How Photography Has Changed
4297
Arts & Entertainment > Photography
Mar 1, 2007
Darren McLaughlin
How Photography Has Changed
Technology is a wonderful thing. There have been a great number of technological advances made, especially as it pertains to photography. I remember my first experience with a camera was my grandmothers Kodak Instamatic 110 sometime in the 70's. It had a little square flash bulb that had to be replaced way too often. After taking all the pictures, you removed the 110 cartridge and dropped it off at the drug store and picked up your pictures 7 days later.
The next one I remember clearly is the Polaroid Instant Camera. This was pretty cool for a pre-teenager. You just bought (what I thought back then) some overpriced film for it, snapped yourpicture and a few minutes later (and a lot of shaking) your picture sprang to life in front of you. The downsides were that it was bulky, and there wasn't a way to make copies of the pictures easily. They had the right idea back then. To let the customer take a photo and be instantly gratified with a print of it. But it wasn't efficient and didn't have advanced technology resources such as the internet, computers, printers, and digital cameras.
My next lesson in photography was photography school. I didn't end up graduating, but spent my first (and only) year learning basic 35 MM photo skills and darkroom skills. It was a lesson in color as well as black and white photography. I learned a lot while I was there, and my Pentax camera was a trusted friend that captured my images. We learned how to develop and process our own film and photos in the darkrooms. Doing this process could take several hours, depending on how many rolls of film you had to develop and how many prints you needed to copy. It was nothing to go through 100 sheets of photo paper and have an entire afternoon spent in the darkroom.
Now it's the year 2006. The Digital Age. My new camera is a Sony Cybershot DSC-W7. This little camera makes the barrier to entry into photography much smaller. For only a few hundred dollars, you can pick up this or a similiar digital camera. This camera is loaded with 32 MB of internal memory for taking pictures, however I recommend picking up a memory stick to maximize your photo taking capabilities. A 1 Gig memory sticks run about $70.00, but I've never run into a problem taking up to 200 pictures at a time. This is a wonderful way not to have to ever buy traditional film again. This camera also doubles as a video camera. In standard recording mode, the DSC-W7 equipped with a 1 Gig memory stick is about 44 minutes of recording time. In Fine Mode, it would be around 12 minutes. Using your computer equipped with their printing software, you can burn these to DVD's or hook right into your Television for replay. This same software gives tools to retouch and perfect photos before you print them, too.
Printing your photos has made revolutionary changes since the days in the darkroom. You have many more options for making your own prints. You can bring your memory stick to a place like Wal-Mart or the grocery store, and use a machine to make copies of your pictures. You can order prints online, or you can develop them yourself with a printer. I happen to own two printers that are compatible with my camera. I have a Hewlett Packard 6200 that I use to make 8 by 10 prints. For smaller prints (4 X 6) I like using my Epson Picture Mate Personal Photo Lab. If I remember correctly, this cost about 150.00 but has paid itself off in charges not incurred by getting them processed elsewhere. Photo paper and replacement ink cartridges are sold off in a 100 pack and cost around 30.00 at Best Buy. You just insert the memory stick into the Epson or connect it with the pictobridge cable and press a few buttons, and your prints will be done in front of your eyes.
Just like in the days of the Polaroid cameras. I told you they had the right idea!
The next one I remember clearly is the Polaroid Instant Camera. This was pretty cool for a pre-teenager. You just bought (what I thought back then) some overpriced film for it, snapped yourpicture and a few minutes later (and a lot of shaking) your picture sprang to life in front of you. The downsides were that it was bulky, and there wasn't a way to make copies of the pictures easily. They had the right idea back then. To let the customer take a photo and be instantly gratified with a print of it. But it wasn't efficient and didn't have advanced technology resources such as the internet, computers, printers, and digital cameras.
My next lesson in photography was photography school. I didn't end up graduating, but spent my first (and only) year learning basic 35 MM photo skills and darkroom skills. It was a lesson in color as well as black and white photography. I learned a lot while I was there, and my Pentax camera was a trusted friend that captured my images. We learned how to develop and process our own film and photos in the darkrooms. Doing this process could take several hours, depending on how many rolls of film you had to develop and how many prints you needed to copy. It was nothing to go through 100 sheets of photo paper and have an entire afternoon spent in the darkroom.
Now it's the year 2006. The Digital Age. My new camera is a Sony Cybershot DSC-W7. This little camera makes the barrier to entry into photography much smaller. For only a few hundred dollars, you can pick up this or a similiar digital camera. This camera is loaded with 32 MB of internal memory for taking pictures, however I recommend picking up a memory stick to maximize your photo taking capabilities. A 1 Gig memory sticks run about $70.00, but I've never run into a problem taking up to 200 pictures at a time. This is a wonderful way not to have to ever buy traditional film again. This camera also doubles as a video camera. In standard recording mode, the DSC-W7 equipped with a 1 Gig memory stick is about 44 minutes of recording time. In Fine Mode, it would be around 12 minutes. Using your computer equipped with their printing software, you can burn these to DVD's or hook right into your Television for replay. This same software gives tools to retouch and perfect photos before you print them, too.
Printing your photos has made revolutionary changes since the days in the darkroom. You have many more options for making your own prints. You can bring your memory stick to a place like Wal-Mart or the grocery store, and use a machine to make copies of your pictures. You can order prints online, or you can develop them yourself with a printer. I happen to own two printers that are compatible with my camera. I have a Hewlett Packard 6200 that I use to make 8 by 10 prints. For smaller prints (4 X 6) I like using my Epson Picture Mate Personal Photo Lab. If I remember correctly, this cost about 150.00 but has paid itself off in charges not incurred by getting them processed elsewhere. Photo paper and replacement ink cartridges are sold off in a 100 pack and cost around 30.00 at Best Buy. You just insert the memory stick into the Epson or connect it with the pictobridge cable and press a few buttons, and your prints will be done in front of your eyes.
Just like in the days of the Polaroid cameras. I told you they had the right idea!
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com
Please visit the Planet Gadgets Blog or check out Planet Gadgets
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links owned by this user
Technology is a wonderful thing. There have been a great number of technological advances made, especially as it pertains to photography. I remember my first experience with a camera was my grandmothers Kodak Instamatic 110 sometime in the 70's. It had
Category:
It's easy to get into a rut when it comes to building links. In many ways, link-building is the most frustrating part of the search engine marketing business. You can't afford to ignore the work, because it's just so important to your overall
Category:
If you focus on the goal of losing weight, sometimes you get discouraged along the way. This is common, avoidable. An easier way to look at losing weight is to become physically fit. The fitter you are, the less you tend to weigh. For all intents
Category:
When you're looking o lose weigh, he primary exercise you need o engage in accomplish your goal is cardio raining. If you devoe yourself exclusively o srengh raining, you'll likely end up geing even bigger and weighing more, especially in
Category:
We decided to take a quick jaunt down to Forida to ceebrate my ast birthday. It was a 4 day vacation and we stayed in South Beach, Forida. Since it was sti eary spring, it was a itte too cod to go swimming or spend a ot of time
Category:
It's no understatement to say that VOIP has completely transormed the telecom world. Nothing is the same as it was even a mere decade ago, and that's because VOIP has become the killer app of broadband that technologists predicted. When early pioneers
Category:
Has broadband internet achieved its goals? If you think back several years, you can easily remember how broadband internet was touted. The basic idea was that with the increasing rate of transmission offered by broadband
Category:
Other links at Arts & Entertainment > Photography
Without a doubt one of the best places to party is the beach. Any beach for that matter is going to be more fun than almost any other location. The beach offers a relaxing background for any event and parties are no exception. Any kind of party works
Category:
Very few people have a completely steady hand when they hold their camera. Movement is natural, and shaking while taking a picture can be awful for the outcome and what you are left with. Camera movement is the most common cause of blurry pictures. How ca
Category:
Grandma might be the one doing the whining, if you have just graduated but your happy pictures can only be found online. Printing out multiple copies of your digital images and then having to assort them
Category:
The Canon cameras are well known for their superior performance and great pictures. The Canon brand camera Canon Digital XT is built to be user friendly.
Category:
Determining color and brightness is processed thru number-value counts of grid pixel from the digital photograph prints, after computer divides the screen and print page into grid pixels. Controlling grid of each pixel this way is bit mapping, and "bit-ma
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68200
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
