Did They Have Cameras During The Civil War
The Civil State of war was i of the first wars to be documented past photography. The invention of photography in the 1820s allowed the horrors and glory of war to be seen by the public for the first fourth dimension.
Dozens of photographers, some private and some employees of the army, snapped photos of the soldiers as well as the locations of Civil War battles. The images became iconic and inspired many other photographers to take their cameras onto the battlefields of future wars like WWII and Vietnam.
The bulk of ceremonious state of war photos are still shots of soldiers, expressionless and alive. This is due to the primitive nature of photography. Cameras during the days of the ceremonious war required a 5 to 20 second exposure for each photo, thus making action shots impossible.
One of the most famous names in ceremonious state of war photography is Mathew Brady. Although Brady did non take many photos himself, he hired many photographers for his studio, including James and Alexander Gardener, Timothy O'Sullivan and Egbert Guy Fox.
Photographs of the Civil War quickly became popular amongst the general public because of the shocking and realistic nature of the photos. These photos gave people at habitation the run a risk they never had before to come across the evil of state of war with their own eyes. War was very oft romanticized during the Victorian era and these images made it clear that the expiry and destruction were not something to take lightly.
The type of photography used during the ceremonious war was known equally wet-plate photography. The process of capturing photos was complicated and fourth dimension consuming. Photographers had to acquit all of their heavy equipment, including a portable nighttime room, to the battlefield on a carriage.
The cameras were large and hard to motility around on the battleground. Chemicals used in the process were made up of a mixture known as collodion. This mixture included dangerous chemicals like ethyl ether, acetic and sulfuric acid that had to be mixed by hand.
The act of taking a photo was a very detailed procedure. Kickoff the lensman positioned and focused the camera. Then he mixed the chemicals. The chemicals were then applied to a piece of plate glass to sensitize it to light. The plate was and then brought into a dark room where it was immersed in silver nitrate.
The plate was placed into a light-tight container and inserted into the photographic camera. The photographer then removed the cap on the camera for 2 to iii seconds to expose it to light and imprint the image on the plate. The cap was replaced and the plate glass, still in its lite-tight container, was taken to the darkroom where it was placed in a bath of pyrogallic acid.
A mixture of sodium thiosulfate was added to protect the image from fading and the glass was then washed, stale and varnished. This process created the negative that was then printed on paper.
Photographers also learned how to make sophisticated 3D images with these cameras, known as "stereo views." Stereo view images were created using twin lenses placed at dissimilar angles on the same target.
The two images were so captured on a single plate glass. The unlike angles added more detail and depth to the image. The images were and then printed on stereo viewer cards. These cards were inserted into viewer devices designed to view the 3D image.
Although there is a mutual saying that claims "The photographic camera never lies," this is not always true, fifty-fifty earlier the days of digital manipulation.
The first recorded case of photo manipulation was in 1865 when a photo of Abraham Lincoln was contradistinct. When Lincoln was assassinated, there was a sudden demand for heroic images of Lincoln to be used equally mementos.
No suitable photos existed so a photographer named Thomas Hicks took the head of Abraham Lincoln from a Mathew Brady photo and placed it on the trunk of John C. Calhoun from a dissimilar photograph.
When Hicks placed Lincoln's head on Calhoun'south torso, he reversed his head which placed his famous mole on the wrong side of his face up. This error lead to the discovery of the manipulation. Despite the obvious alteration, the photo still became the iconic prototype of Lincoln you see today on the 5 dollar nib.
Other types of photo manipulation involved the staging of photos and so they would be more dramatic and shocking. Information technology was not a hugger-mugger during the ceremonious war that many of Mathew Brady'south iconic war images were staged to create a more dramatic paradigm.
In one famous photograph titled "Abode of a Rebel Sharpshooter," taken by one of Brady's photographers, Alexander Gardner, after the Battle of Gettysburg, Gardner had the body of a dead soldier moved to a stone wall and propped the soldier'south head on a knapsack so that it faced the camera. Gardner also placed a prop rifle on the wall next to the dead soldier.
In another famous photo taken past Gardner at the Battle of Antietam, Gardner moved the bodies of dead soldiers and then he could become the nearby Dunker church in the background of the photo.
In 1866, Gardner published a 2-book book, titled Gardner'due south Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War, of nearly 100 photographs he took on the Ceremonious War Battlefields.
Photographer George Northward. Barnard besides published a book of photographs in 1866 titled George Northward. Barnard'south Photographic Views of Sherman's Entrada, featuring 68 photographs of Sherman's entrada. Some of the most iconic photos of the Civil War era come from these two photography books.
By the cease of the civil war another type of photography, known as tintype, had replaced wet-plate photography. Tintype photography involved creating a directly positive on a sheet of iron blackened by pigment lacquer or enameling.
Much like the wet-plate photography, after the paradigm was burned onto the tin, the tin can was then placed in a collodiun mixture. The underexposed negative was mounted against a dark metallic background, which gave the image the appearance of a positive.
The photographs were quicker and faster to produce because they did not require drying and could be produced within minutes of taking the photograph. This new applied science greatly advanced the fine art of photography and made it a faster process.
Sources:
Photography: A Cultural History, Mary Warner Marien; 2002
Duke University Libraries: Barnard and Gardner Ceremonious War Photographs: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rubenstein_barnardgardner/
Famous Pictures; Contradistinct Images: http://www.famouspictures.org/mag/index.php?championship=Altered_Images
National Archives; Pictures of the Civil War: http://world wide web.archives.gov/research/military/ceremonious-war/photos/index.html
Civil War Trust; Photography and the Civil State of war: http://www.civilwar.org/photos/3d-photography-special/photography-and-the-ceremonious-war.html
Source: https://civilwarsaga.com/civil-war-photography/
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