Traditional Photography Research Articles

Digital Imaging Skills and the Hiring and Training of Photojournalists

This paper, based on a national survey, examines the importance newspaper photo editors place on digital imaging and traditional photography competencies, and it looks at the implications for the training and hiring of journalists. It concludes that the shift from chemical to digital processing has led to a relative lack of concern among photo editors about the need for chemical darkroom skills. Many journalism programs, however, continue to focus on those skills. It finds that new technical skills, such as the use of digital cameras and the web, are growing in importance as are skills that reflect convergence of photo jobs with others within the newsroom, such as design and graphics. But photo editors say the key skill that reflects cross-media convergence - video - is unimportant now and only slightly more important for the near future.

Film Theory in Poland Before World War II

Polish cinema has a history essentially as long as those of cinemas elsewhere. The first screening in Polish territories took place in Cracow in 1896, and in that same year Kazimierz Pr6szyiski created his own camera, pleograph. In 1902, perfected pleograph was employed by Preszyfski to produce first Polish narrative film, Powr*t Birbanta (The Return of a Merry Fellow). Regular production in Poland started, however, some years later with adaptations of national literary canon, commercially-minded melodramas, and comedies. In general, production before World War I remained domain of economically feeble, ephemeral studios. During war, number of films produced increased. The studio Sfinks, a virtual monopolist which promoted its own version of Hollywood star system (responsible for beginnings of Pola Negri's career), produced, among others, several patriotic (anti-Russian) pictures reflecting spirit of that time. The restoration of Polish state in 1918 created conditions for development of national art. Although industry was still economically weak, theory and criticism flourished during first years of independence. Unlike Polish pre-war productions, Polish criticism and theory attained a comparatively high standard and an original profile. In her indispensable book on history of Polish theory, Jadwiga Bochenska divides pre-war theorizing into three distinct periods: (1) from 1898 to World War I; (2) period between 1918-1930, ending with introduction of sound; (3) 1930s and World War II.2 According to Marcin Gizycki, mediocrity of production in pre-war Poland provided impetus to campaign for artistic cinema.3 Between two world wars, Polish intellectuals and artists went through a peculiar film fever,4 as Gizycki calls it, which was quite incompatible with current stage of development of local cinema. The result of this creative fever deserves more careful analysis. In Poland, as elsewhere, the first 'theories' sound more like birth announcements than scientific inquiries-to repeat Dudley Andrew's wellknown comment.5 Cinema, still in its infancy, did not provide a fertile ground for theory. The majority of early texts on consisted of dilettantish yet passionate attempts to give cinema stature of art. FILM THEORY FROM 1898 TO WORLD WAR I The first texts written by a Pole on cinema appeared as early as 1898: they were Boleslaw Matuszewski's two studies, Une nouvelle source de l'Histoire and La Photographie animte, published in French, in Paris.6 These were pioneer texts, arguably on a world scale, which aimed at presenting practical possibilities of to world of science and government institutions. Though now almost forgotten, publication of these works was well-received and debated in many French journals.7 Matuszewski (1856-1943?), a well-known Warsaw photographer and cameraman, probably worked for Lumiere brothers in Poland, France, and Russia where, in 1897, Tsar awarded him title of court cinematographer. As a cameraman travelling across Europe, Matuszewski was interested primarily in recording function of film, as an eyewitness to history. Film, according to Matuszewski, provides research methods for science of history by supplying it with direct vision. In his studies, he considers living photographs capable of truthful documentation of reality. Unlike traditional photography, which is capable of distortions and falsifications, living photographs can present only absolute truth.8 This opinion, interestingly, Matuszewski grounds on technical impossibility of altering thousands of pictures (frames). Matuszewski, regarded in Poland as pioneer of scientific cinema, stresses cinema's educational and cultural role in bringing nations together. He postulates creation of archives, a storehouse of historical cinematography, functioning as a new source of history. …

A system for generating virtual seeds

Seed analysts need to identify seeds, and seed catalogs are used as a reference to accomplish this task. Conventional seed catalogs supply two-dimensional photographs and hand-drawn diagrams. In this study, a new, three-dimensional representation of seeds is developed to supplement these traditional photographs and drawings. QuickTime VR is a promising method for viewing three-dimensional objects on a computer screen. It permits manipulation of an object by rotating and viewing it from any pre-specified angle at an interactive speed, allowing the viewer the sense of examining a hand-held object. In this study, QuickTime VR object movies of seeds were created as interactive "movies" of seeds that can be rotated and scaled to give the viewer the sensation of examining actual seeds. This approach allows the examination of virtual seeds from any angle, permitting more accurate identification of seeds by seed analysts.

Innovations in Computer Imaging

Digital imaging and recent advances in computer software and hardware provide the medical industry with a new technology for archiving photos without film and assessing patients' expectations before surgery to make sure patients receive the results they expect. Hardware advances such as the instant-access digital video capture board, advanced digital video/still cameras, and dual Pentium processors allow complex photos to be manipulated quickly so that doctors can point out subtle changes in a patient's image and realistically create end results on a screen before beginning a surgical procedure, allowing the doctor to bring the client's expectations in line with real surgical potential. Other advantages of digital imaging over traditional photography and sketching include the elimination of photo degradation over time, a lessened need for printing with the use of an on-screen image, and a limitless file room for photo storage.

John Berger and Jean Mohr

Abstract Photo narrative is usually defined as a visual narrative that uses photographic images arranged in sequence and mounted on a page. Thus the difference between photography and photo narrative is clearly of a technical nature particularly as regards framing and out-of-frame: in photography, the edges of the image signify an absolute break, whereas in photographic narration that same break is only relative since each fragment of a photo story is always preceded, surrounded or followed by other fragments. More importantly, the difference is also an ideological, if not an ethical one, since photographic narration actively rejects the tenets of traditional photography, as symbolized by Henri Cartier-Bresson, in that it welcomes the use of artifice; it does not strive to capture the unique moment but deals specifically with the contrived image and relies on a sequential format. Finally, the photo story views its hostmedium, whose specific characteristics arc ignored by photographers, in a completely different way; Bresson's art lends itself to any form of presentation (book, magazine, exhibition, and so on), whereas the photo story is conceived and produced with a very particular host-medium in mind, i.e. the page.

Photography without film: low-cost digital cameras come of age in dermatology.

Photography is integral to the practice of dermatology. Digital imaging techniques have only recently been used to assess cutaneous disorders. Previously reported imaging systems have been both expensive and cumbersome. Consequently, they have failed to gain wide-spread acceptance. We describe our experience using an inexpensive digital camera. Photographs taken with this portable digital camera (FotoMan) compare favorably to those obtained with conventional 35 mm cameras. This inexpensive digital camera provides photographs of acceptable quality for a variety of dermatologic applications. Images created with this system are available within minutes and are less expensive than traditional photographs. Digital imaging is a new and exciting development. The digital camera described is simple to operate and provides a useful alternative or adjunct to conventional photography.

Point quadrat versus video transect estimates of the cover of benthic red algae

Point quadrat (PQ) and video transect (VT) techniques were compared to determine the feasibility of using the latter to sample subtidal red algal assemblages. More taxa were found by PQs than by VTs, both overall and on a per quadrat basis. VTs tended to overestimate the percent cover of rock and articulated coralline algae. VTs were incapable of resolving many of the less common red algae. Video sampling required less time in the field than point quadrats but laboratory analysis was very time consunling. Lack of resolution and extensive laboratory analysis make this technique insufficient for sampling benthic red algal populations. However, VTs may be useful in documenting large-scale differences between regions, such as the percent cover of understory kelps or the density of large mobile invertebrates in central California kelp forests. Video sampling has been successfully used in the intertidal but traditional, random point quadrats s t d appear to be the most efficient and accurate way to sample benthlc communities in kelp forests. The advent of quantitative techniques to sample subtidal benthic communities has aided the scientific description of pattern and helped transform marine ecology from a wholly observational to a more experimental science. Techniques to measure percent cover were first developed by terrestrial botanists (e.g. Greig-Smith 1983) and have been successfully adapted to subtidal communities by marine ecologists (e.g. Foster 1975, Cowen et al. 1982, Kennelly 1987). Photography has been used quantitatively in intertidal, subtidal and deep-sea habitats (Bohnsack 1979, Budd 1982, Witman & Sebens 1985, Jaap 1986, Rosman & Boland 1986, Thouzeau & Hily 1986, Meulstee et al. 1988, Edmunds & Witman 1991). Due to recent advances in video resolution and ease of use, it has begun to replace traditional photography as both a qualitative (Potts et al. 1987, Semple & Sharp 1988) and quantita' Present address: Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA tive (Jaap et al. 1990, Maney et al. 1990, Berklemans 1992) sampling tool. The strength of video is its ability to rapidly acquire data and permit analysis in the laboratory at a later date. Video quadrats and transects are now being used routinely to measure the density and percent cover of subtidal marine organisms (e.g. Edmunds & Witman 1991). As part of a study on the effect of light on understory algae in central California (USA) kelp forests, we have been using point quadrats to estimate algal cover. These involve scoring a small number of random points (usually 10 to 20) along a bar randomly placed on the substrate. This technique is excellent for relatively abundant organisms but, theoretically, undersamples rare species because of the few points used. Whorff & Griffing (1992) recently suggested that point quadrats undersample the substrata while Foster et al. (1991) concluded that point quadrats provide better estimates of the total number of taxa and their total and individual percent cover. An alternative to point quadrat methods for rare species are search techniques (e.g. Nybakken 1978, McClanahan 1990, McClanahan & Muthiga 1992). These have been designed for extremely rare species (i.e. approximately 0.1 ind. m-2; McClanahan & Muthiga 1992) but understory algae in many benthic habitats range from 1 to 30% cover (Foster 1975). In this paper, we present results of a direct comparison of point quadrat (PQ) and video transect (VT) sampling for benthic algal assemblages. Video was used over traditional photo-quadrats because video film is significantly cheaper than still film and more samples can be taken between film changes. To test for and alleviate the potential PQ bias of using too few points, we sampled the video image using 5 times as many random points as the PQ. This should have increased the likelihood of detecting rare species. The number of 0 Inter-Research 1993 204 Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 101: 203-208. 1993

The Part, The Whole, The Art of the Starns

Although Mike and Doug Starn are photographers, the works they create go beyond the limitations of traditional photography. In order to break free of two-dimensional flatness, their photographs - whether printed on paper or, more often, on toned ortho film - are torn, crumpled, and pieced together.

The Part, The Whole, The Art of the Starns

Although Mike and Doug Starn are photographers, the works they create go beyond the limitations of traditional photography. In order to break free of two-dimensional flatness, their photographs - whether printed on paper or, more often, on toned ortho film - are torn, crumpled, and pieced together.

Evaluating regional body surface motion during breathing using stereophotogrammetry

The stereophotometric analysis of biological forms in medicine has been usefully employed for many years. Generally, the methods adopted have involved the use of stereo pairs of traditional photographs or radiographs. Although very successful, the traditional methods are time-consuming. Developments in solid-state and videoscan cameras, in computer hardware and in image processing technology have lead to real-time photogrammetry (RTP) or near-real-time photogrammetry (NRTP). It is anticipated that RTP and NRTP will play a vital role in biostereometric studies. This paper discusses the development of a low-cost PC-based NRTP system and the possibility of using NRTP in an ongoing biostereometric study which has been developed for studying regional body surface motion in the evaluation of respiratory muscle function and in which digital cameras will be substituted for analogue cameras and computer digitisation will be substituted for manual observation.

Images and Enterprise: Technology and the American Photographic Industry, 1839 to 1925

From the early daguerreotype to the rise of the motion picture, Images and Enterprise explores the business, technical, and social factors that transformed the American photographic industry between 1839 and 1925. Reese Jenkins's prize-winning history traces the technical changes that culminated in George Eastman's creation of the Kodak system of amateur photography in the 1880s. Its compact, simply operated cameras would revolutionize an entire industry-even if at first the whole camera had to be mailed back to the company for developing and reloading. Images and Enterprise also vividly portrays the emergence of cinematography in its relationship to traditional photography and reveals the growing importance of institutionalized research, as Eastman Kodak and the other American and European photographic materials manufacturers strove to develop commercially practical color photography.

On scanning electron diffraction. II†

Abstract The design, advantages and applications of automatic electron diffractometers are discussed with reference to an improved system. The power to measure electron scattering profiles from which loss electrons are virtually eliminated is the fundamental difference between the new instruments and traditional photography of electron diffraction patterns. The basic limitations of the diffractometers are discussed. A new treatment of the electron gun is given, based on angular distributions of current which prove to be Gaussian. The treatment is necessary when maximum signal intensity is required. A number of improvements in electronic circuitry are described which include servostabilization of the gun emission; automatic two-dimensional scanning, and control of CRT display brightness or of xy writing rate in accordance with the intensity of the peaks. The fields of application where the now diffractometers have advantages are when accurate, that is filtered, intensities must be determined, and when grow...