Say Cheese!

Above is the first ever photograph entitled “View from the Window at Le Gras” was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 from an upstairs window of his estate at Le Gras in the Burgundy region of France. It was made on a polished sheet of pewter and the light-sensitive coating of bitumen, dissolved in lavender oil which was allowed to dry before use. In 1838, Niépce also took this picture featuring a human for the first time entitled “Boulevard Du Temple”. Although this picture does not illustrate exactly what he saw because light exposure was over 10 minutes and the city traffic was moving too quickly to be captured clearly, however on the bottom left corner you can see a man getting his boots polished long enough by what looks to be another man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura
These photographs were not possible without this handy device called a “camera". Along with photography, the camera was born as the camera obscura. It is Latin for “dark room” and it describes the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen is projected through a small hole and creating an inverted image on a surface opposite to the opening. Here’s a simple diagram that shows how an image is projected.

Let’s say I put a convex lens in front of an object like a chair. I place it outside its focal length (f). You trace one light ray horizontally perpendicular to the lens, through it and then refract towards the focal point on the other side. You then trace another light ray through the centre of the lens but this time you don’t change its trajectory after passing through it. Once both of your light rays intersect at any point, it will mark the position of the image but the image or chair will be upside down or inverted. This is called a "real image”. In this scenario the real image is larger than the object because the object is located between f and 2f away from the lens. If the object was placed further away from the lens (>2f), the image would be positioned closer than 2f and be smaller than the object. Below is a formula that calculates the position of the image depending on the object’s position from the lens whether it is within or beyond the lens’ focal length.

f = Focal Length — Positive for a convex lens, Negative for a concave lens
u = Distance from the object to the lens
v = Distance from the lens to the image

Now let’s change the lens to a concave lens. The position of our chair hasn’t changed (which is outside the focal length between f and 2f). Repeat the same steps when tracing light rays. But this time the ray hitting the lens perpendicularly retracts outwards rather than inwards. Now retrace that line as a broken line back towards the focal length. Wherever the broken line intersects the second light ray which runs through the centre of the lens, this marks the position of our image. You notice our image (or chair) is upright and shrunken. This is called a “virtual image”. Using the same formula above, the focal length is negative, hence the solution for the distance of the virtual image will also be negative. You can also create virtual images using convex lens when you place the object inside its focal length but it will be upright and enlarged and behind the object.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography
Ever since Niépce’s first ever photograph was taken, we have approximately taken over 3.5 trillion photos and that number will keep growing. We have taken more pictures in the space of 2 minutes than all the photos taken in the 1800s. It’s estimated than about 140 million photos and counting are uploaded to Facebook and over 1.8 billion photos are uploaded to all sorts of social media. I understand that photography is a trending technology that captures the monumental occasions of our adventures like travelling to foreign countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, meeting celebrities on the red carpet, travelling with friends and family and tasting different cuisines in different cafes and restaurants across the globe. What I find intriguing is why do we tend to take an enormously finite amount of photos on our phone or camera and then upload every single of them onto social media? I thought photos captured historical moments and documented precious memories which were the main aims in the beginning of photography. The word ‘photography’ comes from the Greek φως(phos) meaning “light”, and γραφή(graphê), meaning “drawing, writing”, which together mean “drawing with light”. Since Niépce’s death in 1833, his partner Louis Daguerre ensured the development of photography would continue on experimenting different light-sensitive chemicals from Silver Chloride (AgCl) to Silver-plated sheet of copper coated with Silver Iodide (AgI) along with Iodine vapour. By 1837, Daguerre created the first practical photographic process which he named after himself the “daguerrotype”. In 1840, Henry Fox Talbot perfected a different photographic process called the Calotype. Although it used the same principle of chemical development of a faint or invincible “latent” image that reduced exposure time to a few minutes, the paper used had a coating of Silver Iodide. In 1861 the first colourful photograph was taken by Thomas Sutton that was used in a lecture by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. It was a set of 3 black-and-white photographs taken through red,green and blue colour filters and was shown to be superimposed using 3 projectors of similar filters.

For those who don't know what a photo filter is, it's an accessory your camera uses as optical filter placed in front of the lens. They modify the image being taken by altering the relative brightness of different colours, colour balance, absorbing certain wavelengths of light necessitating a longer exposure, and absorbing UV (Ultraviolet) light which can damage to the camera lens. You can read more about photo filters via this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_filter. Photographic apps like Instagram, WeChat, LINE, and Vsco now use built-in filters with each app using around 20 different filters. Here is a link from the Huffington Post listing every Instagram filter according to its popular use: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/instagram-filters-ranked_n_5127006. Because these filters removes imperfections and enhances the relevant features of the photograph, it's no wonder girls endorses filters with every photo or selfie they post online. Why do people especially girls, don't have the nonchalance to post unfiltered, naturally real photos? Are they worried about the incoming comments or the amount of likes their photo may receive? If there is an imperfection, why not retake the photo? It's possible their time spent on photography is limited and they are attempting to match the vision of the perfect shot embedded in their minds. It's obvious photography has a huge impact on our psyche and the reasons for this sort of behaviour are quite complex and requires more than just philosophical literature to fully understand this which I'll try to discuss in another post.

A photographer's set including aperture rings, lenses and tripod

Nowadays in this modern society people can't seem to live without the camera whether it be a DSLR or a square, selfie phone camera or polaroid camera. We have complicated the way we take photographs by identifying the correct angle, sufficient lighting, how to maximise sexiness, the correct distance between the person and the photographer, appropriate filters that fit the theme and time of upload and a colourful thematic background to match the caption to accompany the final masterpiece. Almost every single of us are virtually professional photographers irrespective of our qualifications and experience. Depending on the type of phone and portable device you have, fixing the aperture and clearing the foreground is just as simple as a single tap on the screen. It’s incredible how far technology has simplified the way we record and document our lifestyles with the utmost clarity. I notice that humans especially females have endorsed photography much more than men do. If you took a peak at their photo albums, you will notice it includes countless selfies featuring themselves with their faces and occasionally outlines of their clavicles and cleavage, makeup, snapchat filters, funny facial expressions like the sexy pout or sticking out the tongue. I suspect these girls have low self-esteem and are emotionally and easily influenced by advertisers, their girl friends and other peers to spend plenty on accessories and makeup sets. I also feel girls of this persona may elicit a narcissistic, misogynist, and pessimistic personality where they believe they are just as glamorous and sexy as Jennifer Hawkins or Kim Kardashian and overly react to other female peers who attempt to undermine their selfish and powerful position. People especially girls these days have this urge to attend as many events, and different restaurants and cafes and using photography as proof of their attendance, and it seems they use this social opportunities to update their social media and collect their wages in the form of likes for their effort. Some people say it’s a hobby or a sign of exploration which is plausible but I feel this is more than just sharing a photo themselves to the world which I’ll discuss in further detail in another post.