician, astronomer and philosopher Alhazen suggested that a viewing screen can be used to see the inverted image of the original object. Furthermore, Alhazen wrote the Book of Optics where he accurately describes how a Camera Obscura works and why the image we see is inverted. For the first time in human history we were able to mathematically prove that light travels in straight lines. His explanation helped us understand how vision works. Alhazen’s accomplishment influenced many great individuals such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo Galilei.

In the 16th century Giambattista della Porta improved the image quality by adding a concave lens near to where light enters the pinhole. Soon after a Giambattista Benedetti proposed to use a mirror at a 45 degree angle to revert the image back to it’s upright form. Although the concept was around for a many years the term “Camera Obscura” was used in 1604 for the first time by Johannes Kepler. Kepler used the Camera Obscura for astronomical applications and so created a tent version he could use for surveying in Austria. In 1835 the Camera Obscura became a popular attraction when Maria Theresa Short set up a popular observatory in Edinburgh and demonstrated it every day. Sadly she was evicted out of the property in Calton Hill due to breaking leafleting rules in 1849. Maria Set up the Short’s Observatory in Castle Hill soon enough, in 1853. The observatory runs till this day. Over the years the Camera Obscura evolved from a room, to a tent, to a small portable box.

First Permanent Images

Up until the 19th century the Camera Obscura was mainly used by artists and as a form of entertainment. In 1820 a French physicist and inventor, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, worked out a way to create permanent images using the Camera Obscura. To make a so called Heliography (‘Sun writing’), Niépce dissolved bitumen in lavender oil and inserted the coated pewter plate into the Camera Obscura to expose it to light for several hours. Here is the first permanent photograph ever made.

Knowing the process still required improvements Niépce started a partnership with a French artist, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, who helped him refine it using a more light sensitive resin and different post-exposure treatment resulting in shorter exposure time and higher quality images.

Daguerreotype

After Niépces sudden death in 1833, Daguerre carried on working with the notes he was left, he began experimenting with exposing images onto metal plates. Daguerreotype is a process involving the use of a silver coated copper plate, exposed in iodine vapour before being exposed to light. The exposure time was still extremely inconvenient until he discovered that a faint image from a short exposure can be developed using mercury fumes and then fixed by using a hot solution of salt to remove the remaining silver iodide. This shortened the exposure time to just a few minutes. Daguerreotypes were introduced to the public in 1839 and were the most commonly used up till 1850s.

Calotype

Whilst Daguerre was working on perfecting his process, another individual was also motivated to formulate a photographic process. William Henry Fox Talbot was a English chemist, linguist and archeologist trained at the university of Cambridge. Talbot could not draw his scientific observations even with the help of a camera lucida. He invented the process called Calotype, consisting of coating a sheet of paper with silver chloride and exposing it to light in the camera obscura. The areas exposed to light to become dark resulting in a negative image. In addition Toolbox discovered gallic acid; a chemical present in many plants; which he then used to develop the image, speeding up the chlorides reaction to the light and shortening the exposure time from an hour to a minute. The image was then fixed with sodium hyposulfite.

The Calotype process was superior in regard to the Daguerreotype, seeing that it could produce numerous positive images using the method of contact printing. Talbot announced his process in 1841.

Collodion Process

In 1851, both Frederick Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gary invented the Collodion Process almost simultaneously. Although Le Grey was the one who theorized it in 1850 the invention was credited to Archer. The exposure time was only a few seconds as the plates used an emulsion process instead of being simply coated. A portable dark room was needed as the plates had to be coated, sensitised, exposed and develop within fifteen minutes. This was a faster, cheaper and more efficient process that took over the Daguerreotype process by the end of 1860.

Dry Plates

Although the Collodion process was an innovative discovery it still required a lot of improvements as the plates had the be wet during the entire process. Throughout the years many tried to perfect the process and make it more convenient, scientists such as Joseph Sidebotham or Richard Kennett, but never successfully. Not until 1871 when an English physician and photomicrographer, Richard Maddox discovered the Dry Plate process. The process involved sensitising cadmium bromide and silver nitrate coated on a glass plate then coated in gelatine. This made it much more practical as the plates could be stored, transported and used whenever needed. Improvements were made to reduce the exposure time and with no need for a tripod first handheld cameras started to emerge.

Kodak

George Eastman perfected his own dry plate process. He received a patent on the process and set up a small factory in 1880. Soon enough he found a local investor, Henry Strong, and what started as a one room operation, in 1881, turned into the most revolutionary company in the history of Photography, the Eastman Dry Plate Company. In 1885, Eastman started manufacturing paper Film which reduced the weight of cameras, exposure time and could be used in already existing plate cameras. In 1888 he placed on the market the first camera designed to use Film roll, th Kodak. This simple, box camera with a fixed focus lens and single shutter speed, changed photography forever. The low price of the camera and the easy use greatly accelerated the growth of amateur photography. The camera contained enough Film for 100 exposures which would then be sent back to the manufacturer for developing, printing and reloading when film was used up. Eastman, the businessman he was, wrote one of the best advertising slogans: “You push the button, we do the rest”. As the name Kodak was more and more recognised around the world, Eastman eventually changed the company name to Eastman Kodak Company.

This however, wasn’t the peak of his genius. Eight years later Eastman monopolised the photographic industry in the US with the introduction of the one dollar Brownie camera initially intended for use by children. In 1891, Eastman Kodak opened its first overseas plant in London and had other distribution sites around Europe by 1900. Overall, Kodak controlled 90 percent of the photographic market.

Instant Film

Edwin H. Land was one, to by fitting all of the dark room process into a camera, give life to instant photography. In 1948, Polaroid debuted the first commercial instant photo camera, the model 95 Land, which used a chemical process that let you develop photos in under a minute. Although the camera was rather expensive, the idea of instant photos appealed to the consumers more than the thought of taking 100 photos, sending the camera back, waiting for them to be developed and waiting again, up to several months, for your photos to arrive. By 1960s the Polaroid company had numerous models of instant cameras that were widely available and favoured.

Coloured Photography

Although coloured photography existed for quite some time, it wasn’t the most effective as the exposure time would take as long as a few day and the colours captured were so light sensitive they could only be viewed for a short while under very dim light. Many attempted to master coloured photography throughout the years. Individuals such as Thomas Sutton who took the first durable photograph in 1861. It was a set of three black and white photographs taken through red, green and blue optical filters and shown layered using projectors.

Not long after, photogenic emulsions were used. However, they produced poor outcomes as they were only sensitive to blue, violet, slightly sensitive to green and almost completely insensitive to other colours. In 1873, a German photochemist and photographer, Hermann Wilhelm Vogel discovered a way to make the emulsion sensitive to the rest of the spectrum; die sensitisation. While trying out some collodion bromide dry plated her noticed that they were more sensitive to green than to blue, he then tried adding various aniline dyes to freshly prepared emulsions and found that he was able to add sensitivity to green, yellow, orange and red.

The first widely used method of coloured photography was the Autochrome plate process invented by two brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiére. It consisted of a random mosaic of tiny grains of potato starch dyed red-orange, green and blue-violet. Those grains of starch acted as colour filters. Lampblack was used to fill the gaps between the grains and a black and white panachromatic silver halide emulsion was coated on top of the filter layer. The Autochrome was loaded into the lense so that the light passed the filter layer before reaching the emulsion. In addition an orange layer was added to block the ultraviolet light to which the emulsion was overly sensitive to. Because the grains were so small the human eye could do the colour mixing in real time instead of using projectors.

In 1935, Leopold Godowski and Leopold Mannes introduced the Kodachrome Process that consisted of silver based, gelatin emulsion, having layers of cyan, yellow and magenta dye which was being released during the photographs development. During the process, the silver is removed leaving only the colours. The Kodak company released its first coloured film. In 1963, Polaroid introduced the first instant colour film.

Nikon

One of the biggest issues in photography was the inability to preview the photograph, often photographers were disappointed as the picture did not turn out the way it was intended and once you pushed the button it was done. Nikon, a Japanese company introduced their first SLR (Single Reflex Lense) camera that solved this very issue for good, in fact, it is widely used till this day. A SLR camera use a movable mirror behind the lense that reflects the minnage in the lense to the viewfinder, this way the photographers can see what the photograph will look like. When the shutter button is pressed the mirror flips and the light passes through onto the film.

Digital Photography

The first recorded digital image was taken in december 1975 with a camera designed by a Kodak engineer, Steven Sasson. The camera weighed almost 4kg and only took black and white photographs on top of that Sasson had to create a special screen to look at those pictures. In 1988, Fuji invented a first digital camera intended for commercial use, the Fuji Fujix DS1P, that never made it to the market. The first digital camera to enter the market was the Nikon F3. The camera required the photographer to carry an external memory source on the shoulder strap. In 1994, Kodak made the first camera to use removable memory cards. Since then photo technology advanced rather quickly to cameras we use today.

The cyanotype process was introduced by an astronomer John Herschel in 1842 who tried to find a way to copy his notes. Herschel figured out that by coating paper with a UV light sensitive emulsion and placing objects on the paper created a white silhouette on a blue background. A year later (1843) a friend of his, Anna Atkins, used the cyanotype process to publish the first ever photographically illustrated book; “British Algae; Cyanotype impressions”.

What’s the science behind it?

The cyanotype procedure is quite scientific in nature. It requires a UV light sensitive substance which is created by mixing a solution of potassium ferricyanide and a solution of ferric ammonium citrate. This solution is then applied to a surface such as paper by soaking and drying it all in a dark room. An image is produced by placing an object on the paper and exposing it to a source of ultraviolet light.

The UV light and the citrate reduce the Iron(III) to Iron(II) following the reaction of the Iron(II) with ferricyanide this produces ferric ferrocyanide which has a blue pigment. After the paper has been exposed, it gets developed by washing in water so that all the Iron(III) salts get washed away. Next, the paper is dried. The areas where the objects were places are not exposed to the UV light and so remain white whilst the rest turns blue.

Use of cyanotypes in art

Initially, cyanotypes were used for creating blueprints of architectural or scientific diagrams. After Anna Atkins published her book people stared seeing the artistic aesthetic of cyanotypes. Since then they were widely used for creative purposes.

One way of producing cyanotype art is by using negatives. This is done by desaturating and inverting a digital image to create the negative. This image is printed onto acetate then placed on a surface coated with the UV light sensitive substance and exposed to UV light resulting in an alternative image.

Cyanotype art can be combined with traditional media like painting or printmaking to create something unique.

Karen Landey

One of the cyanotype artists that intrigued me is Karen Landey. Landey has been a photographer for over sixty years, she enjoys finding alternative meaning of clichés and presenting them in unique ways. She find particular interest in dreams, their magical, mysterious nature and unlimited possibilities they offers us. She often refers to Photoshop as a tool to explore the world of dreams and transform them into reality. To Landey the ability to create digital negatives of collages and print as cyanotypes is downright magic.

“I am intrigued by the interface between quantum physics and mystical realms.  This radiant edge inspires me to find ways to bring this light through my artwork and into the world.” – Karen Landey

This photograph was taken in 1936 by Dorothea Lange who was employed by the U.S government’s Farm Security Administration program formed during the great depression in order to bring to the public attention the issue of poverty and hunger as well as provide help to farmers living in those conditions. Lange encountered a woman named Florence Thompson and her children in a camp for field workers all of whom were devastated by the failure of their pea crops. According to Lange, the woman was a mother of seven, her first husband died from tuberculosis while she was pregnant with their sixth child. The family didn’t live on the camp, they were stuck there as they have sold their tires to buy food. Some claim that the backstory was simply fabricated by Lange to seem more appealing and dramatic to the public. Lange definitely achieved the goal as the photograph became on of the most iconic representations in the newspapers and magazines of the migrant farm workers during the great depression.

The mothers expression is the main point of the photograph, the leading line is the hand placed on her face to navigate the viewers eyes to the main point. The mothers expression conveys the worry about the uncertain future, just like the viewers uncertainty of what is or isn’t in the photograph, what the mother sees and what we cannot see. This leaves plenty of room for our imagination to work and wonder just like the mother. In order to focus the attention on the mother the children’s faces are turned away.

The background is blurred to let the viewer concentrate on the subjects of the photograph. The image was converted into a black and white image to remove any distraction that might be caused by colour and to shift the emphasis onto other elements such as textures and shapes. Because of that we see all the details on the mother’s face such as wrinkles that indicate stress and worry or the rough texture of the clothing the brain associate’s with unpleasant emotions. The light in this photograph is also important. It creates shadows on her cheek bones making her look thinner, starved. In addition the black and white tone contrasts in a way, making the subjects look soiled and dirty. The lack of hygiene is often associated with poverty and indicates that the mother works hard, long days at the farm. The messy textures in the childrens hair also indicates lack of hygiene.

Photography plays an important part in everyone’s day to day life, it lets us see the world from an entirely different perspective. By capturing the present we are able to look at the past, the places, the people and tell stories that would otherwise be forgotten. So what is photography? It’s the craft of creating images by capturing light using a camera.

Functions of photography vary from artist to artist and what they are trying to accomplish. For example a wedding photographer may aim to capture fun and important moments from the event in order for friends and family to enjoy and remember it for years to come. A wildlife photographer on the other hand, could aspire to inspire people to protect endangered species and make a real change.

There are multiple genres of photography all of which are important to understand as a photographer since they could influence your style and technique. The three primary genres include: Nature Photography, People Photography and Manmade Objects. The next part will focus on explaining the most common photography styles everyone should know.

Landscape – Involves capturing the presence of nature and natural scenes. This doesn’t always mean huge maintain ranges and meadows, landscape photography can be microscopic.

Abstract – Uses colour, light, shadow, texture and shape in order to produce a feeling, sensation or impression without presenting the object or scene that’s actually being photographed.

Portrait – Capturing a person or group of people in the way where everything, from the backdrop to the lighting, conveys the personality of the model in one shot.

Sports – Self explanatory, sports photography captures all kinds of sports. Its main application is usually for editorial purposes such as sports magazines.

Travel – Documents places and their historical, cultural and touristic aspects.

Macro – Photographs close-ups of mostly very small subjects such as plants and insects. Not to be confused with micro photography which uses actual microscopes.

Fashion – Capturing models in clothing and other fashion accessories for editorial or advertising purposes.

Documentary – Provides records of events, people and places, adding to a particular storyline, often important historically.

Street – Capturing a scene in a public place. Those photographs are usually candid; unstaged and spontaneous.

Still life – Consists of arranging inanimate objects in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Usually shot for personal, commercial or editorial purposes.

Architectural – Capturing aesthetically pleasing shots of a building’s interior or exterior.

From the moment the first photograph was taken, many have debated whether the practise of photography is an art form or a just a way of using science to capture reality. Before we start answering this question ourselves it’s important to understand what art really means. Art is by definition is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects. The most common argument against photography being an art is that photography captures reality but doesn’t create a subjective reality. However, aesthetic photographs often blur the line of objective reality.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” – Mark Twain

That being said, it would be unreasonable to consider every photograph ever taken art. One can argue that only images that evoke an emotional response should be considered art. Since the photographer consciously makes creative choices about the lighting, framing, subjects, technical settings and editing as well as the overall symbolism and meaning of the photograph, we should be able to call a photographer an artist and therefore, photography an art form.

Now that we have accepted photography as an art form we should talk about photography as a science.

Photography originated from a collaboration of scientists trying to discover a way to permanently capture light on a flat surface. The first photograph was taken in 1826 by a french physicist and inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. This wouldn’t be possible without the use of chemistry and physics. Since then the study of photography came a long way, today photography gives back to science, helping us record and document significant findings.

“Photography, born of and shaped by science, transformed the nature of observation and stretched the parameters of knowledge and humanity’s sense of itself”
— Marvin Heiferman