Individual Post: How instant photographs work

How instant photographs work

In general, all cameras capture patterns of light on a plastic-based film covered with particles of silver compound which are sensitive to light. Whereas a black-and-white film only has one layer of silver compound, a color film has three. This text will focus on the development process of color films as they are more relevant nowadays. In order for the film to be turned into a photograph, it has to be developed. While common camera films are processed outside of the camera, the instant camera film already contains the necessary chemicals.

The structure of an instant camera film sheet

Although an instant film can be bought as a film roll, they usually comprise separate plastic sheets. To understand the developing process of an instant photograph, it is essential to know of which layers of chemical an instant camera film sheet is composed of. The sheet has three layers sensitive to different colors of light: blue, green and red, respectively. Underneath each layer, a dye developer layer for the respective complementary colors yellow, magenta and cyan is found. All of these layers are located on the black Base Layer and underneath the Image Layer, Timing Layer, Acid Layer and Clear Plastic Layer. This arrangement is a chemical chain reaction waiting to be set in motion.

Photo development in an instant camera

The reaction is set off with the Reagent. The Reagent Layer is located between the Image Layer and the Color Layers. In contrast to the other layers, it is accumulated at the border of the plastic sheet, separated from the light-sensitive material. When the picture is taken, the sheet is pushed out of the camera through a pair of rollers. Now the Reagent is spread out into the middle of the sheet and a chemical reaction is started. The reagent chemicals move downward through the light-sensitive layers. Particles on the exposed color layers are changed into metallic silver. Therefore, the respective dye layer behind them is blocked which causes the remaining dye layers to move up to the image layer where the requested color is created. At the same time, other reagent chemicals react with the acid layer which finally makes the image visible. This reaction is delayed by the timing layer to assure that the film is not exposed to light before it is fully developed. 

When the image is slowly brought to appearance before our eyes, this chemical reaction can be observed.

[404 words]

Rate the instructions: How to make a Camera Lucida

In general, we think that the instruction “How to make a Camera Lucida” cannot be considered as very helpful. There are certain positive aspects but the negative ones are predominant. First of all, the heading of the instruction is misleading because it only mentions how to build a Camera Lucida but not how to draw with it which is explained in the second paragraph. Therefore the heading should be changed into “ How to make a Camera Lucida and how to draw with it”. The structure of the two paragraphs which divide the instruction into two parts is confusing.  The first paragraph contains too much information and, therefore, should be split into three smaller steps. Besides, the first four pictures should be placed directly next to the corresponding steps. The second paragraph is even more confusing as it skips important information. It should also be divided into several steps which should explain how to build the frame where the camera lucida is fixed on. Further, the recommendation of David Hockney is embedded in the text  and can be easily overlooked. It should be added separately so that it can clearly be seen that it is a hint. Apart from the confusing structure, a list of the material needed is missing which should be added right at the beginning. However, we believe that the pictures are useful as they contain a lot of important information for example the measurements of the card, the piece of plastic and the frame. For us, this is the only positive aspect. It would be difficult for us to build and use a camera lucida with this instruction.

[271 words]

Project Blog Post: compare two polaroids

advertisement 1

advertisement 2

The two advertisements which are compared in the following paragraph basically show the same structure: a picture with a text beneath it. The most apparent difference is the fact that the first one is in black-and-white and the second one is coloured. Although a Polaroid Land Camera can be seen in both pictures they do not present the same model.  While the one in the black-and-white ad is clearly an older version because of its unwieldy size, the other one is much more compact. Besides, the older camera prints the photos on top, whereas the newer version prints them at the bottom. Furthermore, the settings of the two pictures are completely different. The first  one shows a man wearing a hat and a suit looking fascinated at the old polaroid camera which is displayed in a shop window.  In the background, a lot of other people are walking down the street. In contrast, the second ad only shows the polaroid camera from the front on a plain white background which represents the idea that less is more to draw the attention of the potential customer only on the camera.  Apart from these visual differences, also the texts beneath both pictures extol the Polaroid Land Camera in  a completely different way. The text of the older ad is instructional as it uses a lot of imperatives to encourage the reader to go and get the camera which the title already indicates. Further, the text appeals more to men than to women as the ad was published in 1956, a  time where men earned money as head of the family and were in control of the spendings. The second text addresses a problem of modern society: the loss of privacy. Therefore, it praises the polaroid camera as being the only trustworthy way of keeping your pictures safe. Generally, it can be said that both ads have very little similarities as they have been created and published in different periods.

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peer feedback:

1.) The group members that reviewed our text said that a couple of our sentences were too long.

2.) Further, they criticised that our text contained too many linking words.

3.) They said that we should refer directly to the NSA-scandal which we think is not necessary as we think that the ad does not explicitly refer to that particular case. For us, it refers to the problem of the loss of privacy in general.

4.) They also did not like the structure of our text but they liked our content. However, we decided to stick to our original structure because we think in terms of logos our text is fine.

 Final Version:

The two advertisements which are compared in the following paragraph basically show the same structure: a picture with a text beneath it. The most apparent difference is the fact that the first one is in black-and-white and the second one is coloured. Although a Polaroid Land Camera can be seen in both pictures they do not present the same model.  The one in the black-and-white ad is an older version and is of an unwieldy size. The other camera is a more recent model and is much more compact due to its smaller size. Besides, the older camera prints the photos on top, whereas the newer version prints them at the bottom. The settings of the two pictures are completely different. The first  one shows a man wearing a hat and a suit looking fascinated at the old polaroid camera which is displayed in a shop window.  In the background, several people are walking down the street. The second ad shows the polaroid camera from the front on a plain white background. This represents the idea that less is more and draws the attention of the potential customer only on the camera.  Apart from these visual differences, the texts beneath both pictures extol the Polaroid Land Camera in  a completely different way. The text of the older ad is instructional as it uses a lot of imperatives to encourage the reader to go and get the camera which the title already indicates. Further, the text appeals more to men than to women as the ad was published in 1956, a  time where men were seen as head of the family and in control of the spendings. The second text addresses a problem of modern society: the loss of privacy. It praises the polaroid camera as being the only trustworthy way of keeping your pictures safe. Generally, it can be said that both ads have very little similarities as they have been created and published in different periods.
[327 words]

Project Blog Post - Napalm Girl

http://sharemarysword.blogspot.co.at/2014/04/project-blog-post-2-napalm-girl.html

narrative text: little history of photography

Draft 1:

Little history of photography

Here I am in my owner’s office, next to my grandfather, the camera obscura. He often looks at me amazed and says that he would have never imagined how small a camera would become in the 21^st century. I am a digital camera, the latest descendant of the camera obscura.

I often look at all the photographs in the room. My favorite one is a daguerreotype, the oldest of all photographs. It shows an old lady in gray surrounded by a halo which makes her seem divine. She sure had been wealthy. She must have stayed still for quite a while as the exposure time was very long due to the low light sensitivity of these iodized silver plates. To me, it seems like she grew into the picture. It looks just like a drawing. When I first saw the photograph I was surprised because the woman did not look into the camera. My grandfather told me about a catching phrase that photographers used to say: “Don’t look at the camera!” In times of early photography people kept a distance to the camera. They were even afraid of looking at these pictures for too long because they felt like the subjects were staring at them.

Another photograph shows a family on a fake beach. Props back them up. Grandpa laughs and says that this picture has nothing to do with taste. I guess Photoshop makes better fake pictures but at that time people only knew of the retouched negative technique.

Once I heard my owner mumbling that the aura of photographs got lost because of the mezzotint process. It is a way of reproducing pictures. However, with the industrialization people wanted the halo, the special aura of the daguerreotypes, back because they associated it with prestige. So with the gum print photographers simulated the halo.

My third favorite photograph only shows a broken window. The whole picture seems surreal. It is signed by Atget who, I believe, did not pay much attention to capturing the aura. Still, it looks beautiful to me in a strange way.

I enjoy the hours when my owner is working here busily.  Yesterday he was reading a book which seemed to be in a sorry state. I caught a glimpse of the author called Baudelaire. I have never heard of him so far. Suddenly he frowned and whispered absent-minded: “Get photography back to what it used to be!” I still wonder what he meant. Photography is art and art develops. So why would I want to get it back and to what?

 [399 words]

Peer Feedback:

My fellow students who proofread my text said that they liked it in general very much. Still there had been some mistakes.

·        For the most part, the mistakes were related to sentence structure. So I decided to follow the ideas of my friends because they seemed appropriate.

·         They also had a problem with the ending of my text. They thought the owner of my narrator would be Baudelaire which clearly wasn’t my intention. So I rewrote the last part to make it less confusing.

·         I also made some preposition mistakes for example: “surrounded with a halo” instead of “by”.

I think the feedback of my peers is very handful as it gives me a different perspective. I think that I could improve my text with the help of them.

 

 Final Version:

I am standing on a pine-wooded shelf in my owner’s office, next to my grandfather, the camera obscura. Grandpa often looks at me amazed and says he never imagined how small a camera would become in the 21^st century. I am a silvery-gray gleaming digital camera, the latest descendant of the camera obscura.

I often look at all the expressive photographs in the office. My favorite is a daguerreotype, the oldest of all photographs. It shows an old lady in gray sitting on a black, metal bench outside. Regardless of her age, her eyes seem full of life. She is surrounded by a halo which makes her seem divine. She must have stayed still for quite a while as the exposure time was long due to the low light sensitivity of these iodized silver plates. To me, it seems like she grew into the picture. It looks like a perfect drawing. What surprised me most is that the woman does not look into the camera. My grandfather told me about a catching phrase that photographers used to say: “Don’t look at the camera!” People kept a distance to the camera and were even afraid of looking at these pictures for too long because they felt like the subjects were staring at them.

Another photograph shows a family on a fake, sandy beach. Exaggerated props back them up. Grandpa laughs and says that this picture has nothing to do with taste. I guess Photoshop makes better fake pictures but at that time people only knew the retouched negative technique.

Once I heard my owner mumbling that the aura of photographs, the halo, got lost because of the mezzotint process which was a way of reproducing pictures. However, with the industrialization people wanted the halo back because they associated it with prestige. So photographers simulated it.

My third favorite photograph shows a broken window and shards of glass covered with raindrops sprinkling in the sun. The picture seems surreal. Still, it looks breathtaking.

I enjoy the hours when my owner is working here. Yesterday he was reading a book by an author called Baudelaire. I have never heard of him. Suddenly my owner frowned and whispered absent-minded: “Get photography back to what it used to be!” I still wonder what he meant. Photography is art and art develops. So why would I want to get it back and to what?

[398 words]