WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:01.885 This is a camera. 00:00:02.293 --> 00:00:06.659 No really, a shoebox, a piece of aluminum foil with a tiny pinprick in it, 00:00:06.659 --> 00:00:11.215 a small flap, and a bit of opaque tape for light sealing 00:00:11.215 --> 00:00:15.469 is all you technically need to create a device which can take photographs. 00:00:15.469 --> 00:00:19.070 In fact, this is one of the photos it took. 00:00:19.070 --> 00:00:22.970 I made this thing in high school photography class and I imagine many other students started 00:00:22.970 --> 00:00:25.140 their courses in a similar fashion. 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:30.810 So, what better way to introduce the topic of photography than with this obscure camera. 00:00:30.810 --> 00:00:32.469 Speaking of obscure cameras… 00:00:32.469 --> 00:00:35.151 The camera obscura is an ancient… 00:00:35.151 --> 00:00:36.748 device? 00:00:36.748 --> 00:00:38.522 Eh...more like a concept. 00:00:38.522 --> 00:00:40.791 An ancient imaging thing that’s very old 00:00:40.791 --> 00:00:45.831 and probably was discovered accidentally many many times before anyone thought to make use of it. 00:00:45.831 --> 00:00:49.001 Its name is Latin and means “dark chamber” 00:00:49.001 --> 00:00:51.549 which should give you a decent clue about what it is. 00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:56.280 It’s a dark chamber but there’s a hole in it on one side. 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:58.463 And because light travels in straight lines, 00:00:58.463 --> 00:01:04.649 if that hole is small enough it will actually cause an image to be projected onto the surface opposite the hole. 00:01:05.182 --> 00:01:13.558 Now, we can go deep into optics junk and talk about diffraction and optimal ratios for the size of the hole vs. the chamber itself 00:01:13.558 --> 00:01:17.084 but I don’t want to do that so instead I’m gonna explain it like this; 00:01:17.084 --> 00:01:20.969 Imagine you have a piece of paper in front of you with a hole in it. 00:01:20.969 --> 00:01:24.719 You can only see what’s on the other side of the paper through that hole. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:29.218 Now, obviously that limits what you can see, but if you move your eyes down 00:01:29.218 --> 00:01:30.935 - no, not just look - 00:01:30.935 --> 00:01:35.169 If you move your head down now you can see something you previously couldn’t. 00:01:35.169 --> 00:01:38.641 You’re able to see objects through the hole that are higher up 00:01:38.641 --> 00:01:42.399 because the angle that you’re looking through the hole has changed. 00:01:42.399 --> 00:01:47.305 If you move to the left, now you can see things that are to the right of your previous view. 00:01:47.305 --> 00:01:52.468 This is probably not a shocking discovery, but here’s where things get weird. 00:01:52.468 --> 00:01:58.277 If that hole is really, really small, now you basically can’t see anything through it. 00:01:58.277 --> 00:02:04.073 The only thing you can see is a tiny speck of light coming from whatever is directly opposite the hole 00:02:04.073 --> 00:02:06.427 from where your eye happens to be. 00:02:06.427 --> 00:02:09.981 But the same positional phenomenon as before is still occurring. 00:02:09.981 --> 00:02:14.385 What you can see depends on the angle that you’re looking through the hole. 00:02:14.385 --> 00:02:17.005 Move down and you see things higher up, 00:02:17.005 --> 00:02:19.511 move to the left and you see things to the right. 00:02:19.511 --> 00:02:24.736 "But," I hear you say, "you can’t see anything! You can only see a speck of light." 00:02:24.736 --> 00:02:28.553 Ah! But that speck of light will change brightness and color 00:02:28.553 --> 00:02:32.913 based on the tiny part of the whatever you can actually see through the hole. 00:02:34.388 --> 00:02:36.629 That was a confusing sentence, umm… 00:02:36.629 --> 00:02:42.650 OK so you can’t make anything out looking through that tiny hole, it’s just too small. 00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:45.857 But the apparent brightness of the speck of light you can see 00:02:45.857 --> 00:02:51.859 is directly correlated to the brightness of whatever tiny part of an object is on the other end of a straight line 00:02:51.859 --> 00:02:55.535 between your eye and that object which intersects that hole. 00:02:56.539 --> 00:02:58.030 That’s even more confusing. 00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:01.540 It’s just like before, move down and you see higher things. 00:03:01.540 --> 00:03:03.329 Move to the left and you see righter things. 00:03:03.329 --> 00:03:04.568 And vice versa. 00:03:04.568 --> 00:03:08.797 But what you’re able to see is such a small part of whatever’s out there 00:03:08.797 --> 00:03:11.750 that all you end up with is a point of light. 00:03:11.750 --> 00:03:16.069 The hole got smaller, so the region of space you can see got smaller, too. 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:18.353 So small it’s just a point. 00:03:18.353 --> 00:03:19.483 Now I know what you’re thinking. 00:03:19.640 --> 00:03:21.610 A point of light’s not useful, is it? 00:03:21.610 --> 00:03:23.765 Can’t make anything out with that. 00:03:23.765 --> 00:03:26.584 Well that’s just a problem with your eyes. 00:03:26.584 --> 00:03:29.989 See, the goal isn’t actually to look through the hole. 00:03:29.989 --> 00:03:33.559 If instead of an eye you put a screen opposite the hole, 00:03:33.559 --> 00:03:36.453 then turn around so you’re facing that screen, 00:03:36.453 --> 00:03:41.433 suddenly that screen will reveal a projected image of whatever's on the other side. 00:03:41.433 --> 00:03:47.172 From the perspective of any point on the screen, only a tiny speck of light is reaching it. 00:03:47.172 --> 00:03:51.303 But the speck of light that reached it came from just a small region of space 00:03:51.303 --> 00:03:53.560 on the other side of the hole. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:54.719 See what’s happening? 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:59.746 Every spot on the screen is only getting hit with light from a tiny spot out there. 00:03:59.746 --> 00:04:05.666 Once it hits the screen and reflects off of it, that allows our eyes to see an image on the screen. 00:04:06.576 --> 00:04:10.338 That image will be upside-down and backwards because geometry, but still. 00:04:10.338 --> 00:04:11.498 Pretty neat. 00:04:11.498 --> 00:04:12.957 How is this useful? 00:04:13.239 --> 00:04:16.583 Well, back in the days of yore you could build a light-proof box, 00:04:16.583 --> 00:04:18.971 put a tiny hole in one side of it, 00:04:18.971 --> 00:04:20.436 point it at something, 00:04:20.436 --> 00:04:23.412 then have somebody go into the box with a canvas, 00:04:23.412 --> 00:04:25.483 put the canvas opposite the hole, 00:04:25.483 --> 00:04:31.492 and use the projected image to paint an accurate (if laterally reversed) picture of a subject 00:04:31.492 --> 00:04:34.440 by simply drawing on top of the projection. 00:04:34.440 --> 00:04:37.744 The act of drawing over a projected image was called 00:04:37.744 --> 00:04:39.034 ray tracing. 00:04:39.473 --> 00:04:41.557 We’ll see how well that joke ages… 00:04:41.557 --> 00:04:45.937 Anyway, before long we grew tired of the really dim images produced by pinholes 00:04:45.937 --> 00:04:49.399 and started playing around with these lens things. 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:53.438 We found that if you take some glass and make it all curved-like, 00:04:53.438 --> 00:04:59.534 you can make light bend as it enters and exits the glass and behave a lot like it does through a pinhole, 00:04:59.534 --> 00:05:05.343 while allowing for much more light to be collected and still form a projected image on a screen 00:05:05.343 --> 00:05:06.438 or whatever. 00:05:06.588 --> 00:05:09.115 That made the image much brighter. 00:05:09.115 --> 00:05:13.058 And before long we started using mirrors and translucent screens 00:05:13.058 --> 00:05:18.360 to un-flip and de-upsidedown the image for less confusing and more accurate tracing. 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:19.705 Neat stuff. 00:05:19.705 --> 00:05:22.200 But tracing was annoying. 00:05:22.200 --> 00:05:27.729 It took some skill, was really slow, and generally was just a bummer. 00:05:27.729 --> 00:05:30.520 Plus tracing was just the first step. 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:35.718 If you wanted, like, shading and color you’d need some sort of artist. 00:05:35.718 --> 00:05:37.431 Where are you gonna get one of those? 00:05:37.431 --> 00:05:43.650 Photography was born as a means to eliminate the human-drawing part of the camera obscura. 00:05:43.650 --> 00:05:47.002 The name photography is actually quite fitting for what it does. 00:05:47.002 --> 00:05:50.661 Its Greek roots translate to "drawing with light." 00:05:51.069 --> 00:05:55.087 If we could somehow use the light itself to make a drawing, 00:05:55.087 --> 00:05:57.130 we’d save a lot of headaches. 00:05:57.130 --> 00:06:03.137 We had a pretty good idea of what needed to be invented; some sort of light-sensitive material. 00:06:03.137 --> 00:06:06.728 And boy did lots of people take their cracks at this. 00:06:06.728 --> 00:06:11.324 One of the most well-known early photographic techniques was the daguerreotype, 00:06:11.324 --> 00:06:13.770 named for its inventor Louis Daguerre. 00:06:13.770 --> 00:06:17.656 This was the first photographic process to attain widespread adoption, 00:06:17.656 --> 00:06:20.171 announced to the public in 1839. 00:06:20.642 --> 00:06:24.149 Now, I’m not going deep into the history of photography here 00:06:24.149 --> 00:06:29.544 but I will talk about this photographic process because it’s chemically quite similar to the modern-day 00:06:29.544 --> 00:06:31.380 black and white process. 00:06:31.380 --> 00:06:34.837 The implementation is just a little - no, strike that. 00:06:34.837 --> 00:06:36.577 Really wonky. 00:06:36.765 --> 00:06:41.707 Daguerre took highly-polished plates of silver-coated copper and, in the dark, 00:06:41.707 --> 00:06:48.060 exposed them to iodine gas (later other halogens — chlorine and bromine — would also be used). 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:54.460 This changed the very top surface of the plate’s coating from pure silver to halides of silver, 00:06:54.460 --> 00:06:57.958 in the case of iodine specifically that would be silver iodide, 00:06:57.958 --> 00:07:01.123 and at this point the plate was now light-sensitive. 00:07:01.123 --> 00:07:06.810 These silver iodide molecules would, when hit with photons, undergo a reduction reaction 00:07:06.810 --> 00:07:10.659 and revert back to tiny bits of pure silver. 00:07:10.659 --> 00:07:14.565 If you kept this plate in the dark until it was placed in a camera obscura, 00:07:14.565 --> 00:07:18.461 then used the camera to project an image of a subject onto the plate, 00:07:18.461 --> 00:07:21.748 you’d now have a plate where certain parts of its surface 00:07:21.748 --> 00:07:26.529 no longer contained silver iodide but actually contained pure silver. 00:07:26.780 --> 00:07:32.897 And of course those transformed parts corresponded to the areas of the plate that were hit with light, 00:07:32.897 --> 00:07:36.521 and therefore captured the shape of the image chemically. 00:07:36.803 --> 00:07:42.777 A drawing was made with light itself, thus photography was born. 00:07:42.777 --> 00:07:46.217 However, at this point that image would not be visible. 00:07:46.217 --> 00:07:49.968 For one thing, you couldn’t expose the plate to light outside the camera 00:07:49.968 --> 00:07:52.361 until you had done some processing to it, 00:07:52.361 --> 00:07:57.623 but for another the image formed in the exposure is hardly an image at all. 00:07:57.623 --> 00:08:02.229 This so-called latent image needed development to become visible, 00:08:02.229 --> 00:08:07.802 and in the days of the daguerreotype that happened by exposing the plate to mercury vapor. 00:08:07.802 --> 00:08:09.114 Fun! 00:08:09.114 --> 00:08:12.910 Quick note, development didn’t need to be done chemically. 00:08:13.130 --> 00:08:18.998 Some processes took the camera-exposed plate and exposed them further to light through color filters. 00:08:18.998 --> 00:08:25.669 Others would simply expose the plate in the camera for a very long time but that had obvious limitations. 00:08:25.669 --> 00:08:30.370 From now on we’re talking about chemical development of the latent image. 00:08:30.370 --> 00:08:37.078 The development process took the exposed spots of the plate with infinitesimally small silver molecules 00:08:37.078 --> 00:08:43.030 and enlarged those molecules into merely microscopically small particles of pure silver. 00:08:43.030 --> 00:08:47.522 Now they were large enough to be visible on the parts of the plate in which they were present. 00:08:47.522 --> 00:08:50.297 The last step was to get rid of the silver iodide 00:08:50.297 --> 00:08:54.929 that had not been transformed into pure silver in a process known as fixing. 00:08:54.929 --> 00:08:58.536 Daguerre initially used a hot bath of saltwater to do this, 00:08:58.536 --> 00:09:01.336 but later sodium thiosulfate was used. 00:09:01.336 --> 00:09:05.892 And at this point the plate contained a permanent, viewable image. 00:09:05.892 --> 00:09:07.422 A photograph happened! 00:09:07.924 --> 00:09:13.016 Now if you know anything about analog photography you might be a little confused here. 00:09:13.016 --> 00:09:14.418 As was I. 00:09:14.418 --> 00:09:18.886 I’m used to the thing that comes out of the camera being a negative image 00:09:18.886 --> 00:09:23.901 where areas hit with light become dark and so the image appears inverted. 00:09:23.901 --> 00:09:29.115 Yet the very plate that was in the camera is what becomes viewed in a daguerreotype, 00:09:29.115 --> 00:09:31.683 and they’re clearly positive images. 00:09:31.683 --> 00:09:35.933 Reversal film, also known as slide or positive film, is a thing 00:09:35.933 --> 00:09:39.398 but the process I just described is not that. 00:09:39.398 --> 00:09:44.729 Well, as it turns out, daguerreotypes are only sort-of not negatives. 00:09:44.729 --> 00:09:47.050 Here, look at this website I found: 00:09:47.050 --> 00:09:52.812 “The experience of viewing a daguerreotype is unlike that of viewing any other type of photograph. 00:09:52.812 --> 00:09:55.678 The image does not sit on the surface of the plate. 00:09:55.678 --> 00:09:59.768 After flipping from positive to negative as the viewing angle is adjusted, 00:09:59.768 --> 00:10:02.554 viewers experience an apparition in space, 00:10:02.554 --> 00:10:06.520 a mirage that arises once the eyes are properly focused.” 00:10:07.242 --> 00:10:10.380 Sounds like I need to get my hands on a daguerreotype. 00:10:10.380 --> 00:10:13.319 Luckily, through the magic of buying two of them, 00:10:13.319 --> 00:10:15.674 I have one of them right here. 00:10:16.961 --> 00:10:18.067 We’ll get to this guy. 00:10:18.067 --> 00:10:20.025 It’s not actually a daguerreotype. 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:24.885 This is now handily the oldest not-book object I’ve ever held in my hands. 00:10:25.356 --> 00:10:26.556 At least I’m pretty sure. 00:10:26.838 --> 00:10:29.992 Daguerreotypes fell out of fashion by 1860, 00:10:29.992 --> 00:10:31.866 you’ll soon see why, 00:10:31.866 --> 00:10:35.650 so this is probably at least 160 years old. 00:10:35.650 --> 00:10:40.059 And literally one-of-a-kind, which is pretty neat I gotta say. 00:10:40.059 --> 00:10:44.143 Daguerreotypes were extremely fragile objects which could not be touched, 00:10:44.143 --> 00:10:48.775 so almost always they were mounted behind glass in cases like this. 00:10:48.775 --> 00:10:55.949 This is a 1/6th size daguerreotype, meaning that the same sensitized plate was divvied up and used for six photographs. 00:10:55.949 --> 00:10:57.473 Would you like to see it? 00:10:57.755 --> 00:10:58.856 Here it is. 00:10:59.170 --> 00:11:01.360 This is really a lovely photograph. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.760 A woman and her infant child. 00:11:03.760 --> 00:11:09.200 The “Anson” stamped in the border suggests that this was taken at the studio of Rufus Anson, 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:14.155 a photographer active in New York from 1851 to 1867. 00:11:14.155 --> 00:11:17.350 So, given that this appears to be an Anson daguerreotype, 00:11:17.350 --> 00:11:22.330 it probably dates from somewhere between 1851 and 1860. 00:11:22.330 --> 00:11:27.516 For being so old it’s held-up pretty well, and the image looks remarkably life-like. 00:11:27.516 --> 00:11:30.460 It’s very sharp and highly detailed. 00:11:30.460 --> 00:11:33.941 Just about the only flaw is this bit of tarnishing down here, 00:11:33.941 --> 00:11:38.470 and the fact that little baby Gertrude didn’t quite keep still for the exposure. 00:11:38.470 --> 00:11:42.682 Her right hand is blurred as is her (I’m assuming this is a girl)... 00:11:42.682 --> 00:11:44.042 hairpiece? 00:11:44.042 --> 00:11:45.199 Whatever you’d call this. 00:11:45.199 --> 00:11:48.189 I’m no expert on mid-nineteenth century baby fashion! 00:11:48.189 --> 00:11:51.379 Oh and yes, that is almost certainly her right hand. 00:11:51.379 --> 00:11:56.313 Most daguerreotypes are mirror-images because of that pesky geometry thing. 00:11:56.313 --> 00:12:01.968 Some photographers used cameras with mirrors in them to un-do this but that was uncommon 00:12:01.968 --> 00:12:04.091 as it made the image less clear. 00:12:04.091 --> 00:12:09.239 Since this looks so good, you might be wondering why the daguerreotype fell out of favor. 00:12:09.239 --> 00:12:14.971 Well, I have the camera positioned as perfectly as I can for you to be able to see this. 00:12:14.971 --> 00:12:17.469 If I move it even just a little bit… 00:12:18.065 --> 00:12:19.682 that happens. 00:12:19.682 --> 00:12:23.163 I had no idea daguerreotypes were like this. 00:12:23.163 --> 00:12:28.274 When you see pictures of them online, those pictures were taken as I took this shot. 00:12:28.274 --> 00:12:33.829 But you need fairly specific lighting conditions to do that because of how this is structured. 00:12:33.829 --> 00:12:36.773 And this reveals how we’re getting a positive image 00:12:36.773 --> 00:12:41.664 out of the same silver-halide chemistry that produces negatives like these. 00:12:41.664 --> 00:12:44.773 The image is in fact barely there. 00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:50.201 If you angle the plate to reflect something bright, you’ll see that it practically disappears. 00:12:50.201 --> 00:12:55.863 And when you remind yourself how this plate was sensitized, you’ll probably figure out why. 00:12:55.863 --> 00:12:59.803 Remember that this is a polished plate of silver-coated copper. 00:13:00.180 --> 00:13:05.682 The very top layer of silver was converted to silver iodide (or some concoction of other halides) 00:13:05.682 --> 00:13:11.397 to make it sensitive to light, and the areas that got hit with light then turned into… 00:13:11.397 --> 00:13:12.630 silver. 00:13:12.850 --> 00:13:16.418 The image is made of the same material as its backing, 00:13:16.418 --> 00:13:21.320 but that’s OK because under the right conditions that actually makes a positive image. 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:24.610 The plate itself is basically a mirror. 00:13:24.610 --> 00:13:31.310 If you position it so that it reflects something dark, then you end up with the unexposed parts of the plate appearing black. 00:13:31.310 --> 00:13:34.490 The areas that got hit with light, though, have impurities. 00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:39.560 It’s still particles of silver, but they aren’t part of the polished mirror finish anymore. 00:13:39.560 --> 00:13:44.090 They’re sitting on top of what’s left of the original, un-converted silver. 00:13:44.090 --> 00:13:48.057 So, as long as there is some ambient light to hit them and become scattered, 00:13:48.057 --> 00:13:52.051 those parts will appear brighter than the reflection of darkness. 00:13:52.365 --> 00:13:57.220 This makes it an apparent positive, though with serious viewing limitations. 00:13:57.502 --> 00:14:01.263 Oh, and if you position it so that it reflects something very bright - 00:14:01.263 --> 00:14:04.312 well now you see the negative image you might expect 00:14:04.312 --> 00:14:10.180 because those impurities are now blocking the reflection and so appear darker than the background. 00:14:10.180 --> 00:14:13.970 Really, this is just… rather difficult to view. 00:14:13.970 --> 00:14:17.382 In some lighting situations it’s practically impossible. 00:14:17.382 --> 00:14:22.848 But funnily enough under these studio lighting conditions... it's really easy. 00:14:22.848 --> 00:14:26.450 But it’s important to keep in mind that when these were being produced, 00:14:26.450 --> 00:14:29.909 artificial light was still coming from these things. 00:14:29.909 --> 00:14:32.230 The gas mantle hadn’t even been invented yet. 00:14:32.230 --> 00:14:37.648 I have way more opportunities to make this image pop than the people in it ever did. 00:14:37.648 --> 00:14:42.529 So it’s no surprise that as soon as we figured something better out, we flocked to it. 00:14:43.502 --> 00:14:45.239 And this is that. 00:14:45.239 --> 00:14:49.264 The image of this fine gentleman appears on an ambrotype. 00:14:49.515 --> 00:14:53.045 Ambrotypes were an implementation of the wet collodion process. 00:14:53.045 --> 00:14:56.401 Not to be confused with the Nick collodion process. 00:14:56.401 --> 00:15:01.791 Here, collodion, which is a syrupy alcohol and ether-based solution of nitrocellulose, 00:15:01.791 --> 00:15:06.017 is used as a carrier medium for particles of silver halides. 00:15:06.017 --> 00:15:12.604 It was much easier to produce plates this way since they didn’t require the perfectly polished surface 00:15:12.604 --> 00:15:14.284 that daguerreotypes did. 00:15:14.284 --> 00:15:21.735 After coating a plate of glass in iodized collodion, the plate was then immersed in silver nitrate which sensitized it. 00:15:21.735 --> 00:15:27.993 Then when it was still wet it was placed in a camera, exposed, developed, and finally fixed. 00:15:27.993 --> 00:15:30.590 And this is the end result. 00:15:30.590 --> 00:15:35.985 Note that there’s some very subtle tinting done on the face to make a blushing effect. 00:15:35.985 --> 00:15:39.550 Hand-tinting was somewhat common in ambrotypes. 00:15:39.550 --> 00:15:42.986 In this case the effect is so subtle I didn’t notice it for days, 00:15:42.986 --> 00:15:50.120 though it’s very possible the coloring has simply faded in the century-and-a-half since this was taken. 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:53.447 If you look closely you’ll see that the light areas of the image 00:15:53.447 --> 00:15:56.600 appear to be floating on top of the dark areas. 00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:00.300 It’s particularly noticeable at the edges of his shirt and coat, 00:16:00.300 --> 00:16:02.640 also with the coat and the background. 00:16:02.640 --> 00:16:06.380 This was another trick to get a positive image out of a negative. 00:16:06.380 --> 00:16:10.149 The dried collodion layer that contains the image, known as the emulsion, 00:16:10.149 --> 00:16:12.823 is placed in front of something dark. 00:16:13.043 --> 00:16:17.350 This could be done by varnishing the glass, or by putting velvet behind it, 00:16:17.350 --> 00:16:20.480 or even simply by using dark glass. 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.211 In this case, I believe there’s velvet behind glass. 00:16:23.211 --> 00:16:27.340 Under intense light I can see some sort of texture in the darkness. 00:16:27.340 --> 00:16:31.393 To reveal the image, the metallic silver particles in the developed emulsion 00:16:31.393 --> 00:16:38.850 reflect and scatter ambient light, appearing a milky-grey or tan and thus brighter than the dark background 00:16:38.850 --> 00:16:42.172 they either float in front of or are on top of. 00:16:42.172 --> 00:16:45.282 Therefore the image appears as a positive. 00:16:45.282 --> 00:16:49.650 While the image in an ambrotype is much easier to view than a daguerreotype, 00:16:49.650 --> 00:16:52.070 it’s also much duller. 00:16:52.070 --> 00:16:58.220 To attain desirable results the plates were underexposed, creating limited tonal range. 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:04.262 To highlight the difference, notice how there is basically no detail to be seen in the man’s forehead. 00:17:04.262 --> 00:17:06.740 Compare that to the woman in the daguerreotype. 00:17:06.740 --> 00:17:13.514 However, given that these were so much easier to view they quickly displaced the daguerreotype. 00:17:13.514 --> 00:17:17.354 Then again, the ambrotype was itself displaced quickly, too, 00:17:17.354 --> 00:17:20.899 once people had figured out that glass was a waste of time. 00:17:20.899 --> 00:17:24.875 In the later tintype the light-sensitive emulsion coats a sheet of metal 00:17:24.875 --> 00:17:27.370 which has been covered in a dark lacquer. 00:17:27.370 --> 00:17:31.978 In principle the image is created in the exact same fashion as the Ambrotype, 00:17:31.978 --> 00:17:38.476 but because of the inexpensiveness of the plates and likely due to the greater amount of practice that allowed photographers, 00:17:38.476 --> 00:17:45.879 tintype plates could go from being prepared for exposure to the customer’s hands with their faces on them in mere minutes. 00:17:45.879 --> 00:17:49.249 This actually allowed the tintype to hang around for a long time 00:17:49.249 --> 00:17:53.443 as a sort of novelty photograph sold in places like carnivals. 00:17:53.443 --> 00:17:55.483 Think of it like an early photo booth. 00:17:55.483 --> 00:17:59.380 For those uses it clung to life into the early 20th century, 00:17:59.380 --> 00:18:04.185 and some people are still making them today for artistic or possibly hipster reasons. 00:18:04.185 --> 00:18:08.612 However, the tintype wouldn’t hang around for too long as a mainstay of photography 00:18:08.612 --> 00:18:11.347 because we had other ideas up our sleeves. 00:18:11.347 --> 00:18:16.877 Photographs made using the wet collodion process were still… finicky. 00:18:16.877 --> 00:18:20.345 Up till now, becoming a photographer was a serious commitment. 00:18:20.345 --> 00:18:22.822 You’d need to be able to make your own plates, 00:18:22.822 --> 00:18:24.928 have all of the necessary chemicals, 00:18:24.928 --> 00:18:28.118 know how to operate a camera to make useful images out of it, 00:18:28.118 --> 00:18:30.085 have access to a darkroom, 00:18:30.085 --> 00:18:35.663 oh and you’d need all this stuff with you when you took photographs because the plates, again, 00:18:35.663 --> 00:18:37.150 were wet. 00:18:37.150 --> 00:18:41.460 They needed to be prepared mere minutes before a photograph was taken. 00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:46.851 Early attempts at making dry plates resulted in very insensitive plates which were quite rude 00:18:46.851 --> 00:18:50.240 and also took way too long to expose for portraits. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:55.959 So, the early decades of photography were limited to professionals who either had their own studios 00:18:55.959 --> 00:19:01.958 or who had built portable darkrooms and went from town to town offering their portraiture services. 00:19:01.958 --> 00:19:05.232 Luckily for them, we’re all at least a bit narcissistic 00:19:05.232 --> 00:19:07.306 so they sold like hotcakes! 00:19:07.306 --> 00:19:11.013 Oh, and hats off to this 19th century dog lover. 00:19:11.013 --> 00:19:13.363 For photography to spread to the general public, 00:19:13.363 --> 00:19:15.675 a number of things needed to happen. 00:19:15.675 --> 00:19:21.725 First, we needed to develop some type of photographic emulsion that was decently sensitive while dry. 00:19:21.725 --> 00:19:26.957 Then we’d need to find some way to use that emulsion that was more user-friendly than plates. 00:19:26.957 --> 00:19:29.177 Also cameras needed to get smaller. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.289 As luck would have it, all those things would soon occur. 00:19:33.289 --> 00:19:37.446 George Eastman, who had started a business producing Dry Plates in 1880 00:19:37.446 --> 00:19:40.420 (by then we figured out how to make them decently sensitive) 00:19:40.420 --> 00:19:45.373 patented a method of depositing a light-sensitive emulsion on a flexible backing, 00:19:45.373 --> 00:19:48.734 which you might call a film, in 1884. 00:19:48.734 --> 00:19:55.027 Previously, in 1881 a man named David Houston had obtained a patent for a camera design 00:19:55.027 --> 00:19:57.043 which could use this roll film. 00:19:58.047 --> 00:20:00.986 I don’t exactly know how the timing worked out on that one. 00:20:00.986 --> 00:20:04.674 Maybe he just theorized the possibility of roll film... but whatever. 00:20:04.674 --> 00:20:11.557 In any case, in 1888 Eastman developed a basic camera which held a long roll of this new film stuff, 00:20:11.557 --> 00:20:13.844 enough to take 100 pictures. 00:20:13.844 --> 00:20:17.183 He decide to make up a name for this camera and called it 00:20:17.183 --> 00:20:18.669 the Kodak. 00:20:18.669 --> 00:20:23.985 Yep, Kodak literally was the thing that brought photography to the masses. 00:20:23.985 --> 00:20:28.284 Eventually Eastman would rename the entire company around this made-up word. 00:20:28.284 --> 00:20:30.350 But also still his own name. 00:20:30.350 --> 00:20:34.937 It’s technically still Eastman Kodak and has been since 1892. 00:20:34.937 --> 00:20:37.579 Imagine a world in which Eastman called it 00:20:37.579 --> 00:20:39.418 the Flarble. 00:20:39.418 --> 00:20:45.717 Anyway, the original Kodak camera was a small leather-bound cardboard box with two spools inside of it. 00:20:45.717 --> 00:20:51.678 One contained the supply of film, and the other was used to pull the film through the camera as you took pictures. 00:20:51.678 --> 00:20:54.676 When you had finished taking the 100 shots on the roll, 00:20:54.676 --> 00:20:57.577 you would send the entire camera to Kodak, 00:20:57.577 --> 00:21:02.801 they would remove and develop the film and send you back prints along with your camera. 00:21:02.870 --> 00:21:06.850 Kodak developed the slogan "You push the button, we do the rest." 00:21:07.101 --> 00:21:08.574 Prints, you say? 00:21:08.574 --> 00:21:10.126 What is a print? 00:21:10.848 --> 00:21:12.220 Well, hold your horses. 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:15.279 We gotta talk more about this film stuff first. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:17.353 With the development of the Kodak camera, 00:21:17.353 --> 00:21:22.320 no longer was the object in the camera the thing that made the final photograph. 00:21:22.320 --> 00:21:26.041 Now the camera was making those negative images you might be used to seeing, 00:21:26.041 --> 00:21:31.355 and there was a second step required to turn that negative image into a viewable positive. 00:21:31.355 --> 00:21:34.803 I'm going to be covering that process in a later video on this subject, 00:21:34.803 --> 00:21:37.270 and for now we're gonna get back to the film. 00:21:37.270 --> 00:21:40.900 Although the first Kodak camera wasn't designed to be opened by the user, 00:21:40.900 --> 00:21:45.674 in no small part because doing that in the daylight would ruin all of the film in the camera, 00:21:45.674 --> 00:21:51.789 Kodak moved away from this model and began selling cameras with user-replaceable film. 00:21:51.789 --> 00:21:56.131 To enable this, Kodak developed film formats which could be loaded in daylight 00:21:56.131 --> 00:21:58.918 while protecting the film itself from light. 00:21:58.918 --> 00:22:05.208 One of these early formats, 120, endures to this day as a medium-format film. 00:22:05.208 --> 00:22:10.608 Introduced in 1901 for the second in their wildly successful Brownie camera line, 00:22:10.608 --> 00:22:12.914 the Brownie No. 2 00:22:12.914 --> 00:22:14.209 (very clever name) 00:22:14.209 --> 00:22:16.851 120 format is quite simple. 00:22:16.851 --> 00:22:18.840 I mean it's a… 00:22:18.840 --> 00:22:22.170 120 year old design. Huh. Its golden year. 00:22:22.797 --> 00:22:27.391 Anyway it's hella old so it's simplicity shouldn't be surprising, but 00:22:27.391 --> 00:22:29.217 here's what it actually looks like. 00:22:29.217 --> 00:22:33.920 It's merely a spool holding paper that's been wrapped around it a bunch of times. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:40.269 The paper is blackened, sometimes only on one side, to protect the film in the middle from ambient light. 00:22:40.269 --> 00:22:44.872 Now, this is terrible, terrible film so I'm willing to destroy a roll 00:22:44.872 --> 00:22:48.976 for you to see how exactly this works as a film format. 00:22:49.384 --> 00:22:53.210 As you unroll the paper you'll see that there are markings on it. 00:22:53.210 --> 00:22:57.710 These help with loading the camera and identify when to stop unrolling it. 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:02.539 Often there will be some sort of mark inside the camera to align these arrows with. 00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.618 If we keep going though we get to the actual film. 00:23:07.340 --> 00:23:09.728 And there it is. 00:23:09.728 --> 00:23:15.623 A sheet of transparent plastic covered in a gelatin-based emulation of silver halide molecules. 00:23:16.533 --> 00:23:19.271 Absolutely useless now that we've seen it in the light but hey, 00:23:19.271 --> 00:23:21.152 now you've seen what it looks like. 00:23:21.152 --> 00:23:24.034 It's simply taped to the paper backing on one end, 00:23:24.034 --> 00:23:28.435 and as the backing gets pulled through the camera, so does the film. 00:23:28.875 --> 00:23:31.956 [soft unrolling paper noises] 00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:33.857 There yet? 00:23:34.108 --> 00:23:35.592 Are we there yet? 00:23:37.381 --> 00:23:38.651 Well I won't let it go yet. 00:23:38.651 --> 00:23:42.427 On the backing you'll notice that there are a series of numbers printed. 00:23:42.427 --> 00:23:45.450 This is one of my favorite details of 120 film. 00:23:45.450 --> 00:23:50.344 To tell you which shot your camera is about to take (and thus how many you have left) 00:23:50.344 --> 00:23:56.086 many 120 cameras have little red-tinted peepholes allowing you to see these numbers. 00:23:56.086 --> 00:24:00.293 There are different sets with different spacing because, depending on the camera, 00:24:00.293 --> 00:24:02.958 different images sizes were taken. 00:24:02.958 --> 00:24:08.610 Cameras which took 6x6 centimeter square images could get 12 shots per roll, 00:24:08.610 --> 00:24:11.169 and they placed their window in the center. 00:24:11.169 --> 00:24:16.456 The arguably nicer 6X9 centimeter size only yielded 8 shots, 00:24:16.456 --> 00:24:20.249 and cameras which took those put the peephole on the left. 00:24:20.249 --> 00:24:21.436 And... 00:24:24.040 --> 00:24:26.028 this is such a camera. 00:24:26.028 --> 00:24:30.007 This Agfa Shur-shot Special is quite similar to the original Brownies, 00:24:30.007 --> 00:24:32.596 and the design dates from 1932. 00:24:32.596 --> 00:24:36.476 And sure enough its film viewing peephole is on the left. 00:24:36.476 --> 00:24:38.431 But you'll notice it has two. 00:24:39.121 --> 00:24:41.541 Ah, this camera lets you cheat. 00:24:41.541 --> 00:24:42.770 Let's talk about it, shall we? 00:24:43.241 --> 00:24:49.185 These so-called box cameras, for obvious reasons, are about as simple as it gets 00:24:49.185 --> 00:24:56.870 (and for what it’s worth the original Kodak wasn’t all that different, though remember in that camera the film was not user-reloadable). 00:24:56.870 --> 00:25:02.360 All this is is a light-proof cardboard box with a film holder, film winder, 00:25:02.360 --> 00:25:07.169 a couple of viewfinders, and a very basic control panel. 00:25:07.169 --> 00:25:08.490 If you can call it that. 00:25:08.741 --> 00:25:10.408 We’ll start with the controls. 00:25:10.408 --> 00:25:12.128 First there’s this lever marked shutter. 00:25:13.164 --> 00:25:16.400 Believe it or not, this controls the shutter. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:18.100 And on this thing it’s very basic. 00:25:18.100 --> 00:25:21.639 This front lens element shifts the focus of the camera to infinity 00:25:21.639 --> 00:25:27.798 and can be slid out of the way for a closer 5-10 foot focus range, ideal for portraits. 00:25:27.798 --> 00:25:32.227 Behind it is the actual shutter, a simple sliding cover with a hole in its center 00:25:32.227 --> 00:25:36.038 that’s spring-loaded and blocks light from entering the camera. 00:25:36.038 --> 00:25:41.675 When you slide the lever over, spring tension builds until you cross a threshold and… 00:25:41.675 --> 00:25:42.211 [fwip] 00:25:42.399 --> 00:25:43.896 A photo was just taken! 00:25:44.806 --> 00:25:47.675 If there was film in there, of course. 00:25:47.675 --> 00:25:51.215 The shutter opens when you slide this across in either direction, 00:25:51.215 --> 00:25:54.857 letting light into the camera as its hole passes over the lens, 00:25:54.857 --> 00:25:58.652 and the exposure time is about 1/50th of a second. 00:25:58.652 --> 00:26:02.480 Skipping over the thing marked diaphragm let’s look at the time lever. 00:26:02.982 --> 00:26:04.949 No, it’s not a time machine… 00:26:04.949 --> 00:26:09.389 when you pull this out a little metal stopper moves in the shutter’s path. 00:26:09.389 --> 00:26:15.120 This, with the help of a little nub on the shutter, holds it open if you want to try and take low-light shots. 00:26:15.873 --> 00:26:18.222 It’s up to you to figure out how you’re gonna keep this steady, 00:26:18.222 --> 00:26:24.659 oh but you could also use this with a flash if you opened the shutter, activated the flashbulb, then closed it. 00:26:24.659 --> 00:26:28.147 And yes, when this thing was made, flashlamps were just becoming available 00:26:28.147 --> 00:26:33.358 but nothing was stopping you from using one of them old-timey stick things with some flash powder. 00:26:33.358 --> 00:26:35.118 And then the diaphragm. 00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:37.889 This gives you three delightful options. 00:26:37.889 --> 00:26:41.689 When pushed in all the way, there is no additional restriction to the diaphragm 00:26:41.689 --> 00:26:44.570 and you get an aperture of approximately f/13. 00:26:45.323 --> 00:26:50.254 That’s a geometric ratio based on the size of the opening and the lens's focal length 00:26:50.254 --> 00:26:56.253 which we don’t need to get into the weeds of right now but the number describes how much light makes it through. 00:26:56.253 --> 00:26:59.613 Smaller numbers is actually more light. 00:26:59.613 --> 00:27:04.272 Anyway, pull this out to the first click and you’ll see it’s marked “filter.” 00:27:04.272 --> 00:27:06.946 And no, it’s not for instagram. 00:27:06.946 --> 00:27:11.603 In this position there’s a yellow-tinted filter placed in front of the lens. 00:27:11.603 --> 00:27:13.892 Now, if you’re wondering why you would want that, 00:27:13.892 --> 00:27:18.957 well keep in mind that this thing was taking black and white photos when it first came out, 00:27:18.957 --> 00:27:23.241 and a yellow filter lessens the amount of blue light that hits the film. 00:27:23.241 --> 00:27:28.578 This can make the sky look more vivid by darkening the blue and thus making clouds pop, 00:27:28.578 --> 00:27:35.190 or simply give more natural images with early films that were more sensitive to blue than other colors. 00:27:35.190 --> 00:27:40.563 Then, if you pull this all the way out, a second restriction finds its way behind the first, 00:27:40.563 --> 00:27:44.872 reducing the size of the aperture down to approximately f/22. 00:27:44.872 --> 00:27:48.995 Alright, so let’s actually put this camera to use and take some pictures. 00:27:48.995 --> 00:27:52.358 To load it with film, you simply unclip the back to open it, 00:27:52.358 --> 00:27:55.902 pull out the winding key from the body to release the film holder, 00:27:55.902 --> 00:27:59.339 and then the entire film holder assembly slides out. 00:27:59.339 --> 00:28:02.311 The main lens of the camera is right here. 00:28:02.311 --> 00:28:07.481 I’m not sure what its focal length is but it’s a simple meniscus lens. Nothing fancy. 00:28:07.481 --> 00:28:11.110 Now, notice there’s an empty spool up here at the top. 00:28:11.110 --> 00:28:14.227 With 120 film and other roll-film formats like it, 00:28:14.227 --> 00:28:18.639 you need an empty spool to roll the film onto as it's taken. 00:28:18.639 --> 00:28:24.549 When you’re done shooting you don’t rewind the film, instead you keep winding until it’s all on that second spool. 00:28:24.549 --> 00:28:27.672 Then when you open the camera, you seal the completed roll 00:28:27.672 --> 00:28:29.573 (I’ll show you that when we get there) 00:28:29.573 --> 00:28:36.071 and you move the now-empty lower spool up to the top where it becomes the take-up spool for your next roll of film. 00:28:36.071 --> 00:28:39.259 Before we load it, though, we need to decide if we want to cheat. 00:28:39.259 --> 00:28:42.418 Normally this camera takes 6X9 negatives, 00:28:42.418 --> 00:28:47.750 but these flaps here can be moved to block a quarter of the frame on each end. 00:28:47.750 --> 00:28:54.360 That allows you to take 15 or 16 if you’re lucky 6 by 4.5 cm pictures on a roll. 00:28:54.360 --> 00:28:57.250 And that’s why it has two film peepholes. 00:28:57.250 --> 00:29:00.017 You can see here in the instructions how they’re meant to be used; 00:29:00.017 --> 00:29:04.043 if shooting full-size pictures, only use the lower peephole. 00:29:04.043 --> 00:29:10.453 If you’re shooting half-frames, shoot A first, then move the same number up to window B. 00:29:10.453 --> 00:29:18.867 Pretty clever, though I don’t understand why they wouldn’t have just put a window on the right to show the closely-spaced frame numbers on the film backing. 00:29:18.867 --> 00:29:23.704 Perhaps they thought that was too confusing, or maybe at that time those numbers weren’t there. 00:29:23.704 --> 00:29:24.484 I dunno. 00:29:24.484 --> 00:29:27.255 But that’s why you might only get 15 shots. 00:29:27.255 --> 00:29:30.405 Technically if you position frame 8 up here 00:29:30.405 --> 00:29:33.316 you might be past the edge of the film already. 00:29:33.316 --> 00:29:39.968 Oh, and I should mention, this is calling it B-2 film because of the Agfa connection. 00:29:39.968 --> 00:29:45.048 In Germany 120 film was called B-2 for… reasons. 00:29:45.048 --> 00:29:47.759 So, for this roll I’ll shoot the full frame. 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:51.396 Making sure the flaps are retracted and locked like any good pilot, 00:29:51.396 --> 00:29:53.541 I’ll get a fresh roll of film. 00:29:53.541 --> 00:29:57.062 I’ll still use this terrible stuff because I’ve got a lot of it to get rid of. 00:29:57.062 --> 00:30:01.765 I’ll take it out of its seal, then tear the bit of masking tape holding it tightly to the roll, 00:30:01.765 --> 00:30:05.172 and simply place it here in the void space below the lens. 00:30:05.172 --> 00:30:06.894 It snaps right in. 00:30:06.894 --> 00:30:11.689 Now I’ll carefully pull this around the back, over these rollers, and up to the top, 00:30:11.689 --> 00:30:15.603 all the while pushing on the supply roll to make sure it doesn’t fall out. 00:30:15.603 --> 00:30:18.828 Also you can just rest this on the table, that works too. 00:30:18.828 --> 00:30:24.850 This is always a little bit fiddly, sometimes it makes sense to remove the take-up spool and start threading it a bit. 00:30:24.850 --> 00:30:31.039 You could also use tape — sometimes even the tape that sealed the roll — to affix it to the take-up spool. 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:33.519 Good news is there’s lots of backing paper. 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:36.627 Anyway, once you’re sure it’s not gonna slip off the spool 00:30:36.627 --> 00:30:43.212 you can then carefully put the carrier back in the camera, push in the winding key, and start turning it. 00:30:43.212 --> 00:30:45.634 Technically I could close the camera at this point, 00:30:45.634 --> 00:30:49.600 but I’ll keep turning until I see the index arrow appear. 00:30:49.600 --> 00:30:52.789 Now I’ll close it up and the camera is ready for use. 00:30:52.789 --> 00:30:54.480 Well, almost. 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:58.388 Now we need to wind the film while looking through that little peephole. 00:30:58.388 --> 00:31:02.999 Remember we’re shooting the full frame so we can ignore the top window, B. 00:31:02.999 --> 00:31:07.860 As I keep winding eventually those warning marks will appear, telling me to slow down. 00:31:07.860 --> 00:31:10.925 And then, once the number 1 is visible in that window, 00:31:10.925 --> 00:31:15.220 the first frame of film is in place and ready to be exposed. 00:31:15.220 --> 00:31:18.380 A while back I mentioned there were a pair of viewfinders. 00:31:18.380 --> 00:31:22.380 Well, that’s what these two lenses are for. 00:31:22.380 --> 00:31:26.359 On the top and side of the camera are simple viewing windows. 00:31:26.359 --> 00:31:32.860 You don’t hold these up to your eye, instead you hold the camera at about your stomach level and look down at them. 00:31:32.860 --> 00:31:38.530 You’ll notice that there are little frame lines for composing the half-frames this camera can take as well. 00:31:38.530 --> 00:31:42.379 Otherwise the entire area represents the image-to-be-taken. 00:31:42.379 --> 00:31:46.745 And of course having two of them is not only magical, but also allows you to compose 00:31:46.745 --> 00:31:49.860 in either landscape or portrait orientations. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.110 So, let’s take some pictures. 00:31:52.110 --> 00:31:55.029 To give you an idea of how this goes, I’ve set up a simple still-life. 00:31:55.029 --> 00:31:59.057 I’ve brought my camping stove and a tea kettle as subjects. 00:31:59.057 --> 00:32:03.109 Hang on, I just gotta light the stove and put the kettle on to get ready. 00:32:03.109 --> 00:32:06.384 While we’re waiting for that, remember that the film is already in place 00:32:06.384 --> 00:32:08.131 for the first shot. 00:32:08.131 --> 00:32:09.980 We can double-check through the window. 00:32:10.419 --> 00:32:12.659 Now let’s get ready and compose our shot. 00:32:12.659 --> 00:32:17.610 We’re using the whole film frame, remember, so we can ignore those lines in the viewfinder. 00:32:17.610 --> 00:32:22.288 OK now that the water’s boiling, make sure the time doohickey is pushed in, 00:32:22.288 --> 00:32:26.954 I’m actually gonna pull the diaphragm out all the way to f/22 since this is in direct sunlight, 00:32:26.954 --> 00:32:32.409 oh and also I’ll be holding the front element out of the way since this is relatively close up. 00:32:32.409 --> 00:32:35.479 But now just hold the camera as steady as you can, 00:32:35.479 --> 00:32:37.783 flip the shutter lever over annnd…. 00:32:37.783 --> 00:32:38.783 [fwip] 00:32:38.783 --> 00:32:39.844 There we go. 00:32:39.844 --> 00:32:43.888 On the film we now have a latent image of vaporization. 00:32:44.736 --> 00:32:45.969 [uncomfortable stare] 00:32:46.157 --> 00:32:47.938 And now we can take the next picture. 00:32:47.938 --> 00:32:55.201 However, with these early cameras, there’s nothing stopping you from taking a second exposure on the same frame of film. 00:32:55.201 --> 00:33:01.714 This little shutter mechanism will work every time you flip the lever so you gotta remember to advance the film on your own 00:33:01.714 --> 00:33:05.235 (unless you deliberately want a double-exposure but… 00:33:05.235 --> 00:33:06.251 you probably don’t). 00:33:06.251 --> 00:33:11.593 So, you turn the winding key until frame 2 appears in that lower peephole. 00:33:11.593 --> 00:33:17.499 Remember we should stop it when we see 1 in the top window if and only if we’re shooting half frames. 00:33:17.499 --> 00:33:19.721 Since we’re not, just keep on going. 00:33:19.721 --> 00:33:22.231 And there we go, ready to take another picture. 00:33:22.419 --> 00:33:24.351 Rinse and repeat. 00:33:24.351 --> 00:33:26.652 That is until frame 8. 00:33:26.652 --> 00:33:31.769 Once you’ve taken that, you’re out of film and it’s time to unload the camera. 00:33:31.769 --> 00:33:36.210 Before you open it, you have to wind and wind and wind with the key. 00:33:36.210 --> 00:33:42.075 There’s just about as much paper on the trailing end as there was on the leading end to protect the film from light, 00:33:42.075 --> 00:33:44.868 so just keep on going. 00:33:44.868 --> 00:33:47.966 Eventually you’ll see the paper end through the little window 00:33:47.966 --> 00:33:50.982 (sometimes, it's a lot easier if the backing is white) 00:33:50.982 --> 00:33:54.482 Uh, but you’re still not done. Just keep turning. 00:33:54.482 --> 00:34:00.764 You’ll probably hear the paper slip past the rollers and eventually you’ll know you’re just spinning the roll around. 00:34:00.764 --> 00:34:02.758 It also gets easier. 00:34:02.758 --> 00:34:06.102 Once you're there, you can pull out the winding key, 00:34:06.102 --> 00:34:07.646 open the back, 00:34:07.646 --> 00:34:09.636 remove the film holder, 00:34:10.860 --> 00:34:12.042 and there it is. 00:34:12.042 --> 00:34:14.236 Your exposed film. 00:34:14.236 --> 00:34:22.256 Remove it, and there will be some sort of seal that you can either peel or perhaps moisten with your tongue 00:34:22.256 --> 00:34:24.964 (or other wet object, though the tongue is traditional) 00:34:24.964 --> 00:34:28.444 and once sealed you’ve successfully used the camera. 00:34:28.444 --> 00:34:29.890 But now what? 00:34:29.890 --> 00:34:32.232 Well, this film needs to be developed. 00:34:32.232 --> 00:34:36.935 And it will be done using pretty much the same process that Daguerre was using, 00:34:36.935 --> 00:34:38.771 except with different chemicals. 00:34:38.771 --> 00:34:41.996 Turns out mercury vapor is bad for you. 00:34:41.996 --> 00:34:44.762 Oh, and I’m going to be the one that does it. 00:34:44.762 --> 00:34:46.584 But not in this video. 00:34:46.584 --> 00:34:49.792 We’ve spent quite a long time on this subject 00:34:49.792 --> 00:34:51.639 and I think this is a good cliff hang… 00:34:51.639 --> 00:34:54.413 uh did I say cliff hanger? I meant stopping point. 00:34:54.413 --> 00:34:58.867 In the next video we’ll explore the modern black and white development process. 00:34:58.867 --> 00:35:03.874 It’s actually very very simple and just about anyone can do it with minimal equipment. 00:35:03.874 --> 00:35:08.113 All you really need is one of these and a completely dark room. 00:35:08.898 --> 00:35:10.000 Dark room. 00:35:10.675 --> 00:35:11.490 Darkroom. 00:35:12.180 --> 00:35:13.177 Hmm. 00:35:13.491 --> 00:35:16.922 But you don’t even need one of those, you can also use one of these! 00:35:16.922 --> 00:35:18.802 A changing bag. 00:35:18.802 --> 00:35:21.928 But I’m getting ahead of myself, it’s time to cut to black. 00:35:22.768 --> 00:35:25.267 ♫ photographically smooth jazz ♫ 00:35:26.252 --> 00:35:30.080 No really, a shoebox, a piece of aluminum foil with a… 00:35:30.865 --> 00:35:31.645 [sigh] 00:35:31.645 --> 00:35:33.820 How many words did… was that? 00:35:34.919 --> 00:35:38.240 One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve. 00:35:38.240 --> 00:35:41.140 We got twelve words in and I fumbled up. 00:35:41.140 --> 00:35:45.385 One of the most well-known early photographic techniques was the daguerreotype, 00:35:45.385 --> 00:35:48.170 named for its inventor Louis… 00:35:48.170 --> 00:35:49.213 DA GUERRE 00:35:49.213 --> 00:35:51.977 But, I hear you say, you can’t see anything! 00:35:53.734 --> 00:35:55.475 Ya gotta start the… you have to be moving. 00:35:55.475 --> 00:35:58.250 The words need to be moving. Otherwise this doesn't work. 00:35:58.250 --> 00:36:01.369 Some processes took the enc [then mouth noises] 00:36:01.369 --> 00:36:06.852 The last step was to get rid of the silver iodide that hadn’t been transform into pure sil.. 00:36:07.354 --> 00:36:08.857 You monster. 00:36:08.857 --> 00:36:10.149 You missed a D. 00:36:10.149 --> 00:36:15.712 The last step was to get rid of the silver iodide that hadn’t been transdformed into pure s --- 00:36:16.999 --> 00:36:21.002 transformed is a word that suddenly I can’t say correctly. 00:36:21.002 --> 00:36:22.262 Remarkably lifelike. 00:36:22.890 --> 00:36:24.220 Just about the ed… 00:36:24.220 --> 00:36:25.840 I skipped a sentence! 00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:27.270 ...which sensitized it. 00:36:27.270 --> 00:36:29.640 Then it was placed in… whoops! 00:36:29.640 --> 00:36:31.750 Think of it like an early photobooth. 00:36:31.750 --> 00:36:33.170 To those use f… 00:36:34.676 --> 00:36:35.390 ARRGH! 00:36:35.390 --> 00:36:39.453 So… the early decades of photography were limited to professiomals. 00:36:41.932 --> 00:36:43.152 Sometimes words are hard. 00:36:43.560 --> 00:36:46.970 I skipped the word “cardboard” and I feel like that’s important. 00:36:46.970 --> 00:36:50.214 With the development of the Kodak ca… oh. 00:36:51.218 --> 00:36:54.248 Darkening the blue helps make com.... 00:36:56.382 --> 00:36:57.904 You gotta read the words, man. 00:36:57.904 --> 00:36:58.660 You can’t skip ‘em. 00:37:01.453 --> 00:37:04.836 I bet you're wondering why those peepholes are red, huh? 00:37:04.836 --> 00:37:09.948 And what about those scenes in movies where people are putting sheets of paper into trays with liquid in them under a dim red light? 00:37:09.948 --> 00:37:13.293 Well have I got news for you. 00:37:13.293 --> 00:37:14.398 Video's a comin'.