Back in the days, portrait was only for people who were rich. They use it when one of their family members died. They then give or pass that portrait to the other member of the family and it was developed black and white. It was hard for the photographers to take a good shot of the subject because they need a longer time to process the shot and it wasn’t that good quality. As a result of that, the subject has to stay still just to get a good shot. Also back then, you must be knowledgeable in order to hold a camera and only photographers are allowed to take pictures. Before a portrait is taken, it should be in a studio where proper equipments are necessary to make a nice shot. Nowadays, everyone has a camera. Because of that, if someone wants to get its portrait shot, they can do it right away. The good thing nowadays is that the subject doesn’t have to stay still for a long time because the shooting can be done in second or so and they can get a good quality depending on the megapixels of the camera used.
(An old portrait of a family)
The photographer and the subject of photographs in the past and today
Photographer back then were professional artist who were knowledgeable and passionate on their career. They have to be professional because the costs of the equipments were very costly and not everyone can afford. In addition to that, cameras back then were hard to operate and only the knowledgeable photographers can use it. These professional artists have their own studios were they do their job. Their subjects were wealthy family who wants their portrait shot. In this day and age, a person who wants to be a photographer doesn’t have to be professional and passionate. They just have to take a snap shot of something they want to shoot. This photo shooting done by unprofessional person doesn’t have to be in a studio because they have this portable and hi-tech digital or analog camera that they can bring anywhere. Unlike the subject back then, subjects nowadays where just random things they see.
(Portrait photography before)
There wasn’t really an impact on technology on the portraits in the past. Maybe because the technology back then was not yet popular. However, today’s portraits have been impacted by the technology. These days, portraits can be edited, retouched, cropped and other stuffs by simply using some technological advancement such as Photoshop and other computer programs. The amazing feature of the Photoshop is that it can make the portraits today (which is colored) to be black and white to imitate the portrait back in the days.
