Chapter 2: Pre-Digital Photographic Technology

The research and development of color film start far before to actual invention of color film. According to the Photographic Research Center at Boston University, the first color photographs were produced in the late 1860's. "In France, Louis Ducos du Hauron announces a subtractive color process to produce color prints, using three glass plate negatives exposed through red, green, and blue filters. From these negatives, colored positives are made by applying complimentary colored cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes. This is a complex procedure and the exposure times are very long." Color photographs became possible long before color film was developed. The processes in which color photographs came to be were very lengthy and time consuming. According to the timeline provided by the Photographic Research Center, color film came to be in 1936. "Kodak introduces Kodachrome 35mm still film and 8mm home movie film, with an ASA of 10."  Although it took some time, 35mm color film was invented and changed photojournalism and the jobs of photojournalists forever.

Photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron

Image Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_photography_technology

The invention of color film, changed the profession of photojournalists and photojournalism together. In order to get color or black and white photographs before, it was a very lengthy, dangerous process. According to Zeller, the stabilization of the plates and chemicals were vital. "Each time they moved, they had to secure bottles of chemicals and plate. Each time they stopped, it had to be level." invention of color film not only sped up the process of color photography but improved the quality of the photos as well. Color film brought a whole new world to photojournalists and photojournalism. The film allowed for their messages to be conveyed with more color and ultimately more meaning. According to Professor Nordell, "The term photography is derived from two Greek words, meaning light, phos, and writing graphic." Adding color film to the equation added more light to these photos and overall more meaning and appreciation.

Photo by Courtney Patridge

Taking a photo today. with digital photography, is much different that it was years ago with a film camera. First of all, digital photography can be taken with a digital camera, cell phone, web cam and many other items with cameras. Film was used is cameras that typically were bulky. People may not have always had their cameras with them because it was extra baggage. Today, a photo opportunity is almost never missed because we can just pull our phone out and have a camera right at our finger tips. Photographs that once made people nervous and skeptical have become widely accepted. According to Professor Nordell, publishers of newspapers used to hesitate before publishing photos in their papers. "Even when photographs first came out, there was some controversy of whether ... some newspaper owners felt like my paper's not solid anymore, I'm using photographs." A perfect example is a photograph that was taken by Margaret Bourke-White. It was a black and white photo of people lined up in front of a sign that said "World's Highest Standard of Living" and "theres no way like the american way." When people say this photograph they assumed that these people were standing in a breadline and that it was taken during the Great Depression. According to Alex Welwyn-Holmes, the author of a blog post, those were myths. "It was not shot during 1929-32 crisis. It did not depict a breadline of workers laid off by the depression."

Another difference is with digital photography, we have the capability to view the photo right away. If we like it and think it came out well, we can keep it. If we are not happy with they way it came out we can delete it and make room for more. With film, each photo taken meant that was one less photo you could take before having to change the film. Once the film was used, it needed to be replaced. Also photos could not be seen until they had been developed, which meant what someone may have thought was a good picture may have not been so good.