LESSO

2 Photography
15 HOURS

In this lesson, you will study and learn about photography and its processes, on how the
latent image becomes manifest because of process, different techniques in creation of the image,
options for capturing an image with light: different types of film, cameras, and lighting sources and
different ways to render the images in final form: prints, slides, transfers, projections, Web sites,
etc. The goal of this module is to give students an understanding of the techniques and their
effects on the resulting images.

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1. Discuss the history, basic skills and knowledge in photography, basic digital and traditional
photographic technique and camera techniques
2. Identify different photographic styles and genre, visual communication, image composition,
camera techniques and exposure and image editing
3. Express ones expanding visual awareness
4. Suggest ways on how to assess as well as recognize the contributions made in this field by
people from diverse cultures and backgrounds
5. Create photographs projects like landscape, events, street, sports, building and portraits
using different camera techniques and exposure with camera phones and dslr
6. Demonstrate image editing such as cut and resize, exposure, color and formats

Activity #1: “My say…”

Read and reflect on the quotation “Life is like photography. You need the negatives to
develop” by Unanimous. How can you relate the quote in learning?
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  In the previous activity you were able to relate the quotation to your learnings. In life you
need hard times to develop your character and strength. Sometimes life throws us hard
stuff. We hit the bottom but we have to push and keep moving forward.

A. History of Photography
Long before photography was discovered, artist used a cameras dark chamber or
obscuras in Italian. Light would enter the chamber through a small opening called a pinhole
and the light would then project an image of the scene onto the opposite wall. At first, large
rooms were specially designed to exhibit this “magical” phenomenon; but in the 16th
century, Italian artists compressed the size of the chamber to a portable box, replaced the
pinhole with a lens, added a mirror to invert the image, and a translucent glass panel to
display it. They manually traced the projected image by hand. Henry Fox Talbot as well as
others had the idea to capture and reproduce the image directly and this led to the birth of
photography. Despite the drastic changes in technology over the years, the dark box and
the lens still form the foundation of modern photography.
1826: First Permanent Image
French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce uses
a camera obscura to burn a permanent image of
the countryside at his Le Gras, France, and
estate onto a chemical-coated pewter plate. He
names his technique "heliography," meaning
"sun drawing." The black-and-white exposure
takes eight hours and fades significantly, but an
image is still visible on the plate today.
Centuries of advances in chemistry and optics,
including the invention of the camera obscura,
set the stage for the world’s first photograph. In
1826, French scientist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
took that photograph, titled View from the
Window at Le Gras at his family’s country home.
1839: First Photo of a Person
In early 1839, French painter and chemist
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre photographs
a Paris street scene from his apartment
window using a camera obscura and his newly
invented daguerreotype process. The long
exposure time (several minutes) means
moving objects like pedestrians and carriages
don't appear in the photo. But an unidentified
man who stops for a shoeshine remains still
long enough to unwittingly become the first
person ever photographed.
 1847: First Photo of Lightning
In 1847, early photography pioneer Thomas
Easterly makes a daguerreotype of a bolt of
lightning—the first picture to capture the natural
phenomenon. Primarily a portraitist, Easterly also
makes pictures of landscapes, unusual for
daguerreotypists.

1847: First Photos of War

In 1847, during the Mexican-American War, daguerreotypist
Charles J. Betts follows the American Army to Veracruz,
Mexico, and, according to an advertisement, offers to
photograph "the dead and wounded." Dozens of anonymous
daguerreotypes are also taken of troop movements and
American officers. The first official war photos, though, are of
the Crimean War from 1855 to 1856. The British government
sends several photographers to document the war, but
because of his meticulous preparations, Roger Fenton, a
British solicitor turned noted photographer, is the only one to
get good results. He and his assistants take some 350
images, mainly portraits.

1858: First Bird's-Eye View Felix Tournachon, better known

by the nom de plume Nadar, combines his interests— aeronautics, journalism, and photography—
and becomes the first to capture an aerial photograph in a tethered balloon over Paris in 1858.
 1861: First Color Photo
The enormously influential Scottish physicist
James Clerk Maxwell creates a rudimentary
color image by superimposing onto a single
screen three black-and-white images each
passed through three filters—red, green,
and blue. His photo of a multicolored ribbon
is the first to prove the efficacy of the three-
color method, until then just a theory, and
sets the stage for further color innovation,
particularly by the Lumière brothers in
France.
1878: First Action Photos
California photographer Eadweard
Muybridge, using new emulsions that allow nearly instantaneous photography, begins taking
photograph sequences that capture animals
and humans in motion. His 1878 photo
series of a trotting horse, created with 12
cameras each outfitted with a trip wire,
helps settle a disagreement over whether
all four of a horse's hooves leave the
ground during a trot. (They do.) It also
causes a popular stir about the potential of
cameras to study movement. Muybridge
goes on to create hundreds of image
sequences with humans and animals as
subjects. These photo series are linked to
the earliest beginnings of cinematography.

1884: First Tornado Photo

Taken by an unknown photographer, this image
is thought to be the oldest existing photo of a
tornado. According to the U.S. National Weather
Service, it was taken on August 28, 1884, about
22 miles (35 kilometers) southwest of Howard,
South Dakota.

1889: First Photo Published in National

Geographic The first photograph to appear in
National Geographic is a relief map of North
America. It appears in the magazine's third
issue (Volume 1, Number 3, 1889). The first
photograph of a natural scene—generally
considered the first real photograph in the
magazine—is of Herald Island, in the Arctic
Ocean, taken from a ship and appearing in the
March 1890 issue.
 1905: First National Geographic Photo Series
National Geographic magazine publishes its
first stand-alone photographic series in 1905.
The piece, a photographic tour of Lhasa, Tibet,
runs in the January 1905 issue and fills 11
pages. Magazine Editor Gilbert H. Grosvenor is
congratulated by National Geographic Society
members but reveals later that he expected the
pictorial to get him fired.

1906: First National Geographic Wildlife Photos

National Geographic begins its long, celebrated
association with wildlife photography with its
July 1906 issue. In a feature titled "Photographing Wild
Game with Flashlight and Camera," the magazine
publishes some 70 wildlife photographs by U.S. Rep.
George Shiras, many taken at night using flash
powder. The decision to publish the pictorial causes
two board members to resign, protesting that
"wandering off into nature is not geography." But
Editor Gilbert H. Grosvenor later describes the piece
as "an extraordinarily educative series: Nobody had
ever seen pictures like that of wild animals."
1909: First Photos of the North Pole

On April 6, 1909, Robert E. Peary and his

assistant, Matthew Henson, become the
first people to reach, and photograph, the
North Pole. The mission, supported by the
National Geographic Society, was a
grueling, 37-day dogsled journey over 475
miles (760 kilometers) of ice. The feat is
immediately questioned by skeptics who
say Peary's navigation and reckoning
were dodgy and that the round-trip could

not have been completed so quickly. Nearly 100 years

later, the veracity of the claim still remains in doubt.

1912: First Photos of Machu Picchu From 1912

to 1915, the National Geographic Society
supports expeditions by Yale University
professor and explorer Hiram Bingham to
excavate the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu
in the Peruvian Andes. Bingham's photos in
National Geographic are among the first ever
published of the mysterious Inca citadel.
 1914: First Natural-Color Photo in National
Geographic
The July 1914 issue of National Geographic
magazine features its first Autochrome, or
natural-color photograph—a flower garden in
Ghent, Belgium. The magazine had used hand-
colored images since November 1910. In April
1916, National Geographic becomes one of the
first American publications to run a series of
Autochrome color photographs.

1926: First Underwater Color Photo Ichthyologist

William Longley and National Geographic staff
photographer Charles Martin use an Autochrome
camera and a raft full of explosive magnesium
flash powder to illuminate the shallows of
Florida's Dry Tortugas and make the first
undersea color photographs. The photos, which
show reef scenes with fish, are published in the
January 1927 National Geographic.

1935: First High-Altitude Photo

National Geographic teams up with the
U.S. Army Air Corps for the record-
breaking flight of Explorer II, a helium
balloon with a hermetically sealed
magnesium alloy gondola. The balloon
takes off near Rapid City, South Dakota,
and ascends 72,395 feet (22,066 meters)
into the stratosphere, a world altitude
record for manned flight. Captain Albert
Stevens takes the first photograph showing
the curve of the Earth and the first color
photographs taken from the stratosphere.
1940s: First High-Speed Photography
Images Dr. Harold "Doc" Edgerton, a professor of
electrical engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, works with National
Geographic to perfect high-speed stroboscopic
photography, freezing on film the rapid
movements of nature that elude the eye. National
Geographic publishes several of the images,
including bullets frozen in mid-flight and stilled
hummingbird wings. Nicknamed "Papa Flash,"
Edgerton's techniques are later used to illuminate
the ocean's deepest abysses.

1943: First Photo on National Geographic Cover

 For its July 1943 issue, National Geographic
spruces up its normally staid yellow-and-white
cover with a photo of a billowing American flag.
The decision was made after a wartime plea by
the U.S. Treasury Department for all major
magazines to print a flag on their June or July
covers, hoping to encourage the purchase of
war bonds. The words "Buy U.S. War Savings
Bonds and Stamps" also appear at the top of
the magazine.

1946: First Photo Taken from Space

Researchers with the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory straps a 35-

millimeter camera to a German V-2 missile and

launches it into space from White Sands
Missile Range in New Mexico. The camera
snaps a picture every second and a half as the
rocket ascends to 65 miles (105 kilometers)
above the surface. The camera falls back to
Earth and slams into the ground, but the film,
contained in a steel cassette, is unharmed. The
developed photos are the first ever to show
Earth from space, a grainy black-and-white
wedge of planet framed against the black
expanse. Hundreds of newspapers and
magazine run the photos.
1949-'56: First Survey of the Night Sky National
Geographic teams up with the California
Institute of Technology for the Palomar
Observatory Sky Survey, a seven-year project
to produce the first photographic map of the
Northern Hemisphere's night sky. The work is done at the Palomar Observatory in California using
"Big Schmidt," a new, 48-inch (122-centimeter) camera telescope. The result is a comprehensive
study of the heavens that leads to the discovery of many new stars and galaxies and is still used
by astronomers today.
1960s: Ocean Eye Invented
Frustrated by the inability to shoot wide-angle photos using currently available underwater
housings, National Geographic photographer Bates Little hales works with the National
 Geographic photo lab and the Photogrammetry Corporation to design a
better model. The result, essentially a transparent Plexiglas bubble with a
set of handles and controls, revolutionizes underwater photography.
Dubbed Ocean Eye, the new housing can accommodate a camera with a
bulky motor drive as well as a wide range of lenses. And its near-perfect
optics allows photographers to take wide shots as well as close-ups
without the light distortion caused by water.
1962: First All-Color
After decades of pioneering color photography technology, National
Geographic magazine introduces a new era in February 1962, becoming
the first major American periodical to print an all-color issue. The
magazine goes on to
publish more color in its
editorial pages throughout 1962 than any other
major magazine in the country.

1985: National Geographic Cover Features

Afghan Girl National Geographic's June 1985
cover features staff photographer Steve
McCurry's haunting photo of a young Afghan girl
with searing green eyes. The photo, taken at a
Pakistan refugee camp during the Soviet war in
Afghanistan, captivates readers and comes to
symbolize the plight of refugees worldwide.

1985: Discovery of the Sunken Titanic

National Geographic staff photographer Emory Kristof accompanies
oceanographer Robert Ballard on a mission to discover the
wreckage of the Titanic. Using sonar and unmanned submersibles,
Ballard and Kristof search for weeks and finally find the wreck under
more than 12,000 feet (3,657 meters) of water in a sea canyon near
the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. National Geographic publishes a
major package on the discovery in its December 1985 issue. It is the
first in a cascade of related articles and television programs on the
Titanic.

1991: First Digital Still Camera

Kodak releases the first commercially available, professional digital camera in 1991. This device,
extremely expensive and marketed to professional photographers, uses a Nikon F-3 camera body
fitted with a digital sensor. Over the next five years, several companies come out with more
affordable models, and today, the market is
overwhelmed with thousands of digital still camera
models.
2006: First Digital Camera Trap
National Geographic photographers had been using camera traps to take pictures of wildlife for
years. But in 2006, George Steinmetz becomes the first to do so using a digital setup. The shoot,
meticulously arranged at a watering hole in the Sonoran Desert, involves wired and wireless
strobes, a digital SLR camera, and an infrared remote camera trap. The quarry: a close-up of the
elusive North American mountain lion. Mountain lions (and various other animals) begin showing
up quickly, but it takes weeks to get just the right shot—a crouching young mountain lion at water's
edge.

B. The Evolution of the Camera

CAMERA - A camera is anything that can record/store images.
Camera Obscura - The light from an object (A) passes through a pinhole, which shows
up in the camera obscura’s other side as an inverted image (B).
Daguerreotype - This uses a special copper plate to capture the light from the image.
The only problem is it takes up to 15 minutes of exposure to fully capture the image.

UR – Leica – The first 35mm film camera

Polaroid was born and creates instant images

SLR was born on 1948 which is the first what you See is what you get camera

Point and shoot commonly referred to as “consumer” digital cam.

C. Introduction to Digital Photography
Traditional film photography uses a chemical process to expose and capture images.
The camera lens and body allow a prescribed amount of light to come into contact with the
film, which is basically a sheet of plastic that has been coated with a light sensitive chemical
compound. Once the film is sufficiently exposed to light an invisible picture is formed. When
the film is developed, other chemicals are applied and the image then becomes perceptible
forming a negative image which then can be enlarged and printed on photographic paper.
In digital photography the film is replaced with a light sensitive electronic device
known as an image sensor. These sensors are made up of millions of photoelectric devices
that convert light into an electrical signal. The two most common types of image sensors
used in digital cameras are CCD (charge coupled device) and CMOS (complementary
metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors.
The strength of the electrical signal depends upon the amount of the light that
exposes the image sensor. These electrical signals are then processed through a series of
complex electronic circuits and finally stored in some type of internal or external flash
memory in a standard image file format such as a JPEG file. (JPEG = Joint Photographic
Experts Group). When processed by a computer, these files produce an image which is
able to be printed on photographic paper.
Just as camera film is available in different sizes so are digital image sensors. The
smaller sensors found in cell phone cameras and small point and shoot cameras generally
produces lower quality images than a larger sensor that would be found in a digital single
lens reflex (SLR) camera.

D. Digital Camera
In its most basic form, a digital camera is a photographic device consisting of a lightproof
box with a lens at one end, and a digital image sensor at the other in place of the traditional
film plane. Advances in digital photography are fast providing a wide spectrum of features
and options that can be challenging for the new digital photographer to master.
There are two basic types of digital cameras: digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) and digital
rangefinder.
1. Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR)
This camera is named for the reflexing mirror that allows you to frame the image
through the lens prior to capturing the image. As light passes through the DSLR camera’s
lens, it falls onto a reflexing mirror and then passes through a prism to the viewfinder. The
viewfinder image corresponds to the actual image area. When the picture is taken the
mirror reflexes, moves up and out of the way, allowing the open shutter to expose the digital
image sensor, which captures the image. Most features on a DSLR are adjustable, allowing
for greater control over the captured image. Most DSLR cameras also allow the use of
interchangeable lenses, meaning you can swap lenses of different focal lengths on the
same camera body.

2. Digital Rangefinder
There are two classes of digital rangefinder cameras: coincident rangefinder and
point-and-shoot.
 Coincident Rangefinder
Unlike DLSR cameras, the coincident rangefinder does not offer the photographer
with the capability to view the subject through the lens.
Instead, the coincident rangefinder employs a mirror or prism that uses triangulation
to join the images seen through the viewfinder and a secondary window to bring the subject
into focus. The photographer sees two images; one on top of the other in the viewfinder.
The image is not in focus until there is a single image. When using the DSLRs, most
features in a coincident rangefinder are changeable. This allows for maximum control over
the captured image. An advantage of using a coincident rangefinder over a DSLR is that
the absence of a rotating, or reflexing, mirror significantly reduces camera shake. Camera
shake is due to unstable hand movement or the vibration of the rotating mirror found in a
DSLR, and can cause blurring of the image.

 Digital Point-and-Shoot
This is a lightweight digital camera, appropriately named after the two steps required
for the photographer to capture an image. Basically, point-and-shoot cameras require
pointing the camera and taking the picture without manually adjusting settings such as the
aperture, shutter speed, focus, and other settings that professional photographers usually
set on more sophisticated cameras. Of course, some point-and-shoot digital cameras do
include flexible aperture and shutter settings. Point-and-shoot digital cameras are normally
light and small, have built-in automatic flash, require no adjusting of focus, and most often
include an LCD display that allows you to view the image through the lens in real time via
the digital image sensor. Most manufacturers of point-and-shoot cameras separate the
viewfinder from the lens assembly to simplify the mechanism and achieve a compact size.
The lens, aperture, and shutter are one assembly, permanently fixed from the camera itself.
 Because rangefinder cameras separate the optical path between the viewfinder and
the lens assembly, optical compression and frame indicators (guidelines) are used to
approximate the image’s frame. This approximation often causes subtle differences
between what the photographer sees in the viewfinder and what is captured in the image.
This is especially noticeable when the subject is close to the camera.

E. The Camera - Components and Concepts

 Lens
The lens is a sequence of complicated elements mostly made of glass, built to
deflect and focus the light from the subject to the image sensor of a digital camera.
Aside from composing the image through your viewfinder, the first contact you have
with the light from your subject is through the lens of your camera.

 Focal Length
This is defined as the distance of the image sensor from the camera lens that
converges light. This distance determines the magnification capability of the lens when
focusing on a scene. The longer the focal length your camera has, the more it can magnify
the subject.
F. Lens Types
There are several kinds of lenses available to the market but the most basic of these
lenses are Telephoto, Wide Angle, Zoom and Prime. They perform the same basic function
of the lens: to reflect light from the subject and projects it to the image sensor of the camera
or the film. The difference among them is the way they transmit and refract light to the
image sensor.

Telephoto lenses are used to significantly

magnify a subject at great distances. A
telephoto lens has a long focal distance,
meaning that objects closer to the camera
will appear slightly out of focus but objects
at long range will be clear and precise.
Typically used by photographers
with an interest in sports, nature and
landscapes, telephoto lenses allow the
photographer to get the shot they want
without having to be anywhere near the
“action”. Although the area of coverage is
limited with a telephoto lens, it allows
photographers to “zoom in” on the subject
they desire.
 Higher aperture settings allow the photographer to “zoom” into the background,
middle regions and even the foreground, allowing for the sharper image shot they really
want. However, using a smaller aperture allows the photographer to combine the three
focal lengths to provide a photograph with a more “human eye” quality, combining in sharp
contrast, all areas leading up to the main object.
Wide-Angle
Wide-angle lenses use only a
short focal length allowing
photographers to concentrate the shot
on the main subject but while still get the
surrounding area in focus as well. The
image plane is larger than the focal
length with traditional wide-angle lenses,
but modern digital cameras have
changed that notion. Lens multiplying
factors provided by image sensors on
modern DSLRs vary, so you should
check the specifications on your camera.
For instance, if your camera carries a
28mm sensor you will need a lens with a
focal length of 28mm or less if you truly
want that “wide-angle’ shot to come out
right.
Zoom
A zoom lens is the type of lens which
possesses the mechanical ability to alter its
focal length. It is also known as an optical zoom
lens. Zoom lenses can provide variable focal
lengths to the photographer, making it a
productive professional tool. It can alter its focal
length from wide angle to standard and from
there to zoom.
The zoom lenses are helpful for the
photographers as they do not need to hold and
alter multiple lenses while working on a project
or shooting. The zoom lenses always need
extra glass elements to precisely focus light at
variable focal lengths. The manufacturers must keep in mind that to achieve an image of
best quality, light should pass through the least number of glass elements.
It should also be noted that the f-stops might not always be absolutely precise due to
the movement between the focal lengths. To encounter this, a lot of manufacturers provide
several minimum aperture values when the lens moves from shorter to longer focal lengths.
This certainly helps to attain a higher level of precision with apertures as it makes a lens
slower at longer focal lengths.
Prime
The focal length of a prime lens is
unalterable. It is also termed as a fixed lens
due to this characteristic. Prime lenses are
generally manufactured with wider maximum
apertures and the lens speed is faster as a
result of that. In darker conditions, wider
apertures really come in handy as they can
provide brighter pictures. Besides, one
possesses more control over the depth of
field while he/she is using the wider
apertures. Portrait photographers are the
main users of the prime lenses.
 Aperture
The opening in the lens that permits light to pass through is called aperture. The
aperture is the opening formed by a system of metal leaves in the lens that open up and
close down to control the volume of light passing through the lens. It is the lens's equivalent
of the iris of our eye. The combination of the opening of aperture and the shutter speed
determines the exposure of the image or photo. More light will pass through the lens with
higher or wider aperture, which is measured by f-stops, and each f-stop represent the
amount of light admitted from the lens.

If we look on a camera specification it says:

Lens: 35-105mm f-3.5-f8
The "f-3.5-f8" is called the F-stop or the maximum aperture of the lens. This figure is
derived from dividing the focal length of the lens by the aperture opening of the lens.
A larger aperture size is represented with smaller number hence f2.8 is larger f-stop
than f5.6.
The standardized F-stop number runs as follows: f1.4, f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16,
f22, f32, f45, f64.
Each number admits half the light to the previous F-stop.

 Depth of Field
Depth of Field (DoF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects that
appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph and is determined by a combination of
the opening of the aperture and the focal length of the lens. A small aperture setting results
in greater depth of field.

Controlling depth of field is one of the earliest ways of a photographer to compose an

image. By limiting the depth of field of the subject, the photographer can turn the attention
of the viewer on the subject in focus. Usually, restraining the depth of field of an image
helps eliminate confusion in the background. Conversely, when shooting a landscape, you
would like the image to have greater depth of field. Limiting the depth of field to the
foreground would not make viable sense to a landscape or panoramic image.

Telephoto lenses (with long focal lengths) tend to have shallow focus when the
aperture is opened all the way, limiting the depth of field of an image. Wide-angle lenses
(with short focal lengths) tend to create images with great depth of field regardless of the
aperture setting.

 Shutter
The shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for
the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light sensitive electronic sensor to light to
capture a permanent image of a scene.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed refers to the length of time the shutter is open or the activation of the
digital image sensor. The exposure of the photo is produced entirely by the combination of
shutter speed and the aperture. Shutter speeds are shown as fractions of a second, such
as 1/8 or 1/250. Shutter speed increments are comparable to aperture settings, as each
incremental setting either halves or doubles the time of the previous setup. For example,
1/60 of a second is half as much exposure time as 1/30 of a second, and about twice as
much as 1/125 of a second.
 Photographers often use shutter speed settings to convey or freeze a motion. A
moving subject, such as fast moving vehicle, tends to blur when captured with a slow
shutter speed like 1/8. On the other hand, a fast shutter speed, such as 1/1000, appears to
freeze the movements of falling rain or snow.

 Image Sensors
There are two kinds of digital image sensors generally used: a charge-coupled
device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS).

Charged-Coupled Device - CCD

CCD sensors were initially developed
for video cameras. CCD sensors record the
image pixel by pixel and row by row. The
voltage information from each element in the
row is passed on prior to descending to the
next row and only one row is active at a time. It
does not convert the voltage information into
digital but to accomplish the feat, another
circuitry is added to the camera to digitize the
voltage information prior to transferring the
data to the storage medium like SD Cards.
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor -
CMOS CMOS sensors are capable of recording the
entire image provided by the light-sensitive elements
in parallel all at once, resulting in a higher rate of
data transfer to the storage medium. Additional
circuitry is added to each individual element to
convert the voltage information to digital data. A
small colored micro lens is fixed on each element to
increase its ability to read the color of light.