Collins Complete Photography Course. John Garrett

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       To combine the ancient pinhole camera with the latest digital technology, I drilled a hole in a camera body cap (black card would have sufficed). I then made a pinhole in a piece of kitchen foil and taped it over the hole in the cap. The image of the garden table and chairs were just visible in the viewfinder. I used a high ISO speed on the camera to keep the exposure time short. This was a very simple pinhole, but a very sophisticated pinhole camera. GH

      Although this technology seems very crude and clumsy compared to the DSLR photography of today, our forefathers produced a great archive of pictures of beauty and extraordinary technical quality. The glass plates and, later, 10 × 8 inch film negatives were capable of recording exquisite detail and tone, but by its very complicated, expensive, bulky and time-consuming nature photography remained something largely beyond the reach of the general public.

      The revolution that gave photography to the masses was in 1888, when George Eastman, through his Kodak company, marketed a camera loaded with film to take 100 pictures. When all were exposed the camera was sent back to Kodak for processing and printing. Kodak’s slogan ‘You take the pictures and we do the rest’ was a sensational success. Once colour negative film was invented, the photographic world was transformed and people set about documenting their everyday lives, recording holidays, parties and portraits.

      The most recent technological leap has of course been digital photography, which has democratized the medium still further by making it both easier and cheaper. Nonetheless, no matter how far photography evolves, the same principles will apply – it is the confluence of light, a lens and a creative mind that will bring about great images.

       A family portrait from the original Kodak ‘you take the pictures and we do the rest’ period of mass enthusiasm for photography. Unlike today’s rectangular framing, the pictures were the full circle produced by the lens.

       Now everybody takes a camera on holiday, but as recently as 25 years ago this gentleman would set up his great wooden plate camera in front of all the great historic sites in Paris. Tourists would pose for photographs they could take home to remind them of their travels.

       You and your camera

      Camera types

      While the following pages are mainly concerned with DSLR cameras, there are many other cameras in use. Although digital technology has galloped ahead of traditional film technology, film is still very much alive and well.

      

      Large-format cameras

      Early photographers are associated with peering into giant cameras with black cloths over their heads. However, these cameras are not just of the past – large-format cameras, producing 10 × 8 inch and 5 × 4 inch negatives, were until recently always used for the highest-quality landscape, architectural, food and still life pictures that it was possible to take.

      In the commercial world digital cameras have mostly taken over this area, but the large format is increasingly used by art photographers. It’s human nature that whenever there is a strong movement forward technologically there will always be a small but determined movement defiantly working with the older technology because it’s believed to be more elegant and to give a more aesthetically pleasing result. There are many young art photography students going right back to shooting 10 × 8 inch black and white film in search of the quality of images produced by the old masters of photography such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Minor White and very many more.

       A 1930s 35mm Leica rangefinder camera which incorporated the latest technology of its day and a cut-away of a 21st-century Canon DSLR, showing all its technical complexities.

      Large-format cameras have many camera movements that allow the correction of perspective and the holding of focus from foreground to background on wide apertures. They are the ultimate recorders of tonal values, sharpness and fine detail.

      

      Medium-format cameras

      This category of camera includes those producing negatives measuring 6 × 9 cm, 6 × 7 cm, 6 × 6 cm, 6 × 4.5 cm. All use 120 and 220 roll film and the number of frames per film depends upon the format size.

      Medium-format cameras have been the professional’s workhorses for years and with the digital age they still are, producing the highest-quality digital images possible. Most of the manufacturers make a film camera and a digital equivalent; some, such as Hasselblad, now embrace both film and digital technology in the same cameras, allowing you to attach either a film magazine or a magazine that contains a digital sensor.

      Medium-format cameras are more expensive and more difficult to handle than 35mm cameras, but they are very versatile in their use. Most fashion and advertising photography is shot on medium format.

      Seeing the big picture

      The double-page photograph on pp.12-13 is of pressed campanula flowers, from a series of images I made of flowers and leaves. I placed a sheet of Japanese paper on top of a lightbox and put the flowers on the paper. The light coming from beneath has passed through them, giving the appearance СКАЧАТЬ