Basic Photography Lecture 1

Course Code: DAD 159
Course Title:
BASIC
PHOTOGRAPHY I
Lecturer:
Derrick A. Bediako
Contact: 0542479203
yawbediakoyaw@gmail.com
Course Description:
• The course consists of Theory and Practical
components where the students get knowledge to
build their competences in basic photography,
history of photography, fundamentals of
photography, camera functions and its operations.
• Brief tutorials on photography applications would
also be covered.
Course Rationale:
• This course is designed to introduce students to the
Historical development of photography,
fundamentals of photography, camera functions,
operations and basic digital image editing
techniques.
• This is to equip the students with basic knowledge in
photography for use in academic and industrial
projects.
Course Objectives:
• To build the students’ knowledge in the historical
development and types of photography.
• To build students understanding in the application of
photography in design communication.
• To enhance the students’ experience in the use,
operations and functions of a photographic camera.
Course Objectives:
• To enable students to understand the contributions
of photography to socio-economic development.
• To enable students to develop vocabulary of basic
photography terms.
Measurable Outcome:
• Analyse the students understanding of the historical
developments of photography.
• Identify the types of photography.
• Explain and describe the parts and functions of a camera.
• Explain and describe how digital images are processed or
edited.
• Identify historical background information and its impact on
today’s modern photography design.
• Identify how students relate photography concepts to the world
we live in.
Keywords
Photography, pinhole, camera obscura, daguerreotype,
calotype, tintype, Kodachrome, autochrome, digital,
polaroid, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, portrait,
landscape, DSLR, Adobe photoshop, lightroom.
Course Requirements
Hardware Software
1.Laptop Computer 1.Adobe Photoshop CC

2.Digital or Dslr Camera 2.Adobe Lightroom CC
3.Tripod
4.Notebook
What is Photography?
Experiences & Careers
of Photography
INTRODUCTION
▪ The word photography comes from the

Greek words photos (light) and graphien
(to draw / write).
▪ Means "light writing"
▪ Drawing with light.
▪ We photographers are light artists.
▪ Drawing with light is very different than
drawing with a pen.
▪ It requires light sensitive material, optics,
dark enclosures and the ability to fix an
image so that it does not fade.
The first time the word
"photography" was used
was in 1839, the year the
invention of the
photographic process was
made public, by Sir John
Herschel.
▪ The Chinese were the first people that we
know of to write about the basic idea of the
pinhole camera or "camera obscura" (Latin
words meaning "dark room") in 470 BC.
About 2,500 years ago (5th Century B.C.) they wrote
about how an image was formed upside down on a wall
from a pinhole on the opposite wall.
The term "camera obscura" was first used by the
German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the early
17th century.
He used it for astronomical applications and had a
portable tent camera for surveying in Upper Austria.
2,400 years ago (4th
Century B.C.) the famous
philosopher Aristotle
talked about a pinhole
image formation in his
work.
He wondered why "when light
shines through a rectangular
peep-hole, it appears circular
in the form of a cone?" He
didn't find an answer to his
question and the problem wasn't
answered until about 2,000
years later in the 1500s.
▪ In the 1500s many artists, including Michelangelo
and Leonardo da Vinci, used the "camera obscura"
to help them draw pictures.
▪ A person or object would be outside the dark room
and their image was reflected on a piece of paper and
the artist would trace it.
Leonardo da Vinci
This is a drawing of a camera obscura done in 1646.
This drawing shows an outer shell with lenses in the center of each
wall and an inner shell with transparent paper for drawing. The artist
needed to enter by a trap door in the bottom.
Camera-obscura-1887
The camera obscura is
believed to have been used in
this painting by Jan Vermeer.
He painted this in 1665.
He was a great master who
made paintings that to this day
still amaze people with how
much they look like a
photograph.
His paintings are known for
their "camera-like" detail
and quality but were painted
150 years before the
invention of the camera
The camera obscura was made portable by the 1700s
by putting it in a box with a pinhole on one side and a
glass screen on the other.
Light coming through this

pinhole projected an image
onto the glass screen, where
the artist could easily trace it
by hand.
Artists soon discovered that they could

obtain an even sharper image by using
a small lens in place of the pinhole.
Two types of portable cameras obscura, circa 1769.
▪ Extremely important to the invention of photography
was knowledge of how sensitive to light certain
materials were.
▪ More than 2,000 years before the invention of the
camera obscura, the ancient Phoenicians (the first
civilized nation in the world) knew that a certain snail
left a yellow slime that turned purple in sunlight.
Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic – speaking thalassocratic (naval supremacy) civilization.
The Phoenicians came from the eastern shore of the

Mediterranean Sea in land we now call Lebanon.
In 1727 a German
professor, Johann
Heinrich Schulze,
observed that silver salts
darkened when exposed
to light.
But the idea of making
pictures using this
information did not occur
to him.
That invention required
the talents of a later
generation of scientists.
▪ In 1800 a young English chemist,
▪ Thomas Wedgewood, was making "sun pictures"
by placing leaves on leather that he had treated
with silver salts, but he couldn't find a way to stop
the darkening action of light and his leaf images
faded into blackness.
For the birth of photography to
happen, two key discoveries were
still needed:
a way to combine light-sensitive
material with the camera obscura
device and a way to make an image
permanent.
Thomas Wedgewood
Questions & Contributions
In summary we have learnt that:
➢ Photography comes from the Greek and
means "light writing“ or drawing with light.
➢ The Chinese were the first people that we know of to
write about the basic idea of the pinhole camera or
"camera obscura" (Latin words meaning "dark room").
➢ The camera obscura was made portable by the 1700s
by putting it in a box with a pinhole on one side and a
glass screen on the other.
In summary we have learnt that:
➢ Extremely important to the invention of photography
was knowledge of how sensitive to light certain
materials were.
➢ For the birth of photography to happen,
two key discoveries were still needed:
a way to combine light-sensitive material with the
camera obscura device and a way to make an image
permanent.
On Our Next Lecture
The Birth of Photography:
❖ Daguerreotypes
❖ Calotype
❖ Tintype
❖ Autochrome
❖ Kodachrome
Class Assignment
1. Discuss 5 personal experiences with photography.
2. List and Explain 5 types of photography.
(illustrate examples with images)

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Course Code: DAD 159

1.Laptop Computer 1.Adobe Photoshop CC

▪ The word photography comes from the

Light coming through this

Artists soon discovered that they could

The Phoenicians came from the eastern shore of the

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