{"id":416,"date":"2024-12-17T12:32:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T12:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.10.18\/arslan\/Demo\/GeekyBot\/?p=416"},"modified":"2025-06-19T04:32:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T04:32:39","slug":"introduction-to-photography-the-universal-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/introduction-to-photography-the-universal-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Photography: The Universal Language"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What you need to know about photography. Why you need to know it.<\/h2>\r\n

BY\u00a0SPENCER COX<\/span><\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\r\nWriting an introduction to photography is like writing an introduction to words. Photography is complex, full of variety, and capable of limitless storytelling and emotion. What separates inspiring photographs from ordinary ones, and how can you improve the quality of your own photos? This article lays a foundation to answer to those questions and introduce you to the concept of photography from the ground up.\r\n
\"Macro<\/a>\r\n
I took this photo of a lizard back in 2015 when I was 18 years old, and it won me a spot in the \u201cNature\u2019s Best Photography\u201d exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This article is Chapter 2 in my 12-part online guide,\u00a0Photography Basics<\/a>\u00a0(which is not just free to read, but also ad-free). Read the whole guide from start to finish, and you\u2019ll learn how to take photos like this.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

What Is Photography?<\/h2>\r\nPhotography is the art of capturing light with a camera, usually via a digital sensor or film, to create an image. With the right camera equipment, you can even photograph wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye, including UV, infrared, and radio waves. The first permanent photograph was captured in 1826 (some sources say 1827) by Joseph\u00a0Nic\u00e9phore\u00a0Ni\u00e9pce in France. It shows the roof of a building lit by the sun. You can see it reproduced below:\r\n
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\"View<\/a>\r\n
\u201cView from the Window at Le Gras\u201d by\u00a0Joseph\u00a0Nic\u00e9phore\u00a0Ni\u00e9pce<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWe\u2019ve come a long way since then.\r\n
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\"Photography<\/a>\r\n
Image by NASA (public domain)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\nThis article is the second chapter of my detailed \u201cPhotography Basics<\/a>\u201d guide. My goal in this chapter is twofold: to introduce you to the past and present worlds of photography, and to give you a general idea of the principles that you\u2019ll need to learn as a beginning photographer. Let\u2019s start with a brief history lesson.\r\n

A Short History of Photography and the People Who Made It Succeed<\/h2>\r\nPhotography is everywhere today, and it can be hard to remember that it wasn\u2019t always that way. Color photography only started to become popular and accessible with the release of Eastman Kodak\u2019s \u201cKodachrome\u201d film in the 1930s. Before that, almost all photos were monochromatic \u2013 although a handful of photographers, toeing the line between chemists and alchemists, had been using specialized techniques to capture color images\u00a0<\/b>for decades before. (You\u2019ll find some\u00a0fascinating galleries<\/a>\u00a0of photos from the 1800s or early 1900s captured in full color, worth exploring if you have not seen them already.) These scientist-magicians, the first color photographers, are hardly alone in pushing the boundaries of one of the world\u2019s newest art forms. The history of photography has always been a history of people \u2013 artists and inventors who steered the field into the modern era. Below, I\u2019ve compiled a brief introduction to some of photography\u2019s most important names. Their discoveries, creations, ideas, and photographs shape our own pictures to this day, subtly or not. Although this is just a brief bird\u2019s-eye view, these are all people you should know before you step into the technical side of photography:\r\n

1. Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce<\/h3>\r\n