World Photography Day, the beauty of an image

A camera is a very complex but advanced piece of optical equipment that can capture images. On a fundamental level, the vast majority of cameras are composed of a sealed box — known as the camera body—that has a pinhole that lets light through to capture an image on a light-sensitive surface. This surface can be, nowadays, a digital sensor, but it used to be a photographic film. While the oldest known camera could be attributed to a sliding wooden box made by Parisian opticians Charles and Vincent Chevalier for Niépce’s invention, the structure of them has evolved throughout the century. So much that you can fit one in the palm of your hand!

While the camera is the body of photography, the lens is certainly the eyes! A camera’s lens gathers light from the subject and concentrates it on the sensor. That’s why the construction and design of the lens are extremely crucial to achieve a great quality level on the pics. Extremely wide-angle, standard, and medium-telephoto lenses are just a few of the many focal lengths available for camera lenses. The focal length of lenses can either be fixed (prime lens) or variable (zoom lens). And each lens is most effective for particular kinds of photography, such as portrait, wildlife or even sport.

Ah, that vintage feeling that old pictures have — who doesn’t love it? We have to thank photography film for them! Cameras have used a wide range of film and plate formats, and for the more well-known models and brands, it soon led to some film standardization. The development of roll film accelerated so much that by the 1950s, there were only a handful of standard roll films in use. But what gives this pictures that unique look? It’s the exposure! This is the amount of light that the film can process, and depending on the amount — 8, 12 or 16 — pictures can be lighter or darker. Although digital cameras have the ground, there’s still many adept photographers who work with film to this day.

Ready? Okay, let’s put the tip of your left index finger on the tip of your right thumb, and now do the same with the opposite fingers. Lift your hands up and voilà! Now you have a portable frame where you can look at your surroundings and environment with a different feeling, right? When it comes to photography, one of the most important factors to consider is framing and learning how to do it. What are you trying to capture? Are you focusing on the right perspective? Can you zoom in or out? Finding resources about hand framing is a great element to include in your photography content, so let’s check our resources.