Questions tagged [history]
Questions about the history of photography, including why things are the way they are today.
108 questions
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Why is the standard f-number system not consistently rounded?
The standard f-numbering system can be calculated by the square root of powers of two. Commonly used today is the 1/3 system, as it can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number#...
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Reference request: Ansel Adams and a bellows which is not light-tight
It seems to me I read in the past a recollection by Ansel Adams about the job of finding and fixing holes in the bellows but unfortunately I cannot find the source (was it "The Camera" book? ...
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What was the cost of photo development in the ’60s, in France?
Could anyone tell me how much it approximately cost to develop a roll of film and its photos onto "standard" paper format in the ’60s in France, for the general public?
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I am trying to establish the print date of a very large large antique family photograph
I have discovered a large family photograph in my mothers effects which is the same image as a much smaller version. The small one was taken in 1880 and is about 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches and shows a ...
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1920s Photography 35mm Printing
I am researching for a historical fiction novel. Background is 1921, United States. Using an American Tourist Multiple camera.American Tourist I am trying to figure out making prints, what type of ...
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In Crete, Greece around mid-late 1940's photos with the stamped on the back "A M Crown Copyright Reserved"?
I have a few old photos from about the mid to late 1940's in Crete, Greece (the civil war occurred during the time). There is a specific stamp on the back of two photos which is marked A M Crown ...
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2
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How can I find out what the printed numbers mean on the back of an older photo?
I have a color photo from Crete, Greece. Maybe around the 1960's? The size of the photo is 4-1/2" x 3-1/8".
There is no border around the front. On the back, there are no printers logos. The ...
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Do rotary shutters have uneven exposure?
While exploring shutter angles, I found out about the rotary shutter. I understand that these were developed primarily for movie cameras, but the first thing that came into my mind was: surely this ...
- 630
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2
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What was the consumer photo printing process in the 80s and 90s?
How did machines in the 80s and 90s print from a roll of developed negatives fed into it?
What makes those legacy machines different from a roll of negatives fed into today's machine for printing?
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What kind of photography is this?
Digging through a file of (very) old family photos, I found a couple of photos like this:
The thing is about 10cm (4 inches) height, and it looks like a film glued to a fairly thick cardboard.
This ...
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Were "shutter speeds" for cameras really in the hours back in the day?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_speed
I can't find any mention of it here, but once I read in a printed comic book, where there was a page of "weird facts", that in the beginning of ...
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Did Polaroid's patents on integral photography describe a different technology than what Polaroid used?
I had a colleague at Polaroid in the 1980s who told me that the patents Kodak was accused of violating did not describe the system that Polaroid was actually using in its SX-70 and Spectra film, but ...
- 133
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What type of projection system is used in Brideshead Revisited episode 5?
In the beginning of episode 5 of Brideshead Revisited there is a scene where one of the characters uses a "Universal Projector" to show some slides. It can currently be watched here, about ...
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Was non-panchromatic film in common use long after the invention of panchromatic?
In movies and TV one sometimes [1] sees film being developed under a red safe-light, which of course cannot be done with panchromatic film. Is this portraying a common practice of journalists and ...
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Why did early photographs need such long exposure times?
I recently read on Wikipedia (can also be found on other sources) that the first photographs/cameras needed exposure times of several images, sometimes up to hours.
e.g. The caption for this image:
...
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What technique did Scott Mutter use in his famous photomontage "Untitled (Library)", and what meaning does that approach help convey?
I really like this photo by Scott Mutter so I was want to know about the techniques used.
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What kind of photograph would a woman born in the late 19th century describe as devloped in the sun in glass frames?
The following is from an oral history of a woman born in 1888. She is speaking of a travelling photographer coming through town when she was a child. She says, "If it was a good day you got your ...
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What camera did Cindy Sherman shoot with?
I'm studying photographers and am curious to know what camera CS used for her work. I'm sure the latest is on digital but wanted to know what she started out with.
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Would a professional photographer in 1920s Europe have access to an enlarger?
I'm doing research for a novel and I have a question about the equipment and techniques that would have been available to a professional photographer in the early 1920s in Europe.
In order to create ...
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5
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What are the benefits of the classic f-number scheme?
Classic ƒ numbers are entrance pupil diameter as a fraction of focal length. This seems like a slightly strange choice as exposure is proportional to area rather than diameter. Naively I would think ...
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How accessible is gas hypersensitisation today?
Gas hypersensitisation, as you may know, is a method which was regularly used by astrophotographers. It included baking or soaking a film in a gas mixture, with this gas oftentimes being nitrogen.
...
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Was post-exposure perspective correction ever practiced in the darkroom?
It seems like it should have been possible to achieve by adding tilt and shift movements to the enlarger lens, projecting a keystoned image of the film on the printing paper and cropping accordingly, ...
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Why did they ever make smaller than full-frame sensors?
You will occasionally encounter articles about how awesome full-frame cameras are. Lot of that is probably over-enthusiasm over a new piece of equipment or simple marketing, but it seems to me that at ...
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Is space radiation a risk for space film photography, and how is this prevented?
After seeing this question about a 135 camera being used during a space walk, I was wondering the following:
It is generally known that astronauts are exposed to increased radiation, also called ...
- 2,711
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2
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Why aren't tripod mounts metric?
Almost everything about cameras, lenses, sensor and film sizes are specified in metric units. So why are common tripod mounts (e.g., 1/4"-20) not metric?
I'm just curious if there's an interesting ...
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How was film developed in the late 1920s?
I am doing research for a story I am writing. If an investigator in the late 1920s privately needed to glimpse an image that was taken on a camera, perhaps a 35mm Leica or a Naegel, would it be ...
1
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What type of B&W film did Saul Leiter use?
As shown in Saul's monographs Early Black and White or In My Room.
What kind of BW negative rolls did he use?
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Who were the Bauhaus photographers and what was their impact on commercial and artistic photography today?
The Bauhaus was a German art, craft, and design school which operated between the World Wars. I was recently at an exhibit of works — mostly paintings, architectural drawings, and sculpture — which ...
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What was Bob Parent's "Signature Technique," and how is it visible in this (linked) photo?
The New York Times recently ran an article called Is This the Greatest Photo in Jazz History? (paywall (sorry), and a mildly-NSFW mural painting visible in the photo) about a famous photo, taken by ...
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Is there any way to produce animation from the history steps in Lightroom?
I need a way to produce an animated GIF of what I did while developing/editing a certain photo in Lightroom. In another word, if there is any tool/workflow/plugin that record every step in my photo ...
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Why is "The Steerage" hailed "one of the greatest photographs of all time"?
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Steerage:
The Steerage is a photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz in 1907. It has been hailed as one of the greatest photographs of all time because it captures ...
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(How) were FoVs discussed before the 35mm became de-facto standard?
Ever since the 35mm small frame gained popularity in the mid-1900s it's well known (and perhaps lamented) the particular crop factor became a de-facto standard by late 1900s when people discussed ...
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What was the "revolutionary" digital camera with infinite depth of field and focus adjustment in post-processing?
A few years ago (at least 10 years I believe), I read in a magazine about a "revolutionary" camera which was able to take pictures such that from one picture you could, afterwards, choose the point ...
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Were there ways to deal with distortion in the darkroom ages? [duplicate]
When people used early ultrawide angle lenses that had visible distortion, did they simply accept the fact and print it too ... or were there mitigations for things like critical architecture ...
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1960s-1990s third party lenses - why was the "lowest tier" cheaper to make?
From a retrospective, it seems that there were a couple of mid-tier makers/importers like Vivitar, Sigma, Tamron, Soligor ... and that there was a plethora of small brands (for example, one brand ...
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What is the dented wheel with holes inside the Polaroid Land Camera Model 150
While looking at the works of John Peralta, I noticed a strange camera component I never saw before inside the Polaroid Land Camera Model 150.
I've repaired a few cameras in my life but I'm very ...
- 1,501
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What was the Group f.64, and why were they important?
I've heard of the "Group f.64", and know that famous photographers Ansel Adams and Edward Weston were members. What was this group and why was it significant? What about members of the group other ...
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What is the crank on the side of this lens used by David Douglas Duncan?
The NPR article David Douglas Duncan, Photographer Of Wars And Picasso, Dies At 102 notes the passing of the famous photographer and shows some beautiful photos of the artist Picasso.
One photo shows ...
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Which photographer created "planet" named photos of chicken entrails?
I'm trying to remember the name of a well known photographer who photographed, among other things, chicken guts and sphincter laid out on the sidewalk. His collected photos were in an Aperture ...
6
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558
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How did the calotype process produce a translucent negative image?
I'm studying calotypes and cyanotypes.
Their major contribution to the development of photography was the fact that they could be easily copied. The original negative could be used to create as ...
5
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2
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1k
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How can daguerreotypes be both negative and positive?
While studying the history of photography, I became interested in this property of daguerreotype. As stated by Wikipedia:
"The image is on a mirror-like silver surface, normally kept under glass, ...
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2
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Did the quality of early digital cameras vary by the type of manufacturer?
I heard that about twenty years ago, it was possible to distinguish the quality of digital cameras based on the type of manufacturer.
Manufacturers of photographic cameras also made good digital ...
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Why were disposable flashes prominent for so long?
While reading this answer (and going down memory lane) flashcubes were mentioned.
That got me thinking: Why were these disposable flashes so common? And why did it take so long for electronic flashes ...
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What is the rationale for having less than 36 frames in a single 35mm film roll?
36 frames per roll have long been the agreed upon standard. It allows to fit the maximum amount of frames in a canister and still have some slack for safely loading the film, because one's loading ...
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One photograph or two?
There are two prints of the same subject (Lorina Liddell by Lewis Carroll), but I'm not sure if I'm seeing two different prints of the very same negative or they are two similar, but distinct shots of ...
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1
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What do the numbers in film formats reference?
So, there is a whole list of film formats that are referred to by numbers, and sometimes later were just called the film size. 135 is commonly referred to as 35mm/"full frame" and 120 as medium format,...
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What kind of camera and developing/printing process may Charles Jones have used?
Charles Jones was a gardener and photographer who lived from 1866-1959. His photographs of garden produce and flowers were found at an auction in 1981 and have since been acclaimed long after his ...
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Why do the people in this old photo look so... photoshopped?
I came across this picture today and think it's pretty cool: we don't have logjams like that any more.
But the people in the photo look... odd. If it were a newer photo, I'd say they're photoshopped. ...
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How was photo data processed and transferred back to Earth from satellites before digital photography became commonplace?
I am looking at pictures taken by some of the first satellites and landers there were like the Viking Lander on Mars in ~1976 or even the first image of the backside of the Moon in 1959 by Luna 3
I ...
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How did wedding photographers work in the olden days?
I am very curious to know how international photographers in the olden says such as the 70's or 80's or older, work. How did they deliver albums or photographs to clients?
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