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Photography: Capture Your Own Special Moment

Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices known as cameras. Traditionally the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph.

For centuries images have been projected onto surfaces. Artists used the camera obscura and camera lucida to trace scenes as early as the sixteenth century. These early cameras did not fix an image, but only projected images from an opening in the wall of a darkened room onto a surface, turning the room into a large pinhole camera. The phrase camera obscura literally means darkened room. The first photograph was an image produced in the year eighteen twenty-six by the French inventor Nicephore Niepce on a polished pewter plate covered with a petroleum derivative called bitumen of Judea. Produced with a camera, the image required an eight-hour exposure in bright sunshine. Niepce then began experimenting with silver compounds based on a Johann Heinrich Schultz discovery in the year seventeen twenty-four that a silver and chalk mixture darkens when exposed to light.

Color photography was explored throughout the eighteen hundreds. Initial experiments in color could not fix the photograph and prevent the color from fading. The first permanent color photo was taken in the year eighteen sixty-one by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. One of the early methods of taking color photos was to use three cameras. Each camera would have a color filter in front of the lens. This technique provides the photographer with the three basic channels required to recreate a color image in a darkroom or processing plant. Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii developed another technique, with three color plates taken in quick succession.

Practical application of the technique was held back by the very limited color response of early film; however, in the early nineteen hundreds, following the work of photo chemists such as H. W. Vogel, emulsions with adequate sensitivity to green and red light at last became available.

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  • by Copyright 2004 Kelly PaalKelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background
    Photography 101Part 3ContentEven if you feel that you already know what kind of photography you like to do, it's always a good idea to try your talent at different aspects of photography.Pictorial, this is a general term but it applies to any photographer who's goal is simply to create beautiful photos. This breaks down into smaller subsets but the most popular form i
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Portrait Photography Article
by Copyright 2004 Kelly PaalKelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background

Photography 101
Part 3
Content

Even if you feel that you already know what kind of photography you like to do, it's always a good idea to try your talent at different aspects of photography.
Pictorial, this is a general term but it applies to any photographer who's goal is simply to create beautiful photos. This breaks down into smaller subsets but the most popular form is landscape and nature photography. This is what I do and it's tempting to go on and on but I will just say that this form of photography, to me, is a real art. At least that is goal to create art in photographic form. It is the goal of the photographer to use their abilities to capture an image in it's moment of beauty and simplicity.
Portrait, this can be people and even animals. It also includes wedding photography as well. This is an aspect of photography that can be a lot harder than it seems. Not only do you have to know your basic photo composition but you need to understand what makes each person look their best. You must know how to bring out their personality and character in the shot. If you love working with people this may be your field. It's fun and challenging.
Photojournalism, now this isn't just press photography, though that is one aspect of it. It is also documentary photography as well, the latter doesn't always need an event to occur right in front of you. Either way the purpose is to tell a story. Really good photojournalism shouldn't need the text below it to tell you what is going on. It should be compelling and storytelling. Composition still plays a part, you can't tell a story if the story can't be seen. And while these photos can be beautiful in their technical aspects they aren't necessarily beautiful images. The story telling is as important.
Abstract, probably not as common of a form of photography but I'm seeing it more and more. This is usually characterized by extreme close ups of detail of something, so much so that you can't identify the original subject. But in this case that doesn't matter since the abstract detail or pattern is the subject of the photo. (Color can also be the subject as well.) Basic composition still plays a part, maybe a bigger part in this form of photography.
This week's assignment: Four rolls of film again. Roll one, pictorial, get outside and try your best using all your abilities to capture moments of beauty and simplicity. Composition is key here. Roll two, portrait, get somebody to volunteer for you. Remember composition but really focus on finding the shots that make that person look their best. Different light, background, camera angles, or even clothes. Roll three, photojournalism, outside or inside anywhere you see stories. This can be as simple as a child playing with their toys. Find the appropriate moment to take a shot that tells the story. Roll four, abstract, details, details, and more details. Get in close, make sure that you can't identify the subject but find beauty in the color or details of the item.

If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php and post your question there.

About the Author

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

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