Pre-Digital Photographic Technology

Photo by Kelly Reilly

Black and white roll film affects photojournalist by its history. Black and white roll film is history. In the begging of photography, black and white roll film was the only choice for photographers. In the article "How Photographic Film Works", written by Charles Woodworth, writes there are five steps to developing film in black and white. Woodworth writes that the first step is, "the film is placed in developing agent that is actually a reducing agent. Given the chance, the reducing agent will convert all the silver ions into silver metal. Those grains that have latent-image sites will develop more rapidly. With the proper control of temperature, time and agitation, grains with latent images will become pure silver. The unexposed grains will remain as silver-halide crystals, The next step is to complete the developing process by rinsing the film with water, or by using a "stop" bath that arrests the development process The unexposed silver-halide crystals are removed in what is called the fixing bath. The fixer dissolves only silver-halide crystals, leaving the silver metal behind. In the final step, the film is washed with water to remove all the processing chemicals. The film strip is dried, and the individual exposures are cut into negatives.
Photography was around over twenty years before the Civil War, right before conflict broke out was when it started flowering. During the Civil War, photographs were in black and white. Eric Niiler wrote in the article, “How Civil War Photography Changed War”, that, “It [photos] allowed families to have a keepsake representation of their fathers or sons as they were away from home.” It gave family comfort to be able to have something of their son or father that shows them and they are able to see their face every day when they are gone. If they passed, then they had picture that will last forever for them to keep close to them. Photographer probably took more photos once the war started to families would be able to have those. This effected photojournalist to start, it helped for photographers to know what to take photos of and what people wanted to see.

Photojournalists have been around for all wars. In the article, “The Magnificent Eleven: The D-Day Photographs of Robert Capa, John Godfrey Morris states, He risked his life on more than one occasion during the Spanish Civil War and had taken what is considered the most eerily fascinating of all war photographs.” Photojournalists are putting their lives at risk to show people images of the war that people want to see. They want to see details of the war, they want images so it is like they are there also.

Photo by Robert Capa

Source Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/136879256@N02/22701484437

Now of days, it is easy or anyone to take a photograph, even a child. Most people have a camera on them 24/7, right on there phone. It's as easy as holding your phone up to the object you are wanting to get photograph of and then pushing a button. The camera on the photo will do the focusing for you most of the time. You can even choose if you want it in black or white, negative, etc. You can add lighten or darken it, add fading, crop it, and so much more. You can upload it to many different social medias or you can print them out as easy as taking the photo. If you take it on an actual camera you may have a chip you use and can either do it in a computer at your own home or at a machine at a store that will print out your images right there. Same as if you use your phone, you can plug it in and upload your photos to your computer or the machine. It is so much faster easier now of days
for people, of any age, to use digital cameras. You see what you are taking a photo of. It is much easier then when photographs fist came out.