professional photography Archives

professional portrait — A morphed image by contemporary artist Kensuke Koike created from images of a married couple

Over recent years there’s been a lot written about the technological advances already available in photography, and how they have affected professional portrait photographers. There’s also been some pretty wild speculation about where it might lead to next.

Personally I welcome all this progress – it’s never been easier to make photos and share them with others and there’s so much choice when it comes to buying cameras. We can document our friends, our holidays and our loved ones in multiple snapshots, and photos are produced in their trillions every year.

However I wonder if people still look for something different when it comes to portraits and professional photography? [Read more…]

In this article I’m going to discuss the history of professional photography, and the way that the role has developed over the past 170-something years.

History in the making

Announced in 1839, photography is a relatively new medium, and initially there was no such thing as “professional photography”. The very first practitioners were wealthy gentleman amateurs: the newly invented medium was not simple to use, and required an understanding of physics and chemistry, plus substantial amounts of money to buy the equipment and materials.

There were other obstacles too: initially the light-sensitive daguerreotype plates were actually so insensitive to light that it was impossible to photograph anything other than buildings or landscapes – people couldn’t keep still for the long exposure times required. Here’s an example of a daguerreotype from 1841, two years after its public announcement.

[Read more…]

What will a Professional Portrait be like in 100 years?

Professional Photography – A Brief History

History in the making