The role of portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today
What are the main differences and similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today?
Portraits in the past were only taken of people who were in a higher social status position. Not many regular people who have had the opportunity to have their potograph taken. This was due to the new innovation and high cost of reproducing photographs. These photographs were also a lot more difficult to capture. The subjects had to remian still for several minutes in order for the negative to be produced. It was difficult to capture color in the past, onjects that were completley red or green turned out completely black on film. The photos were also either black and white or in sepia tone. Direct exposure from the sun would also cause a black image which they called solarization. They did not have the color technology that we do today to create vibrant colorful images true to real life. The similarities between decades of portraits has been the art of capturing a still in order to be passed down to families and be remembered through time.
Who was the photographer and who was the subject of photographs in the past and today?
Portraits today are taken by any and everyone of any and everything. This is because it is a lot easier for people to get their hands on a camera. In the past only a few were able to acquire such prominent and innovational equipment. It was also a lot more difficult than to just press a button in order to capture the image you wanted. It took several minutes and a patient subject in order to produce a negative. Which is why photographers were very few and in higher positions in older days. In the past portraits were reserved for prominent people, but today they are taken of anything that is around us. Digital photography has made it easy for anyone to capture an image whether it be a family portrait or a view of the beach.
What was the impact of technology on the portriats in the past and today?
Portraits in the past were only taken of people who were in a higher social status position. Not many regular people who have had the opportunity to have their potograph taken. This was due to the new innovation and high cost of reproducing photographs. These photographs were also a lot more difficult to capture. The subjects had to remian still for several minutes in order for the negative to be produced. It was difficult to capture color in the past, onjects that were completley red or green turned out completely black on film. The photos were also either black and white or in sepia tone. Direct exposure from the sun would also cause a black image which they called solarization. They did not have the color technology that we do today to create vibrant colorful images true to real life. The similarities between decades of portraits has been the art of capturing a still in order to be passed down to families and be remembered through time.
Who was the photographer and who was the subject of photographs in the past and today?
Portraits today are taken by any and everyone of any and everything. This is because it is a lot easier for people to get their hands on a camera. In the past only a few were able to acquire such prominent and innovational equipment. It was also a lot more difficult than to just press a button in order to capture the image you wanted. It took several minutes and a patient subject in order to produce a negative. Which is why photographers were very few and in higher positions in older days. In the past portraits were reserved for prominent people, but today they are taken of anything that is around us. Digital photography has made it easy for anyone to capture an image whether it be a family portrait or a view of the beach.
Technology has a huge impact on the ease of developing and creating the perfect image for us to remember. In the past there were many limitations to photography and it was very difficult for people to compose the vision they wanted to portray. Basically, what you saw through the lense would return in lower resolution and quality on black and white paper. Oscar Rejlander was the first to step out of the box and create a composition of five of his negatives in order to create the perfect image. If someone was to examine that photo, which would not have been possible back then due to the lack of technology to enlarge a photo, we would have been able to see all the joints between negatives. These days we have many editing tools including photoshop to create almost life like images and edit them in order to have a more vibrant and perfect looking portrait. With the digital world, it is also a lot easier to instantly recieve a portrait than wait hours to develop a photo.
