Like painting, the history of photography and cinema began with a simple desire of a person to capture the moments of his life, save them for a long time and pass them on to future generations. Having the opportunity to accurately reproduce images on paper or film, these two areas have been developed in art. Photographers, for example, did not limit themselves to the task of creating a picture that simply conveys information about the appearance of the model. Photography began to receive a certain message, an idea, convey the nature of the model, the mood of the moment. So it is in the cinema: starting with an animation lasting several seconds, the direction has developed quite quickly, and today the cinema has enormous capabilities, up to building stories about extraterrestrial civilizations and magical worlds. The invention of photography and cinema marked a series of discoveries and stunning works in the world of art, however, besides this, photos and videos entered the life of modern man. Today, the processes of obtaining and processing photographs, shooting and video processing for everyday use have become so simple that they do not require special training and do not take a long time. How did the history of the invention of photography begin? How did cinema develop?
The appearance of the first photographic images
How to get clear and fixed on paper pictures of the world? This question was asked by the great minds of past centuries. Success was the emergence of the so-called pinhole camera, which made it possible to obtain a fairly accurate display of objects from the outside world, with which the invention of photography began. The date, the century of the first attempt to capture a person, to instantly display it in a picture, is still not exactly known, however, the first to pay attention to unusual light displays of objects was Leonardo Da Vinci. Somewhat later, Giovanni Porta designed models of pinhole cameras, which were used to manually transfer the model outlines to the canvas. Being a prototype of a modern camera, the camera, alas, did not provide the capabilities that the camera later presented to humanity. The moment when the dream of obtaining an image using technology came closer, when a number of discoveries were made related to the photosensitivity and special properties of chemical elements, which made it possible to transfer and fix the image.
First shot in history
The year of the invention of photography was 1839, when the French inventor Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre published the result of his work on fixing the image obtained with the pinhole camera on paper. At the same time, along with him, Henry Fox Talbot and Joseph Nisephor Nieps worked on the discovery and receipt of the first images. It was Nieps in 1826 that received the first fixed reflection and prototype of the picture. Having cooperated together and concluded an agreement, Daguerre and Niepce begin work on obtaining photographic images. The result was daguerreotype - obtaining sufficiently clear images on metal plates with a layer of silver iodide using mercury vapor. Some time has passed since daguerreotype developed in the direction of stereo photography. The inventors faced a number of problems: these were financial losses and a misunderstanding of others, what would be really useful for the invention of photography. How was the development of photography going on?
Development process
The turning point in the history of photography is the invention of negatives. This opened up new possibilities: now with the help of photographic negatives it was possible to enlarge pictures and copy them, and it was then that the modern invention of photography literally happened. The date of this remarkable event - 1841 - is the receipt by the English inventor William Henry Fox Talbot of a patent for the method of calotypy - receiving a paper negative with the subsequent manifestation of a positive image on silver-silver paper. A series of successive discoveries: the wet collodion process of improving the developing emulsion, work on photographic materials, and the invention of film in 1887 - this is a rapid process of development and simplification of the process of creating a photograph. The end of the 19th century gave mankind the opportunity to obtain photographs relatively quickly and easily, and, undoubtedly, the invention of photography itself was a turning point in the history of art.
Add brightness!
The first photograph taken in color was obtained using three cameras. James Clark Maxwell began experimenting with color photographs, and the results of his work on shooting using color filters of red, blue and green colors amazed society. The work was based on the discovery that the combination of these three colors can give any shade needed. However, the invention of color photography was far away: the process remained too time-consuming. At the beginning of the 20th century, photographers everywhere used the technique of coloring black and white images, but the true invention of color photography became a reality with the invention of color film in 1935. A year later, 35 mm color film went on sale, and it was then that the boom of color photography began, much more accessible to the ordinary consumer.
From "film" to "figure"
It seems worth dreaming about. The invention of photography is one of the greatest discoveries in history. But the person wanted to simplify the moment of receiving and printing photos even more. Part of the first success and the prototype of obtaining instant photos is the invention of the Polaroid camera, which instantly printed a photo on paper. But the process of working with such cameras was complicated by the need to purchase special cassettes for pictures, as well as a limited number of pictures. But soon here too, scientists announced success, and a new, “digital” invention of photography occurred. Date - 1975 - it was then that the first camera was developed, which was able to photograph and record the image on a magnetic tape. The resolution of the first photo was only 100 per 100 pixels, and the magnetic cassette had a weight of more than three kilograms! Sony's first compact camera was the Mavika development, and then other developers followed the discoverer. Companies competed in obtaining higher resolution, getting the ability to record photos as a separate file with the possibility of their further preservation. The real boom and widespread use of color digital cameras began in the late 20th century and early 21st century.
The Art of Photography
The invention of photography has given creative people a new opportunity for self-expression. Like painters, photographers experiment with composition and perspective, colors and lighting, trying to “catch” the best shot, and sometimes turn their photo into a real picture. Annie Leibovitz, Helen Levitt, Steve Maccary, Erich Salomon - you can list the names of famous photographers for a very long time, and each of them became famous in a certain, closest genre of photography. Today, every person in the world can at least once try himself in the role of a photographer. Art requires great dedication and a certain idea, which the author wants to convey to his viewers. Is it difficult to start shooting on my own?
Tips for Beginners
- To create an interesting picture, you need to focus on the composition, built in the frame. To do this, you can learn the rules of composition, which are used in painting, or experiment, developing your own distinctive features of the shooting.
- Do not chase technology and strive to buy the most expensive and modern camera. Optimal for a beginner will be choosing a convenient device that allows you to get basic knowledge about photography, you can also experiment with materials, for example, shooting objects using a film camera.
- The base that any photographer should freely operate is knowledge of the depth of field, illumination, composition, and working with the diaphragm. Later, you can start creating using the game of light and shadow, add various filters to your work, and also learn how to masterfully process pictures in the corresponding programs.
First movie
The invention of photography is briefly described above in the article, but what about the history of the formation of cinema? Inventors of the 19th century experimented with systems that would make it possible to create an animated record, and the Lumiere brothers were the first to succeed in this matter . Demonstrating the first short videos of 35 mm format called “Arrival of the train”, “Exit from the factory”, the pioneers of cinema received public recognition and a further opportunity to develop this direction of art.
Cinema development
The turning point in the history of cinema was the release of the film "Jazz Singer" in 1927, when the film was shot and voiced. Further development is the film Gone with the Wind, shot in color in 1939, and the full transition to color video shooting took place already in the 60s of the 20th century. A relatively young direction in art has already presented amazing films in various genres. What seemed to be completely impossible and unrealistic in the last century, today is embodied with the help of tricks and computer graphics. In the creation of films involved a huge team of professionals who create the final product. The best films of all time are rightfully recognized as "Nosferatu" (1922, dir. F. Murnau), "Seven Samurai" (1954, dir. A. Kurosawa), "Pulp Fiction" (1994, dir. K. Tarantino), "Apocalypse Today" (2003, dir. F.F. Coppola) and many other films.
Development prospects
It is worth noting that now the cinema is in search of new solutions for the presentation of ideas and plots, is developing artistic solutions and computer processing methods. An important problem of modern cinema is the problem of copyright and piracy, the free distribution of the finished product on the Internet. What will cinema surprise in the future and what levers will be invented for managing an art product? Only time can answer these questions.