Actual photography goes way back more than 150 years ago, but this isn’t a history lesson. I only go back as far as what I can remember being in my lifetime. Most of these technological changes have been within the past 20 years or so though, which for me, only seems like a few years.
At the present time, every few months there seems to be a new digital camera with more megapixels, sharper images, more filters and features. There was a day when digital cameras (at the consumer level) did not even exist and we did not have the benefit of sharing photos over our phones or the Internet. But we did share them.
The conventional camera itself was fairly simple, with relatively few moving parts. For the sake of simplification, there were two main kinds of cameras. There was the type that, at minimum, had adjustments on it for exposure, ISO (or ASA), aperture and focus. These settings have carried over into modern cameras, but that’s where it ends. The other type of camera was a basic camera that only had had few, if any settings. It was analogous to popular “point-and-shoot” cameras now.
The one thing that conventional cameras had in common was that they all used film. There were different types of film though. Most decent quality cameras used 35mm film. There were other cameras that used larger (and more expensive) rolls of film and their quality was unparalleled, even with many modern digital cameras. Film purists still cling to their film cameras and swear by them. Not me though. When I got my first digital camera – a 4 megapixel point-and-shoot camera, I used up the roll of film that was in my 35mm cameras and promptly sold them to the highest bidder on eBay… and never turned back. No regrets.
Simpler (and cheaper) plastic cameras were called “Instamatic” and were relatively easy to use. The film came in cartridges. You would open the back door, pop in the cartridge and shoot. After every shot, you advanced the film by one frame with a lever. Whether the film came in rolls or cartridges, the standard frames were: 12, 24 and 36 – and sometimes 20. That’s all the pictures you could take before reloading. Each roll of film was anywhere between $2.00 and $4.00 for economy film. That was the actual, unadjusted cost in the early to mid-1970s. Film came in different “speeds” (ISO/ASA) and compositions as well as the choice between black-and-white or color. Initially, some people opted for black-and-white because it didn’t cost as much.
Besides the initial cost of the camera (which was comparable to a digital camera now) the cost of film wasn’t the only expense. If you were shooting indoors, you needed a flash… usually flashbulbs or flashcubes. I tried to explain this concept to my kids and they gave me funny looks. Try to understand this. A flashbulb is like a light bulb, but you can only use it one time, and then you throw it away… but not so quick, because it’s very hot when you pop it out of the socket. Flash cubes were ingenious though. Not only did they have a plastic covering that somewhat protected you from burns, but each flashcube contained four flashbulbs, instead of a single one. So you could take four pictures in rapid succession without having to change a bulb. You could shoot as fast as you could click the shutter and advance the frame. Later flash units (which are still in used today) had a xenon flash bulb that could be used an indefinite number of times, but it could take up to 30 seconds between flashes, and they used up batteries quite rapidly, which were also an expense.
Instamatic cameras were snapshot cameras. They were so popular, it seemed like everybody had one. They were so easy to use that anybody could take pictures. All you had to do was look through the little window (viewfinder) click the shutter button and that was it. Advance to the next frame and keep going. The quality was lousy, but nobody really cared that much either. You saved a memory and that was what was important. There were two sizes of instamatic films: 126 (larger negatives and square pictures) and 110 (small negatives, rectangle pictures). A lot of people opted for 110 cameras because it would easily fit into your pocket. There were other variations of film types and photo media such disk cameras and Polaroid cameras (instant cameras where the pictures came right out and developed by themselves), but those weren’t as popular.
The next expense was film processing – which could easily cost twice as much as you paid for the film. There were two ways that you usually had your film processed (well, three… but let me get through these first two before I make matters confusing). “Drugstore” processing was the first. At certain stores and camera shops, you slipped your film into an envelope, write your name, address and phone number and then checked the boxes: type of film, how many exposures (frames), type of processing, type of film, and number of prints for each exposure. Then you sealed up the envelope and dropped it into a slot and waited. Usually, processing took a week or two. Some places would process it in-store, but many of them would send it off to a processing plant to have the work done. You had to check back with the store to see if your pictures came back. Either the clerk would check for you or you might look through the drawer or bin that was alphabetized with your last name. Some stores might even call you on the phone to let you know it was ready to pick up. If your pictures were done, you could open the flap of the envelope and look through them to see which ones turned out. If there was something wrong with any of them (like under/overexposure, blurry, or blank) you weren’t required to pay for them because you could usually dispute those photos and leave them there. You didn’t pay for photos until after you picked them up.
The next method of having your photos processed was with a mailer. This was convenient if you didn’t live close to a store that you could drop your pictures off. It was similar to the envelope at the store, but instead of dropping them in the slot, you put it in the mailbox and mailed it off. You had to calculate the costs yourself though and write out a check or buy money order include it with your order. Sometimes it took a month or more for photos to come back – and we were perfectly okay with this. It was pretty exciting to get those photos back in the mail though.
So, how did we share photos? On the processing envelopes, there was an option for double prints or a specified amount that you write in. Each additional print was usually about 25-35 cents. Some places had bargain deals though for much cheaper. When you got your photos back, then you simply handed out the extra prints or sent them along with letters or cards to your friends or loved ones. We thoughtfully kept all our good pictures in photo albums and our friends and family kept the photos we sent to them either in an old shoe box or their own photo albums. These were treasured mementos. Should I even take a moment to introduce another method of sharing photos? The slide show? Haha! I think every family or social group had that one person who shot all their photos on slides and everybody who couldn’t find a good excuse to leave before the lights went out became an unwitting viewer of endless vacation slides.
Now I want to get back to the third option of photo processing that I mentioned earlier. For some people, photography was a hobby. No, not just taking pictures, but processing them as well. A photography enthusiast may spend many hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on darkroom equipment. My mom had a setup. She even had her own darkroom built out in the garage for this. You first needed to develop the film, which consisted of unrolling and loading the film into a special tank and filling it successively with several types of chemicals, then cranking a handle to agitate (for even distribution) for specified amounts of time. This is one of the reasons it was necessary to have a darkroom timer that looked a lot like a big clock.
Then once the film was developed, you had what are called negatives that you had to cut into manageable sections and dry (hopefully after rinsing well enough so they didn’t have chemical or water spots). After the film had sufficiently dried, you could then make prints, using photo paper. That was done using what was called an enlarger. You basically made a picture of your picture – printing from negative film onto negative paper and since you have two negatives, it makes a positive. I’m not making this stuff up! Keep in mind that all of this was extremely time consuming and took place in darkness. It wasn’t completely dark though. You had just enough light from a dark red bulb. You had to develop the photo paper in a vat with similar chemicals that were used for the negatives.
I’ve personally never developed my own film and never had any interest in doing so, but my mom did and I had friends who did this. You had to be a real die-hard photographer or perfectionist to appreciate developing your own photos. It could also get pretty costly, especially if you didn’t know what you were doing and messed up on the processing. This was the stage that you could change the tint or do any retouching. It was a complicated process. I guess you could say it was old-school “Photoshop” that made tangible, permanent prints, so there was no “undo” function.
Keeping all this in mind, if you wanted to be a good photographer, it took lots of practice, and patience, while learning from your mistakes. Unless you had unlimited money to blow, you couldn’t just shoot a bunch of pictures, hope for the best and then not be disappointed. Each shot had to be planned, calculated and executed with care. If you thought somebody might have blinked when the bright flashbulb went off, you’d better take another picture because most likely they did blink and ruined the shot – and it would be two weeks or a month (or longer – especially if you kept film in your camera for months) before you even knew if they turned out.
Fast forward to present day. Almost everybody has a camera, either built-into their phone or as a dedicated “point-and-shoot” or DSLR or newer mirror-less. Everything is instant too. Click and then send to your friends and family or share on social media. You can make prints or photo books, but those are waning in popularity because almost nobody sits down and flips through photo albums anymore.
