My Photo Booth Photo Blog

Day by day, more digital cameras have RAW format in their standard and it’s becoming more popular. For professional photographers that use digital cameras RAW is nothing new. I will try to explain what RAW format consists of in my own words so you could understand the general idea.

What is the difference between RAW and JPEG or TIFF format? To simplifie, when you are taking picture in JPEG or TIFF format, the camera automatically makes some adjustments as white-balance. The RAW format is… raw. It captures the the same image you see in your camera viewfinder converted to digital data. The rest is left for you to decide: you can reproduce the scene just as you’ve seen it.

The advantage is obvious: you get control over the image all over the time: from shutter movement till the final print. You make photo just as you like it. Camera’s processor works like a film: you can see no image until you enhance it in graphic program. Which one? The story begins here. There is no such thing as RAW standard; it means that each camera producer has its own RAW format. And that complicates the work a little. The positive thing about it is that they offer software that supports it. You can also use a third-party software.

With all the advantages as flexibility and huge image data, it’s not a perfect cure. Your skills are still valid. Even more. RAW cannot fix a bad exposure, you are still the responsable of making the possible as good as you can. Actually, I do not consider this as a disadvantage; more like a come-back to classical photography where you control the whole process. The only difference is that you have all your darkroom in your computer.

So this is it. The company of the one of the most influence on the photography market retires. Konica Minolta declared to stop the production of cameras till march 2006. The company that developed such innovative things as first auto-focus camera (Dynax/Maxxym 7000, 1985), the fastest shutter (1/12,000 sec. in Dynax/Maxxum 9xi, 1992) or CCD-Shift mechanism (Dynax/Maxxum 7D) resigns as a producer of photographic equipment. Nevertheless, the production of films can continue until march 2007 and company will go on with office equipment and other.
What can I say… It is really sad. All the more, Sony will be in charge of that part of Konica Minolta. So now we can expect that we will not see any SRL camera with Minolta’s spirit anymore. There were some rumours about an SRL which would be Sony and Konica Minolta effort so an SRL can appear under Sony’s name. But no-one believes that Sony will risk to enter the SRL cameras market. They will rather expand their influence on the compact cameras market where they are one of the leaders.
I am still in favour of classic photography but I think I can see an inevitable end of an era.

So, the camera obcura is now known. Where is the photography, then? The fact that the photography waited till 1830s for its ‘discovery’ is somehow surprising. Why? Let’s see what happened…

To make photography possible, two things were needed: an optical and a chemical process. Even though both had been known for some time. First, camera obscura, as we know, had been drawn for Leonardo in sixteenth century. In the same time, first chemical observations had been made.

Robert Boyle notices that the silver chloride turns dark under exposure; unfortunatelly, he sees its cause in the air and not in the light. In 1727, by accident, proffesor Johann Heinrich Schulze discovers photo-sensitive compound noticing a darkening on the exposed to sunlight side of a flask contaning chalk, nitric acid and silver. At the beginning of the 19th century Thomas Wedgwood captures silhouettes of opaque objects placed on leather covered with silver nitrate. Images where very fragiles to exposure them to the light stronger than candlelight, because no fixation method were known.

In july 1827 first permanent picture is made by Joseph Nicephore Niépce. He dies in 1833 leaving his plans to Luis Jacques Mande Daguerre, his partner since 1929. Daguerre, by accident, puts an exposed copper plate in his cupboard with chemicals and finds the image developed some days later. He comes to the conclusion that the mercury vapour from a broken thermometer caused it. The discovery reduce the exposure time from many hours to thirty minutes. In 1837 is able to fix the images. Daguerre, then, makes a kickoff of photography as we know it today.

On 7 January 1839, after gained support from François Arago the invention is announced by Paul Delaroche and named Daguerreotype, from its inventor’s name. French government had bought the rights to the patent from Daguerre, who obtained a yearly pension, and released them free to the people. Daguerreotype image’s quality was suprisingly good with many details, but it had some disadvantage: the image could not be reproduced (which fact can be considerated as an advantage at a time), it was very delicate, it was reversed laterally and the substances used in developing process were highly toxic. It was also expensive: equalled to a weakly wage of average worker. Exposure time, even though reduced a lot since Niépce, it was still inappropriate for portraiture. As you can notice, on the photo below there are only two people, thanks to the period of time they stayed immobile long enough. Daguerreotype required an improvement.

In fact, Henry Fox Talbot obtains permanent negative image in 1934 already. He uses paper soaked in silver chloride and fixed with a salt solution. The advantage of Calotype, as Talbot had named the method, was that it made possible to get image positive copies by contact negative print to another sheet of paper. Its quality, however , was much more inferior to what Daguerre’s technique produced. Nevertheless, it is Calotype that gaved principle to nowadays photography.

Daguerre dies in 1851. His death marks an end of an important period in history of photography. In the very same year a wet collodion process is invented by Frederick Scott Archer.

First, albumen process , with a glass plate and white of an egg as the binding , is introduced by cousin of Niépce, Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor. Though the details and quality increased, it was very slow process. Archer’s Collodion process was much more cheaper than Daguerreotype and the exposure time was increadibly shorter, reduced to few seconds. That changed a lot. Unfortunatelly, it required fairy large equipment where taking a photograph,, because the plate needed to be developed when wet. Attempts to preserve exposed plates to later developement decreased their sensitivity. The most important was the safety question: The chemicals were highly explosive, fact which lead to many injuries and death cases among the photographers. The method was good but its realization caused some problems. A dry process was a must.

Twenty years later, in 1871, Dr. Richard Leach Maddox suggests gelatin instead of collodion, which leads to dry plate process development. Use of gelatin was already suggested in 1850 by Robert Bingham, but the idea failed due to collodion announcement the next year. Charles Bennett experimented with gelatine and revealed gelatin dry plate process in 1878. Though it was slower than the collodion, its advantages – no need of equipment when taking pictures, thus exposure and development process being taken independantly – made dry plate replace collodion totally by the end of the decade.

Earlier, with the invention of celluloid, at the beginning of 1860s, photography is ready to take another turn. Inspired by John Carbutt, George Eastman introduced a flexible film in 1884. The breakthrough is a fact. In 1888 Eastman himself presents first Kodak box camera that uses celluloid film. Photography is now accesible to anyone.

There is one advantage of classic photography: the developing process. You may think it is art for art’s sake, but I would rather treat it like a total control of the image – from the shutter release to the final print. The film is the most important; it is a mould, a base for later copies. Here are some general observations and the development process step by step.

Preparation

What do you need to develop your first roll? First of all: an exposed film… Sorry, stupid joke. Basically, you will need a chemicals such as: developer, stopper, fixer and wetting agent. The developer and fixer are obligatory; stopper and wetting agent are not necessary but useful for gaining the best results. You can prepare your own stopper; the simplest and sufficient version is 1-1,5% water solution of acetic acid; if you don’t mind the smell. There are many developers and fixers in the stores, so you can the appropriate one for you needs. I recommend using developer of the same company you have the film of; i.e. if you were shooting photos with Kodak Tri-X film, it is better to develop it in some of Kodak’s chemicals, let’s say D-76. Each producer gives his own recommendations concerning chemicals to get the best effects. It will make you easier to find the right development times you need.

Developers and fixers are usually in powder or liquid and you may need to prepare them following producer’s instructions. If so, you should have them prepared at least 8 hours before processing; 24 hours would be an ideal.

The second thing is a small tank. You can buy it in the photographic store. There are many types of tanks for film processing, depending on their capacity. In the following examples you will see a 800mls one, which can be used to process two 135 rolls at the same time.

Processing

Now, as you have all you need, let’s get started. All the process must be done in perfect darkness. A bathroom with blinded windows will be the right place. Done?

First, you must get the film out of the cassette. If you have re-winded it right and it sticks out, you can simply pull it out. If the whole film got inside (pic.1), you must break the cassette, i.e. with bottle opener (pic.2). Be careful not to scratch the emulsion. Of course you cannot see it, so just be careful.

Now, the show begins. You must tread the film through the tank reel (pic.3, 4). It is the most difficult part. You must take care to thread it correctly: do not let the film parts stick to one another. If you feel the film is blocked by something, do not force it to enter – pull it out and try again. You must have patience. It is good to practise with developed film first and check if everything is alright.

Once the film is on the reel, fix it on the core with a nut (pic.5), and put it inside the tank carefully – do not throw it in. Since there is a total darkness, keep all the parts of tank well-ordered so that you won’t waste time searching for them around the bathroom. When all inside, screw the tank. Now you can turn the lights on.

First goes the developer. Immediately you pour it inside, close it tight and tap it several times against the ground (pic.6) – it will prevent the bubbles marks on the film during the first period of developing. The developing time depends on the developer, but first agitation should take about 30 seconds. Then you continue with ‘vigorous agitation’ at 30 second intervals (pic.7) Nevertheless, before starting processing, read all the chemicals producer’s suggestions. Important: as I said before, different tanks have different capacity; check your tank capacity for one roll of film (if developing one) and prepare appropriate amount of chemicals.

About ten seconds before the right time, pour out the developer at once and fill the tank with stopper. Let it rest for about 30 seconds and pour it out.

Pour the fixer into the tank. Some companies recommend agitating of tank with fixer every half minute, some don’t. You can try both and choose the one you prefer. I cannot see any difference so it is for you to decide. Usually the fixer should be kept in tank for at least 3 minutes; see the attached leaflet for details. Then pour it out.

Now, fill the tank with water and invert it five to ten times, then drain the water away. Repeat it twice. You can now rinse the film with wetting agent. It is not obligatory but prevents chemicals marks on the emulsion and helps it dry rapidly and evenly. See your wetting agent details.

That’s it, you can open the tank. How does the film looks like? I hope everything is OK. Now you must hang it out to dry in a dust-free place, i.e. bathroom.

When it is dry, you can deposit it in special sheets (pic.8). Remember: negative you have is the original, a mould from which you will make prints; do not let it get spoiled!

I guess that is it. You have processed your first film. Congratulations!

From now on I will try to write a little history of photography. As I had mentioned before, I have not studied any art or history relationated things, so this will be my pure knowledge gained by reading books or articles related to photography. First articles, I believe, will be more relationated to the invention itself; next part I will dedicate it to the figures of important, or should I say meaningful for me photographers.

The beginning… Well, the beginning of photography can be relationated with invention of camera obscura, which tracks can be found in Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti (5th century BC!). He noticed the phenomenon of inverted image formed by light as they passed through a pinhole into the darkened room, which he gaved name of “collecting place” or “locked treasure room”. So, you can consider photography as a gift from our mother nature – inventions are sometimes nothing but the discovery of obvious things nature offers us.

In 4th century BC, Aristotle projected the shape of partially eclipsed sun on the ground… through the holes in a sieve. I am not quite sure while he understood the mechanism of light projection; I would say that he was a curious observer and he rather knew ‘how’ and not ‘why’.

Alhazen, an Islamic scholar, was the first to experiment and to gave the full description of the principle. He experimented with five lanterns outside a room with a small hole.

The device itself was clearly described by Leonardo da Vinci in 1490. Those days, camera obscura was a large room and its use was rather limited to astrology. For example, Dutch scientist Reinerus Gemma-Frisius used it to observe a solar eclipse in 1544. In 16th century, a convex lens is added into the aperture for the sake of improving the image quality and the mirror to reflect it down onto a viewing surface, later. The world of arts appreciated the invention as Giovanni Battista Della Porta recommended its use as an aid for drawing for artists in his 1558 book Magiae Naturalis.

Nevertheless, the term of ‘camera obcura’ was given by German astronomer Johannes Kepler. For astronomical aplications he used a portable tent camera which he used for surveying in Upper Austria in the early 17th century. The utility, as we know it today, is a box with a hole, in its simpliest version, or lens which lets the light rays come in.

From now on, the development of camera obscura took two directions. First, as an entertainment tool, there were several camera obscura rooms in places of unique beauty.

The second track of the invention development was its application in arts. As a drawing tool, used by such names as Canaletto, camera obscura was not so far, but not so close either, from what we know today as photographic camera.