Introduction to Photography Optional Modules 7B

Photojournalism

25
Notes

INTRODUCTION TO
PHOTOGRAPHY

We all love seeing photographs especially if they are of our friends and family.
Wouldn’t you love your photograph to be taken? We have always desired to see
a copy of ourselves on paper. Do you realise that this was not possible for a long
time and it was left to the artists to draw our images and even then the pictures
were never exactly the same. This was also a very tiring and time consuming
process and not every one could afford it. Only kings and other important people
got their pictures made by artists. Just imagine what excitement photography must
have caused when it was discovered. People could now see an exact copy of a
scene or of a person in front of them.
From such times to now photography has come a long way. It is both a recreation
as well as a profession. We are used to seeing photos being taken all around us.

OBJECTIVES
After studying this lesson, you will be able to do the following :
• discuss the scope and significance of photography;
• explain the evolution and history of photography ;
• define the term photography;
• differentiate between film and digital photography.

25.1 SIGNIFICANCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

You always see photographs around you. Behind the bus, on the sign boards, on
the walls, in newspapers and magazines. Photos in newspapers and magazines
inform us about an event or an incident. Remember the tsunami? You must have
seen its pictures on newspapers as well as on television. It was these pictures that
gave us information about such a big disaster.

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Optional Modules 7B Introduction to Photography
Photojournalism
These days pictures are as important to news as the written or printed word. In
fact in a country like ours where still many people cannot read or write, photos
have a greater use and a greater impact. Photographs are seen along with the
written news in magazines and newspapers and they add to the impact of the news
and convince us about the truth of the event we are reading about.
Notes Have you ever wondered how these photos are taken? You will learn about it in
this lesson.
25.2 EVOLUTION AND HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
We all know that right from pre-historic times when man began communicating, he
started drawing images. This idea of pictures grew from refined drawing and to
paintings . In the first half of the nineteenth century, the technology of photography
was invented. We could at last make pictures that were exact copies of a scene or
a person. The camera along with the film made photography a reality. Human
beings have known for a long time of a device which has shown an outside image
on a wall or a screen but the moment the light was gone, the image has disappeared.
Such a device is called a pin-hole camera or the camera obscura.
Have you tried projecting an image with the help of a pin hole camera? This is how
you can do it. Take a long box and make a hole at one end of the box. On the
other side paste a white tracing paper. Now if you point this box out towards a
scene, its inverted image would fall on the tracing paper. This pin-hole camera was
invented by the Greeks in ancient times and people through ages have used it.
What really made photography possible was the discovery of chemicals that could
record the effect of light and make the picture permanent, so that it may not fade
away with time.

Fig. 25.1: Pin hole camera

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 Introduction to Photography Optional Modules 7B
Photojournalism
As you have already studied, modern photography was invented by two
Frenchmen Joseph Niepce and Louis Daguerre. It was in 1827 that Niepce took
what we know of as the first photograph. Do you know that the film had to be
exposed to the scene for seven hours to make this one picture, whereas today we
can do the same with the click of a button! Niepce’s partner Louis Daguerre
made further improvements to the technology of taking photos and since 1839 Notes
photography became available to everyone who wanted to try it.
It must be mentioned here that for the first fifty years photography was nowhere
as easy as we think of it today. The cameras were huge and had to be kept on a
stand to be operated. Your great grandparents would have had to go to a studio
where they would have had to sit still in front of the camera to have a photograph
made. It was much later in the 1900s that easy to use light cameras were made
which could be carried anywhere with ease and used without the support of a stand.

Fig 25.2 : (a) Old camera on stand Fig 25.2 : (b) new camera

25.3 DEFINITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography literally means ‘drawing with light.’
As you can make out the word ‘photography’ is made of two words. Whereas
‘photo’ means ‘light’, ‘graphy’ stands for ‘graphic’ which means drawing. So
once man learnt to copy an image with the help of a camera, the process started
being called photography.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 25.1

1. Define photography.

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Optional Modules 7B Introduction to Photography
Photojournalism
2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word in the blank space:
i) Photographs are as important to news as the —————word.
ii) Photography was invented by two people from ________.
iii) ________ camera allows us to project the image of a scene on a surface.
Notes
iv) Early cameras were big so they had to be kept on a ________.
v) The word ‘graphy’ means _______ .
3. Mention three photographs that you saw recently and liked them.

Activity 25.1
Try to make a simple pin-hole camera with the help of suggestions
give in section 25.2.
25.4 FILM PHOTOGRAPHY
As you have learnt earlier, photography has two important components; one is the
camera and the other is the film. A film is sensitive to light, so when we expose it to
a scene with the click of the button, the impression of light is left on the film.
This film is then processed in the laboratory and we see the picture that we have
taken.

Fig 25.3: photoclick to final print

Do you remember watching photographs of your grandparents that do not have

any colour but are in black and white? Even in newspapers one comes across
such photos. For a long time photography was just black and white, this was so
as the film could not record colour. It was much later that the colour film was
made. MASS COMMUNICATION
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 Introduction to Photography Optional Modules 7B
Photojournalism
You may be able to recall an occasion from your childhood like your birthday party
or a trip to some interesting place where you or your parents took pictures. On
your return you must have given the film roll to a photo lab and then collected the
printed pictures after a day. Have you ever wondered what is happening inside the
lab? Here the film is taken out of its container in complete darkness. As the film has
a layer of light sensitive chemical on it, the chemical is given a wash with certain Notes
other chemicals. This helps in bringing out the picture on the film because the effects
of all the chemicals are washed away and the image on the film is fixed and made
visible to the eye. Now the image on the film is in the form of a negative, meaning
the dark areas appear light and the light areas appear dark. Now light is thrown
through the negative film on to a photographic paper that is sensitive to light in the
same way as the film was sensitive to light. This paper is also given a chemical wash
thus creating the final picture. So you see that from taking the picture to the final
print there are many stages involved. Since the negative film acquires an image with
the help of light, it is called an optical process.
(a) Modern Camera

(b) Modern
film roll

Fig. 25.4

Fig. 25.5 (a) Negative image Fig. 25.5 (b) Printed positive image

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Optional Modules 7B Introduction to Photography
Photojournalism
25.5 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Nowadays a new technology has arrived in photography and it is called digital
photography. Some of you and your friends maybe possessing a digital camera.
The camera which you see inside some mobile phones is also a digital camera.
Notes
Soon it seems that the film camera which is mentioned above may stop being
made as the digital camera is making photography cheap and easy to handle.
There are two important factors that make digital photography very useful. One is
that the picture taken can be seen on a screen behind the camera immediately and
the second reason is that digital photography does not require any film. Therefore
there is no need to go to the lab and wait to get the film processed.
The camera records the image taken on a memory chip that is inside it. Once the
chip is filled with the photos, these photos can be copied onto a computer to reuse
the camera by making fresh space for taking more photographs. The ability of the
camera to link itself to the computer makes it easy to print the picture and to send
pictures to any part of the world through the internet. Not only this, the computer
allows the photograph that has been taken to be improved and cleaned with the
help of a number of software programmes that are available. So you can see that
the future of photography is going to be digital.
Let us list the differences between a film and digital camera.
Table 25.1
Film camera Digital camera
1. records image on a chemically records the photo as a digital signal
sensitive film to make a picture that is stored on a chip.
negative
2. a film has to be processed into an a digital image can be instantly seen
optical negative on the camera. No processing is
required and so there are no negatives.
3. a film camera is bigger and can a digital camera is much smaller and
work without batteries always need batteries
4. pictures from a film camera have photos from a digital camera can be
to be printed in a lab. copied on a computer and printed as
well
5. pictures from a film camera have photographs from a digital camera can
to be physically sent and this can easily be sent through a computer by
take time. e-mail

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Photojournalism

Notes

Fig. 25.6 : Digital work flow

INTEXT QUESTIONS 25.2

1. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word in the blank space:
i) A film camera uses film that is sensitive to ————.
ii) The camera you see inside mobile phones is a ————— camera.
iii) In a film negative, the dark areas of the picture taken appear ———.
iv) A digital camera is ————— than a film camera.
v) A digital camera stores signals on a ______ .

Activity 25.2
1) Try and find a film negative and see how it looks.
2) Visit a photo studio near your house and see how it functions.25.6

WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT

Significance of photography
z importance of pictures in news
z impact of pictures
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Optional Modules 7B Introduction to Photography
Photojournalism
Evolution and history
z from drawing to painting to photography
z projecting an image with a pin-hole camera
z invention of modern photography
Notes Definition of photography
Film photography
z film camera
z black and white photography
z colour photography
z technology involved
Digital photography
z digital camera
z technology involved

25.7 TERMINAL EXERCISES

1. What do you understand by the term’ photography’. Explain the significance
of photography in our day to day life.
2. Describe the history and evolution of photography ?
3. Illustrate the differences between film and digital photography .

25.8 ANSWERS TO INTEXT QUESTIONS

25.1 1. Photography literally means ‘drawing with light’. The word
‘photography’ is made of two words. Whereas photo means light,
graphy stands for ‘graphic’ which means drawing.
2. (i) written (ii) France (iii) pinhole camera (iv) stand (v) drawing
3. The answer would vary from learner to learner.
25.2 1. (i) light (ii) colour (iii) light (iv) smaller (v) chip

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